Donald Trump has defied fierce criticism to announce that he is using emergency powers to bypass Congress and pursue the building of a wall on the US-Mexico border.At a combative, rambling and at times incoherent press conference in the White House, the US president insisted he had no choice but to declare a national emergency to stop illegal immigrants spreading crime and drugs.Yet Trump admitted that he did not “need” to take the step now and was only doing so for speed. Opponents seized on the remark to accuse him of falsehoods and fearmongering for political ends, describing the move as “unlawful” and a violation of the US constitution.Speaking in the White House rose garden, Trump noted that the National Emergencies Act of 1976 gave presidents leeway to declare an emergency and several have done so. “There’s rarely been a problem,” he said. “Nobody cares. I guess they weren’t very exciting. But nobody cares. They sign it for far less important things in some cases, in many cases.”A list compiled by the Brennan Center says Bill Clinton declared 17 national emergencies, George W Bush 13 and Barack Obama 12, but nearly all were for crises that emerged overseas. Trump added: “We’re talking about an invasion of our country, with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.”Trump then asked two women whose family members had been killed, allegedly by undocumented immigrants, to stand and hold up photos of their late loved ones to assembled staff and media. He went on to recycle gory descriptions of violent criminal gangs and warned of a “virtual invasion” that requires urgent remedy.But later, taking questions from reporters, he muddied the waters about his motives. “I went through Congress. I made a deal. I got almost $1.4bn when I wasn’t supposed to get $1. Not $1! He’s not going to get $1! Well, I got $1.4bn, but I’m not happy with it … I want to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this but I’d rather do it much faster.”Trump went on: “I don’t have to do it for the election. I’ve already done a lot of wall for the election: 2020. And the only reason we’re up here talking about this is because of the election, because they want to try and win an election which it looks like they’re not going to be able to do.”The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, tweeted: “He admits it’s a #FakeTrumpEmergency. Hear him say it: “I *didn’t need* to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”The admission could complicate forthcoming legal battles if, as is widely expected, the declaration is challenged in court by states and others who stand to lose federal money or claim that Trump is abusing his authority.The White House said the national emergency would take about $3.6bn from the Pentagon’s military construction fund. Executive action will divert around $2.5bn from the Pentagon’s drug interdiction programme and $600m from the treasury’s drug forfeiture fund.Trump acknowledged the high likelihood of a legal fight, and one that he would almost certainly lose in the lower courts. “I expect to be sued,” he said. “Sadly, we’ll be sued and sadly it will go through a process and happily we’ll win.”He went on in a mocking, sing-song voice: “I’ll sign the final papers ... and we will have a national emergency, and we will then be sued, and they will sue us in the ninth circuit ... and then we’ll end up in the supreme court and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake and we’ll win in the supreme court just like the [travel] ban.”Trump’s decision came after weeks of wrangling over his signature campaign promise that led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown, which proved politically damaging and hurt his approval rating.On Thursday, in a rare display of bipartisanship, Congress approved a border security compromise deal to avert another shutdown. The Senate passed the legislation 83-16, while the House of Representatives followed with a 300-128 tally.But the bill devotes about $1.4bn for border barriers, well below the $5.7bn that Trump demanded to fund just a quarter of the 200-plus miles he is seeking. Many observers suspect that, after weeks of debate, Trump was influenced by conservative commentators on Fox News and elsewhere, who warned that signing the bill alone would be tantamount to surrender.In a joint statement, Pelosi and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, said: “The president’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defense funds for the security of our military and our nation.“This is plainly a power grab by a disappointed president, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process.”Pelosi and Schumer said they would use “every remedy available” to oppose Trump’s declaration. New York state’s attorney general, Letitia James, said her office would challenge Trump in court. “We won’t stand for this abuse of power & will fight back with every legal tool at our disposal,” James wrote on Twitter.The House judiciary committee announced it would investigate the declaration and call a hearing, and by late Friday, the not-for-profit group Public Citizen had already filed a complaint against Trump. The American Civil Liberties Union and officials in California also said they planned to file suits.Some Republicans have also criticised the move as setting a dangerous precedent, which could embolden a future Democratic president to declare emergency for a pet cause such as climate change or gun control.Additional reporting by Sam Levin Topics Donald Trump Mexico US immigration US politics Americas news

BRASÍLIA—President-elect Jair Bolsonaro vows to make significant cuts to Brazil’s bloated, indebted state—and the fate of an array of government-owned companies hangs in the balance.Brazil’s government is involved in a range of businesses. It owns or has a stake in Latin America’s largest produce and fish wholesaler, a condom factory in the Amazon, banks, real estate agencies, drugmakers, hospitals and a firm created years ago to build a $16 billion bullet train that never became a reality. In all, the federal government controls 138 companies that employ 505,135 people. Of those firms, 26 depend on taxpayer funds, $5.3 billion last year, dwarfing the $1.9 billion in dividends the government received last year from profitable state firms, according to official figures.The web of government enterprises is so vast that even after 31 years in politics, current President Michel Temer didn’t know the federal government owned ice-making factories.“I must confess I had no idea,” he said during a recent news conference. “Why?”

But as these people are caught in a deportation dragnet, they risk being sent to countries where the persecution threats they face are even greater than when they fled to the United States, asylum seekers and lawyers say.In the final years of the Obama administration, immigration judges were instructed to use prosecutorial discretion to grant some undocumented immigrants, such as asylum seekers who had lost their cases, the ability to stay and work in the United States legally as long as they regularly checked in with ICE.These enforcement policies were designed to focus ICE’s limited resources on deporting unauthorized immigrants who had criminal convictions, recently crossed the border or posed a threat to national security.Until Mr. Trump came into office, asylum seekers like Mr. Sihotang “had no reason to try to reopen their asylum case because they were permitted to stay and work in this country,” Amber Gracia, an immigration lawyer in Texas, said. “When the government suddenly seeks removal, these people are caught off guard.”She questioned why agents were focusing on deporting undocumented immigrants who had not broken the law, rather than focusing on violent criminals in the country illegally.ICE officials said that as long as there was a standing deportation order for an individual, there would be legal grounds to take that person into custody.“The U.S. government provides all those in removal proceedings with an opportunity to apply and be considered for relief from removal,” an ICE spokeswoman, Rachael Yong Yow, said in a statement. “If an immigration judge finds an individual ineligible for any form of relief, the judge will issue a final order of removal, which ICE carries out in accordance with applicable U.S. law.”

Last week a mobile phone mast serving the emergency NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham was one of the latest targeted by arsonists who wrongly believe 5G technology is linked to the spread of coronavirus. False theories linking 5G to coronavirus have proliferated rapidly, leading to the vandalism of dozens of masts across the UK.Guardian media editor Jim Waterson tells Rachel Humphreys why, despite lacking any scientific evidence, these theories have taken off, and how they have managed to spread so quickly. Archive: Twitter, BBC, London Real, ITV, Downing Street press conference

BERLIN -- October factory production dropped in Germany over the previous month in another sign the economy, Europe's largest, is struggling.The Federal Statistical Office reported Friday that industrial production fell 1.7% in October over September when adjusted for price, seasonal and calendar factors. It was down 5.3% over October 2018.The agency reported Thursday that industrial orders in October were down 0.4%, suggesting an upturn in production is not likely in the immediate future.Germany just narrowly avoided entering a recession in the third quarter and ING economist Carsten Brzeski says the data indicate “the German economy is continuing to flirt with stagnation and contraction in the final quarter.”"Trade conflicts, global uncertainty, and disruption in the automotive industry have put the entire German industry in a headlock, from which it is hard to escape.

Theresa May is preparing a new year reshuffle that could see a number of cabinet figures losing their positions in an attempt to refresh the Conservative front bench. The prime minister is said to be considering offering the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson a move to a Brexit delivery role based in another department, but he is likely to resist such a move. May’s decision to shake up her team comes after fierce disagreements within Downing Street about how sensible such a move would be. Some of those around the prime minister, including her former chief whip, Gavin Williamson, have urged caution because of the ramifications of placing sacked ministers on the backbenches. Others could also feel aggrieved at being overlooked. But May’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, has received the backing of Williamson’s successor, Julian Smith, about the benefits of promoting younger MPs.Rumours circulating in Westminster include the idea of Justine Greening being moved out of education, with one source suggesting that she had sided too strongly with the trade unions instead of embracing Tory reforms. The Sunday Times suggested that Andrea Leadsom could be sacked as leader of the House of Commons, and it also named Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, who ran May’s leadership bid. Greg Clark is liked by Downing Street but has not always impressed as business secretary and could also be in line for a move to another department. Patrick McLoughlin is expected to be removed as party chair, with the immigration minister, Brandon Lewis, likely to be named as his successor.May will also have to replace her ally Damian Green at the Cabinet Office after he was forced to resign for failing to be honest about pornography found on his work computer. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been suggested as a replacement, although perhaps without the title of first secretary of state. Those who could gain promotions into the cabinet include Dominic Raab and Damian Hinds, and May could also be looking to promote Amber Rudd – as foreign secretary if Johnson does step aside – and Karen Bradley. Other female ministers who may be in line for promotion include Anne Milton, Claire Perry, Sarah Newton, Margot James and Harriett Baldwin.Reports suggested the chancellor, Philip Hammond, was safe, although there could be rumblings of discontent among Brexiters if May tries to move Johnson without a change at the Treasury. Previous moves have been overshadowed by the desire to maintain a balance among remainer and pro-leave MPs, but some have called on May to stop worrying about the issue.Chris Wilkins, who was May’s director of strategy until the summer, said a reshuffle was important to show her current “position of strength”. “It has two purposes: to show the country the depth of talent there is in the Conservative party and to show the party is united and is a broad church that welcomes all views and opinions,” he said. “We need to stop asking ourselves where people voted on Brexit and just look for the best person for the job.”

For almost two years, Donald Trump has laid down fire at Robert Mueller, calling the special counsel’s work a “witch-hunt”, a partisan charade and now “presidential harassment”.The bigger threat to Trump, however, may have just walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.Trump did not tweet about or otherwise acknowledge the revelation on Monday night that prosecutors from the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York (SDNY) had issued a subpoena seeking a mountain of documents from his inaugural committee.But former prosecutors and others familiar with the Manhattan-based prosecutors’ work allowed their jaws to drop at the news of the subpoena or – in the case of former SDNY chief Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired early on – their virtual eyes to bulge.On Friday, ProPublica and WNYC reported further eye-popping news: that the inaugural committee paid the Trump International hotel in Washington a rate of $175,000 a day for event space.The implications of the subpoena and what followed were clear,and they were all bad for Trump, worse even than the threat posed by the special counsel’s investigation of ties between his campaign and Russia, said the former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an erstwhile member of Trump’s inner circle, once in charge of transition planning, and a former US attorney himself.“I’ve always thought that was the much more problematic thing,” Christie told MSNBC of SDNY. “People are focused on Mueller and that’s appropriate. But people should not take their eye off the ball.”In interviews with the Guardian, former SDNY prosecutors spelled out why investigations run out of New York of Trump-linked interests could dog the president, his family and his associates for years, including after his departure from office.Unlike Mueller, Trump cannot as a practical matter fire the entire southern district, which comprises about 150 career prosecutors, as distinguishable from political appointees. Unlike Mueller, the southern district is not constrained in what it might investigate by a narrow authorization. And unlike Mueller, the southern district does not report, on most matters, directly to the attorney general, who is appointed by the president and who might act at the president’s bidding, though norms of justice department independence proscribe that.The SDNY is also full of lawyers who are known for being talented, independent and feisty. Alumni regularly go on to judicial appointments, top corporate posts, top justice department jobs (for example, FBI directors James Comey and Louis Freeh, attorney general Michael Mukasey) and other prominent work (Rudy Giuliani, once New York mayor, now the president’s lawyer). Wags refer to the office as the “sovereign” district of New York and joke that it’s the only US attorney’s office, of 93 nationwide, to have its own foreign policy.“Both in terms of courtroom skill and particularly with respect to investigative and legal acumen, the southern district has long prided itself on the firepower it brings to its cases,” said the Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman, a former assistant attorney in the district.Elie Honig, who helped dismantle the Sicilian mafia as a prosecutor with the district, echoed the observation.“The southern district has a long history,” he said, “and a reputation, I think well deserved, of being tenacious and always seeking to take an investigation wherever it goes, including to the top of an organization.”Owing to its location in Manhattan – a global intersection for business, finance, terrorist plots and organized crime – the SDNY, which celebrated its 225th birthday in 2014, has deep experience in prosecuting the most complicated and significant cases. Those include the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, work related to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the 1988 bombings of US embassies in Africa, organized crime and mafia cases, the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and major financial crimes and public corruption cases.The Manhattan location also makes the SDNY a prime venue for prosecuting entities tied to Trump, potentially including his business, his campaign, his inaugural committee and more, said Harry Sandick, a former assistant US attorney in the district.“Since the Trump Organization is located in New York, since many of Trump’s advisers and business partners are also located in New York and took actions in New York,” he said, “they have the ability in the US attorney’s office to look at essentially any crime that they believe may have been committed. And they can just move from one subject to another to another as they find connections.”So far as is publicly known, the SDNY was first brought in on a Trump-related prosecution with a referral from Mueller of evidence of crimes committed by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. The SDNY directed a raid on Cohen’s apartment and office last April, seizing documents and devices. Cohen pleaded guilty in August to violating campaign finance laws, bank fraud and criminal tax evasion, and is scheduled to begin a three-year prison sentence next month.The Cohen case may have given rise to the investigation of the Trump inaugural committee, which prosecutors are investigating for alleged conspiracy against the US, false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, inaugural committee disclosure violations, and laws prohibiting contributions by foreign countries.“The inaugural investigation seems important,” said Sandick. “People have long wondered why they raised more than $100m, which is twice what was raised for prior inaugurations.”But in a sign of how extensively prosecutors have penetrated Trump’s network – and of how saturated that network is with alleged criminal conduct – the inaugural committee investigation may have a different primary source: the testimony of the former Trump aide Rick Gates, who is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty last year to conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Gates was deputy chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee.“They’re gathering large amounts of data,” said Richman of the SDNY team. “They are speaking to a broad array of witnesses, some who have already been implicated, some who are just witnesses. And I would suspect they have adequate people on the case, both at the agent and the prosecutor level, to pursue all directions.”Prosecutors will have to make a judgment call about what potential cases to bring, said Sandick, adding: “When I was in that office, we were always taught that sometimes the most important cases you have are the ones you don’t indict. Because you made a decision that the evidence wasn’t there.“These are professional prosecutors, it’s not an inquisition.”The threat of a presidential move against the district, or a similar move out of the justice department, is not likely to deter SDNY, Honig said.“I know southern district is not afraid to have a real dispute, a real disagreement with the Department of Justice and at times prevail,” said Honig. “I think the fact that southern district issued this subpoena tells you that they are able to carry on in a fairly aggressive manner.” Topics Donald Trump Donald Trump inauguration New York features

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pacific Gas & Electric turned off electricity Wednesday for about 120,000 people in Northern California to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires during a new bout of windy, warm weather.However, favorable weather allowed the nation’s largest utility to drastically reduce the number of customers it originally had planned to black out — about 375,000 — and even to begin restoring electricity in some areas.Higher-than-expected humidity, cloud cover and even some rain showers in the Sierra Nevada helped reduce the risk, said Scott Strenfel, PG&E's principal meteorologist.“All of these factors kind of broke in all of our favor,” he said.Virtually all those who lost power were expected to get it back Thursday once a weather all-clear is declared and ground crews and helicopters check power lines to make sure any damage is repaired, officials said.Forecasts had called for it to be dry and windy Wednesday, with gusts up to 55 mph (89 kph), which could fling tree branches or other debris into lines and cause sparks that have the potential to set catastrophic fires, PG&E officials said. A virtually rainless fall has left brush bone dry.The blackout is the latest in a series of massive outages by PG&E, including one last month that plunged nearly 2.5 million people into darkness and outraged officials and customers as overkill.Officials accused the company of using the blackouts as a crutch after years of failing to update its infrastructure to withstand fire weather. PG&E equipment has caused some of California’s most destructive wildfires in recent years.PG&E CEO Andy Vesey acknowledged the outages have been “terribly disruptive” and said the company is taking steps to avoid them in the future but that for now, “we won’t roll the dice on public safety.”Meanwhile, California regulators are demanding answers from wireless, internet and landline providers whose equipment failed during the earlier outages, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without a way to get emergency alerts or make 911 calls.About 3% of cell towers statewide failed at one point in late October, but the numbers were much higher in northern counties, such as Marin, which had 57% of its towers out, and Sonoma, with 27% out.Some public safety workers had to drive for an hour to see if they needed to check in, said John Kennedy of the Rural County Representatives of California. Fire departments lost contact with fire trucks, and some had to rely on radios because download speeds were so slow or out of service, he said.More than 450,000 people had communications cut off, the group said.Exasperated members of the California Public Utilities Commission reminded representatives of Sprint, AT&T, Verizon and other companies that customers pay for reliable service.“The customers need to know where there’s coverage and where there’s not, and the local responders need to know,” Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves said.“Next fire season cannot, cannot look like this one,” commission President Marybel Batjer said.Consumer advocates have urged the commission to establish backup power requirements and make the companies provide detailed information about outage locations.State Sen. Steve Glazer and Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan proposed legislation Wednesday that would require cellphone companies to provide at least 72 hours of backup power at cell towers.Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T officials said they would disclose outage information immediately but didn’t commit to 72 hours of backup power.They also criticized PG&E, saying the changing outage forecasts made it difficult to prepare. For example, AT&T deployed 60 generators to the San Francisco Bay Area only to learn that the suburbs were no longer affected, said Jeff Luong, an AT&T vice president.“It’s impossible to react to that type of situation,” he said.Lake County Supervisor Moke Simon said AT&T’s network went down right away during an outage in late October, risking sewer and alarm systems. There was no backup, he said.“That really put us in a dire-straits situation,” he said.Batjer told the companies she was surprised by their lack of preparation given California’s long history of wildfires.“It’s sort of stunning that you go, ‘Well, we just learned a lot in the last three weeks,’” she said.The companies have told the state they communicated with authorities, but the outages were unprecedented. They said they’re improving backup power but that those sources might not be possible in some places and generators aren’t always safe.Comcast said its network “fundamentally relies on commercial power to operate.”———Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this story.

Amazon wildfires, protests in Hong Kong, Greta Thunberg in New York and the Notting Hill carnival – the last seven days, as captured by the world’s best photojournalists

Enlarge this image King Bass sits and watches the Holy Fire burn from on top of his parents' car as his sister, Princess, rests her head on his shoulder last week in Lake Elsinore, Calif. More than a thousand firefighters battled to keep a raging Southern California forest fire from reaching foothill neighborhoods. Patrick Record/AP hide caption toggle caption Patrick Record/AP King Bass sits and watches the Holy Fire burn from on top of his parents' car as his sister, Princess, rests her head on his shoulder last week in Lake Elsinore, Calif. More than a thousand firefighters battled to keep a raging Southern California forest fire from reaching foothill neighborhoods. Patrick Record/AP As California's enormous wildfires continue to set records for the second year in a row, state lawmakers are scrambling to close gaps in state law that could help curb future fires, or make the difference between life and death once a blaze breaks out.While the biggest political battle in Sacramento is focused on utility liability laws, lawmakers are also rushing to change state laws around forest management and emergency alerts before the legislative sessions ends this month.A special joint legislative committee is examining how to shore up emergency alert systems so people know to evacuate, and how to prevent fires through better forest management. They're among the challenges facing many Western states.Historically, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson said during a recent interview in her Capitol office, "we have looked at fire as an enemy."That was a mistake, said Jackson, a Democrat who represents Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, both of which were devastated by the enormous Thomas Fire last December. She's pushing legislation that would expand prescribed burns and other forest management practices on both public and private lands."We have been doing less and less to try to clear vegetation, to do controlled burns, so that we can reduce the dead vegetation that we have," she said. "As a result, we have conditions that are seeing fruition with these enormous and out of control fires."Jackson says after years of inaction, everyone in California is finally at the table --including environmental groups — supporting the measure and engaging in a conversation around forest management.Jackson also has a bill that would let counties automatically enroll residents in emergency notification systems; it's one of two bills aimed at shoring up gaps around evacuation alerts that were exposed by last years' deadly fires. The other is Senate Bill 833 by North Bay Sen. Mike McGuire; it would seek to expand use of the federally-regulated wireless emergency alert system in California.Jackson noted that technology has changed and governments must adjust."We used to be warned about danger with the church bells and then during the Cold War with Russia we had a CONELRAD alert system ... well we don't have any of those things today," she said. "We rely upon people's cell phones ... fewer and fewer people actually have landlines today. So we've got to adapt and that's what this program will hopefully do."At the national level, there's also political maneuvering over fires.Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson visited a fire zone in Northern California earlier this month and promised to start providing federal emergency funding earlier. Meanwhile, during her recent tour of a fire area, California's U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said she is pushing to expand federal funding for both fighting and preventing wildfires. Some of that funding is in a bipartisan bill that is co-sponsored by senators from 10 other states, many of them in the fire-prone West."Let's also invest resources in things like deforestation, in getting rid of these dead trees and doing the other kind of work that is necessary to mitigate the harm that that is caused by these fires," Harris said while visiting Lake County.Dollars are important: The state has blown through its firefighting budget seven of the last 10 years, even as the annual budget has grown five-fold over the same period. This fiscal year started six weeks ago, and California has already spent three-quarters of its firefighting budget for the entire year.That spending is "a very stark indication of the severity and the scope of these type of catastrophic wildfires," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown's Department of Finance.

Enlarge this image After a series of devastating wildfires, like the 2019 Kincade Fire, California had planned on spending billions to prepare for climate-driven disasters. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images After a series of devastating wildfires, like the 2019 Kincade Fire, California had planned on spending billions to prepare for climate-driven disasters. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images With the coronavirus pandemic eroding state budgets across the country, many communities risk having this disaster make them less prepared for looming climate-driven disasters.Still recovering from devastating wildfires, California was poised to spend billions of dollars to prepare for future fires and other extreme weather disasters. The infrastructure projects, designed to make communities and homes more resistant to wildfire, have long been overlooked, fire experts say.But with a $54 billion budget deficit, the programs are being put on hold."It's really a shame," says Alexandra Syphard, a fire scientist at Sage Underwriters, a wildfire insurance company. "Obviously COVID has been a shame on so many different levels. We were ramping up to provide what I believe is one of the most progressive and important investments in terms of fire risk that there could be."With more than 25,000 homes and buildings lost over the last three years, California has focused recent spending on adding new firefighting crews and emergency response capacity. This year, the state planned on investing in something that could lessen the need for fire-fighting: "hardening" millions of homes to make them more resistant to burning.Similar home-retrofitting programs, piloted in communities around the state, have been very popular."Up here in the mountains, a wood-shingled roof is another name for a matchbook," says Bill Seavy, a homeowner in South Lake Tahoe.Until a few years ago, Seavy had a wood-shingled roof, but he replaced it through a program that incentivized homeowners to install fire-resistant roofing. The local fire agency, the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, created the program after the 2007 Angora Fire, which destroyed almost 300 buildings and homes in the region."In Lake Tahoe, we're vulnerable, and there's three million people in California that live in areas like this where you're vulnerable," says Seavy. "So we've got to do everything we can."Through federal funding from FEMA, homeowners could get 70 percent of their cost covered for a replacement roof. Wood roofs can fuel the spread of wildfires by catching burning embers."Most homes are not burned by fires just marching up to them and burning them down," says Syphard. "Most are destroyed because the fires are occurring during really high wind conditions and there tend to be these burning embers that can fly kilometers ahead of the fire front. And it's these burning embers that tend to get into all the little nooks and crannies of a house."Even small fixes to a house can make a big difference, like putting mesh screens on attic vents or covering the eaves under a roof."Things that in particular would prevent embers from penetrating the house are super significant in making a difference between whether a home survives a fire or not," says Syphard.Last year, California lawmakers approved the first major statewide program for incentivizing such home-retrofits. In January, Governor Gavin Newsom announced $100 million in state and federal money to help homeowners replace roofs and make their homes more fire-resistant, particularly in low-income communities where upgrades may be out of reach for many.But in May, Newsom proposed suspending the program, citing the need for deep budget cuts to offset the falling tax revenue from the economic downturn."We learned that in the Paradise fires, homes built or retrofitted with home-hardening materials and features often withstood the deadly flames and stood to live another day," says California Assemblymember Jim Wood, who authored the bill to create the program. "It is a sorry state when we refuse to acknowledge the importance, and financial benefits, of investing in prevention." A test house hit by blown embers at a research facility run by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety in South Carolina last spring. Half of the test home has cedar siding and other common combustible building materials. The other half has common fire-resistant materials such as cement siding. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption toggle caption Ryan Kellman/NPR Two other substantial climate initiatives were also put on hold in the Governor's revised budget, which would have funded projects to prepare for fires, droughts, floods and sea level rise. Those include a $4.75 billion Climate Resilience Bond scheduled for the November ballot and $1 billion in state funding over five years for climate-related projects. State lawmakers are still trying to push ahead with a bill that would put a $7 billion climate and economic recovery bond on the ballot. The wildfire funding left in California's budget this year will likely go to firefighting and emergency response."We're staring down the barrel of another intense wildfire season given how dry it was this winter," says Wade Crowfoot, California's Secretary for Natural Resources. "So we are anticipating actually having to juggle disaster response from different disasters."Supporters of the resiliency initiatives say spending money to prepare for disasters in advance is substantially more economical than waiting for them to hit."A dollar spent today saves you about six dollars in future emergencies," says Kate Gordon, director of California's Office of Planning and Research. "And if you think about that, it's really logical. The cost of emergency response is enormous. Look at Paradise — rebuilding an entire town and relocating folks."State officials say they're looking for other ways to fund climate preparation in hopes of preserving momentum after the recent disasters."We are retooling in real time to really continue to drive forward those same priorities, particularly climate resilience, in a more constrained fiscal environment," says Crowfoot. "Our residents get it. Californians want us actually to do more to protect communities from impacts."California, like many states, is looking to federal stimulus funding to fill in the gaps, since climate-related projects could qualify as infrastructure spending. They're also looking at partnerships with private industry."There is a moment at which this kind of economic disaster creates opportunity for thinking differently about how to build forward," says Gordon. "Not to bounce back, but bounce forward."

Prominent figures from across Brazil’s political spectrum have a published a high-profile manifesto calling for a united front to protect Brazilian democracy and lives amid growing alarm over president Jair Bolsonaro’s authoritarian outbursts and shambolic response to coronavirus.The Movimento Estamos Juntos (We’re In This Together Movement) was launched on Saturday as Brazil overtook France to become the country with the fourth highest official death toll. About a thousand coronavirus deaths are being confirmed each day as Latin America’s biggest economy cements itself as a major focus of the pandemic.“The choice is between democracy and barbarity … It is our country’s future that’s at stake,” tweeted Marcelo Freixo, a leftwing congressman, as he endorsed the movement’s creation alongside leading lights of Brazilian academia, culture and politics.Flávio Dino, another prominent leftist who has also joined, said Brazil’s very democracy was at risk if Bolsonaro’s tens of millions of opponents were unable to unite. “Bolsonaro sometimes comes across as a caricature, something comical. But he’s dangerous – he and the followers of this fanatical far-right sect are dangerous.”Dino said the new movement was inspired by Diretas Já – a historic pro-democracy campaign that helped end two decades of military rule in the 1980s.“Just as there was this broad coalition to defeat the dictatorship we believe we must now build a broad coalition to avoid a new dictatorship,” Dino said.Lobão, a rightwing rockstar, said he had signed up out of disgust at the “genocidal fiasco” caused by Bolsonaro’s response to coronavirus. “We cannot allow this mockery and this utter negligence towards public health to continue,” said the musician, who voted for Bolsonaro in 2018 before regretting his choice.The movement’s foundation came as a record 33,274 new coronavirus cases pushed Brazil’s total to nearly 500,000. Only the US has more. Nearly 29,000 Brazilians have died since the first death was confirmed in mid-March, meaning only the US, the UK and Italy have lost more lives.Despite this, Bolsonaro continues to flout social distancing and has failed to appoint a permanent health minister after two were forced out in under a month. On Sunday he paraded through the capital, Brasília, on horseback, and without a mask during an anti-democracy protest by hardline devotees.The rightwing populist has further stoked tensions by attending a succession of anti-democratic protests where demonstrators have called for congress and the supreme court to be closed or even torched.Last week, after police raided the homes and offices of several key Bolsonaro supporters, the president appeared outside his residence in a tie adorned with images of assault rifles. “This is fucking over,” Bolsonaro bellowed. His politician son, Eduardo, warned Brazil was approaching “a moment of rupture”.The manifesto – which urges Brazilians to mobilise in defence of “life, freedom and democracy” – received support from an unusually broad church, reflecting the growing anti-Bolsonaro revolt.Its more than 100,000 signatories include the former centre-right president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Felipe Neto, a YouTube celebrity with 38 million followers, and some of Brazil’s top actors including Fernanda Montenegro, Taís Araújo and Lazaro Ramos.Polls suggest Bolsonaro still enjoys the backing of 30% of Brazilians but has lost millions of voters in recent weeks. Such support would only re-elect Bolsonaro if his opponents remain divided.Dino, the governor of Maranhão state, urged the left, right and centre to join forces to ensure democracy survived until Bolsonaro could be voted out at the next presidential election in 2022.“We will not allow this landscape of horrors to repeat itself. This extremism will be defeated in 2022,” Dino vowed. “But our challenge is to make it that far – and that’s what most worries me. If there are free elections, I’ve no doubt Bolsonarista extremism will lose.”

Brazil’s embattled president, Jair Bolsonaro, has come under further pressure after his political idol Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on non-US citizens coming from the South American country in response to a soaring number of Brazilian coronavirus cases.The US announced the measure on Sunday as the number of recorded cases in Brazil rose to more than 363,000 and the death toll to nearly 23,000.Only the US now has more confirmed infections than Brazil where Bolsonaro has faced severe criticism for flouting social distancing guidelines and losing two health ministers in less than a month.The White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the move would help ensure foreign nationals who had been in Brazil did not become “a source of additional infections in our country”. The indefinite ban, which comes into force on Friday, will apply to all non-US citizens who have been in Brazil within the last 14 days.The news was a blow to Brazil’s far-right leader who touts his supposed closeness to Trump as proof of him steering Brazil in the right direction. Bolsonaro’s supporters frequently wave the US flag at rallies while the Brazilian president recently donned a “Trump 2020” hat.“The US to Brazil: Stay at your own home”, ran the headline on the front page of the newspaper Estado de Minas alongside an image of Bolsonaro supporters holding a US flag.Bolsonaro’s foes painted the US move as a humiliating snub and proof that his subservience to Trump was misguided.“Brazil: a health risk to the world thanks to Jair Bolsonaro,” tweeted Valmir Assunção, a congressman from the leftwing Workers party. “Even the US – whose president’s boots he licks – has banned the entry of Brazilians.”Alice Portugal, a Communist party lawmaker, tweeted: “Is Bolsonaro going to keep marching around with the American flag now?”Bolsonarista officials scrambled to put a positive spin on the ban. “Ignore press hysteria,” tweeted Filipe Martins, a foreign policy adviser to Bolsonaro, pointing to previous US restrictions on travellers from China, Iran, the UK and the European Union during the coronavirus pandemic.Brazil’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, retweeted a message from the national security council that said: “Brazil is one of our strongest partners in the world.”Brian Winter, the New York-based editor of Americas Quarterly, said he believed that because of the warm ties between the US and Brazil “the Trump administration waited as long as it possible could to take this measure”.But the US message now to Brazil is “even this friendship cannot protect you from being banned if you are passing the 20,000 deaths mark and you can’t get your curve under control”, Winter added.“There was no political eagerness to do this in Washington. They knew it was going to be embarrassing for Bolsonaro and Brazil and they tried to hold off.”Winter continued: “It’s a terrible irony that the US has banned travel from the country that most closely imitated its approach to Covid-19.“People try to make this about diplomacy but ultimately it is just a very, very sad indictment of the Covid policies really in both countries – because Bolsonaro has clearly been imitating both the actions and the rhetoric of the Untied States.”During a recent interview with the Guardian, Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described Bolsonaro as Trump’s “lambe-botas” (boot-licker).“I can’t remember a single president in the history of the Brazilian republic since 1889 who has been so discredited and disrespected in the world as Bolsonaro,” he said. “Today not even Trump takes Bolsonaro serious.”In an open letter published earlier this month, six former Brazilian former ministers denounced Bolsonaro’s “shameful” subservience and claimed his response to the pandemic had made Brazil’s government “an object of international derision and disgust”. Topics Jair Bolsonaro Brazil Americas news

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Bolsonaro has repeatedlyexpressed concernabout the financial impact of the virus, warning it will be worse than the virus itself. He has been outspoken against preventive measures, like lockdowns and quarantines, imposed by governors and mayors of some of the most impacted places in Brazil.His supporters seem to agree. On Sunday, crowds gathered outside Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia waving banners and flags in support of Bolsonaro and protesting the lockdown measures. The rallies have been happening nearly every weekend and are usually broadcast live on Bolsonaro's personal Facebook account.In video footage of the latest rally, Bolsonaro could be seen with and without a mask as he greeted excited supporters cheering behind a barrier. At one point, a young girl slipped past the barrier and hugged him, while he wasn't wearing a mask. National Security Adviser Gen. Augusto Heleno, who was with Bolsonaro at the event, could be heard saying, "We will win this war." "This is a calculated risk and everything will work out," he added.JUST WATCHEDManaus mayor: Bolsonaro, 'please shut up and stay home'ReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHManaus mayor: Bolsonaro, 'please shut up and stay home' 02:36However, Bolsonaro's critics have slammed the government for how things are working out. Duringan interviewwith CNN Sunday, Manaus Mayor Arthur Virgilio Neto said the president was "co-responsible" for the country's coronavirus deaths and called fo the president's resignation."Shut up, stay home and resign," Virgilio Neto said.Manaus, a city of 2 million known as the gateway to the Amazon, has been devastated by the virus More than 13,000 cases and 1,182 deaths have been registered in Manaus. On Saturday alone, there were 51 burials.Virgilio Neto's attack was not unprovoked -- in a video of an April cabinet meeting released last week by the country's Supreme Court as part of an unrelated probe, Bolsonaro was revealed calling the Manaus mayor a "piece of shit," referencing the city's mass graves.The explosion of cases in Brazil is part of a new rise across Latin America that worries health experts. Peru, Chile and Mexico have also seen steep rises in new cases over the past week."We don't have the situation under control and particularly in many of the poorer areas of the world, it's really spiraling upward," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, former World Health Organization assistant director-general for health security told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Friday. And while Brazil's so-called "Trump of the Tropics" has been accused of failing to take Covid-19 seriously enough, his counterpart in the United States is starting to signal concern.On Sunday, US President Donald Trump -- a vocal ally of Bolsonaro who has also faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic --suspended entryfor foreign nationals who have been in Brazil within 14 days immediately preceding their attempt to enter the United States.

A new report has found that the Chinese government’s influence on Hollywood is posing a serious threat to free expression.The 94-page study, from the literary and human rights group Pen America, details the many ways that studios and film-makers continue to change “cast, plot, dialogue and settings” in an “effort to avoid antagonising Chinese officials” in films including Iron Man 3, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick.“The Chinese Communist party is increasingly shaping what global audiences see,” said James Tager, deputy director of free expression research and policy at Pen America, also a lead author of the report. “While we are all well aware of the strict controls that China’s government maintains over dissent, independent thought and creativity within its own borders, the long arm of Chinese censorship – powered by vast economic incentives – has also reached deep into Hollywood, shaping perceptions, inculcating sensitivities and reshaping the bounds of what can be shown, said and told.”Through dozens of interviews and case studies, the authors explain the many changes that have been forced upon films before they are granted a release into a lucrative market. LGBT content was removed from Bohemian Rhapsody, Star Trek: Beyond, Alien: Covenant and Cloud Atlas, scenes where Chinese people were killed were taken out of Skyfall and Mission: Impossible III and a major character was changed from Tibetan to Celtic in Doctor Strange, a decision made by the screenwriter to avoid the risk of “alienating one billion people”.In the report, Stanley Rosen, professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, says that the government “will focus on everything that has a China component in it. Don’t think that if you’re doing something that’s not intended for China, that’s an indie film meant for a small market, that China won’t notice and that it won’t hurt your blockbuster film. It will.”The report recommends that “Hollywood studios commit to publicly sharing information on all censorship requests received by government regulators for their films”.In 2019, American films made over $2.6bn in China with Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far from Home and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw making more money there than in the US.The release of the report comes after the US government has openly criticised Hollywood for kowtowing to Chinese intervention, also blaming the studios for pre-emptively censoring or canning potentially difficult projects.“Many more scripts never see the light of day because writers and producers know not to test the limits,” the attorney general, William Barr, said in July. “Chinese government censors don’t need to say a word because Hollywood is doing their work for them. This is a massive propaganda coup for the Chinese Communist party.”In June, Richard Gere appeared before the US Senate to warn about the dangers of letting China control content. “The combination of Chinese censorship, coupled with American film studios’ desire to access China’s market, can lead to self-censorship and overlooking social issues that great American films once addressed,” he said.

London -- An American graduate student who was jailed for more than three years in Iran is headed home after a prisoner swap.Xiyue Wang, 38, a Princeton University student, was exchanged for Iranian scientist Professor Massoud Soleimani early on Saturday as part of a prisoner exchange brokered by the Switzerland government. Wang had been held in Iran's notorious Evin prison since August 2016 on charges of espionage.President Trump said Wang had been held under the "pretense" of espionage.""The highest priority of the United States is the safety and well-being of its citizens," the president said in a statement. "Freeing Americans held captive is of vital importance to my Administration, and we will continue to work hard to bring home all our citizens wrongfully held captive overseas.”A senior administration official said Switzerland had been negotiating for Wang's release for more than three weeks. Wang, who is currently in Germany, is in good spirits, the official said.Wang, who is married with a son, was a Eurasian history scholar. He traveled to Iran in 2016 to study Persian and conduct research for his dissertation.Before traveling, Wang wrote to the Iranian Interest Section at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, D.C., which issued his visa. He also wrote to the libraries in Iran he planned to visit, according to Princeton University.He was transparent about what he wanted to study and why, according to the university, and about his desire to access documents housed at Iranian libraries and archives.“He was not involved in any political activities or social activism; he was simply a scholar trying to gain access to materials he needed for his dissertation,” the school said in a statement about his case.Wang's wife, Hua Qu, tweeted that their family was "complete once again.""Our son Shaofan and I have waited three long years for this day and it’s hard to express in words how excited we are to be reunited with Xiyue," the tweet read. "We are thankful to everyone who helped make this happen."In exchange for Wang's release, Professor Massoud Soleimani, who was arrested at a Chicago airport last year and charged with violating trade sanctions against Iran, was headed home, too.A stem cell researcher who had been working in Minnesota, Soleimani was charged after he was reportedly seeking to transfer biological material back to Iran without a license.His lawyers argued that he was innocent, saying the sanctions law was ambiguous.Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, was there to greet him at the airport; he flew with Wang from Tehran to Switzerland.In a tweet, Zarif said: “Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly. Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss Government.”ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas contributed to this report.

Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill cleared the House of Commons on Thursday in a major milestone that means the UK is on track to leave the EU on 31 January.The prime minister won a vote on the EU withdrawal bill at third reading by 330 votes to 231, a majority of 99.Before the election, MPs had thwarted Theresa May’s Brexit bill and threatened to do the same to Johnson’s revised deal.However, the make-up of the new parliament is now strongly pro-Brexit, with Johnson’s sizeable Tory majority.The bill will now go to the House of Lords where peers could give it a more challenging hearing but are still unlikely to block its passage.The prime minister’s official spokesman warned the House of Lords, where Johnson does not have a majority, not to frustrate the progress of the legislation.“The country did deliver a very clear message that they want Brexit to be resolved,” he said.The bill passed without amendment in the Commons in marked contrast to torturous previous efforts of May and Johnson to get Brexit legislation through before the election.Opposition MPs tried to force an amendment committing the government to allowing unaccompanied child refugees to continue to be reunited with their families in the UK after Brexit.The previous government had accepted an amendment from Labour peer Lord Dubs seeking continued protections for child refugees after Brexit but Johnson ditched that commitment after the election.A new Conservative MP used his maiden speech to defend the government’s decision. David Simmonds claimed vulnerable children were “very much in the minds of many members”, but argued it was “absolutely right” that these issues should be dealt with in the new immigration bill instead.Speaking of his former role leading the national work across local government on the resettlement of refugees in the UK, Simmonds said: “What tends to happen is young people are brought to Britain to be linked up with a distant cousin and in fact, they [end up] in the care system of this country.”He added that young refugees in the EU are “already within countries that have child protection systems that are very similar, equivalent and in some cases better to our own”.But Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said Labour can still “win the moral argument” after its bid to enshrine protections for child refugees in the government’s Brexit agreement failed.He urged the government to “reconsider” its opposition to his party’s plans, adding that Labour “may not win many votes in this parliament, but we can win the moral argument”.Downing Street stressed on Thursday that it was ready to begin the next stage of the Brexit process - negotiating a trade deal by the end of the year - on 1 February.But Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned the UK’s market access to the EU could be limited unless it agreed to conditions on state subsidies.“If the UK wants an open link with us for the products – zero tariffs, zero quotas – we need to be careful about zero dumping at the same time,” he told a conference in Stockholm.“I hope that this point is and will be correctly understood by everybody. We will ask necessarily certain conditions on state aid policy in the UK.”He also insisted that Britain’s goal to have a full free trade deal by the end of the year was unrealistic.“We cannot expect to agree on every aspect of this new partnership,” Barnier said, adding “we are ready to do our best in the 11 months”.

Two studies have raised further alarm about deforestation in Brazil during the first year of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s government.One study showed the country lost 12,000 km2 (4,633 sq miles) of forest last year and also provided important information about those behind deforestation. The other research flagged a 27% increase in the destruction of tropical forests in eastern Brazil.Both studies were released days after it was revealed that the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, had advocated that the government use the cover of the coronavirus pandemic to further weaken the country’s increasingly shaky environmental protection laws. Amazon deforestation and fires have soared since Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, vowing to end the “fines industry” of environment agencies and develop the rainforest.“We need to make an effort while we are in a quiet moment for press coverage because they only talk about Covid,” Salles said in a ministerial meeting in April. Video of the meeting was released on Friday and showed the minister using an expression about cattle to push for “changing all the rules and simplifying norms”.Environmentalists had warned that this was what the government had been doing.“The government’s position is weaken policies and this increases deforestation,” said Mariana Mota, a public policy specialist at Greenpeace Brasil. “The deforestation numbers don’t lie.”The first annual study by MapBiomas – a coalition of NGOs, universities and technology companies – confirmed deforestation alerts from Brazil’s Space Research Institute with high resolution images.The study found 7,700km2 of the deforestation was in the Amazon. More than three-quarters happened on land registered via a self-registration system Brazilian farmers use to claim ownership - and 99% of deforestation was illegal, MapBiomas found.The Bolsonaro government is trying to approve a law that would allow farmers who had illegally occupied land on protected reserves before a cutoff date to claim legal title, legislation environmentalists have called the “land grabbers” bill.Brazil’s vice-president, Gen Hamilton Mourão, leads an “Amazon council” and an environmental operation by thousands of Brazilian soldiers whose effectiveness has been questioned by local media. On 15 May he said the law would help the government fight deforestation.“[If] we do not know who owns the land, we cannot bring [anybody] to justice,” Mourão said. A vote on the law was postponed this week amid outrage over Salles’s comments.The MapBiomas study shows Brazil already knows who is responsible for deforestation. The issue is not finding the offenders, it is that fines are often ignored. A study by Human Rights Watch shows that Amazon fines have been suspended since October after the introduction of new procedures by the Bolsonaro government.The NGO SOS Atlantic Forest has also released figures that showed a 27% increase in the destruction of tropical forests in 17 states in eastern Brazil from October 2018 to October 2019 after two years of falling deforestation. The study showed 145 km2 were felled in the region.

Enlarge this image In a photo provided by the U.S. State Department, U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook stands with Xiyue Wang in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday. U.S. State Department via AP hide caption toggle caption U.S. State Department via AP In a photo provided by the U.S. State Department, U.S. special representative for Iran Brian Hook stands with Xiyue Wang in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday. U.S. State Department via AP Updated at 5:03 p.m. ETIran freed an American held prisoner for the past three years, the White House said Saturday, while Iran confirmed the U.S. was freeing an Iranian scientist held in America in return.The prisoner swap involves Xiyue Wang, a naturalized U.S. citizen and graduate student at Princeton University, who had been in an Iranian prison on espionage charges. Meanwhile, the U.S. released an Iranian scientist named Massoud Soleimani, who had been accused by American officials of violating trade sanctions.The White House confirmed Wang's release in a statement Saturday, saying "freeing Americans held captive is of vital importance." The administration added: "After more than three years of being held prisoner in Iran, Xiyue Wang is returning to the United States. A Princeton University graduate student, Mr. Wang had been held under the pretense of espionage since August 2016." The White House also praised "our Swiss partners" for help brokering the release with the Iranian government. The administration's statement did not acknowledge the U.S. release of the Iranian scientist.Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran for spying for American and British intelligence agencies. Princeton said Wang was arrested while doing research on "the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty in connection with his Ph.D. dissertation."On a Saturday background call with reporters discussing the rare diplomatic breakthrough, a senior White House official said that Wang "appears to be in good health" and was receiving a medical evaluation in Germany. He is expected to return home soon."He was not a spy, he was not involved in espionage and was wrongly detained from the start," the official said.The White House said negotiations of the release had been going on for some time, but picked up "intensely" over the past three to four weeks. Asked if this is a sign that talks stalled between the two countries could resume, the official said he was optimistic."I'm hopeful that the release of Mr. Wang is a sign that the Iranians are realizing that the practice of hostage-taking diplomacy really should come to an end if Iran wants to rejoin the international community," the official said.Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, in addition to thanking the Swiss government, acknowledged both prisoners in a tweet: "Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly."Included in the foreign minister's tweet were pictures of Soleimani and Zarif talking and posing in front of a plane with an Iranian flag painted near the cabin door.Zarif had earlier floated the possibility of a prisoner exchange in a September interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep ahead of a gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.He said of Wang, "I would love to see him go back to his family," but told NPR he had no authority to do that unless the U.S. agreed to exchange Wang for Soleimani."I have offered to exchange them because as foreign minister, I cannot go to our court and simply tell them 'release this man,' " Zarif said. "I can go to the court and tell them, 'I can exchange this man for an Iranian' and then have a standing, have a legal standing in the court."Zarif said Soleimani "was given a visa to come to the United States. His visa was revoked while he was flying to the United States. He has not committed any crime."In an interview with NPR on Saturday, national security adviser Robert O'Brien said that despite Iran's public posture, behind the scenes, Tehran was less serious about negotiations."We made it very clear to the Iranians that we were open to conversations with them through diplomatic channels — that we'd either meet with them directly, or meet with them through the Swiss — and it wasn't until recently that they've taken us up on that," O'Brien said.He said he hoped the prisoner exchange "portends well for the release of other Americans held hostage in Iran," and insisted that the swap would not incentivize the taking of other American hostages."We didn't give up anything," said O'Brien. World Iran's Foreign Minister: 'Abandon The Illusion' That Tehran Will Cave To Pressure NPR's Ryan Lucas confirms U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross signed an order dated Saturday that the Soleimani case "is dismissed without prejudice."Reporting from Istanbul, NPR's Peter Kenyon that he is cautious about the prisoner swap signalling that broader negotiations between Iran and U.S. are imminent. He cited the Trump administration's abandoning the Obama-era nuclear agreement and sanctions the Trump administration has imposed on Iran."There's no question the prisoner swap stands in huge contrast to the generally negative bilateral relations the U.S. and Iran have had," Kenyon said. "There are also other people ... other Americans being held" in Iran.They include Baquer Namazi and his adult son, Siamak, who have been detained since 2015.In a statement Saturday, Babak Namazi, the son and brother of the American prisoners said a statement he's "thrilled" for Wang and his family."At the same time, I am beyond devastated that a second President has left my ailing father Baquer Namazi and brother Siamak Namazi behind as American hostages in Iran in a second swap deal," the statement read."I hope, pray, and expect that this is not a one-time trade but the beginning of an expedited process that will bring my family home soon." Parallels For Relatives Of U.S. Prisoners In Iran, Uncertainty Grows After Iran Deal Pullout The family of Robert Levinson, another American prisoner being held in Iran, echoed similar sentiments.Levinson's family called the news of Wang coming home "bittersweet.""Our husband and father, has been held hostage for nearly 13 years — longer than any other American," the relatives said in a statement."We can't help but be extremely disappointed that, despite all its efforts, the United States government was unable to secure his release as well."O'Brien said he understood "the frustration" and "disappointment" of the families and promised that the U.S. would continue to work toward bringing home other prisoners."When we have opportunities to get someone home, we do that," O'Brien said. "No one has been left behind and the president is fully committed to bringing all captive Americans home."In a tweet, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed the U.S. government's commitment to the release of Americans held captive overseas."We will not rest until we bring every American detained in Iran and around the world back home to their loved ones," Pompeo worte. "We thank the Swiss government for facilitating the return of Mr. Wang, and are pleased the Iranian government has been constructive in this matter."Soleimani was hoping to complete a visiting scientist position at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, according to The Guardian, but after his arrest, "prosecutors in Atlanta have accused him and two of his former students of conspiring and attempting to export biological materials from the US to Iran without authorization, in violation of US sanctions. The two counts each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison."The Associated Press reports both Soleimani and his lawyers maintained his innocence, adding the scientist "seized on a former student's plans to travel from the U.S. to Iran in September 2016 as a chance to get recombinant proteins used in his research for a fraction of the price he'd pay at home."For his part, Wang had been pursuing a doctorate in Eurasian history and was studying historical local government in predominantly Muslim regions.In a 2017 interview with NPR, Wang's academic adviser at Princeton, Stephen Kotkin, said Wang "had tremendous background, life experiences, linguistic capabilities, and so he entered the program and hit the ground running and developed his interests even more.""Everything he did is normal — absolutely everything he did is normal, standard practice for scholars in this region and elsewhere," Kotkin added.Princeton said it had been working behind the scenes to free Wang.In September 2018, a United Nations committee said Iran had "no legal basis" for Wang's arrest and detention.NPR’s Michele Kelemen, Steve Inskeep and Franco Ordoñez contributed to this report.