Trump pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner and others
President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned more than two dozen people, including longtime confidant Roger Stone, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law.Trump previously commuted Stone’s sentence in July of this year but on Wednesday offered him a full pardon, citing his age and health conditions. Manafort, who was sentenced to 47 months last year on fraud and tax charges, was also offered a full pardon.The White House alleged "prosecutorial overreach" in Manafort's case and "potential political bias" in Stone's jury trial. In total, Trump pardoned 26 people and commuted part or all of the sentences of three others.Stone was convicted last year of making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The Justice Department initially recommended a seven-to-nine-year sentence, but eventually backpedaled after Attorney General William Barr became involved.Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politicsThat decision led to the abrupt resignation of all four prosecutors on Stone's case. Later, one of the prosecutors, Aaron Zelinsky, told the House Judiciary Committee, "I have never seen political influence play a role in prosecutorial decision making, with one exception: United States v. Roger Stone."Manafort was released from prison earlier this year to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement after concerns regarding the former campaign manager's health arose. He had been serving at Federal Correctional Institution Loretto before his release amid the coronavirus pandemic.He tweeted a thank you to Trump on Wednesday evening.Manafort's legal fight may not be over, though. Prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance are still fighting in court for the ability to file state criminal charges against Manafort, who was indicted by Vance in 2019. State judges ruled that the charges violated state laws regarding double jeopardy, but Vance’s team is still fighting those rulings.A spokesperson for Vance told NBC News on Wednesday, “This action underscores the urgent need to hold Mr. Manafort accountable for his crimes against the People of New York as alleged in our indictment, and we will continue to pursue our appellate remedies."Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations in 2005 and completed his sentence in 2006 after 14 months in prison. The real estate executive's case was prosecuted by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, also a longtime Trump ally, when Christie served as a federal prosecutor.In a 2019 interview, Christie called the case "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. Attorney."Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, slammed Trump's pardons for "another tranche of felons" on Wednesday as "rotten to the core."On Tuesday, Trump pardoned more than a dozen people, including former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in a federal lockup and one year of supervised release in September 2018 for lying to investigators in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.Former GOP congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins also made the president’s list on Tuesday, both men being among the first Republicans to back Trump for the presidency.Hunter was set to begin an 11-month federal prison sentence in January for one count of misusing campaign funds. Collins was sentenced to 26 months after he pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to commit securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Both men were given full pardons.Trump pardoned Hunter's wife, Margaret Hunter, on Wednesday.Here's the full list of pardons and commutations granted on Wednesday:Paul Manafort — Manafort was convicted of eight felony counts in Virginia in 2018 and entered into a plea agreement in a separate case to 10 charges, including three counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, and seven counts of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy. He was given a full pardon.Roger Stone — Stone was convicted last year on charges of making false statements, obstruction and witness tampering. His sentence was commuted earlier this year and he was given a full pardon Wednesday.Charles Kushner — Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations in 2005 and completed his sentence in 2006. He was given a full pardon.Margaret Hunter — Hunter pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds for personal expenses and was sentenced to three years’ probation. She was given a full pardon a day after her husband, former congressman Duncan Hunter, was also pardoned.James Kassouf — Kassouf pleaded guilty in 1989 to one count of filing a false tax return and was given a full pardon.Mary McCarty — McCarty pleaded guilty to one count of honest services fraud and was given a full pardon.Christopher Wade — Wade served two years’ probation after pleading guilty to various cyber-crimes and was granted a full pardon.Christopher II X, formerly Christopher Anthony Bryant — Bryant is a former drug addict who was convicted of several cocaine charges between the 1970s and 1990s and was granted a full pardon.Cesar Lozada — Lozada served 14 months for a 2004 charge of conspiring to distribute marijuana and was granted a full pardon.Joseph Martin Stephens — Stephens pleaded guilty in 2008 to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was granted a full pardon.Andrew Barron Worden — Worden was convicted in 1998 on a wire fraud charge and was granted a full pardon.Robert Coughlin — Coughlin pleaded guilty to a count of conflict of interest while working as a Department of Justice official and was granted a full pardon.John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson — Boultbee and Atkinson served time in prison for mail fraud and were granted full pardons.Joseph Occhipinti — Occhipinti was convicted of conspiracy to violate civil rights under the color of law and making false statements. Occhipinti was granted a full pardon.Rebekah Charleston — Charleston was a former sex trafficking victim arrested for tax evasion in 2006 and was granted a full pardon.Rickey Kanter — Kanter, former CEO of Dr. Comfort, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and was granted a full pardon.Topeka Sam — Sam pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and was granted a full pardon.James Batmasian — Batmasian pleaded guilty to willful failure to collect and remit payroll taxes in 2008 and was granted a full pardon.William J. Plemons, Jr. — Plemons was convicted of various financial crimes in the late 1990s and early 2000s and was granted a full pardon.Russell Plaisance — Plaisance was given a posthumous pardon for a count of conspiracy to import cocaine.Daniela Gozes-Wagner — Gozes-Wagner's 20-year sentence for a 2017 conviction for health care fraud and money laundering was commuted.Mark Siljander — Siljander served a year in prison for obstruction of justice and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and was granted a full pardon.Stephanie Mohr — Mohr served 10 years in prison for releasing her K-9 partner on a burglary suspect in 1995 and was granted a full pardon.Gary Brugman — Brugman, a former Border Patrol agent, was convicted of depriving a person of their constitutional rights. He was granted a full pardon.John Tate and Jesse Benton — Tate and Benton were convicted for indirect campaign payments to a state senator and each granted a full pardon.Mark Shapiro and Irving Stitsky — Shapiro and Stitsky were convicted on charges related to real estate fraud. Trump commuted their sentences.
Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner
Adam Schiff, the Democratic head of the influential House Intelligence Committee, tweeted: "During the Mueller investigation, Trump's lawyer floated a pardon to Manafort. Manafort withdrew his co-operation with prosecutors, lied, was convicted, and then Trump praised him for not 'ratting'.
Bitcoin surges past $20,000, erasing 3 years of deep losses
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The price of bitcoin rose above $20,000 for the first time Wednesday, as the speculative digital currency topped its previous peak reached shortly after it became tradable on Wall Street three years ago this month.Like other instruments used to store value in times of uncertainty, bitcoin has benefited from the pandemic that has pushed other commodities like gold, silver, platinum to multiyear highs. Because of bitcoin's structure, few coins are being created anymore and there is relative scarcity.Here’s a brief look at bitcoin:———HOW BITCOINS WORKBitcoin is a digital currency that is not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who “mine” them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with U.S. dollars and other currencies. Some businesses also accept bitcoin, but its popularity has stalled out in recent years.———WHAT HAPPENED?Bitcoins got their big Wall Street debut in December 2017, when bitcoin futures became tradable on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. The fervor and interest in bitcoin heading into its trading debut pushed the digital currency to record highs. The currency, which was worth less than $1,000 at the beginning of 2017, climbed up to $19,783 by the end of the year.But once the trading began, bitcoin futures fell sharply over the course of several months. A year later, the currency was worth less than $4,000. Investors and bitcoin enthusiasts at the time said the 2017 jump was largely caused by speculative interest and media attention.———HOW MUCH IS IT NOW WORTH?One bitcoin is worth roughly $20,700, according to Coinbase, a major digital currency exchange that also trades other tokens and currencies.But the value of bitcoin is volatile and moves hundreds or even thousands of dollars in the course of a week. A month ago, it was worth less than $17,000 and a year ago it was worth less than $7,000.Bitcoin is a highly speculative investment and has not performed as well as more traditional forms of investing, like stocks or bonds, unless a buyer was in the currency years before it caught on. For example, three years ago The Associated Press bought $100 worth of bitcoin to keep track of the currency and to possibly build stories about how businesses were accepting it. That portfolio only broke even this month.———WHY BITCOINS ARE POPULARBitcoins are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Transactions can be made anonymously, making the currency popular with libertarians as well as tech enthusiasts, speculators — and criminals.Bitcoins have to be stored in a digital wallet, either online through an exchange like Coinbase, or offline on a hard drive using specialized software. While the bitcoin community knows how many bitcoins exist, where they all are is anyone's guess.———WHO’S USING BITCOIN?Some businesses have jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon. Overstock.com accepts payments in bitcoin, for example.The currency has become popular enough that more than 300,000 transactions typically occur in an average day, according to bitcoin wallet site blockchain.info. Still, its popularity is low compared with cash and credit cards, and most individuals and businesses won’t accept bitcoins for payments.———HOW BITCOINS ARE KEPT SECUREThe bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals’ greed for the collective good. A network of tech-savvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn’t be an issue.———HOW BITCOIN CAME TO BEIn 2016, An Australian entrepreneur stepped forward and claimed to be the founder of bitcoin, only to say days later that he did not “have the courage” to publish proof that he is. No one has claimed credit for the currency since.
Rand Paul opposes Hunter Biden special counsel but says federal probe must continue
closeVideoSen. Johnson is 'justifiably mad' when being accused of not being loyal to the US: Sen. Rand PaulSenator Rand Paul weighs in on yesterday's Senate 'Russia disinformation' clash between Sen. Peters and Sen. Johnson and analyzes media coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal.Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Thursday that Hunter Biden "deserves the same justice that Paul Manafort got" but opposed appointing a special counsel to oversee the investigation into his tax affairs.Responding to President-elect Joe Biden's "confident" claim that his son did nothing criminal, Paul said he should show it by bucking tradition on new presidents removing all U.S. attorneys. The younger Biden is under federal investigation for, among other things, his overseas business dealings."If he's confident, he should leave in place the U.S. Attorney [in Delaware] who's investigating Hunter Biden," Paul told "Fox & Friends." "Traditionally, when a new president comes in, they fire all the U.S. attorneys. If he wants to show that this is going to be an upright, upstanding Biden administration ... he needs to leave that U.S. attorney in place."Paul said if Biden did fire the prosecutor in the first weeks of his presidency, justice wouldn't be served."Hunter Biden deserves the same justice that Paul Manafort got. Nothing less, nothing more," he said, referring to President Trump's former campaign chairman who was imprisoned for various financial crimes.Some Republicans have called for the Justice Department appointing a special counsel before Biden takes office to look into the matter, but Paul said he opposed it because those kinds of prosecutors were "too powerful."SENATE HEARING EXPLODES AS JOHNSON ACCUSES DEM OF SPREADING RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION: 'YOU LIE REPEATEDLY'Paul also commented on a tense moment during Wednesday's Homeland Security Committee hearing on voter fraud allegations between Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., where the two traded accusations of spreading Russian disinformation. Paul said Johnson was justified to be angry with Democrats for making a false charge of aiding an adversary."It's the same kind of crap that the left has been doing over and over again," he said. "'You work for Putin or Moscow Mitch and all this craziness, but it's very insulting ... Who wants to be accused by someone of not being loyal to your country?"Paul called for any allegations of double-voting, dead people voting, and other alleged fraudulent activity to be aggressively prosecuted.President Trump has repeatedly claimed he did not truly lose the election, but his efforts to overturn the result in court have failed and more Republicans have begun to accept Biden as the president-elect.
Bitcoin price hits all
The value of bitcoin, the world’s best known cryptocurrency, has reached an all-time high of more than $20,000.The cryptocurrency rose by more than 6% on Wednesday to reach $20,632 (£15,283) against the US dollar, extending a winning streak this year amid growing interest among big investment companies attracted to its potential for quick gains.The price of bitcoin has surged by more than 400% this year from a low point of around $3,600 in March, when the coronavirus pandemic triggered a deep sell-off in financial markets around the world.Analysts said that unlike in previous surges, a major price driver appeared to be more institutional investors buying into the cryptocurrency.Nigel Green, the chief executive of deVere Group, a finance company which operates a bitcoin exchange, said: “They’re being attracted by the good returns that the digital asset class is currently offering but, more importantly, by the huge future potential it offers.“As some of the world’s biggest institutions – among them multinational payment companies and Wall Street giants – pile ever more into crypto, bringing with them their enormous expertise and capital, this in turn swells consumer interest.”The rally in bitcoin comes after a 2017 spike in the digital currency when it rose by more than 900% to come close to $20,000 by mid December, with global financial leaders and economists warning of a price bubble on a par with the Dutch tulip mania of the 17th century. Bitcoin then crashed below $7,000 by early February 2018, but never wiped out to zero as forecast by some analysts at the time.Investor interest has been growing in bitcoin as a potential way to safeguard against rising inflation. Expectations among City investors for higher rates of inflation have been growing in recent weeks, fuelled by the prospect of a stronger global economic recovery next year thanks to the Covid vaccine and stimulus measures from central banks and governments in advanced economies.Ruffer, a UK-based investment management company with more than £20bn in assets under management, last month made a bet on bitcoin that is now worth around £550m, in one of the biggest signals of growing demand among traditional investment managers.A spokesman said the move was to diversify Ruffer’s portfolios into gold and inflation-linked bonds. “[This] acts as a hedge to some of the risks that we see in a fragile monetary system and distorted financial markets.”Ayush Ansal, the chief investment officer of Crimson Black Capital, a hedge fund, said that public interest in bitcoin would be renewed over Christmas. “After being in a wasteland since the infamous bull run of late 2017, crypto, and bitcoin in particular, are back.“Bitcoin has been threatening the symbolic $20,000 barrier for some time and finally it has broken through.”
'Utter devastation': Three dead as multiple wildfires in California burn homes, prompt evacuations
ALAMEDA, Calif. — Multiple blazes were burning out of control in Northern California on Monday, killing three people, destroying an untold number of homes and prompting thousands to evacuate in a state already battered by wildfires in recent months.In Shasta County, Sheriff Eric Magrini said that three people died after the Zogg Fire exploded in size, jumping from a few hundred acres Sunday afternoon to 15,000 less than 24 hours later.Magrini did not provide additional details about the victims, saying that their next of kin still need to be notified. But he pleaded with residents to heed evacuation orders."This is fast-moving," he said. "When you hear that order, evacuate immediately."According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, the blaze, which ignited southwest of the city of Redding, had no containment on Monday afternoon.Five hundred structures were threatened by the blaze, a CalFire spokesman said earlier. He added that reports of damaged and destroyed buildings have not been confirmed by the department.North of the San Francisco Bay Area, in Napa and Sonoma counties, the Glass Fire rapidly scorched more than 36,000 acres and is zero percent contained, according to Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nichols. It started early Sunday in Napa Valley and roared west overnight, merging with two other fires as it burned through vineyards and buildings.At least 8,500 structures are threatened by it, according to NBC Bay Area. No injuries or deaths have been confirmed, Nichols said, though he added that he'd heard reports of burned residents.State Sen. Bill Dodd, who represents the area, estimated that hundreds of homes, wineries and other businesses were destroyed after the blaze exploded Sunday night amid powerful winds and high temperatures."This was pretty devastating," Dodd said after touring areas hit hard by the fire. "Just literally hundreds and hundreds of homes devastated with nothing standing."Among the well-known businesses that Dodd said burned were Calistoga Ranch, a luxury resort, and parts of Meadowood, a resort with a Michelin-starred restaurant. Also lost in the fire was the Château Boswell Winery in St. Helena, a family-owned winery founded in 1979."It was like a nuclear bomb went off," Dodd said of Calistoga Ranch. "You couldn’t see anything green anywhere. It was just utter devastation."The blaze also made a run toward Santa Rosa, a city of nearly 175,000 in Sonoma County that lost hundreds of homes three years ago after flames jumped a highway and scorched the neighborhood of Coffey Park, fire officials said.California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a state of emergency in Napa, Sonoma and Shasta counties due to the Glass and Zogg fires, which his office said in a statement "have burned tens of thousands of acres, destroyed homes and critical infrastructure and caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents."Newsom also sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking for a major disaster declarations to help in state and local wildfire response and recovery efforts in Fresno, Los Angeles, Madera, Mendocino, San Bernardino, San Diego and Siskiyou counties.Santa Rosa Fire Chief Anthony Gossner said Monday that there were "significant losses" in the neighborhood of Oakmont. Gossner didn't know how many buildings burned, but he said many were ranch homes.Janneke Byrne, 27, said her parents evacuated from their house in Santa Rosa to her home in another part of the city. It was the third time in as many years that they’d left their place on the city’s east side, near Annadel State Park, worried it might not be there when they returned because of a wildfire. “They’ve never really unpacked,” Byrne said Monday.This time, because of how quickly the fire had moved from Napa County toward Santa Rosa, her parents were resigned to losing their home, Byrne said.On Monday afternoon, as she and her mother reminisced about the house where they’ve lived for almost two decades, her father called from another room and told them to come watch the news. A television journalist doing a live shot was reporting from in front of their home, which was still standing.“We screamed and danced,” Byrne tweeted.Her parents are among 68,000 people who remain under evacuation orders in Sonoma County, according to sheriff's spokesman Spencer Crum.Dodd, the state senator, estimated that at least another 10,000 were under similar orders in Napa.Among those shuttled to safety were residents of the Oakmont Village retirement community in Santa Rosa, city spokeswoman Elise Howard said.About 100 residents who don't drive or have nearby loved ones to pick them up were loaded on to five city buses between midnight and 1 a.m. PT and taken to an evacuation center set up at a park 11 miles away, Howard added.In Butte County, the town of Paradise, which was devastated by California's deadliest fire on record two years ago,was put under an evacuation warning Sunday, meaning residents should prepare to leave any minute.The town is near the North Complex Fire, a series of blazes that began more than a month ago and have burned more than 300,000 acres north of Sacramento. According to CalFire, the fire is 78 percent contained.The fires that erupted over the weekend are only the latest blazes in what officials have called a historic wildfire season. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 8,100 wildfires that have burned more than 3.7 million acres in California, according to Cal Fire.The state has recorded 29 fatalities and more than 7,000 structures have been destroyed.Tim Stelloh reported from California. Elizabeth Chuck reported from New York.
Rural Venezuela Crumbles as President Shores Up the Capital and His Power
PARMANA, Venezuela — From his palace in Caracas, President Nicolás Maduro projects an image of strength and his grip on power appears secure. Residents have a regular supply of electricity and gasoline. Shops are bursting with imported goods.But beyond the city, this facade of order quickly melts away. In order to preserve the quality of life of his most important backers, the country’s political and military elites, his administration has poured the country’s dwindling resources into Caracas and forsaken large swaths of Venezuela.“Venezuela is broken as a state, as a country,” said Dimitris Pantoulas, a political analyst in Caracas. “The few available resources are invested in the capital to protect the seat of power, creating a ministate amid the collapse.”Across much of the country, basic government functions like policing, road maintenance, health care and public utilities have been abandoned.The only remaining evidence of the state in Parmana, a fishing village on the banks of the Orinoco River, is the three teachers who remain at the school, which lacks food, books, and even a marker for the board.ImageThe school in Parmana has no food or books. The students often leave early, too hungry to focus.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesThe priest was the first to leave Parmana. As the economic crisis deepened, the social workers, the police, the community doctor and several of the schoolteachers deserted.Overwhelmed by crime, the village’s residents say, they turned to Colombian guerrillas for protection.“We are forgotten,” said Herminia Martínez, 83, as she stooped with a machete in the tropical heat to tend an overgrown bean field. “There’s no government here.”A year ago, it seemed, for a moment, that Mr. Maduro’s critics might have a chance to oust him. An opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, had staged the biggest challenge to Mr. Maduro’s rule to date by claiming the presidency and quickly winning support from the United States and almost 60 other countries. Now Mr. Maduro’s adversaries have lost momentum. The Trump administration remains supportive of Mr. Guaidó: On Monday, the United States issued new sanctions against government allies who tried to block him from assuming the leadership of the country’s National Assembly. Despite this pressure, Mr. Maduro’s tenure seems secure, in part because of how well Mr. Maduro’s policies have bolstered Caracas.[Update: The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the Russian oil company supporting Venezuela’s leader.]But the economy, suffering from poor management, diminished oil and gold exports and crippling sanctions by the United States, is now entering its seventh year of a devastating contraction.This lasting depression, along with the retrenchment of the state, has allowed much of the nation’s infrastructure to fall into neglect. It has also led to Venezuela’s breakup into localized economies with only nominal links to Caracas. As runaway inflation rendered the country’s currency, the bolívar, practically worthless, dollars, euros, gold and the currencies of three neighboring countries began to circulate in different parts of Venezuela. Barter is rampant.ImageBartering fish for basic goods in Parmana.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times“Each place survives in its own way, as best it can,” said Armando Chacín, head of Venezuela’s ranchers’ federation. “They are completely different economies.”Outside Caracas, citizens of what was once Latin America’s wealthiest nation can be relegated to surviving in what are nearly preindustrial conditions. About half the residents of Venezuela’s seven major cities are exposed to daily blackouts and three-quarters get by without a reliable water supply, according to a September survey by the Venezuelan Public Services Observatory, a nonprofit.In Parmana, flooding last year washed away the only road out of town, leaving the village without regular deliveries of food, fuel for the power plant and gasoline. To get by, its 450 remaining residents have resorted to clearing fields with machetes, rowing their fishing boats and using the beans they grow themselves as currency.ImageGuillermo Loreto, 19, working on his grandmother’s bean field.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesAfter decades of lavish oil spending, Venezuela’s government is running out of money. The country’s gross domestic product has shrunk 73 percent since Mr. Maduro took office in 2013 — one of the biggest declines in modern global history, according to estimates by the opposition-controlled congress, based on official statistics and data from the International Monetary Fund.Unable to pay meaningful salaries to millions of state employees, the government has looked the other way as they resorted to graft, influence peddling and side businesses to make ends meet. The official salary of Venezuela’s top military general is $13 a month, according to Citizens’s Control, a Venezuelan research group.In Caracas, the private sector — maligned for years under the Socialist government of Mr. Maduro and his popular predecessor, Hugo Chávez — has been allowed to fill some of the gaps in consumer products left by declining state imports. As once sacrosanct economic controls disappeared overnight, the capital filled up with hundreds of new shops and showrooms, offering everything from imported sports cars to American-made seaweed chips.And the burden of the country’s collapse has fallen largely on Venezuela’s provinces, where many residents have been effectively cut off from the central government.ImageGirls waiting for fishermen to arrive with a catch that they can take home.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesRegions close to Venezuela’s borders have resorted to smuggling and cross-border trade for survival. Agricultural towns in Venezuela’s interior have sunk into subsistence, as the collapse of the road system and gasoline shortages decimated domestic trade. Tourism hot spots have survived on private investment and by catering to the elites. Local military commanders and a few ruling party strongmen with limited ties to Mr. Maduro have taken political control of far-flung regions. As national law enforcement shrank, irregular armed groups took their place, including Colombian Marxist guerrillas, former right-wing paramilitaries, criminal gangs, pro-Maduro militias and indigenous self-defense groups.Across the Venezuelan interior, these groups have often taken charge of enforcing business contracts, punishing common crimes and even settling divorces, according to dozens of testimonies of residents collected over months of reporting in three regions.The collapse of the Venezuelan state has run its course in Parmana, a large and once prosperous village of fishermen and farmers in Venezuela’s central plains.For lack of pay, the local police unit packed up and left one day in 2018, followed by the public workers who ran social programs. Shortly after, locals chased away the village’s detachment of National Guards for drunkenness and extortion.ImageThe abandoned National Guard post.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesTo replace the guards, the village leaders decided to travel to the closest gold mine controlled by Colombian guerrillas to ask them to set up a post in Parmana.Over the past four years, to protect their supply lines, the guerrillas had wiped out the river pirates who had terrorized Parmana’s fishermen, robbing their boats of motors and killing several people.“We need authority here,” said Gustavo Ledezma, a shop owner and community sheriff. The guerrillas “bring order,” he said. “They don’t mess around.”Parmana’s descent into lawless subsistence is a steep downfall from its glory days of exporting rice, beans and cotton. The village’s wetlands and pristine springs drew throngs of holidaymakers every year.“Parmana, Parmana, how beautiful it is to wake up with you,” went a song by Venezuela’s legendary country bard, Simon Díaz.ImagePower lines that no longer supply electricity run along an abandoned property in Parmana.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesMr. Chávez, the former president, had seen in the region’s agricultural potential the future of the Venezuelan economy. A decade ago, he spent at least a billion dollars building a bridge over the Orinoco to connect the region to Brazilian markets. The bridge, unfinished, is now abandoned. Parmana’s springs dried up after a politically-connected landowner diverted the water to his cotton fields in 2013, destroying the tourism industry.Now, on the village’s dusty streets, desperate fishermen stop the occasional visiting drivers in search of gasoline for their boat motors. A farming family sat by a pile of watermelons. They had tried sending a phone message to a wholesaler to pick up their harvest, but the cellular tower had been down for two weeks, and they were unsure if he would come, or when. “We have to depend on each other now, not on the state,” said Ana Rengifo, the community council leader.In October, the village doctor went to the closest town to find medications for his empty shelves. He never came back. The abandoned Catholic church is filled with bats, its pews chopped up for firewood.The pastor of the local evangelical group still comes once a week. The group meets daily to sing for salvation, but breaks up at sunset for lack of electricity.ImageAn evangelical worship service in Parmana. The service ends before dark, for lack of electricity.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesThe village ambulance rusts in a shed without tires, its driver having left that job three years ago to plant beans to survive. At the school, after singing the national anthem and doing calisthenics, the students study basic reading and math, but go home after an hour or two. Teachers say many of them get too hungry to focus.Despite the town’s collapse, most here prefer to remain on their land, where they can grow some food, to risking hunger elsewhere.“You go outside and the hunger kills you,” said Inselina Coro, a 29-year-old mother of four. “At least here you go to the river and get a fish.”Ms. Coro lives with her children and her boyfriend, a fisherman, in a one-room shack of corrugated iron and dirt floors. The six of them share two hammocks. Her oldest daughter, Ana Herrera, 14, is pregnant, but the family has no means to take her to a doctor.Ms. Coro’s dreams for her family are confined to moving to Caicara, a dilapidated town about three hours upstream. The reason? “There is electricity,” she said.ImageMs. Coro’s family preparing lunch.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times
Manhattan DA appeals dismissal of Manafort charges to NY high court
The Manhattan District Attorney's office on Wednesday announced that it is appealing to New York's highest court a ruling dismissing charges against Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President TrumpDonald TrumpTop Trump aide Derek Lyons to leave White House this month Judge rules Trump Org must turn over documents to NY AG as part of probe Longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt announces he's registering Democrat MORE's 2016 campaign.Manafort was charged in New York state court in March 2019 with residential mortgage fraud and related offenses. In December 2019, a state judge threw out the charges, ruling they overlapped with bank fraud charges that Manafort had faced in federal court. A New York appeals court affirmed the judge's ruling last month.The DA's office is now appealing the matter to the top court in the state, the New York Court of Appeals, according to a court filing dated Tuesday.The move to appeal the dismissal of the charges comes as Trump is set to leave office in January, and could potentially issue a number of pardons before his term ends. Presidents can pardon or commute the sentences of those who have been convicted of federal offenses, but not state offenses.A federal jury in Virginia convicted Manafort in 2018 of bank fraud and tax fraud charges in a case brought by former special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) MuellerBarr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel CNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting MORE. Prior to the start of a separate federal trial in Washington, D.C., Manfort pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States and witness tampering.Manafort had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison, but in May he was released from prison to home confinement due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Amazon may soon surpass Apple in market cap
It was 2011 when Apple first passed ExxonMobil to become the biggest company on the market, and it’s barely been challenged since. Apple’s $833 billion market cap puts it well ahead of its nearest competitors. But a pack of richly valued technology companies is vying to give Apple a run for its money—and Amazon is in the lead.Amazon’s stock surged up to 7% in extended trading today (April 26), after the company smashed estimates for first-quarter earnings. Amazon reported earnings of $3.27 a share, more than double the $1.24 that FactSet analysts were expecting. Sales totaled $51 billion, 2% better than the expected $49.9 billion. The beat was driven by strong results in Amazon’s subscription services division, which includes fees associated with Amazon Prime and other streaming services, as well as beats from its physical stores segment and third-party sellers.As of today’s market close, Amazon’s market cap stood at $736 billion. That’s a good bit behind Apple, but Amazon is now poised to jump at the open on Friday (April 27). A big enough move could bring it within striking range of Apple, which reports its second-quarter results on May 1.Amazon is also already worth more than Apple in terms of enterprise value, a measure that adjusts for cash holdings and debt. Amazon’s enterprise value first surpassed Apple’s in late January, and was beating it this week, ahead of first-quarter earnings.
President Xi Jinping vows Chinese separatists will be ‘smashed to pieces’ as US
LONDON -- President Xi Jinping said that those seeking to divide China would be “smashed to pieces” in comments reported by state media Sunday, as protesters gathered for US-themed protests after weekend rallies descended into violence over the weekend.In the first visit to Nepal by a Chinese president in 23 years, Xi said that “those who engage in separatist activities in any part of China will be smashed into pieces” during a meeting with the Nepalese prime minister K.P. Sharma, according to the state-owned newspaper China Daily, adding that “external support for separatists will be seen by the Chinese people as delusional.”Although the comments were not made directly in connection with the Hong Kong protests, they followed a weekend of violence in which a bomb exploded and a police officer was stabbed during overnight clashes between protesters and police.The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Tang-Ping-keung, warned that “violence against police has reached a life-threatening level” in a press conference Monday.But the protests continued with an event held in Central Hong Kong in support of the U.S. Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which is pending the approval of Congress. The act, which is believed to have broad bipartisan support, will require the State Department to report annually as to whether Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous, and assess annually whether “China has eroded Hong Kong's civil liberties and rule of law.” Hong Kong's special status under U.S. law would be contingent on these annual reports. Other provisions of the act would impose a visa ban on anyone found torturing protesters, and allow protesters to still be able to obtain visas for travel to the U.S. even if they have police records from nonviolent protesting.There is also further legislation pending which could impose export restrictions of certain American products such as tear gas. Senator Rick Scott requested a meeting with the company NonLethal Technologies Inc, after a report by Reuters found that the company had supplied tear gas to Hong Kong police.The Hong Kong government today expressed their regret over to proposed bill, saying that foreign legislatures should not interfere in Hong Kong's affairs."Since the return to the Motherland, the HKSAR has been exercising 'Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong' and a high degree of autonomy in strict accordance with the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China," a spokesperson for the government said in a statement. "The 'one country, two systems' principle has been fully and successfully implemented. Human rights and freedoms in Hong Kong are fully protected by the Basic Law, the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance and other legislation. The HKSAR Government attaches great importance to them and is determined to safeguard them."Footage from the rally shows thousands of protesters, many waving American flags. One speaker asked the crowd “Do we want the help of the U.S.?” The response, an energetic “Yes!” The protest Monday evening received a “Letter of No Objection” from the Hong Kong Police in the increasingly restless economic island hub.The Republican Senator Josh Hawley spent Sunday evening watching the protestors in Hong Kong, and released a video on social media directly addressed to the protesters expressing solidarity with the movement.“Sometimes the fate of one city defines the challenge of a whole generation,” he said. “50 years ago it was Berlin, today it is Hong Kong ... The free people of the world are standing with you so that we can all say that we’re Hong Kongers' now.”Senator Ted Cruz was also been in Hong Kong over the weekend, but a scheduled meeting with the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong legislature Carrie Lam was cancelled at the last minute. Cruz criticized the NBA last week for apologizing to Chinese officials after the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protesters.The protest movement began in early June in response to a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed suspected criminals in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China for trial. Since then, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets every weekend.Lam has since withdrawn the controversial bill, but widespread unrest has continued as demonstrators broadened their demands. Among their demands are a call for an independent inquiry into allegations of police brutality.ABC News' Justin Solomon and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
Klobuchar hits back at 'perfect' Pete Buttigieg as feud flares at Vegas debate
closeVideoWhere does Amy Klobuchar stand on the issues?Where does Amy Klobuchar stand on the issues?Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., hit back at former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg Wednesday after he challenged her record in Congress, mockingly saying she wished “everyone was as perfect” as the rising Democratic star. "I wish everyone was as perfect as you, Pete,” Klobuchar said after the two engaged in lengthy war of words over her stance on immigration and her time in Congress. The exchange capped off a night that saw the two moderate candidates continually snipping at one another in the lead-up to Saturday’s Nevada caucuses.AMY KLOBUCHAR ACCUSED OF 'PANDERING' AFTER MENTIONING HER SPANISH NAME FROM GRADE SCHOOLEarlier in the evening, Klobuchar decried that Buttigieg implied she is "dumb" for not knowing the president of Mexico's name. In an interview with Telemundo last week, three of the Democratic contenders -- Klobuchar, Buttigieg and billionaire Tom Steyer -- were asked to name the president of Mexico -- and none but Buttigieg was able to correctly name President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is often referred to as AMLO.Buttigieg brought up the incident on the debate stage in Las Vegas just days ahead of the state's caucuses that will see droves of crucial Latino voters at the polls and drew the ire of Klobuchar.Video"You're on the committee that oversees border security. You're on the committee that does trade. You're literally part of the committee that's overseeing these things," Buttigieg said, pointing to his rival's placement on a number of Senate committees. "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?" Klobuchar said to Buttigieg, clearly irked."He's basically saying that I don't have the experience to be president of the United States," she added.The tensions between Buttigieg and Klobuchar, however, appeared to be more of a sideshow to the attacks that every Democratic candidate leveled against the newest member to the debate stage, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. VideoBloomberg drew particular criticism from Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont for his comments about women, the stop-and-frisk policy in New York City and his personal wealth.Fox News’ Vandana Rambaran contributed to this report.
Homemade Bomb Detonated for First Time in Hong Kong Protests
ImageParts of a homemade bomb that targeted police officers in Hong Kong on Sunday.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York TimesHONG KONG — A homemade bomb was detonated in Hong Kong on Sunday amid violent protests, the police said on Monday, indicating an escalation in the street-level arms race between police officers and the protesters.The device was hidden in a bush and was triggered by a mobile phone as a police vehicle passed nearby in the Mong Kok district of Kowloon, Suryanto Chin-chiu, a superintendent of the Hong Kong police’s explosives disposal unit, said at a news conference.The bomb caused no damage or injuries, but it was the first time such a device had been employed in weeks of clashes, the police said. Once armed only with umbrellas to protect against rain and flying tear gas canisters, the demonstrators have more recently brandished bricks and sidewalk paving stones, as well as knives and gasoline bombs. The improvised bomb used Sunday, however, was far more complicated in design than a gasoline bomb, and required a higher degree of skill to manufacture. Improvised bombs, often called IEDs, have been used by insurgents in such places as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, but how lethal such weapons are depends in good part on the type and quantity of explosives used.It was unclear what type of explosive charge was in the bomb on Sunday; the answer would determine how serious any escalation of violence could be.Tang Ping-keung, a deputy police commissioner, said at the same news conference that the force believed the device was intended to injure police officers. “These people doing violent acts are not protesters. They are indeed rioters and criminals that are destroying our rule of law,” Mr. Tang said. “Whatever causes they claim they are fighting for can never justify such triad-like behavior,” he added, referring to organized crime groups.Images of the device showed a red plastic bag, wires, a battery, a Nokia mobile phone and what appears to be a circuit board of the kind typically used by hobbyists. As the demonstrations have turned increasingly violent, the Chinese authorities have labeled some of the protesters’ actions “close to terrorism.” Officials in Beijing have warned that the military could intervene in the protests, leaving Hong Kong to wonder what line would have to be crossed to draw such a response. In another indication of the rising violence, an officer was stabbed in the neck by a demonstrator on Sunday. The police said on Monday that veins in the officer’s neck had been severed, and that he had undergone surgery and was in serious condition. The police, too, have stepped up the firepower they have employed since the demonstrations began in June. Protesters have deplored the officers’ use of pepper spray and tear gas as excessive since the early days of the protests, but this month an 18-year-old high school student was shot in the chest by a police officer — the first time a demonstrator had been struck with a live round. The teenager survived. The police have also deployed trucks that fire a powerful stream of dyed water, capable of pushing back crowds and making demonstrators visible later to officers. The police arrested 201 people, between the ages of 14 and 62, over the weekend, they said. The Hospital Authority said that 79 people sought medical attention on Sunday. The police said 12 officers were injured over the weekend, including the officer who was stabbed. The protests began 19 weeks ago over a contentious bill that would have allowed for the extradition of people in Hong Kong to mainland China for trial. Hong Kong, a semiautonomous territory, has its own judicial system, and residents have additional rights. The bill has since been shelved, but the protests have continued. Demonstrators’ demands have increased to include an investigation of the police and universal suffrage. John Ismay contributed reporting from Washington.
'We aren't dangerous': Why Chechnya has welcomed women who joined Isis
The handwritten letters addressed to Kheda Saratova often begin with the words: “I’m asking you to find my daughter.”The Chechen human rights advocate has binders filled with photographs of young women and children, as well as their last known locations: Mosul, towns near Raqqa, or sometimes just “tent camp”.Then there are the pleas for help sent over WhatsApp. “We aren’t dangerous,” wrote Maria, a Russian in the Ain Issa refugee camp in Syria. “Maybe there are some who are dangerous, but we should not all be punished for them.”Altogether, family members have appealed to Saratova to find at least 1,800 Russian-speakers who have disappeared into Iraq and Syria, many of whom arrived in the two countries to live under Isis. “We need to hurry or there won’t be anyone left to return,” she said.Women like them have been dubbed “Isis brides” in the west, and their possible return has sparked a fiery public debate, with governments taking unprecedented steps to block their repatriation.Shamima Begum, the teenager who traveled from east London to Syria in 2015, had her British citizenship revoked. The United States made a similar decision to block the return of Hoda Muthana, an Alabama woman.Russia has a far larger problem. Vladimir Putin has claimed as many as 4,000 Russian citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq, and another 5,000 from other ex-Soviet countries. Saratova says relatives are seeking at least 700 women from countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, and more than 1,100 children.The campaign for their return has found an unlikely champion in Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman ruler of Chechnya, whose regime has long been accused of brutal reprisals against Islamist insurgents and their families.However, Kadyrov has lobbied Vladimir Putin for the return of Russian-speakers from Isis and helped organise nearly a dozen evacuation flights from Syria to Grozny, the predominately Muslim capital of Chechnya.Observers suggest that he has various motivations: keeping potential insurgents under watch, promoting his stature as a Muslim leader, and a genuine belief, coloured by a patriarchal worldview, that the women who emigrated were bound to follow their husbands into Isis.“From the humanitarian point of view, this is a very strong and quite unexpected position,” said Ekaterina Sokirianskaya, the director of the Conflict Analysis and Prevention centre and an expert on the north Caucasus. Supporters of the scheme, which brought back 21 women and more than 100 children in 2017, claimed that repatriating those who had lived under Isis would help keep the country safer.“These people need to be brought back, so that they’re under the control of our law enforcement agencies,” said Saratova, who was appointed by Kadyrov to a committee that manages the repatriation process.“They are more dangerous there than here.”But the scheme has its opponents and was suspended abruptly in 2017 after complaints from senior officials in Russia’s security services. Evacuations of children resumed only in December 2018. Women are no longer repatriated.Zalina Gabibulayeva, a mother of five who now lives in Grozny, was on the last flight out of Syria. She seemed an unlikely candidate for clemency. Her first husband had fought in the insurgency in Dagestan and was killed in 2010. In 2012, she was sentenced to two years in prison after police found a bomb in the trunk of her car, which she said was planted.While the Chechen government has portrayed the women it wants to repatriate from Syria as obedient wives, each case is unique. Gabibulayeva said that she was single and made her own decision when she slipped across the Turkish border in 2014. “I had religious motivations,” she said during an interview in Grozny. “I thought it was sharia. I wanted sharia.”Gabibulayeva settled in Tabqa, a city she called “peaceful” at first but she said she soon grew disappointed with Isis’s strict rules, wanton use of violence and the cost of the approaching war. “At first, there were more good people than bad,” she said. “They killed them like cannon fodder, sending them to die in this war.” Executions for legal violations were also common, she said. She denied taking part in violence.Single women were confined to a general barracks and not let out alone, so she quickly married, she said. Her third husband was killed in a drone strike less than a year after they wed. As the war drew closer and aerial bombardments became more frequent, she and her fourth husband, a Macedonian, decided it was time to leave.They paid to be smuggled out of Isis territory in mid-2017 and surrendered to Kurdish forces in the country’s north. Gabibulayeva, who was pregnant with her fifth child a the time, gave birth in al-Hawl refugee camp. “They didn’t even bring me to the hospital, though I asked them,” she said.Her husband was arrested and extradited to Macedonia, where he is now in prison. She spent four months in camps before she was suddenly flown back to Russia, where a court in Dagestan convicted her of joining an illegally armed group. She was sentenced to prison, but given a deferment of more than a decade because she has young children.She considers herself lucky to have got out alive. “When the war was at its peak, when the children were between life and death, of course you choose prison over the death of your kids,” she said.Gabibulayeva and another returnee, Zagidat Abakarova, a mother of four, said that they had been subjected to intense scrutiny after returning to Russia, with regular interrogations and police visits in her native Dagestan. She moved to Chechnya, she said, because government forces had been more lenient. Russia has no federal guidelines for repatriation, and each region has dealt with returnees in its own way.She assumed that their phones and other means of communications were being monitored, but said that women who had lived under Isis no longer posed a threat.Not everyone agrees. In November, Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s federal security service, said that brining women back was dangerous: “It’s no secret that these women and even children are used by terrorist leaders as recruiters, suicide attackers, for perpetrating terrorist attacks and as gobetweens.”Putin has also spoken publicly in support of repatriating children, although he has not addressed the question of women. Evacuation flights from Syria suddenly resumed for children born in Russia late last year, with 30 children evacuated in December and more. Observers say that Russia’s approach is flawed but has shown more readiness to repatriate those who left for Isis than any western government.“Russia has one of the most active programmes on repatriation of children globally and should be given credit for it,” Tanya Lokshina, of Human Rights Watch, said. But “given all that hope to the families desperate to get daughters and grandkids back from Syria and Iraq – and then suspending the original programme for a year without any explanations, it was a huge and unjustified blow to those families.”Some mothers still have hope their daughters will be found alive. Dzhannet Erezhebova has been searching for her daughter Ziyaret for more than two years.“If I disappear, please don’t leave my children here, find them,” Ziyaret texted from Mosul in November 2016, where she was living in a barracks for widows with her three children. Her husband had already died in a bombardment.It was the last time time that mother and daughter spoke, and Erezhebova has spent more than two years searching for clues that her daughter and three children escaped the city.“I have been burying her and bringing her back to life all this time,” Erezhebova said . “She deserves another chance.
Judge throws out NY state fraud charges against Manafort
A judge in New York threw out mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort on Wednesday, ruling that the case constituted double jeopardy for the convicted former Trump campaign official.Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled that the charges from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance overlapped with various bank fraud charges that Manafort faced in federal court last year. Manafort was convicted on some of those charges and sentenced to more than seven years in prison.Manafort was reportedly absent from a brief hearing on Wednesday, and has been hospitalized in recent days with heart problems.The Manhattan district attorney's office said it would appeal the decision.“We will appeal today’s decision and will continue working to ensure that Mr. Manafort is held accountable for the criminal conduct against the People of New York that is alleged in the indictment,” Danny Frost, a spokesman for Vance's office, said in a statement.Vance's indictment included 16 counts.President Trump has not ruled out pardoning Manafort for his federal conviction, but would be powerless to forgive any state criminal charges against his former campaign chairman.In a statement, Manafort's attorney, Todd Blanche, praised Wiley for the decision.“We have said since the day this indictment was made public that it was politically motivated and violated New York’s statutory double jeopardy law," Blanche said. "This indictment should never have been brought, and today’s decision is a stark reminder that the law and justice should always prevail over politically-motivated actions.”Manafort was convicted of seven counts of bank and tax fraud, as well as one count of failing to disclose an offshore bank account, in a case brought by the former special counsel Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) MuellerBarr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel CNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting MORE. A jury failed to reach a verdict on 10 other counts.Before a second separate trial could begin, Manafort reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy and witness tampering.The charges stemmed from an illegal financial scheme to hide Manafort's work for the Ukraine government and shield the income from that operation from U.S. taxes.This week, Manafort's deputy on the Trump campaign, Richard Gates, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years in jail for his role in the scheme. He managed to avoid a significant prison sentence by cooperating extensively with the special counsel's office, including providing testimony in court that helped secure Manafort's conviction.Updated at 11:51 a.m.
Hong Kong protests are at 'life
Violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have escalated to a “life-threatening level”, police have said, after a small bomb exploded and a police officer was stabbed in clashes overnight.Peaceful rallies descended into chaos in the Chinese-ruled city on Sunday with running skirmishes between protesters and police in shopping malls and on streets. Black-clad activists threw 20 petrol bombs at one police station, while others trashed shops and metro stations.A crude explosive device, which police said was similar to those used in terrorist attacks, was remotely detonated as a police car drove past and officers were clearing roadblocks on Sunday night. An officer also had his neck slashed by a protester.“Violence against police has reached a life-threatening level,” said the deputy commissioner of police, Tang Ping-keung, on Monday. “They are not protesters, they are rioters and criminals. Whatever cause they are fighting for it never justifies such violence.”Hong Kong has been rocked by four months of violent protests against what is seen as Beijing’s tightening grip on the city. The unrest has plunged the city into its worst crisis since Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997 and poses the biggest popular challenge to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, since he came to power in 2012.Xi has said any attempt to divide China will be crushed. “Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones,” he said in a meeting with leaders during a visit to Nepal on Sunday, according to China’s state broadcaster, CCTV.China rejects complaints it is stifling the city’s freedoms and stresses its commitment to the “one country, two systems” formula under which the city is ruled, allowing it freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent judiciary. China also accuses western countries of stirring up trouble in Hong Kong.The protests were prompted by a now-abandoned bill that would have allowed extradition of suspects from Hong Kong to China and Communist party-controlled courts. But they have widened into a pro-democracy movement and an outlet for anger at social inequality in a city with some of the world’s most expensive real estate. The protests have attracted millions of people but have gradually become smaller in recent weeks. Yet violence by hardcore activists has risen, prompting debate among protesters over tactics. But they say they remained united.“Violence is always undesirable, but in the case of Hong Kong, we have no other option,” said Jackson Chan, 21, regular protester. “In June, 2 million took to the street and demonstrated peacefully, yet the government showed a complete disregard to the public opinion … Escalation of violence is inevitable.”Protesters have five main demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality.Thousands of activists rallied on Monday night, the first with government permission since the introduction of colonial-era emergency powers, which provoked some of the worst violence since the unrest started.The protesters, overwhelmingly young and chanting “fight for freedom, fight for Hong Kong”, called for international support in their fight for democracy. One speaker called on US senators to vote for the proposed Hong Kong human rights and democracy act of 2019, saying it would be their “most powerful weapon”. Some protesters waved US flags.The bill supports human rights in Hong Kong with measures under consideration such as annual reviews of its special economic status and sanctions on those who undermine its autonomy. The text will not be finalised until it passes both houses of Congress and is signed by the president.“We are exhausted and scared, many of us have been detained and tortured … We believe international help will come one day,” said the main speaker, who gave his name as Isaac.Police have fired thousands of rounds of teargas and rubber bullets at brick- and petrol bomb-throwing protesters and arrested more than 2,300 people since June, many of them teenagers. The Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, is due to deliver her annual policy address on Wednesday amid pressure to restore confidence in the government. Hong Kong is also facing its first recession in a decade because of the protests, with the tourism and retail sectors hardest hit.
Trump policy stirs debate: Are immigrants too likely to use welfare?
President Donald Trump’s recasting of United States immigration policy isn’t just about letting fewer newcomers into the country. It’s also about redefining who is worthy to enter.His administration’s stated criterion: those who are self-sufficient.To the president’s supporters, it’s common sense. Favoring the skilled can boost the U.S. economy. And favoring the industrious will reduce a rising taxpayer tab for federal safety-net programs. Nations like Australia and Canada have already gone down this path toward a merit-based system for immigrant visas, they say.“The president has made no secret of the fact that he believes the American immigration system, first and foremost, is set up to work for America. That means economically and for the people [already] here,” Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told reporters Wednesday at a Monitor Breakfast.It’s an objective that resonates with voters like Tammy Waddell, who has a horse farm about an hour’s drive north of the nation’s capital and who calls the nation’s current immigration situation “out of control.” Trump administration seeks to tie Biden’s hands. Will it work?But this ideal of self-sufficiency might not be so simple to put into practice. For one thing, it’s not easy to draw bright lines between “desirable” and “undesirable” immigrants.Mr. Trump’s policies are reducing the number of available workers in an already tight job market. Across America, many help-wanted ads are for low-skilled jobs, not for the college graduates favored by the president. A rule finalized recently by Mr. Cuccinelli could sharply limit the pool of immigrants available for low-wage work. It seeks to block green cards to people deemed likely to enroll in federal welfare programs. Matt Orlando/The Christian Science Monitor Ken Cuccinelli, acting head of the agency that oversees legal immigration, has announced rules that would winnow out many green-card applicants based on their likelihood of drawing on federal support. Here he speaks at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor in Washington on Oct. 16, 2019. “It’s a very misleading definition of self-sufficiency,” says Elizabeth Lower-Basch, an expert on income and benefits at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington. “The vast majority of working-age adults who receive Medicaid [or food assistance] are in fact working.”The new restrictions, based on whether someone is likely to become a “public charge,” build on federal laws and guidelines going back as far as 1882. The Trump administration has created a more detailed and restrictive rule tied to U.S. law. Last week, judges in several federal courts blocked it from going into effect. Critics say the rule would amount to revising the land-of-opportunity ideal embodied at the base of the Statue of Liberty, where the famous words of poet Emma Lazarus say: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”Backers of the policy, including Mr. Cuccinelli, defend a heightened focus on the “economic value” of immigrants. And he notes that the new criteria are aimed at family or employment immigrants, not those who seek access to the U.S. on a humanitarian basis as refugees or asylees.“We continue to provide … the most long-term permanent relief in the world. So our position as the No. 1 most generous country in the world is not at any risk,” he asserted at the Monitor Breakfast. Still, Mr. Cuccinelli also discussed Trump administration plans to roll back the volume of entrants in those humanitarian categories.Some economic-policy experts argue that curtailing the number of immigrants – and screening them in ways that narrow ethnic and socioeconomic diversity – could backfire economically. The current demand is for low-skill workers and the outsize contributions that immigrants make to the formation of new businesses.“We have an economy that is full of jobs that fill vital needs but are not paying very well and often do not provide health insurance,” says Ms. Lower-Basch. “And so people get these supports from the government to supplement their work. Whereas ‘public charge’ was really written about people who ... were going to entirely rely on the government and not support themselves at all.”Recent Trump actions seek to screen out applicants who can’t show they’ll be able to buy health insurance – putting up a major obstacle for many would-be immigrants. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Immigrant-rights organizations, including CASA and the Service Employees International Union, rally at the Capitol in Washington Sept. 9, 2019, calling on Congress to create a path to permanent status for Temporary Protected Status holders and Deferred Action for Child Arrivals recipients. That could be a problem for the economy, say some employers, who complain of a shortage of workers in general or who say not all skilled immigrants come with money and college degrees in hand. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports programs to attract both high- and low-skill immigrants. In a recent blog post it cited an “ominous” decline in the number of people coming from overseas to study at U.S. universities – often a path toward employment. “Concerns about our nation’s immigration system” were viewed by many as a key reason. Many economists say immigrants pay taxes that outweigh the public benefits they receive, contribute to innovation in ways that can be stunted by policies that restrict their diversity, and don’t erode opportunities for native-born residents.Still, public opinion remains sharply divided, at a time when immigrants account for nearly 14% of the U.S. population, not far from prior-century peaks seen around 1910.In rural Frederick County, in Maryland, the county sheriff is seeking to collaborate with federal officials against unauthorized immigrants. Residents have formed opposing camps over whether the need is to combat racism and xenophobia or to uphold the rule of law.To Ms. Wadell, the principle of self-sufficiency goes hand-in-hand with limiting immigration to those who apply and are accepted through legal channels.“Be legal and work, and I don’t have a problem,” she says, as she and her husband fill their truck with gas before heading home to care for their horses. In her view, many immigrants rely on welfare programs at the expense of taxpayers.”In the city of Frederick, not far from the Pennsylvania border, some see it differently.“It’s a huge myth that immigrants are coming here to get public assistance,” says Michael Haverty, who works at a music and arts shop. “It’s also a big myth that … you stay on public assistance forever.” For him, a reference point is his own family heritage. “My ancestors came here in the 1840s from Ireland in our darkest chapter,” Mr. Haverty says. They worked their way from poverty into mainstream U.S. life, he says, as immigrants have been doing ever since. A few storefronts down, Jorge Ovando is adjusting an umbrella and cleaning a table outside a Peruvian restaurant. He is on a visa from Peru, aiming to earn money for a business degree and to polish his English language skills.Mr. Ovando notes that his own job was created by a fellow Peruvian who started at a bottom-level restaurant job and worked his way up to a supervisory job and then opening this small cafe.But some experts say there’s good logic behind the Trump administration’s heightened focus on self-sufficiency.“In welfare policy in general, one of the touchstones of the Trump administration has been to expect more individuals to work or participate in constructive activities,” says Matt Weidinger, a poverty expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. The Trump administration’s attempted shift toward a more merit-based system “is not a question of who is intrinsically a better human being,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration. “We want immigrants that we expect to be able to thrive – and in a modern post-industrial knowledge-based economy, that means having a certain level of education and arriving with a certain knowledge of English.”The Trump administration’s goal is not only to enforce the new criteria. It also wants to emphasize employment more (and family ties less) in selecting legal immigrants.But one question is whether that overlooks the value of interdependence. In the current economy, many people contribute as workers even while receiving some public support.For example, the public charge rule, if it passes muster in court, would mean that “legal immigrants with disabilities will be unable to apply for and receive needed services to find and maintain employment,” Stacy Cervenka of the American Foundation for the Blind wrote recently. She calls that “entirely contradictory to DHS’s professed intention to ensure that immigrants are self-sufficient.”As divisive as the issues are, many on both sides of the political spectrum say America’s immigration challenges ultimately will require bipartisan legislative answers. Mr. Cuccinelli said “there’s only so much we’re going to do by regulation and rule without Congress’s participation.”Mark Greenberg, an expert at the Migration Policy Institute, takes the point a step further. “There’s a strong argument,” he says in an email, “that if there’s going to be a major shift in policy about who gets admitted to the country, that decision ought to be made by Congress – not by giving immigration officials broad discretion to implement a complex test without safeguards to prevent arbitrariness.” Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. Staff writer Sarah Matusek contributed to this report from Boston.Editor's note: One sentence has been updated to remove a reference to the coming vacancy in the role of acting secretary of Homeland Security.
Tech Veteran’s Fundraising Team Rakes In Cash for Pete Buttigieg Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO—Three years ago, Swati Mylavarapu had never worked for a political campaign and attended just a single campaign fundraiser.Now, the 36-year-old Silicon Valley investor is a financial force behind one of the best fundraisers in the Democratic presidential primary, serving as national investment chairwoman for Pete Buttigieg, a fellow Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar whom she has known for half her life.The campaign has raised about $76 million since the former South Bend, Ind., mayor entered the crowded race in early 2019—more than any Democrat except returning presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. Mr. Buttigieg’s financial structure sprouted from a supporter list of 24,000 emails and a handful of friends willing to help and now includes more than 733,000 campaign donors and about 125 people who each have raised at least $25,000.Ms. Mylavarapu, who started her career at Google and worked at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins, brought a Silicon Valley mentality to the campaign, insisting that all donors and those who raise money be called “investors” rather than “bundlers.” (“We’re asking them to get out there and evangelize why they believe and to raise new dollars by sharing that story,” she said. “And what is that if it’s not investment?”)Just as with some of his policies and campaign trail rhetoric, Mr. Buttigieg’s fundraising approach borrows from both the traditional and more liberal wings of the Democratic Party. Unlike Mr. Sanders, the Vermont senator, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he is holding fundraisers and pursuing $2,800 maximum donations, relying on Ms. Mylavarapu’s relationships with wealthy Democrats such as Esprit clothing company founder Susie Tompkins Buell.
Buttigieg calls Facebook's political ad policy a 'mistake'
The social media giant has "a responsibility to pull false advertising and ... to intervene when there is advertising that would contribute to voter suppression," Butttigieg told reporters after hosting an economic policy event in New Hampshire.Zuckerberg has defended Facebook's refusal to take down content it considers newsworthy "even if it goes against our standards," in an effort to steer clear of criticism that Facebook was infringing on First Amendment rights to free speech. In response to a question last week on fact-checking during his appearance at Georgetown University, Zuckerberg said, "We think people should be able to see for themselves."Warren also has called for breaking up Zuckerberg's conglomerate, which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.Buttigieg, at 37, is the first candidate of the Facebook generation, and was an early adopter of the social media platform. But he said Thursday that federal regulators, with the power to protect consumers and address "anti-competitive practices," should consider remedies that include a breakup."Yes, I believe that breakup of big companies is a remedy that should be on the table," he said. "Now, I don't think that that should be declared in advance by a politician."Warren told reporters in Iowa on Monday that Facebook and its affiliates "already have way too much influence in Washington."
In a Year of No Trade Fairs, Germany Takes It Hard
The funeral directors will have to wait for their big get-together. So will the toymakers, the equestrians and the vegans.All those groups and many more had scheduled trade fairs to take place in Germany in recent months. But these rituals of business life, a chance for people to make deals, check out the competition and commune with others in the same walk of life, are in crisis.The mass cancellation of trade fairs has been a disaster for hotels, restaurants and taxi drivers around the world, but especially in Germany. The country has four of the world’s 10 largest trade venues, more than any other nation. Trade fairs have played a central role in German economic life at least since the Middle Ages, when merchants convened in cities like Leipzig to trade wine, furs, grain and gossip. The first Hanover Fair in 1947, a showcase for machine tools and other industrial goods, was seen as a turning point in Germany’s economic revival after World War II. The fair attracted more than 700,000 potential customers from around the world and helped reconnect Germany to the international economy.The pandemic forced organizers to scratch this year’s Hanover Fair as well as dozens of smaller events like VeggieWorld in Munich, the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg and Horse & Hunt in Hanover.In a good year, trade fairs generate 28 billion euros, or $33 billion, in revenue for German convention centers, hotels, restaurants, airlines and various service providers, according to the Ifo Institute in Munich, a research organization.ImageFrankfurt’s trade fair complex covers 400,000 square meters, or nearly 100 acres.Credit...Felix Schmitt for The New York TimesThat revenue largely evaporated, and there were additional losses that are impossible to quantify: the orders never taken, the partnerships never formed, the new connections not made.“They’re a showcase,” said Jan Lorch, chief sales officer at Vaude, a German maker of outdoor gear and apparel that would normally have been a presence at the ISPO sports industry fair in Munich and the Eurobike cycling industry fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.Mr. Lorch said that in addition to being a way to meet retailers, the fairs were an opportunity to learn about topics like the latest supply-chain software. “You meet a lot of people in a short time,” he said. “You learn things you wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”ImageThe Pro.vention trade fair, which features air purifiers and other products to cope with the pandemic, was allowed to continue despite Germany’s near-total ban on trade shows.Credit...Felix Schmitt for The New York TimesConventions are an underappreciated driver of economic growth worldwide, responsible for about 1.3 million jobs. Trade fairs generated revenue of $137 billion in 2018, as much as General Motors, according to the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry in Paris.But revenue this year is down by two-thirds after the cancellation of events like the Mobile World Congress (which drew more than 100,000 visitors in 2019) in Barcelona, Spain, or the North American International Auto Show in Detroit (which drew more than 750,000).Some fairs moved online when the pandemic made live gatherings inadvisable. After the cancellation of Leben und Tod, or Life and Death, a funeral industry event normally held in Freiburg, Germany, organizers turned to the internet. They livestreamed presentations on topics such as “Fear of Dying” and “Burial Preparation: Which Shoes for the Final Journey?”But virtual events do not fill hotels or restaurants, or provide work for the carpenters who build the often elaborate company displays, which can easily cost as much as a house.“A lot of firms are on the brink of insolvency,” said Jan Kalbfleisch, executive director of FAMAB, an organization that represents firms that design displays, caterers and other service providers. Government aid programs for small business, he said, “are a help if your sales go down 30 percent, but not if they go down 80 percent.”There are already signs that even after a vaccine becomes available, the pandemic may leave permanent scars on the exhibition industry. The Geneva Motor Show was canceled at the last minute in March, and the organizers have already called off next year’s event. The future of the show, once one of the main events on the auto industry calendar, is uncertain, in part because car companies have begun to question whether the shows are worth the substantial expense, which for big automakers can be millions of dollars.The big worry for the exhibition industry is that companies will discover they can do without trade fairs. As anyone who has ever attended one knows, they can be exhausting corporate speed-dating marathons short on sleep and long on booze and bad food.ImageThe 2019 Geneva International Motor Show. Both this year’s event and next year’s were canceled.Credit...Samuel Zeller for The New York Times“There’s too much drinking. You live on coffee and toasted paninis,” said Kristof Magnusson, a fiction writer who is a regular at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing industry’s premier event. “Afterward everyone is sick.”A survey by the Ifo Institute found that nearly half of German companies with at least 500 employees want to cut spending on trade fairs and conduct more meetings online. But Horst Penzkofer, an economist at the institute, said trade fairs remained important for smaller companies that couldn’t afford international sales forces.Nikolaj Schnoor, the chief executive of the Danish eyewear maker Lindberg, said the company staged online presentations to show off its latest designs after almost all industry trade fairs were canceled in the United States, Europe and Asia. But he said he was hoping they would resume soon.“For small and midsize companies, they’re a window on the world,” Mr. Schnoor said. “I would be sad if we didn’t have them.”German authorities allowed trade fairs to take place for most of the year if organizers limited the number of visitors and took other measures to avoid contagion. But most events were canceled anyway because of travel restrictions that discouraged visitors from abroad. Many exhibitors did not want to spend money getting ready for events that might be canceled at the last minute, which happened in several cases.ImageKristof Magnusson, an author who regularly attends the Frankfurt Book Fair. “There is too much drinking. You live on coffee and toasted paninis,” he said.Credit...Nikita Teryoshin for The New York TimesThe latest lockdown restrictions in Germany, which took effect on Nov. 1 and last until December, include an almost total ban on trade fairs, much to the consternation of the industry. There was at least one exception — a fair in Erfurt called Pro.vention. It featured companies that make disinfectants, air purifiers and other products to cope with the pandemic.Those are exactly the kind of companies that need trade fairs to find a market for new products, said Michael Kynast, chief executive of Messe Erfurt, the city’s trade fair venue. (“Messe” is the German word for “trade fair.”)“There are companies that get 80 percent of their sales from trade fairs,” Mr. Kynast said.It’s anybody’s guess when businesspeople can start thronging to trade fairs again. The Messe Frankfurt, whose dozen exhibition halls covering 400,000 square meters (nearly 100 acres) make it the third-largest fairgrounds in the world after the Hannover Messe and the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, has canceled all events through March. Even if restrictions are lifted, exhibitors do not want to commit to events without knowing when the pandemic will be over.ImageThe Frankfurt Book Fair, which dates to the 1400s, had planned to allow a limited number of visitors but then had to cancel because of a recent surge in coronavirus infections.Credit...Pool photo by Thomas LohnesThe Frankfurt Book Fair, which attracted 300,000 visitors last year, may foreshadow how trade fairs will function. The event, normally held in October, traces its roots to the 1400s not long after Johannes Gutenberg, a native of nearby Mainz, invented movable type and made mass production of books possible.This year, plans to allow a limited number of visitors had to be abandoned after a second wave of the coronavirus swept Germany. Instead, book fair organizers set up online platforms where attendees could make deals and seek partners, and staged a full program of online readings, panels and lectures.Mr. Magnusson took part in a related event at the German National Library in Frankfurt that, he said, reminded him why he likes trade fairs despite the hangovers and sleep deprivation.Mr. Magnusson, who was promoting his latest novel, “Ein Mann der Kunst” (“A Man of the Arts”), found himself appearing before a live, socially distanced audience with Wladimir Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion promoting a motivational book, and Eva von Redecker, a philosopher who argues that capitalism is in the final stages of its demise.“You get the whole panoply of the literary world,” Mr. Magnusson said. “It’s a good way to get out of your bubble.”ImageThe fairgrounds in Erfurt, Germany. The exhibition industry worries that companies will discover they can do without trade fairs.Credit...Felix Schmitt for The New York Times
'P is for protest': Hong Kong families take to the streets in pro
Armed with balloons and strollers, several hundred families took to the streets in Hong Kong on Saturday to show support for pro-democracy protests that are now in their third month.The colourful and calm atmosphere at the rally was a far cry from the increasingly violent confrontations that have marked recent demonstrations by activists calling for greater freedoms in the city.A leaflet featuring an alternative alphabet was circulated, offering “demonstration” for the letter D, “angry” for A and “protest” for P.Faye Lai was attending with her three-year-old niece and said she hoped the rally would help children understand the tumult that has engulfed the international financial hub in recent weeks.“We have to tell children about the current situation in Hong Kong, and educate them about what the right kind of society is,” said Lai, a stage assistant.“The future belongs to the children. Hong Kong’s future is theirs. We are fighting for rights that children should have,” she said.Protests that began in opposition to a controversial bill to allow extradition to mainland China have morphed into a broader movement calling for greater freedoms, including direct election of the city’s chief executive.The family event, billed as a rally to “guard our children’s future” received a permit from authorities, unlike several other protests that activists have organised for the weekend.“At this stage, we need to come out for any event, especially those for the future generation, not just protests and marches,” said Roger Cheng, a 50-year-old office worker.“Like today, it’s for the next generation to know about the importance of having a future ... Although they don’t understand [everything] yet, they might be able to experience freedom, the human need to just do what they want.”Activists plan to ramp back up their demonstrations over the weekend, including with a three-day sit-in at the airport that began on Friday and attracted thousands of people.Earlier on Saturday, older people staged a “silver hair” rally, delivering letters to police headquarters and the office of chief executive Carrie Lam in support of the protests.Activists also plan marches over the weekend that authorities have not authorised, raising the possibility of fresh clashes between protesters and police.