São Paulo – The 38th São Paulo International Film Festival, set to begin on the 16th, will feature 330 productions from around the world until the end of this month. Arab countries are featured in the festival with seven own productions, co-productions or as the theme of films made in other countries. Cinephiles can watch prize-winning movies, a documentary on the Syrian conflict and even a Palestinian production about a boy who tends giraffes. This year’s edition of the festival is paying tribute to Spanish cinema, highlighting the work of Pedro Almodóvar.
Press Release
Giraffada: a Palestinian boy helps his father tend animals following an airstrike
According to festival director Renata de Almeida, this year’s edition has received 1,000-plus submissions. All submissions were viewed by a team of jurors. The Arab or Arab-themed films, says de Almeida, focus on myriad subjects. Some are about political conflicts, such as Our terrible country, in which two men travel through embattled Syrian cities and are ultimately forced to seek shelter in Turkey. Other movies focus on human conflicts instead, like those experienced by the six characters in the Egyptian-Emirati co-production The Mice Room.
Among the Arab-made films or those about the Arab culture and reality, the director recommends two pictures by the Kurdish filmmaker (from Iraq’s autonomous region Kurdistan) Hisham Zaman. Letter to the king tells the story of five refugees who travel to Oslo, the capital of Norway, each with a different purpose. The oldest of them wants to deliver a letter to the king. In Before snowfall, an eldest brother has the mission of reestablishing his family’s reputation after his sister flees her wedding. These were the director’s first two feature films and won prizes at Sweden’s Gothenburg Festival in 2013 and 2014.
A French-Palestinian co-production, Rani Massalha’s drama “Giraffada” is inspired by a true story and portrays a boy and his father’s struggles to find, in Israel, a companion for a giraffe from the West Bank’s Qalqilya Zoo following an airstrike.
Press Release
Letter to the king won a prize at a Swedish festival
Dancing Arabs, directed by Israel’s Eran Riklis, depicts the dilemmas of a young Palestinian Arab who falls in love with a Jewish girl. Another Israeli production, The green prince, is a documentary about the son of a member of radical group Hamas who served as an informant for the Israeli government for over ten years. “Many of the films depict conflicts, either political or personal. There are some good stories, because the conflicts are ultimately human,” says Almeida.
Tribute
This year, the festival is paying tribute to Spanish cinema, featuring Luis Buñuel’s first two productions, An Andalusian dog and The golden age, plus an exhibition of photographs taken by the director. The highlight of this year’s tribute to Spanish cinema will be Pedro Almodóvar. The festival will feature Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Talk to her and his latest film, The skin I live in. Almodóvar also designed the festival’s poster, at the organizers’ request.
This edition will also honour the director and producer of authorial films Marin Karmitz. The tribute will include Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The three colors trilogy and Ruy Guerra’s Ópera do Malandro, among other productions, including a documentary about Karmitz.
Celebrating the centennial of Charles Chaplin’s character the Tramp, the festival will screen The circus on November 1st. The movie will be shown in open air, outside the Ibirapuera Auditorium on Ibirapuera Park. The soundtrack will be played live by Fundação Theatro Municipal’s Orquestra Experimental de Repertório (Experimental Repertoire Orchestra). The screening will take place at 8 pm and admission is free.
The festival will also feature the New Directors Competition. Movies by directors who have made up to two feature films will be shown throughout the event. The most voted motion pictures will be viewed by a jury, which will award the Bandeira Paulista Trophy to the best ones.
Service
38th São Paulo International Film Festival
October 16th to 29th
Information and program: http://38.mostra.org/br/home/ (in Portuguese)
UPDATE: Three congregations that lost their churches in “suspicious” fires this week are having their first services since the crimes.
Those fires happened at historically African-American churches in St. Landry Parish. To read more, click here.
State Fire Marshal Butch Browning is now confirming they are connected.
There are no suspects wanted at this time, and deputies are offering additional security for other churches.
“It caused us to pray harder and pray more frequently…this is the time for us to pull together,” said Rev. Gerald Toussaint, leader of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.
On Sunday Greater Union, St. Mary and Mt. Pleasant Baptist churches showed their resilience.
“What do you think about when they destroyed the church – I said they didn’t destroy the church, they destroyed the building,” Toussaint said.
Toussaint’s was the most recent church to burn down. He says although the physical place of worship no longer stands, this hasn’t broken their foundation.
“It steals something from you, it robs you but then.. right now is the time to find something to pick them up,” Toussaint said. “Because I know their head is down. I know they’re spiritually weakened.”
But through singing praises and a ceremony full of energy, many of their spirits were uplifted.
“Something is not right, something isn’t right but God has the last word,” said Ethel Thomas, a member of Mt. Pleasant. “We’re going to keep on keeping on.”
Thomas has been attending services at Mt. Pleasant for the past 35 years.
She says not being in her usual church was tough but she’s looking forward to what’s ahead.
“It was heartbreaking, I wanted to cry but I say I’ll hold it in,” she said. “I had cried so much already when they called to let me know that our church was burned. I didn’t know what else to do, I just said “Lord you’re in control.”
Although their faith has been tested, it hasn’t been taken.
“We don’t know why, we don’t know when, we don’t know who,” Toussaint said. “We will let the authorities handle that, but we just know a higher power and a higher authority who can bring this thing to fruition.”
The state fire marshal was also at Mt. Pleasant’s service to update church members on the case while asking them to stay vigilant. He says arsons can take months to solve because most of the evidence is burned at the scene; but they’re determined to find who’s responsible.”
“When people say there’s been three fires are they connected? Obviously they’re connected,” Browning said. “Well tell me how they’re connected? We just can’t say that publicly. The beauty of the evidence that we know, only we know that and only the people responsible know that.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
It’s making national news – the tragedy of three historically African-American churches burned in the space of a few weeks.
But if someone was hoping to break the spirit of those churches, they failed. Because on Sunday morning, the people of those three churches were together and worshiping as usual. They were in different spaces, to be sure, but they were joyful and loud in their praise today.
“God is good. Even in this situation, all of Mount Pleasant is alive and well,” said the Rev. Gerald Toussaint, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. “The devil don’t realize what he’s done. Without this tragedy, Rev. Gerald wouldn’t have ever had a chance to preach to a nation. And if there ever was a time that this nation needed to hear the word of God? Oh, they done picked a bad time.”
Mt. Pleasant’s congregants joined Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church today, many dressed in white, all enthusiastic. Here’s our Facebook live from part of Mount Pleasant’s worship service this morning:
Each of the three churches has a temporary home. To read about that, click here. We will have more from the services later today on KATC TV-3.
Trump keeps current measures in place through April in attempt to slow spread of coronavirus; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.
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President Trump had a fiery exchange with CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta during the daily coronavirus briefing on Monday.
Acosta made a big splash in the Rose Garden when he attempted to grill the president for his rhetoric on the virus outbreak in the weeks leading up to the national crisis.
“What do you say to Americans who are upset with you over the way you downplayed this crisis?” Acosta asked. He referenced earlier quotes from the president, including when Trump said roughly a month ago, “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Acosta added, “What do you say to Americans who believe that you got this wrong?”
“Well, it will go away and I do want them to stay calm, and we are doing a great job,” Trump responded. “If you look at those individual statements, they’re all true. Stay calm, it will go away — you know that it is going away, and… we’re going to have a great victory. And, it’s people like you and CNN that say things like that — it’s why people just don’t want to listen to CNN anymore. You could ask a normal question.”
The president then defended his rhetoric, “The statements I’ve made are — I want to keep the country calm. I don’t want panic in the country. I can cause panic much better than even you. I would make you look like a minor-league player, but you know what? I don’t want to do that. I want to have our country be calm and strong and fight and win, and it will go away.”
Trump went on to praise his administration, the task force and private companies who have contributed to the ongoing battle with the virus, saying: “it’s almost a miracle — and it is,” how everything came together.
“And, instead of asking a nasty, snarky question like that, you should ask a real question,” Trump scolded the reporter before moving on to other questions.
Una nueva encuesta del Opinómetro, de Datexco, y que sólo consultó por el candidato presidencial Germán Vargas Lleras, arrojó que el 68,3 % de los encuestados no votaría por el aspirante en las elecciones a Presidencia en 2018.
De acuerdo con la nueva medición, contratada por W Radio y El Tiempo, sólo un 14,5 % votaría por Vargas Lleras y una proporción igual señaló que no sabía. La encuesta fue realizada este 18 de octubre, es decir, después de que Noticias Caracol publicara una extensa entrevista con el candidato en la emisión nocturna del pasado domingo, en la que el candidato lanzó críticas a la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz (JEP) y mostró su desacuerdos con varios puntos del acuerdo de paz firmado por entre el grupo guerrillero y el Gobierno.
Asimismo, se consultó a los colombianos sobre si creían que el exvicepresidente ganará las elecciones en 2018. El 50,6 % consideró que no lo hará, contra el 25,5 % que cree que será el ganador, un 20,8 % que no sabe y un 3,3 % que no responde. Por otra parte, la imagen favorable del jefe natural del partido Cambio Radical fue del 22,9 %. Un 53,3 % tiene una imagen desfavorable del candidato.
Esta última cifra va de la mano con los resultados a la pregunta sobre si le cree o no a Vargas Lleras. Allí, el 65,9 % dijo no creerle y un 17,7 % dijo que sí le cree.
La medición de Datexto deja ver que la mayoría de los encuestados (47,5 %) cree que habrá una alianza para la Presidencia entre Vargas Lleras y el senador Álvaro Uribe Vélez, jefe del partido Centro Democrático. Igualmente, un 38,6 % considera que Vargas Lleras no apoya el acuerdo de paz con las Farc y sólo el 10,5 % cree que lo pactado en La Habana tiene el apoyo total del exvicepresidente.
Para esta encuesta fueron consultadas 700 personas, a través de una “selección aleatoria de números telefónicos sobre series telefónicas RDD (Random Digital Dialing) en las regiones del alcance del estudio”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (second from right), Home Secretary Priti Patel (center) and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick (center front) attend the scene in central London on Saturday.
Steve Parsons/AP
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Steve Parsons/AP
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (second from right), Home Secretary Priti Patel (center) and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick (center front) attend the scene in central London on Saturday.
Steve Parsons/AP
Metropolitan Police in London have confirmed that 28-year-old Usman Khan was the attacker who killed two people and wounded three others with a knife on London Bridge Friday before police shot and killed him.
Khan had been living in the Staffordshire area, north of Birmingham, police said. They said Khan had been known to authorities in Britain, having been convicted in 2012 of “terrorism offenses.”
According to a 2012 article in The Guardian, Khan had been part of a nine-person plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and build a training camp for terrorists. Although he had originally been sentenced to prison for public protection — an indefinite term until a parole board decided he was no longer a threat — his sentence was revised in 2013 to 16 years with an eight-year minimum, The Guardian reported.
Police said they are not actively seeking any other individuals connected to Saturday’s attack and have confirmed that it was being investigated as a terrorist incident.
“[Khan] had been released a year ago on the provision that he had agreed to wear an electronic tag, submit to curfews and restrictions to his movements,” Lucy Fisher, defense editor of The Times in London, said in an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday morning. Khan had been released on license, Britain’s equivalent of parole, serving only eight years of his 16-year sentence.
“And it was while he was subject to these conditions that he performed this horrific attack yesterday,” Fisher said.
Police said they were called to Fishmonger’s Hall shortly before 2 p.m. local time, where Khan had attended a conference on criminal justice and prisoner rehabilitation, called “Learning Together,” run by the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology. Khan had been wearing a fake suicide vest, police said, adding that the attack started inside Fishmonger’s Hall. Khan stabbed “a number of people” inside the hall, police said, and The Timesreported that one of the two killed died inside the hall.
“I am devastated to learn that today’s hateful attack on London Bridge may have been targeted at staff, students and alumni,” University of Cambridge Vice Chancellor Stephen Toope said in a statement posted online.
Police said Khan then left the building and moved to London Bridge, where he continued his attack before being apprehended by bystanders, one armed with a narwhal tusk, another with a fire extinguisher. Videos of the attack posted online show Khan being sprayed by a fire extinguisher as another man jabs forward with the tusk.
As Khan is tackled to the ground, a third individual wrests the knife out of Khan’s hands and backs away, with police closing in with their guns out. They drag a bystander off Khan, then shoot and kill Khan. London Bridge and the surrounding area remain closed on Saturday, and police are asking anyone who was present at Fishmonger’s Hall to come forward with any information.
Amy Coop, a director who attended the Learning Together conference, tweeted that the tusk, 5 feet in length and one of a pair flanking the entrance doors, had been taken off the wall by a man who rushed out of Fishmonger’s Hall to follow Khan.
The Times reported that the tusk-wielder was a Polish man who had worked at Fishmonger’s Hall, “setting up events and managing porters.” The identity of the other individual with the fire extinguisher, or the origin of the extinguisher, is not known.
Those individuals who intervened to stop the attacker were lauded by both the public and British leadership, earning recognition from Queen Elizabeth II on down.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said on BBC Breakfast that the civilians who intervened had no idea whether the suicide vest was real.
“They ran towards him, to stop him from hurting other people. And I’m so proud, and we should all be really proud, of these people,” Khan said.
In an interview on Sky News, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that those individuals represent “the best of our country.”
Metropolitan Police Chief Cressida Dick echoed Johnson and Khan’s sentiments in an interview near London Bridge Saturday morning.
“It’s a terrible thing that people found themselves in that position, but as we saw the worst of humankind, we also saw the very best of human spirit and of London,” Dick said.
Friday’s attack reminded many of the 2017 London terrorist attacks. In March 2017, a car jumped the sidewalk on Westminster Bridge, killing five before the driver jumped out and stabbed a police officer to death. The driver was then shot and killed by another police officer.
In June 2017, a van plowed through pedestrians on London Bridge and crashed outside a pub on the south bank of the Thames, a short walk from Fishmonger’s Hall. The rampage continued as three attackers got out of the van, pursuing and stabbing people, killing eight and wounding 48. The attackers had also been wearing fake suicide vests and were killed by police. ISIS had claimed responsibility for the June attacks.
With the country’s general election scheduled on Dec. 12 a showdown between Johnson’s Conservative Party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, Britain’s leadership and justice system now grapple with the question: How was a convicted terrorist released from prison eight years early, and how was he able to carry out this attack with an ankle bracelet monitoring his movements?
“For the Conservatives, there will be questions for the home secretary about why, only three weeks ago, she reduced the terror threat in the U.K. from severe to substantial,” the Times‘ Fisher said, adding that cuts to police numbers could have had an impact on their surveillance of Khan.
And in the Labour Party, Corbyn has faced scrutiny over his vague stances on questions of national security, said Fisher. “This week, he was asked in an interview six times whether he would ever be prepared to give the order to kill a terrorist if that terrorist could not be safely apprehended,” she said. “Six times he refused to say if he would give that kill order.”
“In the minds of voters, there are questions about how secure the nation would be in his hands if he became prime minister,” Fisher said.
(CNN)A college student whose body was found in a field hours after she got into a vehicle she mistakenly thought was her Uber ride died from multiple sharp force injuries, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said Monday.
CNN’s Pierre Meilhan and Amir Vera contributed to this report
“U.S. allies remain up in arms about the U.S. announcing it is pulling out of Syria,” Griffin reported on Fox News chief anchor Shepard Smith’s newscast on Wednesday afternoon.
“A senior foreign diplomat tells Fox News, ‘This attack today is a direct result of the announcement made by President Trump that U.S. forces are pulling out. These troops had a bulls-eye on them when the president telegraphed that he was ordering a pullout’,” she added.
Griffin did not name the diplomat.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for an explosion that killed four Americans, including two troops, during what the U.S. military called “a routine patrol.”
The White House condemned what it called a “terrorist attack.”
“President Trump and I condemn the terrorist attack in Syria that claimed American lives and our hearts are with the loved ones of the fallen,” Vice President Pence said in a statement. “We honor their memory and we will never forget their service and sacrifice.”
The causalities included two U.S. service members, a defense contractor and a Defense Department civilian.
In a surprise move, President Trump tweeted on Dec. 19 that the U.S. would pull the approximately 2,000 troops stationed in Syria, saying ISIS had been defeated.
However, the U.S. has since gone slow with the pullout, with national security adviser John Bolton saying last week that there is no concrete timetable for withdrawal.
“There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters during a trip to Jerusalem. “The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement.”
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SANTA ROSA — Fierce winds drove across Sonoma County early Sunday morning, pushing the massive Kincade Fire further south into the wine region as authorities ordered thousands of additional residents to evacuate and get out of the path of the rapidly-moving wildfire.
By 7 a.m. Sunday, the fire had consumed 30,000 acres and was 10 percent contained — growing more than 4,000 acres overnight as firefighters struggled to control the flames. No injuries have been reported so far, though 79 structures were reported destroyed, including 31 homes, and 14 structures have been damaged. Officials say nearly 23,500 structures are considered to be threatened by the fire.
Peak wind gusts of 93 miles per hour were recorded at about 6 a.m. Sunday morning in the Healdsburg Hills north of the towns of Healdsburg and Windsor — aiding the expansion of the fire and igniting several spot fires as embers blew ahead of the primary blaze.
“It’s the strongest winds that we’ve seen in quite some time,” National Weather Service meteorologist Anna Schneider said. “And the fire has spread quite a bit overnight as a result of those winds.”
Bursts of winds up to 85 miles per hour were expected to keep blowing until mid-Sunday morning before briefly picking up again in the evening.
Flames sprang up on the west side of Highway 128 in the Alexander Valley, tearing through several storied wineries as violent winds whipped grapevines, signposts, and trees, filling the roadway with debris.
The tasting room and main building of the Soda Rock Winery caught fire around 3 a.m., and was fully engulfed by flames within an hour, filling the air with percussive booms as the fire ripped through the structure and blew out its windows.
“The wind has pushed the fire through the building,” said Rhett Pratt, a CalFire firefighter and spokesperson for the Kincade Fire. “Like any fire does when you blow on it, it increases in speed and intensity.”
Bracing for the vicious winds they predicted — accurately — would fuel the wildfire, Sonoma County officials had earlier urged residents in evacuation zones, stretching from the inland foothills to the coast, to leave their homes while there’s still time.
Map: For the latest fire and evacuation zone information in Sonoma County click here.
“We have a lot of work on our hands, and we’re not going door-to-door dragging people out,” Sheriff Mark Essick said at a Saturday evening news conference. “It truly is a selfish act to stay home.”
In all, more than 90,000 people have been ordered to evacuate from the fire zone, including an additional 39,000 people whose homes were put under mandatory evacuation Saturday night. The mandatory evacuation areas now include Dry Creek Valley including the upper portion of Westside Road and Mill Creek Road; Larkfield and the Mark West Drainage; and all areas west of Healdsburg and Windsor, throughout the Russian River Valley to Bodega Bay.
The evacuations were expanded again early Sunday to include most of Santa Rosa, as well as Sebastopol, Bloomfield and Valley Ford, and all areas west of Fulton Road, Llano Road, and Pepper Road to the Marin County line.
The area included the Coffey Park and Fountaingrove neighborhoods that were ravaged by the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
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Cal Fire analyst Steven Volmer said computer modeling predicted “dangerous rates of spread,” and “very high flame lengths.”
“We’re going to see those rates increase dramatically, and the fire behavior increase dramatically,” he said.
Cox added that fire lines have been dug as part of an “aggressive assault on the ground to build containment line for the anticipated wind event.”
Cal Fire division chief Jonathan Cox emphasized, as others have, that those who do not heed evacuation calls are endangering themselves and the first responders who will be dispatched to rescue them. He noted that even the more than 2,800 well-equipped firefighters will be significantly hampered by a blaze that may be whipped around by wind gusts of up to 80 mph.
“The fire intensity has the potential to overwhelm even the professionals,” Cox said.
In issuing evacuation warnings for Santa Rosa and other areas hard hit by the Tubbs Fire, Essick referred to what happened two years ago as a reason to take the warnings seriously:
“In October 2017, we lost 24 lives in Sonoma County because we didn’t have a warning. We now have a warning … You cannot fight this. Please evacuate. If you are under an evacuation order, you must leave.”
County supervisor David Rabbitt joined in the chorus.
“This event, unlike in 2017, we have had, and continue to have time,” he said. “Evacuations are not suggestions. If you are in the evacuation zone, you are in the path of danger.”
Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital began an orderly evacuation of patients in Santa Rosa Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. The hospital is in a mandatory evacuations area due to the Kincade Fire. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital began an orderly evacuation of patients in Santa Rosa Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. The hospital is in a mandatory evacuations area due to the Kincade Fire. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital began an orderly evacuation of patients in Santa Rosa Calif., on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019. The hospital is in a mandatory evacuations area due to the Kincade Fire. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Officials at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital heeded that call and were clearing out the facility Saturday night after the latest orders placed them at the edge of a mandatory evacuation zone. The hospital was forced to do the same two years ago with the Tubbs Fire bearing down.
Hospital spokesperson Shaun Ralston said 97 patients were being evacuated, including eight babies being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“They’re all relatively healthy,” Ralston said of the infants.
In a darkened cul-de-sac within line of sight of the hospital, 64-year-old Gary White was the last resident remaining at Mark West Village, a subdivision built a year ago in the wake of the Tubbs Fire. White considers himself the “unofficial” mayor of the development, and said he wanted to ensure his neighbors were evacuated safely before he headed out.
By 10 p.m. Saturday, that time had come, just as deputies were driving through, horns blaring, to get people to leave the area.
“It’s a pretty weird night,” White said. “I lived through the Tubbs Fire and I wanted to protect my neighbors.”
Not far from there, the Sheriff’s Office had been transporting inmates at its secondary jail, the North County Detention Facility south of Windsor, 90 miles south to Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
All inmates at the North County Detention Facility in Santa Rosa have been evacuated and are being safely housed in Alameda County.
Essick said everyone in Healdsburg and 95 percent in Windsor received evacuation notifications. All who could be seen in Healdsburg were local police patrolling the streets, buoyed by patrol units sent up from agencies including San Francisco and San Bruno.
The searing memory of the 2017 Wine Country Fires are interwoven with the efforts to move people out of the fire’s way.
“We are taking extreme precautions and making aggressive evacuation decisions based on the forecast. We are providing defense for communities that may be impacted,” Cox said. “It’s only successful if the public who are asked to evacuate leave the area.”
Pat Sherman, 68, and her husband Craig Allison, 67, who’ve lived in Windsor together for 20 years, arrived in the parking lot of the Petaluma Memorial Veterans Hall shelter Saturday afternoon, where they planned to stay during the evacuation.
The couple has three large dogs — Keith, Ronnie, and Cookie — and said they might sleep in the car Saturday night as the space for pets in the hall seemed limited. They tried unsuccessfully to rent a room at a motel in Santa Rosa, as a manager told them there was a two-dog limit. The couple evacuated as a precaution during the Tubbs Fire.
“Hoping it remains,” Allison said of his home. “I like to pre-visualize about pulling back into the driveway.”
“I could put on a happy face, it’s very easy,” Sherman said. “But when it comes down to it, I could lose my home, my memories of my parents, everybody. And you can’t bring that back.”
Check back later for updates to this story.
Staff writer Nico Savidge contributed to this report.
EVACUATION CENTERS FOR KINCADE FIRE
Santa Rosa Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Bldg., 1351 Maple Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds, 175 Fairgrounds Rd., Petaluma, CA 94952
Petaluma Veterans Center, 1094 Petaluma Blvd., Petaluma, CA 94952
Large Animal Evacuation site: Santa Rosa Fairgrounds
Nessel, in recent interviews, has said the evidence points toward a coordinated effort to convene GOP electors in multiple states Trump lost and have them declare themselves authentic electors for that state. She noted that the forms the electors used in different locations were nearly identical, from their wording to their fonts.
“It’s clear to me that this was not independent, rogue actors that were unknowingly doing the same thing as they had done in many other states,” she said.
The Hawaii factor
Republicans at the time emphasized that their decision to hold unsanctioned elector votes had a precedent. In 1960, three Democratic electors from Hawaii met to cast votes for John F. Kennedy, even though the election results showed that Richard Nixon had narrowly prevailed in the state. With a recount underway, those pro-Kennedy electors met to cast their votes anyway and submitted those results to Congress and the National Archives, the clearinghouse for elector certificates.
Hawaii’s recount ultimately reversed the outcome, showing Kennedy had won by fewer than 200 votes, and the state’s governor then certified the Democratic slate as well. On Jan. 6, 1961, the Democratic electors were the ones counted by Congress, with Nixon, then vice president, presiding.
Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward later pointed to that episode when describing her decision to deliver GOP electors to Congress in 2020.
In a statement this week, the Wisconsin GOP also pointed to Hawaii’s electors in 1960 — and emphasized that it had received legal advice to assemble GOP electors, in case Trump found a way to prevail.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers from some of the states where Republicans submitted false elector slates have also seized on the issue. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) wrote a letter Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to investigate the “attempted fraud” and vowed to introduce legislation that would create penalties for Electoral College-related deception.
La Justicia de Salto procesó con prisión por homicidio culposo al padre del futbolista uruguayo Edinson Cavani, quien mató a un joven de 19 años en un accidente de tránsito ocurrido en ese departamento.
El padre del jugador circulaba en su camioneta Ford Raptor -propiedad de Edinson Cavani- por la avenida Luis Batlle Berres casi Garibaldi, a dos kilómetros de la ciudad, cuando impactó con una moto que iba en el mismo sentido. El conductor de la moto fue trasladado al Hospital de Salto en estado grave, pero falleció horas después.
Madre de Cavani pidió “apoyo” para sus hijos
La madre de Edinson Cavani dijo hoy frente a la puerta de la sede judicial, donde declaró el padre del jugador celeste, que se tenga “prudencia” al momento de manejar la información y que “la gente hable lo necesario”.
Berta Gómez dijo a El País que “Edi no es culpable de esto. Le digo a los uruguayos y como madre que lo apoyen porque el estaba muy motivado para este partido”, en referencia al encuentro que Uruguay disputará mañana con Chile por la Copa América.
Las Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela controlaron este domingo una rebelión militar en la ciudad venezolana de Valencia que buscaba “restablecer el orden constitucional”, poco después de que se instalara un cuerpo legislativo con poderes especiales que ha sido criticado como una afrenta a la democracia.
En un video difundido en Internet en Venezuela durante la madrugada, un grupo de uniformados que dijo ser de la 41 Brigada Blindada en Valencia llamó a sus compañeros “a desconocer desde sus comandos militares y policiales a este régimen” y demandaron un gobierno de transición.
Un testigo confirmó a Reuters que cerca del lugar se escucharon disparos. Otros videos difundidos en Internet mostraron movimientos de blindados y unas decenas de civiles cerca cantando el himno nacional en apoyo.
El jefe del comando de operaciones militares del país petrolero, Remigio Ceballos, dijo en su cuenta de Twitter que se logró repeler “con éxito” lo que consideran se trató de un “ataque terrorista” y que siete personas fueron arrestadas.
Los detenidos estarían siendo interrogados y aportando datos sobre el grupo insurgente, agregó el militar.
Diosdado Cabello, el segundo hombre más poderoso del partido gobernante, había dicho minutos antes a través de Twitter que los uniformados habían logrado entrar al Fuerte Paramacay en Valencia, a unos 130 kilómetros al occidente de la capital. “Nuestra FANB actuando con máxima moral en defensa de su Honor, de la Paz, y de la Patria ha controlado la situación”, agregó Cabello asegurando que había “absoluta normalidad” en el resto de las unidades militares del país tras el despliegue de fuerzas.
El episodio se produjo horas después de que una criticada Asamblea Nacional Constituyente sesionara por primera vez, asumiendo poderes especiales sobre el resto de las instituciones del Estado.
El cuerpo encargado de redactar una nueva Constitución destituyó en su primer día de labores a la Fiscal General, Luisa Ortega, quien rompió con el gobierno de Nicolás Maduro, en medio de la ola de protestas antigubernamentales que lleva más de cuatro meses y ha dejado más de 120 muertos.
Decenas de países del mundo han criticado la asamblea constituyente promovida por Maduro, y la oposición, que asegura que con ese mecanismo el mandatario busca aferrarse al poder, dijo que seguirá protestando en las calles.
“Estos ataques, planeados por mentes delirantes en Miami, solo sirven para fortalecer la moral de nuestra fuerza armada y del pueblo bolivariano”, dijo el ministro Elías Jaua en su cuenta de Twitter. (I)
Ojo al santo que nos pasaron. Nos dijeron que la edición nocturna de Telenoticias la está viendo a palitos con la audiencia por culpa de la exitosa novela “Betty la fea”, que pasa canal 6 a las 6 p.m. La novela colombiana está dejando botada a la competencia cuando empiezan las noticias. Es decir, jala a más gente. Aunque a ninguna de las dos televisoras le gusta soltar números de la audiencia pensamos que, si está pasando lo que nos dijeron, bien podemos traer a cuento aquello de que “la suerte de la fea, en La Sabana se la desean”.
Mientras en Siria el arreglo del conflicto parece estar estancado, en Colombia, a pesar de todas las dificultades, las partes se mantienen fieles a lo acordado.
La suspensión del acuerdo sobre plutonio
El 3 de octubre, Rusia suspendió un acuerdo con Estados Unidos sobre la destrucción de plutonio de uso militar que firmaron en 2000. En el decreto que anuló el pacto, el presidente ruso, Vladímir Putin, alegó que su país había tomado esa decisión por “las acciones inamistosas de Washington” y “la incapacidad” de los estadounidenses de “cumplir con los compromisos asumidos sobre la destrucción del plutonio excesivo”.
Ambos países se habían puesto de acuerdo para destruir, al menos, 34 toneladas de ese elemento a partir de 2018. A la hora de comentar la decisión de Moscú el canciller ruso, Serguéi Lavrov, subrayó que se trata de “una medida forzosa” y que Rusia estará dispuesta a retomar el acuerdo si EE.UU. corrige su línea política.
La suspensión del diálogo entre Rusia y EE.UU. sobre Siria
Ese mismo lunes, el Departamento de Estado norteamericano había abandonado los canales bilaterales de comunicación con Rusia para establecer un alto el fuego en Siria.
El portavoz del Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, lamentó la retórica “poco constructiva” de EE.UU. y aseguró que “Moscú sigue interesada en cooperar con Washington”.
El 7 de octubre, Rusia decidió desplegar sus sistemas de defensa antiaérea S-300 en Siria después de conocerse una filtración que indicaba las intenciones de Estados Unidos de atacar los aeródromos del Ejército sirio. El portavoz del Ministerio de Defensa de Rusia, el general Ígor Konashénkov, aseguró que esos elementos están destinados a “garantizar la seguridad de la base naval rusa de Tartús y los buques ubicados en la zona costera” siria y añadió que se trata de “un sistema puramente defensivo” que “no representa una amenaza para nadie”.
El proceso de paz en Colombia tras el ‘No’ en el plebiscito
A pesar de los resultados del plebiscito del 2 de octubre, cuando el pueblo de Colombia rechazó el histórico acuerdo de paz entre el Gobierno y las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), ambas partes confirmaron su deseo de mantener el proceso.
El presidente del país sudamericano, Juan Manuel Santos expresó su disposición a abrir un nuevo diálogo nacional para terminar el conflicto armado de manera definitiva y, tras reunirse con el exmandatario colombiano y uno de los principales opositores del pacto, Álvaro Uribe, declaró que “tenemos que deponer nuestras rencillas y unirnos”. Ambos políticos indicaron su disposición a seguir trabajando juntos para paliar las discrepancias y lograr la paz.
El 7 de octubre, Santos fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de la Paz “por sus esfuerzos decididos en poner fin a la guerra civil que lleva más de 50 años” en el país.
El devastador huracán Matthew devasta el Caribe
El huracan Matthew, que se cobró las vidas de centenares de personas cuando recorrió el Caribe, continúa su trayecto mortal. El país más afectado fue Haití, en donde fuentes médicas indican que murieron, al menos 1.000 personas —aunque las autoridades del país aseguran que en realidad fueron 288— y otras 350.000 quedaron desamparadas.
Considerado como el ciclón más fuerte en la región de la última década, Matthew también causó graves daños materiales en la República Dominicana y devastó varias zonas del este de Cuba, dejando incomunicadas varias pequeñas localidades.
En su ruta hacia el norte, este huracán ha debilitado su poder, aunque el 7 de octubre llegó hasta Florida (EE.UU.) y dejó a un millón de personas sin electricidad. Posteriormente, alcanzó Carolina del Sur, donde se registraron lluvias intensas y fuertes vientos.
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley at his confirmation hearing in Austin. He addressed the backlash surrounding Texas’ efforts to find noncitizen voters on voter rolls.
Eric Gay/AP
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Eric Gay/AP
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley at his confirmation hearing in Austin. He addressed the backlash surrounding Texas’ efforts to find noncitizen voters on voter rolls.
Eric Gay/AP
A federal judge in Texas ruled that state officials “created a mess” when they questioned the citizenship ofabout 98,000 voters and mistakenly concluded that many of those voters were not eligible to cast ballots.
The sharply written ruling by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio ordered Texas officials to halt the removal of any registered voter from state voter rolls.
“The evidence has shown in a hearing before this Court that there is no widespread voter fraud,” Biery wrote.
In late January, Texas Secretary of State David Whitley issued an “advisory on voter registration list maintenance activity.” He claimed that nearly 95,000 noncitizens were registered to vote and said that about 58,000 had voted in one or more Texas elections. Whitley also said going forward his office would cross-reference data from the state Department of Public Safety and voter registration rolls. If a noncitizen is discovered, local county officials will be notified.
He also said that the suspect voters would be contacted and told that their registration status was under review.
Whitley’s action was met with immediate opposition. Civil rights groups said the list was largely made up of naturalized citizens who had applied for driver’s licenses or state IDs when they were still legal permanent residents.
As Ashley Lopez of member station KUT in Austin reported, state officials were forced to step back from their claim of possible fraud.
In a hearing Monday, Keith Ingram, director of elections in the Texas Secretary of State’s Office testified that more than 25,000 people on the list are in fact citizens.
In his ruling, Judge Biery said that the search for illegal voters “appears to be a solution looking for a problem.”
“Notwithstanding good intentions, the road to a solution was inherently paved with flawed results, meaning perfectly legal naturalized Americans were burdened with what the Court finds to be ham-handed and threatening correspondence from the state which did not politely ask for information but rather exemplifies the power of government to strike fear and anxiety and to intimidate the least powerful among us,” the judge wrote.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a statement, said the federal judge was “improperly assuming control” over the state’s voting system.
“While we appreciate the court’s acknowledgment that the Secretary of State took his actions in good faith, no state official violated any applicable law and there is no need for a federal court takeover of state activities,” Paxton wrote. “We are weighing our options to address this ruling and to continue making our case that ineligible voters should not vote and counties are free to continue to follow the law and keep their voter rolls clean.”
Biery ruled that Texas county election officials may still investigate the whether a registered voter is not a citizen, but they may not contact them directly through notices.
Civil rights groups applauded the ruling.
“Today’s court order plainly indicates that the state of Texas must clean up its act,” said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in a statement. “Over-the-top pronouncements of widespread voter fraud without a shred of evidence only serve to broadly deter voter participation. Sending ominous letters to intimidate individual voters based on information known to be incomplete and faulty directly threatens democracy.”
Marzo estuvo marcado por noticias como: la salida de Carmen de Aristegui de MVS, la Convención Bancaria 2015, el accidente aéreo de Germanwings en Francia, la muerte del Hijo del Perro Aguayo, la compra de RadioShack por parte de Gigante, entre otras.
A continuación, el listado de las noticias más relevantes de marzo del 2015:
Carmen Aristegui y Noticias MVS finalizaron sus relaciones laborales el 15 de marzo.
El despido de Aristegui sucedió después de que la periodista informara el 10 de marzo, en su noticiero, que Noticias MVS participaría con MéxicoLeaks, una plataforma digital para recibir información que permita la denuncia de actos de corrupción por parte de las autoridades.
Noticias MVS acusó a Carmen Aristegui, y a su equipo, de “abuso de confianza” por utilizar la marca Noticias MVS en MéxicoLeaks sin el consentimiento de la empresa.
La mayoría de los usuarios de las redes sociales respaldaron a Carmen Aristegui y acusaron a MVS de censura.
En entrevista con Proceso, se le preguntó a Aristegui si ese “territorio” implica participación del Gobierno. “Tenemos derecho a la suspicacia”, dijo Aristegui y recalcó que no tiene algún documento que avale una declaración. “Uno tiene que revisar qué es lo que está pasando entorno de esta familia y de esta empresa”.
Infografilia: El impacto del caso Aristegui – MVS en las redes Ver infografía.
Ante una nueva realidad presupuestal, la Secretaría de Hacienda informó a través del documento de Pre-Criterios 2015 entregado al Congreso de la Unión, que para el 2016 se hará un ajuste de gasto adicional por 135,000 millones de pesos con la finalidad de mantener el compromiso con la trayectoria de déficit decreciente.
SHCP recortará a 135,000 mdp el presupuesto en 2016 Ver nota.
“Los Pre-Criterios de este año se presentan bajo un entorno externo complejo que tiene repercusiones sobre las finanzas públicas. Destaca la caída en el precio del petróleo y la mayor volatilidad de los mercados financieros internacionales asociada a la alza en las tasas de interés de Estados Unidos”, refirió la dependencia.
De acuerdo con el documento de Pre-Criterios 2015, la SHCP modificó el precio del petróleo para este año de 79 dólares por barril (que se aprobó en la Ley de Ingresos de la Federación del 2015) a 50 dólares por barril.
La 78 Convención Bancaria fue organizada por la Asociación de Bancos de México (ABM) y llevó a cabo el 19 y 20 de marzo en Acapulco, Guerrero.
Luis Robles Miaja, presidente de ABM, hizo un balance de cómo se encuentra el sector. Apuntó que el crédito lleva 13 años con crecimiento de 3.7 veces respecto al PIB; hay una expansión sana y dinámica con atención a los diferentes sectores de la economía, y un sistema bien capitalizado. Todo ello, dijo, en medio de un entorno de estabilidad macroeconómica.
La banca vive su mejor momento en 100 años Ver nota.
La industria aérea mundial ha tenido 15 meses complicados. En el 2014, se registraron 990 muertes relacionadas a accidentes aéreos y, al 25 de marzo del 2015, suman 236 decesos, según la agencia Aviation Safety Network.
¿Cuál es la probabilidad de morir en un accidente aéreo? Ver nota.
La Oficina francesa de Investigación de Accidentes Aéreos anunció que su investigación sobre las causas del accidente del Airbus A320 de Germanwings se centrará en la tesis del suicidio para que se tomen recomendaciones preventivas. El copiloto del Airbus A320, sospechoso de haber estrellado voluntariamente el avión contra una montaña en el sudeste de Francia, había seguido tratamientos por tendencias suicidas en el pasado, de acuerdo a información de la justicia alemana.
El Auditorio Municipal de Tijuana fue el escenario donde luchó por última vez el líder de los “Perros del mal”, quien tenía una contienda de rutina que al final le costó la vida.
Como parte de su estrategia de crecimiento, Grupo Gigante, a través de su subsidiaria Office Depot, anunció este viernes 27 de marzo la compra de las 251 tiendas de RadioShack en México, por 31.8 millones de dólares, menos 20 millones del pago de pasivos a favor de la tienda de productos electrónicos.
Grupo Gigante acuerda compra de RadioShack Ver nota.
Las 251 tiendas adquiridas generaron ventas por 1,747 millones de pesos al cierre del 2014. La transacción será cubierta con el flujo operativo de Office Depot de México, por lo que no se incrementa su nivel de deuda.
La adquisición está sujeta a la autorización por parte de la Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica y la confirmación “Sale Order” de la Corte de Quiebras en Delaware.
La mancuerna de 3G Capital y Berkshire Hathaway lo hizo otra vez: el capital del poderoso grupo de Warren Buffett y la habilidad para administrar negocios del equipo de Jorge Paulo Lemann volvieron a unir fuerzas para sumar una nueva compañía al portafolio. La joya se creará a partir de la fusión de Heinz, que Lemman y Buffett adquirieron en el 2013, y la emblemática Kraft Foods, en una operación valorada en 40,000 millones de dólares.
Kraft Foods y Heinz informaron en un comunicado de su acuerdo para fusionar ambas compañías y crear el tercer grupo de alimentos y bebidas de Estados Unidos, sólo debajo de PepsiCo Inc. y Nestle SA, y el quinto a escala mundial, con ventas anuales de unos 28,000 millones de dólares.
En las últimas tres semanas se logró liquidar a 4,000 trabajadores de la naviera Oceanografía, sin embargo la empresa tiene una deuda de 14,394 millones de pesos, informó el director general del SAE, Héctor Orozco Fernández.
Oceanografía adeuda 14,394 millones de pesos: SAE Ver nota.
A la fecha existen 204 acreedores reconocidos con 245 créditos y el adeudo reconocido es de 14,394 millones de pesos, y que las medidas cautelares dictaminadas por el gobierno federal a través del SAE han dado certidumbre a los acreedores, quienes pueden acudir al concurso mercantil.
Hace tres años era el titular de octava fortuna más grande el mundo. Hoy, Eike Batista es un hombre con un ingreso de cinco millones de dólares anuales. En marzo del 2012, su fortuna estaba valuada en 34,500 millones de dólares. Lo que tiene hoy sin duda lo pone en la parte superior de la pirámide de ingresos en Brasil, pero es menos, mucho menos de lo que sumaba en el apogeo de su carrera empresarial. Y el objetivo era preciso: convertirse en el hombre más rico del planeta.
En esta entrevista con Valor Económico, Batista reconoció algunos de los errores que cometió, expresó resentimientos y advirtió que pronto estará de vuelta con nuevos negocios. En la categoría de errores, dijo que lamenta haber invertido en el petróleo después de pasar dos décadas en el negocio de la minería de oro y el mineral de hierro, donde, aseguró, él salió con 1,000 millones de dólares a finales de 1990.
Los familiares de los 43 estudiantes mexicanos desaparecidos en septiembre siguen en pie de lucha al cumplirse este jueves 26 de marzo seis meses del terrible crimen, con nuevas protestas en Ciudad de México para exigir que no se cierre la investigación.
Padres de normalistas claman por evitar el olvido Ver nota.
Sin dar crédito a la conclusión oficial de que los estudiantes acabaron siendo masacrados por narcotraficantes, los padres exigen al gobierno que los encuentre con vida y claman para que el paso del tiempo no lleve a olvidar este crimen que conmocionó a México y la comunidad internacional.
La venta de su participación de 45% en el proyecto de ductos Los Ramones II a los fondos de inversión BlackRock y First Reserve por 900 millones de dólares liberará recursos a Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) para invertir en lo que mejor sabe hacer y que le deja más dinero: explorar y producir hidrocarburos, dijo José Manuel Carrera, director general de Pemex Comercio Internacional (PMI).
Pemex, Black Rock y First Reserve anunciaron la transacción, enfatizando que se trata de la primera inversión extranjera privada en un activo en proceso de Pemex ya sobre la vigencia del nuevo marco legal del sector energético luego de su reforma constitucional, promulgada en diciembre del 2013, y que permite este tipo de transacciones.
Pemex se retira de ductos para concentrarse en crudo Ver nota.
El gigante de las telecomunicaciones español Telefónica ha llegado a un “acuerdo definitivo” para la venta del operador británico O2 a la compañía hongkonesa Hutchison Whampoa por 10,250 millones de libras esterlinas, “aproximadamente 14,000 millones de euros”, informó la entidad española.
Telefónica vende O2 a Hutchison por 14,000 mde Ver nota.
El operador estadounidense de televisión por cable Charter Communications Inc anunció que comprará su rival Bright House Networks en un acuerdo en efectivo y acciones valorado en 10,400 millones de dólares, mediante el cual buscará principalmente expandirse en el estado de Florida.
“I stand my ground. If I had to take that vote again, I would vote to uphold my oath of office. And, if the party is to censure me because they felt that I needed to support the party, they can make that statement, but I will make the statement again that my obligation is to support the Constitution that I have pledged to uphold, and I will do that, even if it means I have to oppose the direction of my state party.”
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