Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.
(CNN)In May 2017, Samantha went to a book burning in upstate New York. She had entered the inner circle of the modern white power movement called the alt-right, and it was the moment its activists see in retrospect as the peak of its power.
“)),c=l(y[i.size_id].split(“x”).map(function(e){return Number(e)}),2),s.width=c[0],s.height=c[1]),s.rubiconTargeting=(Array.isArray(i.targeting)?i.targeting:[]).reduce(function(e,t){return e[t.key]=t.values[0],e},{rpfl_elemid:f.adUnitCode}),t.push(s)):r.logError(“Rubicon: bidRequest undefined at index position:”.concat(o),n,e),t},[]).sort(function(e,t){return(t.cpm||0)-(e.cpm||0)})},getUserSyncs:function(e,t,n,r){if(!D&&e.iframeEnabled){var i=””;return n&&”string”==typeof n.consentString&&(“boolean”==typeof n.gdprApplies?i+=”?gdpr=”.concat(Number(n.gdprApplies),”&gdpr_consent=”).concat(n.consentString):i+=”?gdpr_consent=”.concat(n.consentString)),r&&(i+=””.concat(i?”&”:”?”,”us_privacy=”).concat(encodeURIComponent(r))),D=!0,{type:”iframe”,url:”https://”.concat(b.syncHost||”eus”,”.rubiconproject.com/usync.html”)+i}}},transformBidParams:function(e){return r.convertTypes({accountId:”number”,siteId:”number”,zoneId:”number”},e)}};function h(e,t){var n=o.b.getConfig(“pageUrl”);n=e.params.referrer?e.params.referrer:n||t.refererInfo.referer;return e.params.secure?n.replace(/^http:/i,”https:”):n}function _(e,t){var n=e.params;if(“video”===t){var i=[];return n.video&&n.video.playerWidth&&n.video.playerHeight?i=[n.video.playerWidth,n.video.playerHeight]:Array.isArray(r.deepAccess(e,”mediaTypes.video.playerSize”))&&1===e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length?i=e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0]:Array.isArray(e.sizes)&&0e.length)&&(t=e.length);for(var n=0,r=new Array(t);n’;var i,o}},h=function(e){var t=0=e&&t.innerWidthe.length)&&(t=e.length);for(var n=0,r=new Array(t);ne.length)&&(t=e.length);for(var n=0,r=new Array(t);n=e.length?{done:!0}:{done:!1,value:e[r++]}},e:function(e){throw e},f:i}}throw new TypeError(“Invalid attempt to iterate non-iterable instance.\nIn order to be iterable, non-array objects must have a [Symbol.iterator]() method.”)}var o,a=!0,s=!1;return{s:function(){n=e[Symbol.iterator]()},n:function(){var e=n.next();return a=e.done,e},e:function(e){s=!0,o=e},f:function(){try{a||null==n.return||n.return()}finally{if(s)throw o}}}}(o);try{for(u.s();!(a=u.n()).done;){var f=a.value;01e3*e.config.storage.refreshInSeconds),!i||s||r||null!=(d=n)&&d!==B(t)?o=e.submodule.getId(e.config,t,i):”function”==typeof e.submodule.extendId&&(o=e.submodule.extendId(e.config,t,i)),c.isPlainObject(o)&&(o.id&&(U(e,o.id),i=o.id),”function”==typeof o.callback&&(e.callback=o.callback)),i&&(e.idObj=e.submodule.decode(i,e.config))):e.config.value?e.idObj=e.config.value:(u=e.submodule.getId(e.config,t,void 0),c.isPlainObject(u)&&(“function”==typeof u.callback&&(e.callback=u.callback),u.id&&(e.idObj=e.submodule.decode(u.id,e.config))))}function Y(){var e,t,n,r=(e=D,t=j,Array.isArray(e)?e.reduce(function(e,n){return!n||c.isEmptyStr(n.name)||(!n.storage||c.isEmptyStr(n.storage.type)||c.isEmptyStr(n.storage.name)||-1===t.indexOf(n.storage.type))&&!c.isPlainObject(n.value)&&(n.storage||n.value)||e.push(n),e},[]):[]);r.length&&(n=k.filter(function(e){return!i()(P,function(t){return t.name===e.name})}),P=n.map(function(e){var t=i()(r,function(t){return t.name===e.name});return e.findRootDomain=z,t?{submodule:e,config:t,callback:void 0,idObj:void 0}:null}).filter(function(e){return null!==e}),!x&&P.length&&(Object(u.a)().requestBids.before(G,40),c.logInfo(“”.concat(S,” – usersync config updated for “).concat(P.length,” submodules: “),P.map(function(e){return e.submodule.name})),x=!0))}function $(e){i()(k,function(t){return t.name===e.name})||(k.push(e),Y())}function X(e){P=[],x=!(D=[]),y=void 0,-1!==(j=[w.localStorageIsEnabled()?O:null,w.cookiesAreEnabled()?A:null].filter(function(e){return null!==e})).indexOf(A)&&w.getCookie(C)?c.logInfo(“”.concat(S,” – opt-out cookie found, exit module”)):-1!==j.indexOf(O)&&w.getDataFromLocalStorage(C)?c.logInfo(“”.concat(S,” – opt-out localStorage found, exit module”)):(e.getConfig(function(e){var t=e.userSync;t&&t.userIds&&(D=t.userIds,h=c.isNumber(t.syncDelay)?t.syncDelay:I,_=c.isNumber(t.auctionDelay)?t.auctionDelay:E,Y())}),Object(u.a)().getUserIds=V,Object(u.a)().getUserIdsAsEids=K,Object(u.a)().refreshUserIds=H)}X(o.b),Object(p.c)(“userId”,$)}},[894]),pbjs.processQueue();
}, {}];
window.modules[“visibility.legacy”] = [function(require,module,exports){“use strict”;DS.service(“$visibility”,[“$document”,”$window”,”_throttle”,”Eventify”,function(e,t,n,i){var o,r,h=[];function s(e,t){return et?e:t}function d(e,t,n){!e.preload&&e.preloadThreshhold&&function(e,t,n,i){return t.top=e.shownThreshold&&!e.seen?(e.seen=!0,setTimeout(function(){e.trigger(“shown”,new r(“shown”,t))},15)):(!n||i1&&(h+=e(r,Math.floor(n/o),i-1,o)),h},this.getVerticallyVisiblePixels=f,this.getViewportHeight=function(){return t.innerHeight||e.documentElement.clientHeight||e.body.clientHeight},this.getViewportWidth=function(){return t.innerWidth||e.documentElement.clientWidth||e.body.clientWidth},this.isElementNotHidden=u,this.isElementInViewport=function(n){var i=n.getBoundingClientRect();return i.top>=0&&i.left>=0&&i.bottom= o.length) return { done: true }; return { done: false, value: o[i++] }; }, e: function e(_e) { throw _e; }, f: F }; } throw new TypeError(“Invalid attempt to iterate non-iterable instance.\nIn order to be iterable, non-array objects must have a [Symbol.iterator]() method.”); } var normalCompletion = true, didErr = false, err; return { s: function s() { it = o[Symbol.iterator](); }, n: function n() { var step = it.next(); normalCompletion = step.done; return step; }, e: function e(_e2) { didErr = true; err = _e2; }, f: function f() { try { if (!normalCompletion && it.return != null) it.return(); } finally { if (didErr) throw err; } } }; }
function _unsupportedIterableToArray(o, minLen) { if (!o) return; if (typeof o === “string”) return _arrayLikeToArray(o, minLen); var n = Object.prototype.toString.call(o).slice(8, -1); if (n === “Object” && o.constructor) n = o.constructor.name; if (n === “Map” || n === “Set”) return Array.from(o); if (n === “Arguments” || /^(?:Ui|I)nt(?:8|16|32)(?:Clamped)?Array$/.test(n)) return _arrayLikeToArray(o, minLen); }
function _arrayLikeToArray(arr, len) { if (len == null || len > arr.length) len = arr.length; for (var i = 0, arr2 = new Array(len); i
La moneda estadounidense por primera vez en la historia del país rompió la barrera de los $3.300 y llegó a un precio máximo de $3.324. Aunque después se devolvió un poco y en el mercado cambiario terminó con una cotización promedio de $3.287, lo cierto es que estos niveles lanzan un campanazo de alerta sobre la economía colombiana, y es un mensaje negativo en momentos en que comienza la negociación del salario mínimo.
Las últimas horas han sido una pesadilla para Falabella en las redes sociales. Desde Twitter y Facebook se publican fotografías donde se evidencia que los productos que se venden en esa cadena de retail fueron re-etiquetados con precios más altos justo cuando se anunciaban jornadas de promociones, como los ‘madrugones’.
Los usuarios han manifestado su descontento.
3) Arranca discusión del salario mínimo: centrales piden aumento del 10 %
Este lunes se dio inicio a los encuentros entre empresarios y trabajadores, representados por las centrales obreras, en los que buscarán -como cada año- ponerse de acuerdo para saber en cuánto se incrementará el salario mínimo para el 2016. Centrales piden aumento del 10 %.
4) La oposición dice que logra mayoría cualificada
El portavoz de la oposición venezolana, Jesús Torrealba, dijo que la coalición Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD) logró una mayoría de dos tercios en la Asamblea Nacional en las elecciones legislativas del domingo. Eso podría allanar el camino para que la oposición pueda realizar grandes cambios legislativos.
En un corto comunicado la guerrilla de las FARC confirmó este lunes que tiene en su poder al soldado bachiller Jesús Rojas Delgado. La misiva divulgada en la página del proceso de paz de ese grupo insurgente confirma que el oficial adscrito a la compañía Santander, del batallón Juanambú con sede en Florencia (Caquetá), fue secuestrado por miembros de las FARC.
Image caption
Spicer ha tenido duros enfrentamientos con los periodistas y algunos momentos de humor.
Su trabajo es similar al de un malabarista.
Cada día Sean Spicer tiene que hacer equilibrios para mantener una relación llevadera con la prensa, al mismo tiempo que defiende las posiciones del presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, quien tiene una abierta confrontación con los medios de ese país.
El nuevo portavoz de la Casa Blanca tuvo su primer cara a cara con los periodistas apenas unas pocas horas después de haber asumido el cargo, cuando intentó desmentir la información sobre la menor asistencia de público a la toma de posesión de Trump en comparación con la del presidente Barack Obama en 2009.
Spicer acusó a los medios de mentir de forma deliberada y de tomar fotografías desde un ángulo escogido para minimizar la magnitud del apoyo que los ciudadanos dieron a Trump ese día.
Desde ese primer encuentro con la prensa en la Casa Blanca, los choques de Spicer con los medios no han cesado, pero, de alguna manera, esta tensa relación parece haber sido mutuamente beneficiosa: los medios y la Casa Blanca han despertado el interés de la audiencia.
Telenovela presidencial
Cuando cada día pasado el mediodía, Spicer aparece en la sala de prensa de la Casa Blanca aumentan las cifras de audiencia de las cadenas de noticias que transmiten su comparecencia en vivo.
Las ruedas de prensa del portavoz gubernamental compiten en número de televidentes con programas que transmite la televisión estadounidense en horario estelar como “MasterChef Junior“, que suma unos 4 millones de televidentes, y con populares telenovelas como “Hospital General”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Cada día millones de espectadores encienden sus televisores para ver lo que ocurre en la sala de prensa de la Casa Blanca.
De acuerdo con los estudios más recientes, las comparecencias de Spicer transmitidas en directo por los principales canales de noticias han alcanzado a 4,3 millones de espectadores.
La audiencia de cadenas como CNN, Fox News o MSNBC crece 10% en promedio cada vez que el portavoz de la Casa Blanca aparece en pantalla para intentar explicar las últimas decisiones del gobierno de Trump, según datos de Nielsen, una empresa especializada en medición de audiencias de medios, obtenidos por BBC Mundo.
“Lo que ocurre es que hay mucho interés en las cosas que está haciendo el presidente Trump e, incluso, en las que no está haciendo”, dijo Donald Wright, profesor de Comunicación de la Universidad de Boston, en una entrevista con BBC Mundo.
“Desde que era candidato ha habido mucho interés en él, no sólo por parte de sus seguidores sino además de quienes no le apoyan que ven esto para saber cuál es su nueva jugada”, agregó.
Consultado sobre si cree que este nivel de interés en las actividades de la Casa Blanca puede mantenerse en el tiempo, el experto señaló que eso dependerá de varios factores, incluyendo cuánta cobertura están dispuestos a darle los medios de comunicación.
“En las escuelas de periodismo se dice que si un perro muerde a una persona no es noticia, pero si una persona muerde a un perro, entonces, es distinto y se cubre. Hay muchas situaciones en las que lo que hace Trump es tan distinto de lo que han hecho los presidentes anteriores que los medios le van a seguir dando cobertura”, vaticinó Wright.
Nace una celebridad
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
La parodia que hace la humorista Melissa McCarthy de Sean Spicer ha tenido muy buena acogida entre la audiencia.
Pero, Spicer también se ha convertido en una suerte de celebridad.
Su consagración como figura mediática llegó hace poco, cuando la comediante Melissa McCarthy comenzó a parodiarle en el mítico programa de la televisión estadounidense Saturday Night Live (SNL).
A Spicer no parece haberle gustado mucho que le convirtieran en un personaje de SNL y, consultado por la prensa al respecto, dijo que SNL “solía ser divertido”, pero se había convertido en “infame”.
Pese a su disgusto, el personaje de McCarthy ha resultado ser inmensamente popular entre la audiencia de SNL. De hecho, el programa del pasado 11 de febrero, en el que McCarthy hizo su segunda parodia de Spicer tuvo los niveles de audiencia más altos de los últimos cinco años, según informó la web especializada The Hollywood Reporter.
“McCarthy no es divertida en su papel de Spicer por ser mujer. Es divertida como Spicer porque ella tiene una carrera representando personajes agresivos que con frecuencia están molestos sin ninguna razón“, escribió Anna North en una crítica del programa en The New York Times.
“Cuando ella levanta su podio para atacar a los reporteros, queda claro que nació para representar al portavoz de un gobierno que ya se ha definido por los estallidos de ira”, agregó.
Un hombre de confianza
Spicer es considerado como un aliado cercano del jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Reince Priebus, con quien trabajó en el Comité Nacional Republicano (RNC, por sus siglas en inglés).
Priebus era presidente del RNC, mientras Spicer era director de comunicaciones.
Durante la campaña para las elecciones primarias, Spicer sirvió de vínculo entre el partido y los precandidatos presidenciales.
Sus esfuerzos parecen haber rendido frutos.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Spicer es considerado un aliado de Reince Priebus, el nuevo jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca.
Más allá del cargo de portavoz, Spicer también ha sido designado temporalmente como director de comunicaciones de la Casa Blanca, un cargo que implica otras responsabilidades y que usualmente ocupa alguien distinto al portavoz.
Según la prensa estadounidense, la Casa Blanca ha tenido dificultades para hallar a alguien adecuado para esa otra tarea.
Que mientras tanto lo hayan puesto en manos de Spicer ha sido interpretado como una muestra de la confianza que el nuevo gobierno tiene en sus capacidades.
En todo caso, Spicer puede estar tranquilo, si su carrera política llega a descarrilar, ya puede contar con un plan b en el mundo de la televisión.
A 4-year-old with an underlying medical condition is the first child in New Jersey to die from complications related to the coronavirus, state officials announced Friday.
“We’ve lost another blessed life,” Murphy said. “In this case, it’s unfathomable it’s a 4-year-old.”
State officials declined to reveal further information about the victim, including sex and residence. They also would not reveal which underlying medical condition the child had.
“In order to protect privacy of the child, will not release further details,” state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.
The child was one of 162 new coronavirus-related deaths New Jersey officials announced Friday, bringing the statewide total to at 8,952 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the nine weeks since the outbreak began.
The news comes days after 15 New York City children were reported to have contracted Kawasaki disease, an inflammatory illness possibly associated to COVID-19. Health officials said Thursday that at least 12 New Jersey hospitals have treated children with the rare disease.
It is unknown whether the victim announced Friday had the disease.
“I think we’ve said all we’re gonna say about the blessed 4-year-old we’ve lost,” Murphy said when asked.
Children contracting the coronavirus at all is rare. Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data suggested last month that children represent only 2% of all U.S. and their symptoms tend to be milder than those found in adults. COVID-19 cases and as of its April 10 Morbidity and Mortality report — the CDC’s most recent discussion on the topic — it noted only three people under the age of 18 had died from complications from the virus in the U.S.
Prior to the child’s death, the age breakdown for New Jersey’s fatal coronavirus cases has been:
29 victims ages 18 to 29
330 victims ages 30 to 49
1,155 victims ages 50 to 64
2,369 victims ages 65 to 79
3,340 victims ages 80 and older
More than half of the victims with a known medical history have had an underlying condition, including at 58% with cardiovascular disease, according to the state’s COVID-19 tracking website.
New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, has reported at least 135,454 total coronavirus since the outbreak began March 4. That includes another 1,985 positive tests that state officials announced Friday. Only New York has more total deaths and cases among American states.
Meanwhile, coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the Garden State continue to decrease from a peak in mid-April, from more than 8,000 to 4,764 as of 10 p.m. Thursday.
“The data from our hospitals continue to move in the right direction — down,” Murphy said during Friday’s briefing. “But we also cannot overstate enough that even while we are pleased with this progress, our hospital systems are dealing with far more patients than they would be otherwise in any other year, and the stress on our health care system, while certainly lessening, is still there. Only we have the power to push these numbers down further.”
The Garden State’s economy has also suffered during the outbreak, with more than 1 million residents having filed for unemployment since social distancing and business closings began in late March. Meanwhile, businesses has suffered untold revenue losses.
Despite pressure from some lawmakers, businesses, and residents, Murphy has said the state can’t rush reopening because that would risk cases, deaths, and hospitalizations rising again.
The governor has formed a commission to plot a strategy but has not given a definitive timeline. He has said the state must meet conditions for a broader reopening — including cases and hospitalizations dropping for 14 straight days, as well as officials expanding testing and installing contact tracing and isolations programs.
But Murphy has allowed parks and golf courses to reopen in New Jersey, with social-distancing restrictions. And with Memorial Day less than three weeks away, he said he may soon allow beaches to reopen, with similar guidelines.
Murphy also said he may allow nonessential construction and elective surgeries to resume, while also allowing some nonessential businesses to offer curbside service.
Jake Patterson receives maximum sentence for murder, kidnapping
Jake Patterson was sentenced in court at the Barron County Justice Center Friday afternoon.
A Judge sentenced Jake Patterson to two life sentences for the murders of James and Denise Closs, without the eligibility of parole and the maximum penalty of 40 years for the kidnapping of Jayme.
Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pled guilty in March to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. He admitted to abducting Jayme after killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, in October.
Jayme was held captive in a remote cabin for 88 days before she escaped.
The Closs family share post-sentencing comments:
Court documents indicate that Patterson said he saw Closs getting on a school bus while working at the Saputo Cheese Factory south of Almena.
“The defendant stated when he saw [Closs], he knew that was the girl he was going to take,” the complaint said.
Patterson said he had never met Jayme through any social media sites and only learned her name and her parents names after the abduction and they got back to his house, according to the complaint.
Patterson told police he drove to the Closs’ home twice with the intent to kidnap Jayme, but cars in the driveway and lights on in the house scared him off, according to the complaint.
On the third attempt, he stole the license plates off a vehicle parked in the yard so his license plates wouldn’t be on his car, officials said. He also disconnected his dome light and trunk light so no one could see him or pull the trunk release cord from inside.
Patterson took his father’s 12-gauge shotgun because he researched it and determined it was one of the most heavily manufactured or owned shotguns and assumed it would be more difficult to trace, according to the complaint.
Patterson also told officials he wiped down the shotgun shells while wearing gloves and cleaned and wiped down the shotgun while wearing gloves so there were not fingerprints or DNA on either of them, according to the complaint. He said he did that to make sure there would be no fingerprints or DNA on the shotgun.
Patterson also said he shaved his face and head so he would not leave any DNA or hair at the house, officials said.
Investigators say the 21-year-old man broke into James and Denise Closs’ home near Barron, Wisconsin on Oct. 15 by blowing the front door open with a shotgun. Jayme’s parents were shot to death and the teenager vanished the same day.
Jayme told officials she was asleep the night of the attack, and when her dog started barking early in the morning she got up to see why, according to the release. Jayme said she noticed someone driving up their driveway and she went to wake her parents up.
Jayme said Patterson was dressed in black from head to toe, including a face mask, hat and gloves, according to the complaint. Patterson then taped Jayme’s hands and ankles together and he dragged her out to his car.
Patterson had Jayme take off all of her clothes when they got to the house and made a comment about not having any evidence, according to the complaint.
Patterson made Closs stay under his bed to hide the fact that she was there, according to the complaint. She said he stacked totes and laundry bins around the bed with weights stacked against them so she could not move them. He would also turn music on so she couldn’t hear anything else that was happening. Patterson made her stay under his bed for up to 12 hours at a time — including when his father would visit — with no food, water or bathroom breaks, according to the complaint.
Closs was able to move the boxes to escape the home last week.
Investigators say when Patterson was found driving the day Closs escaped, he told them he knew what the stop was about.
“I did it,” Patterson allegedly said.
Patterson said he determined he was going to take Closs that night and was going to kill anyone in the house because he couldn’t leave any eye witnesses behind, according to the release. Patterson said if he had been stopped by police that night, he most likely would have shot at them.
Patterson estimated he had been at the Closs home for only about four minutes total.
Get your weather forecast from people that actually live in your community. We update with short, easy-to-use video forecasts you can watch on your phone every day. Download the iOS or Android app here.
Media captionThe moment Venezuelan troops crashed through border into Colombia
Soldiers from the Venezuelan national guard have left their posts ahead of an opposition-led effort to bring aid into the country, Colombia’s migration agency said.
In a separate development, Venezuelan troops have fired tear gas at people looking to cross into Colombia to work.
Tensions have been rising over a row about the delivery of humanitarian aid.
President Nicolás Maduro said the border with Colombia is partly closed to stop aid being delivered.
But self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó has vowed that hundreds of thousands of volunteers will help bring in the aid deliveries, which include food and medicine, on Saturday.
The first delivery of aid has already entered Venezuela through Brazil, Mr Guaidó tweeted.
The delivery of aid to the stricken country has proven to be a key area of contention between the two men who see themselves as Venezuela’s leader.
Pictures show protesters burning outposts and throwing rocks at soldiers and riot police in border areas.
Mr Guaidó was seen at the Tienditas bridge on the Colombian side of the border, where he was accompanied by the country’s president, Iván Duque.
Mr Guaidó told reporters that humanitarian aid was on its way to Venezuela, in a “peaceful manner.”
“Welcome to the right side of history”, he told soldiers who had abandoned their posts, adding that soldiers who joined them would be guaranteed “amnesty.”
Media captionVenezuela-Colombia border turns violent
Three soldiers abandoned their post at this bridge by crossing into Colombia, while another did so at the Paula Santander International Bridge in Ureña, in south-west Venezuela.
“We want to work!” people chanted as they faced riot police at the Ureña border bridge.
Activists there were joined by 300 members of the “Women in White” opposition group who marched in defiance of Mr Maduro’s attempts to close the border.
Earlier on Saturday, two people were killed by Venezuelan forces near the border with Brazil.
A military outpost near the Venezuela-Brazil border has been taken over by a militia loyal to President Maduro, according to VPI TV.
“Why are you serving a dictator?”
Guillermo Olmo, BBC Mundo, Ureña, Venezuela
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
A demonstrator kneels before security forces in Ureña
It’s been a difficult day here on the Venezuelan side.
We found locals getting angry because they found the border was closed – these people normally make a living across the border. Then it turned ugly in Ureña.
We witnessed protesters lunging to break one of the barriers but the National Guard started firing tear gas and pellets.
People were shouting at the National Guard asking them why, in their words, they were serving a dictator and not serving their own people.
We had to run away to avoid being hurt but there is still a lot of tension in the air, with a heavy military presence everywhere.
How did we get to this point?
Humanitarian aid has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing standoff between Mr Maduro and Mr Guaidó.
Mr Guaidó, who is the leader of the country’s opposition-dominated National Assembly, last month declared himself the country’s interim leader.
He has since won the backing of dozens of nations, including the US. He has called the rule of President Nicolás Maduro constitutionally illegitimate, claiming that Mr Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was marred by voting irregularities.
Please upgrade your browser to view this content.
Share this chatbot.
Venezuela is in the grip of a political and economic crisis. The country’s inflation rate has seen prices soar, leaving many Venezuelans struggling to afford basic items such as food, toiletries and medicine.
Mr Guaidó insists that citizens badly need help, while Mr Maduro says allowing aid to enter is part of a ploy by the US to invade the country.
About 2.7 million people have fled the country since 2015.
Media captionBattle of the concerts held on either side of the Venezuela-Colombia border
Image caption
Los asistentes a un concierto al aire libre huyeron del lugar al escuchar disparos de un arma automática.
Un hombre abrió fuego la noche del domingo (22:08 hora local, 05:08 GMT) contra los asistentes a un concierto al aire libre en Las Vegas, Nevada, lo que dejó al menos 58 muertos y más de 500 heridos.
El tiroteo es el más mortal en la historia reciente de Estados Unidos.
Las primeras investigaciones indican que un hombre identificado como Stephen Paddock, de 64 años, comenzó a disparar desde el piso 32 del hotel Mandalay Bay.
El hotel está casi enfrente de un espacio abierto en donde se llevaba a cabo un concierto de música country al que asistían unas 22.000 de personas.
Videos del momento en que inició el tiroteo mostraban a miles de personas tratando de huir en todas direcciones mientras se escuchan ráfagas de disparos.
Paddock se suicidó después de abrir fuego, según la policía.
Image caption
Las autoridades divulgaron una fotografía de Stephen Paddock, a quien identificaron como el hombre que abrió fuego en Las Vegas.
El autodenominado Estado Islámico se reivindicó el atentado sin ofrecer pruebas: “El atacante de Las Vegas se convirtió al Islam hace unos meses”, dijo el grupo en un comunicado.
Sin embargo, el Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI, por sus siglas en inglés), dijo que no había encontrado relación entre Paddock y organizaciones extremistas.
“Hasta este momento hemos determinado que no hay conexión con alguna organización terrorista internacional“, dijo a la prensa el agente Aaron Rouseel.
El alguacil Joe Lombardo dijo que la policía cree que se trata de un ataque del tipo “lobo solitario” y que no tenían información sobre los motivos de Paddock.
Una mujer que se pensaba estaba viajando con el sospechoso antes del ataque, Marilou Danley, ya fue localizada fuera de Estados Unidos y hasta ahora no se cree que haya tenido algún papel en el ataque.
Lombardo también añadió que Paddock utilizó documentos de identidad de Danley para registrarse en el hotel Mandalay Bay.
El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, dijo en una mensaje pronunciado desde la Casa Blanca que el país vive “tristeza, shock y dolor” por el ataque en Las Vegas,
“Fue un acto de pura maldad. El FBI y el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional están trabajando de cerca con las autoridades locales para ayudarlas en las investigaciones”, señaló el presidente.
Derechos de autor de la imagen David Becker/Getty Images
Image caption
Stephen Paddock comenzó a disparar desde el 32º piso del Hotel Mandalay Bay.
Trump anunció que las banderas de EE.UU. ondearán a media asta en recuerdo a las víctimas, y anunció que visitará Las Vegas el miércoles.
“Nuestra unidad no puede ser destruida por el mal. Nuestros lazos no pueden romperse con la violencia. Y aunque nos sentimos tan enojados por el asesinato sin sentido de nuestros conciudadanos, nuestro amor es el que nos define hoy y siempre”, dijo Trump.
El gobernador de Nevada, Brian Sandoval, calificó el atentado como un “acto cobarde y despreciable”.
¿Cómo se desarrolló el ataque?
El tiroteo empezó a las 22:08 hora local (05:08 GMT), según un comunicado de la policía.
Paddock llegó de Mesquite, a unos 100 km al noreste de Las Vegas, a hospedarse en hotel desde el 28 de septiembre.
El pánico del público ante la ráfaga de disparos que dejó al menos 58 muertos en Las Vegas
Videos en las redes sociales muestran a cientos de personas huyendo del lugar, y se pueden oír ráfagas de fuego de armas automáticas.
Los testigos afirman que escucharon cientos de tiros.
George French viajó a Las Vegas para el concierto y estaba cerca del escenario cuando escuchó los disparos: “Todo el mundo se agachó, menos yo, pero luego vi a la gente cayendo, así que me agaché también. Fuimos llevados a un lugar seguro”, relató a la BBC.
Testimonio del tiroteo de Las Vegas que dejó más de 58 muertos
Mike Thompson, originario de Londres, dijo a la BBC que vio a la gente corriendo en pánico total.
“Un hombre tenía sangre por todos lados y fue entonces cuando supe que algo estaba muy mal”, explicó Thompson.
Hubo informes de otros incidentes en distintos sitios de la sección conocida como The Strip, una de las avenidas más emblemáticas de la ciudad donde están los grandes casinos y hoteles, pero la policía dijo que fueron falsos.
La policía de Mesquite registró la propiedad de Paddock y encontró varias armas. Las autoridades no tienen registros de que el hombre haya tenido conductas delictivas en esa localidad en el pasado.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Varios oficiales de policía fuertemente armados acudieron a la escena de los hechos.
Un “gran arsenal”
Las autoridades encontraron un “gran arsenal“, incluyendo 10 rifles, en la habitación del atacante, informó James Cook, enviado especial de la BBC a Las Vegas.
El hermano de Paddock, quien vive en Orlando, dijo a la cadena CNN que está “completamente atónito” por el tiroteo.
“No podemos entender lo que pasó… No es un hombre fanático de las armas en absoluto. El hecho de que tuviera ese tipo de armas…. ¿dónde diablos consiguió armas automáticas?”, dijo Eric Paddock.
“No tiene antecedentes militares ni nada por el estilo. Es sólo un tipo que vivía en una casa en Mesquite y viajaba a jugar en Las Vegas”, declaró.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Los asistentes a un festival de country huyen de la escena del tiroteo.
Varios hoteles en The Strip cercanos a la escena del tiroteo fueron cerrados y partes de la avenida principal de la ciudad fueron acordonada por la policía.
Se informó que muchas personas buscaron refugio en hoteles, restaurantes y en el Aeropuerto Internacional McCarran de Las Vegas.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Policías fuera del hotel Mandalay Bay.
Algunos vuelos de la terminal internacional fueron cancelados cuando se conoció la noticia del incidente.
El festival de música country comenzó el viernes en varios hoteles de Las Vegas Strip.
El cantante Jason Aldean, quien fue retirado del escenario cuando comenzó el tiroteo, escribió en su cuenta de Instagram: “Esta noche fue más que horripilante“.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
El festival de música country se celebraba al aire libre.
Nevada tiene una de las leyes sobre armas más laxas de Estados Unidos.
Los usuarios pueden portar un arma y no tienen que estar registrados como propietarios de una.
El estado no prohíbe los rifles de asalto, que son armas de fuego automáticas o semiautomáticas, y no hay límites para comprar munición.
Las verificaciones de antecedentes se hacen cuando la gente compra armas, pero también se les permite venderlas de manera privada.
WASHINGTON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested Thursday to face a U.S. charge that he conspired to hack military computers after Ecuador’s government ended his seven years of self-imposed exile and expelled him from its London embassy.
Assange, 47, was arrested by authorities in the United Kingdom to be extradited to the United States.
In an indictment revealed Thursday morning, U.S. authorities alleged that Assange conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal and publish huge troves of classified documents. Prosecutors said Assange at one point tried to help Manning crack a password to access military computers where the secret information was stored.
Over four months in 2010, Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of secret reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as State Department cables and information about detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Manning turned the records over to WikiLeaks, which passed them to journalists and published them on the internet.
Prosecutors said it was one of the most extensive leaks of classified secrets in U.S. history.
Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The charge, delivered by a federal grand jury in March 2018 but kept secret until Thursday, carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Barry Pollack, a U.S. lawyer for Assange, criticized the arrest and said Assange would need medical treatment that had been denied for seven years.
“It is bitterly disappointing that a country would allow someone to whom it has extended citizenship and asylum to be arrested in its embassy,” Pollack said.” Once his health care needs have been addressed, the UK courts will need to resolve what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.”
Assange had sheltered in Ecuador’s embassy since seeking asylum there in 2012. London’s Metropolitan Police moved in after Ecuador formally withdrew its asylum for Assange, an Australian native, and subsequently revoked his Ecuadorian citizenship. Plainclothes officers escorted him from the embassy on Thursday.
A British court ruled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange guilty of breaching his bail conditions.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Assange’s arrest shows “no one is above the law.”
The arrest followed months of carefully orchestrated diplomatic maneuvering by the Ecuadorian government that had long soured on its relationship with Assange. In a videotaped statement, Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno said his country’s patience for his behavior “has reached its limit,” citing bizarre behavior inside the embassy and violating the country’s demand that he stop interfering in the affairs of other governments.
Moreno described it as a “sovereign decision” due to “repeated violations to international conventions and daily life.”
He was taken into custody on a 2012 warrant for jumping bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations. The Swedish accusations have since been dropped but he was still wanted for the bail violation. The Justice Department said it was seeking his extradition to the United States.
The U.S. charges center on his interactions with Manning. Prosecutors said Assange encouraged her to leak classified secrets to the anti-secrecy group, and tried to help her crack a password to Defense Department computers that stored classified secrets. That would have allowed Manning to log on to the computer network with someone else’s username.
The indictment said investigators obtained messages between the two in which Manning provided Assange “part of a password” on March 8, 2010. Two days later, Assange asked for more information about the password, and indicated that he had been trying to crack the password but so far had not succeeded.
Prosecutors said Assange also encouraged Manning to look for more classified information to disclose. On March 7, 2010, Manning and Assange discussed the Guantanamo records, according to the indictment. Manning told Assange the next day that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left” the indictment said. Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience,” the indictment said.
Separately, he has been under scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks’ role in publishing government secrets.
WikiLeaks, the transparency group that he founded, was also front and center of the 2016 presidential election for leaking emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly praised the organization, saying numerous times at rallies, “I love WikiLeaks.”
Federal prosecutors have said the emails were stolen by hackers working for Russia’s military intelligence service, which gave them to WikiLeaks as part of an effort to sway the presidential election in Trump’s favor. The charges revealed Thursday are unrelated to that effort.
Moreno, the Ecuadorian president, did not specifically confirm that Assange would be extradited to the United States, saying only that he “will not be extradited to a country where he could suffer torture or the death penalty. ” He said the British government confirmed that in writing.
In a list of grievances, Moreno said Assange had installed prohibited electronic equipment in the embassy, blocked security cameras and even “accessed the security files of our embassy without permission.” He said Assange also had “confronted and mistreated the diplomatic guards.”
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters Thursday that the arrest shows that “no one is above the law.”
“Julian Assange is no hero,” he said. Hunt said the operation came after “years of careful diplomacy” and praised Moreno for his “very courageous decision.”
“It’s not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorian Embassy,” Hunt said, “it’s actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorian Embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them.”
Assange took refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over rape allegations. Assange, an Australian national, chose to remain in the embassy out of fear that the United States would immediately seek his arrest and extradition over the leaking of classified documents to WikiLeaks by Manning.
Wikileaks said in a Thursday tweet that “Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanize, delegitimize and imprison him.”
Assange, who was granted Ecuadorian citizenship last year in an apparent effort to designate him a diplomat and allow him to go to Russia, sued Ecuador for violating his rights as an Ecuadorian.
He pressed his case in local and international tribunals on human-rights ground, but both ruled against him.
In 2011, the leftist Ecuadorian government that initially offered asylum to Assange had been embroiled in a diplomatic row with the United States involving a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable. U.S. ambassador to Ecuador Heather Hodges was expelled after WikiLeaks leaked the document that alleged widespread corruption within the Ecuadorian police force, the BBC reported.
Assange first got a taste of tapping into unauthorized material when he became a hacker in 1987. Four years later he was convicted of hacking into the master terminal of Nortel, a Canadian multinational telecommunications corporation, The New Yorker reported.
In 2006, Assange established WikiLeaks as a site for publishing classified information and within a decade had posted more than 10 million documents often embarrassing to governments.
While gaining the backing of some world figures, including leaders of Brazil and Ecuador, he gained international notoriety after publishing information in 2010, which was leaked by a self-described whistleblower inside the U.S. Army, Bradley Manning, a transgender woman who later became known as Chelsea Manning. Manning spent nearly 7 years in prison for leaking classified and sensitive military and diplomatic documents.
Contributing: William Cummings, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
Rare earth minerals are a common part of people’s lives — and their futures.
If you have a smartphone or computer, own a flat-screen TV, drive a hybrid car or use a myriad of other high-tech devices, you’ll no doubt come into contact with these elements — mined from the earth’s crust and supplied predominantly by China — countless times a day.
But they are also used in obscure but powerful ways that ensure some of the biggest companies in the world can keep churning out those products.
Now, rare earths have become a bargaining chip in the expanding trade war between China and the United States, which escalated after the Trump administration placed Huawei, the world’s largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, on a blacklist that imposed some restrictions on trading with American companies.
The importance of China’s rare earths to U.S. industries is one of many examples of how the two countries’ tech industries have grown intertwined over the years — and why the escalating tension has experts concerned about the long-term impact of an economic decoupling.
Rare earth minerals are a crucial component of products that cut across the U.S. economy, not only in the tech sector but in the energy industry as a catalyst for oil refineries and in wind turbines, and in the automobile industry for manufacturing electric vehicle motors.
Despite their name, rare earths aren’t all that rare. The U.S. Geological Survey describes them as a “relatively abundant group” of 17 chemical elements. What makes them unusual, however, is that they’re difficult to extract in high concentrations from the ground.
The elements’ names, which include cerium, promethium, scandium, might sound like something out of science fiction, but each one can be used for a variety of purposes — from making magnets, batteries and lights, to glass production and the cooling of nuclear rods.
The U.S. military also depends on rare earths for the construction of equipment used in satellites, lasers, jet engines, radar and sonar systems, and other sophisticated machinery.
Samples of rare earth minerals, from left, cerium oxide, bastnasite, neodymium oxide and lanthanum carbonate, are on display at Molycorp’s Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in Mountain Pass, California.David Becker / Reuters file
It wasn’t always that way. From the 1960s to the ’80s, the U.S. was the global leader in rare earth mineral production based out of a mine in California, which later closed.
But China quickly gained ground in the ’90s, and is home to more than 30 percent of the world’s rare earth reserves. By 2017, China accounted for roughly 80 percent of the world’s rare earth production, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Other countries, including India, Brazil and Australia, share a smaller output.
The U.S. imported about $160 million worth of basic rare earth materials last year, mainly from China.
In 2010, Japan accused the Chinese government of purposefully halting its supply of rare earth minerals — seen as retaliation after Japan detained a Chinese fishing trawler captain who was found in waters under dispute by the two nations.
Japan counted on the rare earths for a number of uses, including the production of its hybrid cars, solar-panel glass and battery packs. Major manufacturers such as Toyota and Panasonic were disrupted by the blockade, according to reports.
The diplomatic dispute highlighted how much other countries have counted on China and how it remains a dominant and integral player in many industrial supply chains.
The U.S., Japan and Europe complained in 2010 that limits imposed on rare earth and metals exports were driving up prices and gave Chinese companies an unfair competitive edge.
In 2014, the World Trade Organization ruled that China could not impose export limits, which Beijing said was only being done to ease pollution caused by mining and to conserve its resources, Reuters reported.
China’s President Xi Jinping may have tipped his hand last week when he toured a region of China that calls itself a “rare earths kingdom.”
The visit, which some analysts saw as a show of force of China’s dominance in the rare earths arena, set off concerns that Beijing may be pushing back against Washington’s tariffs on Chinese imports by choosing to ban exports of the minerals.
Hu Xijin, the editor of The Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, followed up in a tweet that the Chinese government was “seriously evaluating” the need to halt rare earth exports.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, has been less forthcoming about what message was being sent.
Large American companies, including Lockheed Martin and Apple, have products that rely on rare earths.
In the case of Apple, its iPhones — the majority of which are made at a Foxconn factory in China — use the metals for its cameras, speakers and other key parts. While it’s unclear what a rare earths ban might mean for the tech giant, analysts have expressed anxiety that it could disrupt production and affect prices.
Other American manufacturers also have production in China, while other U.S.-based companies import products, such as magnets, that already incorporate the rare earth elements.
Erik Ortiz
Erik Ortiz is an NBC News staff writer focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
For Florida, just a handful of miles may make a huge difference in Hurricane Dorian’s slow dance with the coast.
The National Hurricane Center forecasts Dorian to be 40 to 50 miles off the Florida coast on Tuesday and Wednesday, with hurricane-force wind speeds extending about 35 miles to the west.
But that’s just one point that forecasters have to choose to place the monstrous storm that packed 185 mph winds on Sunday. It could be within 100 miles of that point, which is why the hurricane center uses — and emphasizes — a shaded cone of uncertainty.
And much of the Florida coast is inside that cone.
“This thing is perilously close to the state. I think we should all hope and pray for the best, but we have to prepare that this could have major impacts on the state of Florida,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “If you look at the National Hurricane Center’s current track, I think it ends up within 30 miles of the coast of Florida. Well guess what? You do just a touch of a bump one way or another, and you have a dramatic difference all of a sudden.”
President Donald Trump, left, listens as Kenneth Graham, director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, on screen, gives an update during a briefing about Hurricane Dorian at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, in Washington, at right of Trump is Acting Administrator Pete Gaynor, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and Neil Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Up Next
See Gallery
Center Director Ken Graham is telling residents don’t bet on safety just because his office specific forecast track has the storm just a bit offshore.
“The cone is so important,” Graham said.
And making matters more touch-and-go is that with every new forecast, “we keep nudging (Dorian’s track) a little bit to the left,” which is closer to the Florida coast, he said.
Dorian is a powerful but small hurricane with hurricane-force winds Sunday only extending 29 miles to the west, but they are expecting to grow a bit. That makes forecasting the storm’s path along the coast — either just off the coast, skirting it or moving inland with a direct hit — delicate and difficult. Just a few miles west or east makes the difference between devastation and bad but not horrible damage, meteorologists said.
“Where it doesn’t directly hit, it’s not going to be a huge problem,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
With a big, sloppy hurricane — say 50% larger in size — all of Florida would be under a serious threat, but that’s not the case, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.
This is what makes this a nightmare for forecasters, McNoldy said.
It’s a combination of the small size, close-in track, like Matthew in 2016, and weak steering currents. That means just a smidge of a movement days ahead of time, while Dorian is in the Bahamas, can reverberate and mean a direct hit or not, said private meteorologist Ryan Maue.
That can happen just because of the timing of when Dorian’s eyewall collapses and is replaced, which happens normally in storms.
Adding to that problem is Dorian’s slow, almost snail-like pace. What initially looked like a Labor Day storm for the U.S. is now approaching Tuesday and Wednesday.
“People are getting impatient with this,” McNoldy said. Because the threat seems to keep sticking around, it could be a problem getting the right message across, he said.
Klotzbach said he thinks the U.S. East Coast will get “scraped,” but Dorian will stay just offshore, something Maue agrees with.
Maue warns, however, that two days of high waves and heavy storm surge — the hurricane center is predicting 4 to 7 feet from West Palm Beach north to Cocoa Beach area — could severely damage Florida’s beaches.
Residents along Florida’s coast are relieved that the forecast, for now, doesn’t have Dorian making landfall in Florida, but are still preparing for the worst.
Kevin Browning in Vero Beach has put up hurricane shutters, bought a generator and is stocked with supplies.
“I’m thanking God, now, that it’s turned a little bit towards the east, but that’s a forecast, and we never know. I’m just praying and trying to make sure that everybody’s safe. I feel for the Bahamas and I’m praying for them, and I thank God it’s not coming directly to us right now.”
___
Associated Press writers Gerald Herbert in Vero Beach, Florida, and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed.
Voters wait in line to cast their ballot at an early voting location in Fairfax, Virginia on September 18, 2020. Growing tensions in the country have some election officials worried about potential violence at polling places.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Voters wait in line to cast their ballot at an early voting location in Fairfax, Virginia on September 18, 2020. Growing tensions in the country have some election officials worried about potential violence at polling places.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Concern is growing over potential confrontations at polling places due to deep partisan divides and baseless claims by President Trump that Democrats will “steal” the election.
In Tuesday night’s debate with Democrat Joe Biden, Trump repeated his attacks on widespread mail-in voting, calling it a “disaster” and saying “this is not going to end well.”
The president also urged his supporters, as he has done before, “to go into the polls and watch very carefully.”
The concerns about potential polling place violence come at a time of immense stress for election officials, who are contending with how to run an election during a pandemic while also trying to reassure voters that the democratic process remains fair and transparent even amid the president’s increasingly strident rhetoric about voting.
The recent appearance of chanting Trump supporters outside an early voting site in Fairfax County, Virginia, has also raised alarms.
Voters were not blocked from voting at the site, but some said they felt intimidated by people who waved campaign signs and shouted, “Four more years.” This followed the arrival of a noisy caravan of Trump supporters on motorcycles in a nearby parking lot.
The incident led Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, to issue an opinion noting that there are federal and state laws prohibiting voter intimidation.
“Voting is a fundamental right. It is the foundation of our democracy, and no Virginian should ever feel for their safety or feel intimidated when they exercise their right to vote,” he said.
Herring said it was unclear, however, if any laws were broken in the Fairfax case, in part because the Trump supporters stayed more than the required 40-foot distance from the polls.
Still, the incident was a sign of how fraught this year’s elections have become. Republicans say people overreacted and no one should have felt intimidated. But Democrats point to Trump’s comments and to a recent militant-sounding appeal from his son, Donald Trump Jr., for supporters to protect the integrity of the election.
“We need every able-bodied man, woman to join Army for Trump’s election security operation at defendyour ballot.com,” Trump Jr. said in a video posted online. “We need you to help us watch them. Not just on Election Day, but also during early voting and at the counting boards. President Trump is going to win. Don’t let them steal it.”
The Republican National Committee announced months ago that it planned to recruit as many as 50,000 people to serve as poll watchers this year. RNC Chief Counsel Justin Riemer told NPR that their main jobs would be to monitor voting for irregularities that might be used as evidence in later legal challenges, and to help with get-out-the-vote efforts.
“The Democrats would say that we are there to suppress the vote. That is absolutely not the case. I can assure you that that is not why we have volunteers and attorneys participating in this process,” Riemer said.
Most states allow political parties and campaigns to appoint people to sit inside polling sites to monitor voting. But there are specific rules governing what they can and can’t do. Generally, if a poll watcher has a concern or wants to challenge a voter’s qualifications, they’re required to bring the issue up with the chief on-site election official. They are strictly prohibited from interfering with or directly approaching voters.
It’s the self-appointed poll watchers — those who might show up at the polls unannounced — that have some people more worried. President Trump added to those concerns Tuesday when he complained that his supporters were prevented from monitoring an early-voting site in Philadelphia, calling it a sign of “corruption.”
Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said he’s also worried about what might happen if some of those who come to the polls are armed. He noted the increased presence of armed militia at protests and political rallies around the country.
“We’re not trying to cause panic or anything like that. All we’re asking is that local election officials and state officials do what they can in the remaining month to best protect their polling places and the integrity of the elections,” he said.
His group, along with Guns Down America, issued a report noting that few states have laws expressly prohibiting guns at polling sites. Although some prohibit them at schools and county buildings that often serve as polling locations.
The gun control groups recommended that state and local governments tighten such laws and, at the very least, train poll workers on how to respond if a problem does arise.
Most election officials try to de-escalate potential conflicts first. In Fairfax County, they asked the Trump supporters to move back and not block voters’ access, and Republicans said they complied. In more serious cases, officials might call in the police.
All the talk of trouble at the polls could have a negative effect on turnout, worries Kristen Clarke, who’s president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Her group runs Election Protection, a national network of lawyers on call to help voters with any problems they encounter.
Clarke notes that past threats by Trump and others to send armies of supporters to watch the polls never materialized.
“This is a pattern and practice that we have seen throughout the years, these wild exaggerations and bold proclamations that often fall flat in the end, but are intended to have a particular effect, intended to discourage or deter people from voting,” she said.
Clarke doesn’t think voters should be overly worried, but prepared instead to report problems if they do occur.
Image caption
Las naciones occidentales comienzan a mostrar signos de preocupación.
El autodenominado Estado Islámico (EI) se está expandiendo, pero no en Siria ni Irak, donde está siendo atacado por la coalición internacional encabezada por Estados Unidos y la fuerza aérea rusa.
Su expansión está ocurriendo en Libia.
Cinco años después de que Muamar Gadafi fuera derrocado, Libia está sumida en el caos.
Y cada vez hay más pruebas de que EI se está aprovechando de esta anarquía para ampliar su base de poder, cada vez más cerca de Europa.
El grupo yihadista está usando al país como una zona estratégica para reclutar a combatientes que, por ahora, no pueden llegar a Siria.
Los aliados occidentales comienzan a mostrar signos de preocupación.
Libia, que cuenta con importantes reservas petroleras, no sólo está sumida en una cruenta lucha en la que varios grupos armados, incluido EI, se disputan el poder.
Image caption
Libia está sumido en el caos, sin un gobierno de unidad nacional desde 2011.
En el país hay dos gobiernos y varias autoridades rigiendo diversas partes del territorio. Y los esfuerzos para unificarlos hasta ahora han sido infructuosos.
“Libia no tiene instituciones efectivas”, dijo este miércoles Martin Kobler, el representante especial de la ONU en la nación norafricana.
“Este vacío político y militar está permitiendo que grupos terroristas y redes criminales establezcan raíces profundas”, declaró ante el Consejo de Seguridad.
Kobler indicó que EI se ha aprovechado de esta situación y se está expandiendo hacia el occidente, oriente y sur del país.
“Da’esh (Estado Islámico) en Libia constituye una amenaza urgente y creciente para el país, la región y más allá” declaró.
Image caption
Ninguno de los “ejércitos” tiene poder suficiente para enfrentar a EI.
En febrero, las naciones que están combatiendo a EI en Siria e Irak se reunieron en Roma para discutir cómo evitar que el grupo extremista amplíe su dominio en Libia.
En la conferencia de 23 países, el secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, John Kerry, declaró que “lo último que se quiere es un falso califato con acceso a miles de millones de dólares en ingresos de petróleo”.
Dijo que tanto EE.UU. como sus aliados europeos y árabes deben incrementar el entrenamiento y ayuda militar para Libia “no sólo para despejar el territorio, sino también para crear un ambiente seguro para que el gobierno se ponga de pie y opere”.
Reclutas extranjeros
Se cree que el grupo extremista ha estado activo en Libia durante más de un año.
Image caption
Hay dos gobiernos, uno que controla Trípoli y otro que mantiene un frágil control en el oeste del país.
Washington calcula que el grupo tiene unos 6.000 combatientes en ese país, principalmente extranjeros.
El grupo extremista ya tomó control de la ciudad norteña de Sirte, en la costa del Mediterráneo, y estableció su base allí.
Se informa que en esta ciudad hay unos 1.500 combatientes que están imponiendo su propia ley, códigos de conducta y vestimenta, segregación en los colegios y el establecimiento de una “policía religiosa”.
También han tomado control de la estación de radio estatal, desde donde transmiten discursos de los líderes religiosos de EI.
Además, han estado avanzando hacia los yacimientos petroleros en Sidra y Ras Lanuf, que son una atractiva fuente de ingresos para los yihadistas.
La semana pasada surgieron informes de que Estado Islámico mató a 17 personas, decapitando a varias de ellas, en lo que se dice son castigos comunes en su nueva base de Sirte.
Refugio seguro
Ismail Shukri, jefe de inteligencia en la cercana ciudad de Misrata, le dijo a la BBC que en meses recientes ha habido un influjo de combatientes extranjeros a Sirte.
“El 70% de los combatientes que controlan Sirte son extranjeros, la mayoría tunecinos”, dijo Shukri.
“También hay iraquíes y sirios. Los iraquíes provienen de los ejércitos disueltos de Sadam Hussein”.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Las fuerzas pro Congreso General de la Nación de Libia en Sirte intentan combatir a EI en esa ciudad.
Según el funcionario, entre ellos están varios altos comandantes de EI que se trasladaron desde Irak y Siria.
“Esto ha sido una consecuencia inevitable de la presión que se ha ejercido sobre Siria e Irak. Muchos de los miembros, especialmente figuras de alta jerarquía que han servido mucho tiempo, se han refugiado aquí”.
“Para ellos Libia es un lugar seguro“, señala Ismail Shukri.
Se piensa también que EI está recibiendo apoyo de otros grupos extremistas en la región.
En febrero pasado el general de brigada Donald Bolduc, comandante de operaciones especiales del Comando África del ejército de EE.UU., sorprendió a muchos cuando dijo que Estado Islámico estaba colaborando “estrechamente” en Libia con Al Qaeda en el Maghreb Islámico (AQMI), su antiguo enemigo.
“Hemos observado cómo se ha manifestado esa colaboración”, dijo el militar en una conferencia de prensa en Senegal.
“Sabemos que en Libia (Al Qaeda en el Maghreb Islámico (AQMI) y Estado Islámico) están colaborando más estrechamente que nunca” declaró.
“Es más que sólo una influencia. AQMI realmente está siguiendo las instrucciones de ellos (EI)“.
Ayuda internacional
Las tropas del gobierno reconocido internacionalmente, conocido como Cámara de Representantes y que sólo mantiene un frágil control en la región oriental de Cyrenaica, están mal equipadas, mal entrenadas y están combatiendo a una variedad de grupos yihadistas en las principales ciudades del país.
Image copyright getty
Image caption
Libia está sumida en el caos desde el derrocamiento de Gadafi hace cinco años.
También se enfrentan a las “fuerzas armadas” del Congreso General de la Nación (CGN) -una alianza pro islamista- que formó su propio gobierno, se instaló en el Parlamento y mantiene control de la capital Trípoli.
Mohammed al Bayoudi, comandante del Batallón 166 -una agrupación pro CGN- le dijo a la BBC que sin ayuda internacional, será imposible derrotar a EI.
“Ciertamente aceptaríamos el apoyo de la OTAN. Pero las incursiones aéreas no serán suficientes para derrotar a EI. Lo que el ejército necesita es apoyo logístico“, dijo.
Estados Unidos ha reconocido que en meses recientes ha enviado pequeños grupos de fuerzas especiales al país.
También ha habido informes de que Francia ha enviado asesores.
Pero la posibilidad de una participación militar internacional en Libia es un asunto sumamente polémico.
Durante la conferencia en Roma ninguna de las partes de la coalición se mostró resuelta a lanzar una nueva intervención militar en el país africano.
Y cinco años después de su primera intervención, Libia sigue sumido en el caos, la incertidumbre y la violencia.
The Powerball jackpot climbed to $699.8 million — the seventh-largest in U.S. lottery history. No one had won the game’s grand prize since June 5.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Charlie Neibergall/AP
The Powerball jackpot climbed to $699.8 million — the seventh-largest in U.S. lottery history. No one had won the game’s grand prize since June 5.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
DES MOINES, Iowa — After 40 drawings without a big Powerball winner, a single ticket sold in California matched all six numbers and was the lucky winner of the nearly $700 million jackpot prize, officials said.
The winning numbers drawn Monday night were 12, 22, 54, 66 and 69. The Powerball was 15.
Thanks to nearly four months of futility and final ticket sales, the Powerball jackpot climbed to $699.8 million, making it the seventh largest in U.S. lottery history. No one had won the game’s grand prize since June 5.
This was the first jackpot won on a Monday night since Aug. 23, when the game launched a third weekly drawing, officials said.
According to the California Lottery, the winning ticket was sold at a grocery store in Morro Bay, located along the state’s central coast. The winner will be able to choose between the annuity option paid over 29 years or the cash option of $496 million. Both prize options are subject to taxes.
The name of the winner isn’t known yet
Lottery officials won’t know the identity of the holder of the winning ticket until a claim form is filed, the California Lottery said.
There were five $1 million-winning tickets sold; two in Massachusetts and one each in Virginia, Florida and Arizona.
The 41st drawing set a record, topping the previous mark of 36 drawings that ended in January 2021. The longer the game goes without a grand prize winner, the larger the payout grows.
The jackpot drought was by design, as the game’s long odds of 292.2 million to one are intended to generate massive prizes that draw more players.
Lottery officials have noted that despite the long wait for a winning jackpot ticket, plenty of people have won smaller prizes, including 2.8 million players in Saturday’s drawing alone. Those winnings ranged from $1 million to $4.
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"