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A South Carolina man was charged Saturday with the kidnapping and murder of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson; police say they believe he picked her up in a vehicle, killed her and dumped her body in a wooded area.

Chief William H. Holbrook, with the Columbia Police Department, said at a news conference on Saturday night that authorities had charged 24-year-old Nathaniel Rowland with killing Josephson, 21. A traffic stop reportedly found the victim’s blood in his car.

“Our hearts are broken, they’re broken. There is nothing tougher than to stand before a family an explain how a loved one was murdered,” Holbrook said.

According to police, Josephson was out early Friday with friends at the Bird Dog bar on Harden Street when members of the group got separated. After not being able to contact her at all the following morning, Josephson’s roommates contacted law enforcement.

Police learned that after leaving the bar, Josephson requested a ride from Uber and was last seen getting into a black Chevy Impala.

According to police, Josephson was out early Friday with friends at the Bird Dog bar on Harden Street when the group’s members became separated.
(Columbia Police Department)

While investigators with the Columbia Police Department began a missing-person inquiry, Clarendon County police responded to a call about 3:45 p.m. that a body had been discovered in a field.

“The body had been found by a couple of people hunting … in a field in what was described by the sheriff to us as a wooded area in a very rural part of the county off of a dirt road — about 40 feet off of a dirt road — in an area  that would be very difficult to get to unless you knew how to get there.”

Police say Rowland resided close to where the body was found.

SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE REPORTS DEATH OF STUDENT, 21, A DAY AFTER SHE CLIMBED INTO CAR SHE THOUGHT WAS HER RIDE-SHARE

About 3 a.m. Saturday, a canine officer with the Columbia Police Department detected a black Chevy Impala about two blocks from where the victim was last seen.

Holbrook said the officer initiated a traffic stop and asked the driver — people have identified him as Rowland — to step out of the vehicle.

The suspect took off but was taken into custody after a short pursuit.

Police discovered that after leaving the bar, Josephson had requested a ride from Uber and was last seen getting into this black Chevy Impala.
(Columbia Police Department)

Upon returning to the vehicle, the officer observed what appeared to be large amounts of blood inside. Police got a search warrant and found similar samples in the trunk and passenger side of the car. Subsequent testing confirmed that the blood belonged to Josephson.

Police also discovered the victim’s cellphone in the vehicle, along with bleach, germicidal wipes and window cleaner. Holbrook said the child safety feature on the rear car doors had been activated, suggesting that Josephson might have been unable to escape.

Said Holbrook: “What we know now is that she had in fact summoned an Uber ride and was waiting for that Uber ride to come, we believe. We don’t’ have a statement or any evidence that suggests this, other than our observations on the video. We believe that she simply mistakenly got into this particular car thinking it was an Uber ride.”

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The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division charged Rowland on Saturday with murder and kidnapping.

Holbrook concluded his press conference with condolences to Josephson’s family, calling the case simply “gut-wrenching.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/south-carolina-man-charged-with-kidnapping-and-murder-of-university-of-south-carolina-student

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is taking executive action to suspend all local COVID-19 emergency mandates immediately and is issuing an executive order to outlaw all local COVID-19 emergency mandates in the state effective July 1.

DeSantis cited the ample availability of vaccines in the Sunshine State and said supply has now eclipsed demand. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, 20.9 million doses have been distributed to the state, and 15.5 million shots have been administered in a state with a population of roughly 21.5 million people. DeSantis made the announcement as he signed a bill that bans entities, including private businesses, from requiring so-called “vaccine passports” and that amends the state’s Emergency Management Act by placing limits on local emergency powers.

“What I’m going to do is sign the bill, it’s effective July 1,” DeSantis said at the bill signing Monday in St. Petersburg. “I will also sign an executive order pursuant to that bill invalidating all remaining local emergency COVID orders effective on July 1. But then to bridge the gap between then and now, I am going to suspend, under my executive power, the local emergency orders as it relates to COVID. I think that’s the evidence-based thing to do.”

DeSantis said his administration wants people to “enjoy themselves” and “live freely in the state of Florida.”

DeSantis had already unilaterally banned even private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination to enter. The law banning vaccine passports, effective July 1, entails a $5,000 fine any time a business or school requires proof of vaccination for entry.

DeSantis, a Republican and potential 2024 presidential contender, has been among the governors quickest to drop COVID-19 safety protocols.

But other, more liberal jurisdictions are making moves towards nixing COVID-19 restrictions, too. New York City expects to return to fully capacity by July 1. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has said she thinks July 1 is a reasonable target for essentially returning to normal, if vaccinations continue to increase at the rate they have been and if cases continue to drop at the same pace.

More than 100 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, the White House announced last week.

Jack Renaud contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-covid-desantis-local-emergency-mandates-suspend/

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov played down the possibility of renewed Cold War-era hostilities after the breakdown of an arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced last week that the U.S. will formally withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) in six months’ time and would suspend adherence to the agreement as of last Friday.

Russia followed suit on Saturday by saying that it too had suspended its involvement in the deal, although President Vladimir Putin said “the doors for talks are open.” The U.S. also said that it “stands ready to engage with Russia on arms control” if Russia complies with the treaty.

Lavrov said his country was not to blame for the pact’s breakdown. “I don’t think that we should talk about a new Cold War. A new era has begun, an era when the United States decides to move towards destroying the entire arms control system, which is regrettable,” he said, according to news agency TASS.

The INF Treaty was created in 1987 by then-Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and was designed to end decades of bitter relations and arms insecurity between old foes the U.S. and Russia. The treaty states that neither country can produce, possess, or flight-test a ground-launched, intermediate-range ballistic and cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the treaty in recent years, however, and diplomatic relations have once again deteriorated.

Russia has said the U.S.’ missile defense system in eastern Europe is a violation of the agreement (the U.S. insists the system is to defend itself and Europe from “rogue states”). Meanwhile, the U.S. has said Russia has violated the treaty with what it says is a “non-compliant missile system” called the 9M729 (or SSC-8) system. Russia refutes this, claiming that it’s just an updated version of an older missile and actually has a shorter range than its predecessor.

Lavrov insisted that Russia does not want an “arms race” but was ready to respond to military threats if necessary.

“Certainly, we will respond with military-technical means to the threats that are being created as a result of the United States’ pullout from the INF Treaty and its plans for creating low-yield nuclear warheads, which, according to all experts in the West, in Russia and in other countries, will drastically lower the threshold of using nuclear weapons,” he said.

Alex Brideau, director of Russia and Ukraine at analysis firm Eurasia Group, said the chances of both sides coming to a solution over disputed missiles was unlikely.

“The U.S. and Russian governments are far apart on the disputed Russian missile that is the basis for the withdrawal,” Brideau said in a research note Friday.

“Furthermore … the skepticism in President Donald Trump’s administration about bilateral arms control treaties will make it far less likely the two could strike a deal on the INF dispute.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/cold-war-has-not-been-reignited-despite-breakdown-of-arms-treaty-russia-says.html

“Don’t suffer like me, get the vaccine immediately. It’s not only protecting yourself, its protecting people like me,” says 72-year-old Joel Croxton. Croxton was fully vaccinated but had a weakened immune system. He died of COVID on September 14.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

“Don’t suffer like me, get the vaccine immediately. It’s not only protecting yourself, its protecting people like me,” says 72-year-old Joel Croxton. Croxton was fully vaccinated but had a weakened immune system. He died of COVID on September 14.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Alan Hawes pulls up images on his computer that are raw and intimate, like the anguished eyes of a 72-year-old man in a hospital bed, trapped behind a mask.

“He was extremely scared, and I think that comes across in the photo,” says Hawes.

“He’s just kind of looking into the lens like, ‘help me.’ “

A photojournalist for nearly two decades, Hawes, 57, is used to taking pictures of people when they’re most vulnerable.

Alan Hawes, formerly a photojournalist and now a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina, documented daily life for patients and hospital workers in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Sarah Pack/Medical University of South Carolina


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Sarah Pack/Medical University of South Carolina

Alan Hawes, formerly a photojournalist and now a nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina, documented daily life for patients and hospital workers in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Sarah Pack/Medical University of South Carolina

Now he works as a registered nurse at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and the man in the picture was a patient.

“He told me, ‘I don’t ever want anyone to have to go through this.’ “

Neither does Hawes. That’s why he got the idea to start photographing his daily experiences with health-care workers and COVID patients in the critical care unit.

“If the public was more educated and could see what was going on and feel some of those emotions that I hope my photos show, I felt like it would make a bigger difference,” says Hawes, whose photographs have been published by the Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press.

Hawes especially hopes the images can change the minds of the unvaccinated. To the frustration of health-care workers, most new patients turning up at his hospital’s emergency room have not been vaccinated, he says. And as the nation braces for another deadly wave due to the omicron variant, he expects the number of people seriously ill with COVID to go up.

With the permission of hospital officials, health-care workers and COVID patients, Hawes began taking photos on his own time. Many of the images are showcased on the hospital’s Facebook page and have been featured in local news.

Respiratory therapist Miriah Blevins peers out a window looking for assistance as she cares for a patient. When staffers are wearing personal protective equipment in a sealed room, they often need help.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Respiratory therapist Miriah Blevins peers out a window looking for assistance as she cares for a patient. When staffers are wearing personal protective equipment in a sealed room, they often need help.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Left: Patient care technician Kelly Burchette comforts intensive care unit nurse Andrea Crain as she breaks down in tears after calling a patient’s wife to tell her to come to the hospital because her husband is dying. “Everybody is dying and it just makes me so sad,” Crain said. Right: A patient’s prayer cloth is attached to an IV pole at the request of the patient’s family.

Alan Hawes/ Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/ Medical University of South Carolina

Left: Patient care technician Kelly Burchette comforts intensive care unit nurse Andrea Crain as she breaks down in tears after calling a patient’s wife to tell her to come to the hospital because her husband is dying. “Everybody is dying and it just makes me so sad,” Crain said. Right: A patient’s prayer cloth is attached to an IV pole at the request of the patient’s family.

Alan Hawes/ Medical University of South Carolina

Those images include a respiratory therapist peering through the blinds from inside a patient’s window. She is trying to get another health-care worker’s attention. She needs help to care for the patient but can’t leave the room because she is in full protective gear. Dawes says he took this shot because “it just kind of shows how isolated we are when we’re in those rooms.”

Another is a close-up of a prayer cloth sealed in a plastic bag marked “do not throw away,” attached to an IV pole. The cloth was made by a family member to provide comfort and spiritual strength to their mother, a COVID patient. The woman died in October.

Another photo captures a nurse crying after calling a patient’s wife, urging her to come quickly because her husband is dying.

These are images fellow nurse Sarah Bucko, 40, knows all too well.

“I look at these pictures and I can tell you their names. I can tell you whether they lived or died, and how my coworkers were feeling that day,” she says.

Bucko has worked at the hospital for nearly 20 years. She says she loves caring for people. But like millions of health-care workers across the country, she is exhausted — physically, mentally and emotionally.

Hospital staff roll a COVID patient into the intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina after being intubated in the emergency room. The patient’s wife was also hospitalized with COVID.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Hospital staff roll a COVID patient into the intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina after being intubated in the emergency room. The patient’s wife was also hospitalized with COVID.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Left: registered nurse Crystal Foster dons her protective gear. She has had two mild COVID infections herself, the second time after being fully vaccinated. Right: ICU nurse Lauren Harfield writes information about blood oxygen levels on the window of the patient’s door so it can be easily seen by medical staff.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Left: registered nurse Crystal Foster dons her protective gear. She has had two mild COVID infections herself, the second time after being fully vaccinated. Right: ICU nurse Lauren Harfield writes information about blood oxygen levels on the window of the patient’s door so it can be easily seen by medical staff.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

A team of nurses, patient care technicians and a respiratory therapist prepare to return a COVID patient to their back after 24 hours of lying on their stomach. That posture makes it easier to breathe and is a critical part of treatment for COVID patients in hospitals.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

A team of nurses, patient care technicians and a respiratory therapist prepare to return a COVID patient to their back after 24 hours of lying on their stomach. That posture makes it easier to breathe and is a critical part of treatment for COVID patients in hospitals.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Even after she’s helped save a loved one’s life, she says, some family members have told her they’re still not sure they’ll get vaccinated – and that the coronavirus is a hoax.

“I’ve been told by patients’ families [who can’t come to visit] that we are making this up to drum up business at the hospital,” says Bucko.

“If anything,” she adds, “I think these pictures show this is real.”

Left: Tala’Shea Foster uses Facetime to see her newborn son, delivered by emergency cesarean section because her COVID was so severe. Foster says she didn’t know the vaccine was available for pregnant women. Right: Charles Roberts had a tube inserted in his nose to improve oxygen flow shortly after his hospital admission for COVID. By the end of the night, he was intubated.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Left: Tala’Shea Foster uses Facetime to see her newborn son, delivered by emergency cesarean section because her COVID was so severe. Foster says she didn’t know the vaccine was available for pregnant women. Right: Charles Roberts had a tube inserted in his nose to improve oxygen flow shortly after his hospital admission for COVID. By the end of the night, he was intubated.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Steven Lavender recovers from COVID in the ICU after spending weeks isolated in a specialized COVID unit on a ventilator until he was no longer contagious. Lavender was unable to talk due to a tracheotomy, so his fiancée Mary Moore made a page in her journal that he could use to point to his needs. According to Moore, Lavender said he was “too busy” to go for a vaccine prior to getting COVID.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Steven Lavender recovers from COVID in the ICU after spending weeks isolated in a specialized COVID unit on a ventilator until he was no longer contagious. Lavender was unable to talk due to a tracheotomy, so his fiancée Mary Moore made a page in her journal that he could use to point to his needs. According to Moore, Lavender said he was “too busy” to go for a vaccine prior to getting COVID.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

But there are some people who have changed their minds about the COVID vaccine and have allowed Hawes to document their stories.

Steven Murray is one such patient.

Murray, who was not vaccinated, believed he could fight off COVID like the flu when he reluctantly went to the emergency room just before Labor Day.

Hawes photographed him sitting in a chair with tubes up his nose.

“I was like no, not me. I’m tough. I’m 37 years old. I’m not going to die,” he says.

Steven Murray did not get the vaccine. “I thought that if I got COVID, I’d be able to fight it off like the flu. Boy was I wrong. There is nothing you could have told me to make me get the vaccine. After this experience, I’m telling everyone I know to get it now. The grim reaper was reaching out for me. I was scared.”

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

But within an hour of being admitted, Murray says doctors told him he would likely not leave the hospital alive if he didn’t get intubated — inserting a tube into the trachea to maintain an airway.

Stubbornly, he refused and now admits he was scared he would die if put on a ventilator.

He survived.

When health care staffers asked he’d decided against getting vaccinated, Murray says he told them, “because I’m a dumbass.”

Murray says he bought into what he calls the misinformation and politics surrounding the pandemic. He goes out of his way to share his story whenever he can and “when I tell them, I’m like please, please, please get the vaccine. If you haven’t gotten it, please.”

“We need to give these people a break because eventually they are going to break,” says Murray.

Dr. Denise Sese (left) discusses a patient’s plan of care with nurse Ericka Tollerson in the COVID intensive care unit.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Dr. Denise Sese (left) discusses a patient’s plan of care with nurse Ericka Tollerson in the COVID intensive care unit.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

The COVID ICU has a red zone that’s sealed with negative pressure air to keep the airborne virus particles from leaving the room. Staff are required to wear full PPE, including N-95 respirators and eye protection, for most of their 12-hour shifts.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina


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Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

The COVID ICU has a red zone that’s sealed with negative pressure air to keep the airborne virus particles from leaving the room. Staff are required to wear full PPE, including N-95 respirators and eye protection, for most of their 12-hour shifts.

Alan Hawes/Medical University of South Carolina

Hawes doesn’t know how people will react to his photos, but he hopes the images will be educational.

“The more people see, the more they understand, and the better decisions people make,” says Hawes.

“That’s what journalism is about.”

Victoria Hansen covers the Charleston community for South Carolina Public Radio.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/26/1066395049/intimate-portraits-of-a-hospital-covid-unit-from-a-photojournalist-turned-nurse

El Instituto Uruguayo de Meteorología (Inumet) cesó su alerta por tormentas fuertes y lluvias en todo el país durante este domingo.

Durante el día se esperaba intensa actividad eléctrica, rachas de viento muy fuertes, precipitaciones puntualmente abundantes y ocasionales granizadas en distintos departamentos del país.

A las 17:45 cesó la alerta, que todavía regía en Cerro Largo y Rivera de color amarillo. Las condiciones mejoraron y la alerta terminó, aunque las lluvias pueden continuar dándose.

Además se espera que en la zona este y en el área costera del sur del país los vientos comiencen a incrementar a partir de la tarde/noche.

Source Article from http://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/hay-alerta-tormentas-pais.html

Media captionYvette Cooper: “We’re in a very dangerous situation”

A cross-party group of MPs has put forward a bill to prevent a no-deal Brexit in 10 days’ time.

If passed into law, the bill would require the PM to ask for an extension of Article 50 – which mandates the UK’s exit from the EU – beyond the current 12 April deadline.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper presented the bill – which supporters hope they can pass through the Commons in one day.

The cabinet, which remains split over Brexit, met for eight hours in No 10.

The BBC’s John Pienaar said Theresa May’s ministers considered plans to “ramp up” no-deal Brexit preparations and a snap general election was also discussed.

Ms Cooper’s bill would make it UK law for the PM to ask for an extension to prevent a no-deal, but it would be up to the EU to grant it – or not.

In March, MPs voted against leaving the EU without a deal, but it was not legally binding.

Meanwhile, the EU’s chief negotiator has said a no-deal Brexit is now more likely but can still be avoided.

Michel Barnier said a long extension to the UK’s 12 April exit date had “significant risks for the EU” and a “strong justification would be needed”.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are meeting in Paris to discuss the impact of Brexit.

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Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and France’s President Emmanuel Macron

President Macron told reporters that the EU “cannot be hostage to the political crisis in the UK”, and the government must come forward with “credible” reasons for an extension.

He said these could include an election, second referendum, or alternative proposals for the future relationship, such as a customs union.

Mr Varadkar said the UK was “consumed by Brexit”, but the EU should not be.

He said the EU “needs to be open” about any proposals the UK brings, including a longer extension, and they will do what they can to “assist”.

But he added: “We gave the UK some time, some space and some opportunity to come up with a way forward… [but] as things stand, they will leave on 12 April without a deal.”

Tory MP Sir Oliver Letwin, who supports Ms Cooper’s bill, said: “This is a last-ditch attempt to prevent our country being exposed to the risks inherent in a no-deal exit.

“We realise this is difficult. But it is definitely worth trying.”

Ms Cooper said the UK was “in a very dangerous situation” and MPs “have a responsibility to make sure we don’t end up with a catastrophic no deal”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s World At One, she added: “We have been attempting to squeeze into just a couple of days a process that really should have been happening for the last two years – a process of trying to build a consensus around the best way forward.

“It is what the prime minister should be doing. It is the prime minister’s responsibility to ensure we don’t leave the country less safe.”

Why is this bill unusual?

Image copyright
AFP/Getty Images

Normally the government chooses which bills to present to Parliament in order for them to become law.

But – much to the government’s disapproval – MPs voted to allow backbenchers to take charge of business in the Commons on Wednesday.

This gives backbenchers the opportunity to table their own bills, such as this one from Yvette Cooper.

A copy of the bill shows that they want to push it through the commons in one day.

As the backbenchers will be in charge, they will also be able to vote to set aside more time on another day, if they need to complete the process or hold further indicative votes.

However, the bill would also have to be agreed by the House of Lords and receive Royal Assent before it became law – which if the Commons agrees it on Wednesday, could happen as soon as Thursday.

Brexiteer Tory Sir Bill Cash said trying to go through these stages in one day made it a “reprehensible procedure”.

But Speaker John Bercow said that, while it was “an unusual state of affairs”, it was “not as unprecedented as he supposes” – citing recent bills on Northern Ireland that have been passed at the same speed.

In the latest round of indicative votes on Monday, MPs voted on four alternatives to the PM’s withdrawal deal, but none gained a majority.

MPs rejected a customs union with the EU by three votes. A motion for another referendum got the most votes in favour, but still lost.

The votes were not legally binding, but they had been billed as the moment when Parliament might finally compromise.

The Independent MP Chris Leslie tweeted that MPs would be seeking more time for indicative votes to take place on Monday.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb said he is considering resigning the whip after his party refused to back proposals for a customs union and Common Market 2.0 on Monday.

He told BBC News: “If you are seen to be unreasonable, not engaging to find solutions, I don’t think it is very attractive to the people.”

Earlier, Mr Barnier said: “No deal was never our desire or intended scenario but the EU 27 is now prepared. It becomes day after day more likely.”

Media captionBarnier: “No-deal Brexit has become more likely”

Mrs May’s plan for the UK’s departure has been rejected by MPs three times.

Last week, Parliament took control of the process away from the government in order to hold a series of votes designed to find an alternative way forward.

Eight options were put to MPs, but none was able to command a majority, and on Monday night, a whittled-down four were rejected too.

What next?

  • Tuesday 2 April: A five-hour cabinet meeting
  • Wednesday 3 April: Potentially another round of indicative votes, and Yvette Cooper’s bill to be debated
  • Thursday 4 April: Theresa May could bring her withdrawal deal back to Parliament for a fourth vote, while MPs could also vote on Ms Cooper’s bill
  • Wednesday 10 April: Emergency summit of EU leaders to consider any UK request for further extension
  • Friday 12 April: Brexit day, if UK does not seek / EU does not grant further delay
  • 23-26 May: European Parliamentary elections

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Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-47789298

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President Donald Trump says he’s ready to meet again with Kim Jong Un to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons. In a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump said he’d just received a letter from the North Korean leader. (Jan. 2)
AP

SEOUL — North Korea sent a warning to the U.S. on Thursday to avoid “meddling” in its affairs with South Korea and criticized Washington’s “unreasonable attitude” and “hostile” policies.

An editorial in the country’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper blamed the U.S. for stagnation in the relationship between North and South Korea, claiming that “the United States does not want to see the improvement and development of the inter-Korean relations.”

While relations between Pyongyang and Washington remain at an impasse over North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and the lifting of international sanctions, Seoul has been pushing forward in peace gestures and engagement with the North.

The two Koreas have removed 10 guard posts in the demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula and recently held a groundbreaking ceremony on a project to connect their railroad systems. But that project and others like it cannot move much further until the U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea are lifted.

The North has also been eager to reopen a jointly run factory park in its border town of Kaesong and to resume South Korean tours to the resort area of Mount Kumgang.

“We will never tolerate the intervention and interference of the U.S. that tries to check the Korean nation’s reconciliation, unity and reunification while trying to subordinate the north-south relations to its own tastes and interests,” said the editorial.

“This is our warning in New Year,” the article concluded.

The sharp words came just a day after President Donald Trump said that he had received a “great letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and that the two would like to meet for a second time.

More: North Korea warns US sanctions could ‘block the path to denuclearization forever’

Speaking to reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said that he and Kim have made “tremendous progress” and have “really established a good relationship.” He also claimed credit for maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula, saying that if it weren’t for the efforts of his administration, “you’d be having a nice, big, fat war in Asia.”

However, Trump said he wasn’t “in any rush” to hold the second meeting.

Trump has frequently praised Kim, saying in September that the North’s leader was “terrific” and that the two “fell in love” after their historic summit in Singapore last June.

That summit produced an agreement that North Korea would work toward a “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” while the U.S. promised to provide security guarantees.

But more than six months later, there has been little tangible progress.

Pyongyang continues to look for relief from punishing international sanctions and an agreement for a formal end to the Korean War, while Washington is holding out for complete denuclearization, sticking to its “maximum pressure” strategy on the economic and diplomatic fronts.

In a televised New Year’s Day address, Kim said he was ready to meet again with Trump “anytime” but delivered a warning not to test North Korea’s patience over sanctions, threatening that it may have to find a “new way” to defend its interests.

If the U.S. “persists in imposing sanctions and pressure against our Republic, we may be compelled to find a new way for defending the sovereignty of the country and the supreme interests of the state,” Kim said.

 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/01/03/north-korea-warns-us-stop-meddling-south-korea/2478849002/

Two brothers have been charged over the shooting murder of Chicago police officer Ella French as the city’s police clash with its mayor over the horrific killing.

Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer, attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

His brother, Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice. 

The charges were announced by the Chicago Police Department on Monday evening with the Morgans due in court for a bail hearing on Tuesday afternoon. 

They were arrested over French’s murder as it emerged police at the University of Chicago Medical Center where the dead cop’s partner was being treated turned their backs on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she paid a visit Saturday. 

Lightfoot was also verbally attacked by the father of French’s partner, who remains critically-ill in hospital. She is said to have been left ‘shaken’ by the incident, which came after Chicago cops accused her of failing ‘to have their back’, with Lightfoot calling for an $80 million cut to her city’s police budget in October 2020.  

Alderman Anthony Napolitano – himself a former cop – said that while he did not see Lightfoot as anti-police, she needed to shoulder blame for encouraging defund the police activists which he says left the city’s cops badly demoralized. 

Emonte Morgan, 21, is charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office

Eric Morgan, 22, is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice

Napolitano told the Chicago Sun Times: ‘I never saw her as an anti-police advocate. But I will put this 550 percent on these socialists and these progressives in the City Council. This blood is on their hands, without a doubt.

‘They’re the ones who created this whole anti-police movement that has made these brazen acts of violence against police officers [possible] — 39 this year alone. This is created by them. This whole defund and disrespect movement that they have started. 

‘These pieces of s**t are the ones that created this and talk anti-police. And they’re the ones begging for more police in their communities. They’re the biggest hypocrites. They disgust me.’ 

He spoke as it was also revealed that a woman who was in the car with the Morgan brothers has not been charged due to lack of evidence. 

Federal prosecutors Monday charged an Indiana man with purchasing and then illegally supplying the semi-automatic handgun used in the shooting. 

Officer French, 29, was killed during the shooting at a traffic stop on Saturday night. The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over.

Her death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since Lightfoot took office and the first female officer fatally shot on the job there in 33 years. 

Ella French’s death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office

Officer Ella French as killed during the shooting at a traffic stop

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown takes a moment as he provides an update on the shooting of two police officers in West Englewood during a news conference at the Chicago Police Headquarters

Mayor Lori Lightfoot listens to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown give an update during a news conference at the Chicago Police Headquarters in Bronzeville

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown announced the murder charges against two brothers on Monday

In the exchange of gunfire, one of the brothers was shot and wounded. 

They are due in court on Tuesday. 

At the time of the shooting, both brothers were on probation for separate cases.

Emonte Morgan pleaded guilty to robbery in Cook County court last year.

He also has other criminal charges on his record, including minor traffic offenses such as leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle without a license and driving uninsured. 

He was also charged with battery and theft in 2019. 

Eric Morgan pleaded guilty to theft in Dane County, Wisconsin, according to public records. 

Jamal Danzy, 29, of Hammond, is accused of buying the weapon from a license gun dealer in Hammond, Indiana, in March and then providing it to an Illinois resident who Danzy knew could neither buy nor possess guns because of a felony conviction.

The person who received it was in a vehicle from which someone shot the officers Saturday night during a traffic stop and that the same gun was recovered from the person by arresting officers, a statement from the US attorney’s office in Chicago said.

Danzy, of Hammond, made an initial appearance Monday afternoon in US District Court in Chicago on conspiracy to violate federal firearm laws, including knowingly transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident and knowingly disposing of a firearm to a convicted felon. 

‘We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others,’ the department said of French on Facebook, adding that fellow officers will ‘grieve the loss of this hero.’ 

The conspiracy conviction carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

US Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert ordered Danzy be held at least until a Wednesday detention hearing.

Chicago has for years sought to stem the inflow of guns that has helped fueled persistently high homicide rates in the city, especially from nearby states like Indiana, where guns rules aren’t as stringent. 

City, state and federal authorities have made illegal gun trafficking a high priority. 

‘We will never forget the true bravery she exemplified as she laid her life down to protect others,’ the department said of French on Facebook, adding that fellow officers will ‘grieve the loss of this hero.’ 

The department also requested support for French’s ‘wounded partner, who is in the hospital fighting for his life.’ 

Officer French’s brother also shed some more light on who his sister was. 

“She’s my sister, she’s my little sister. And as much as I was there for her when we were growing up, she was there for me. And I was proud of her, I’m still proud of her…God took the wrong kid,’ he told the Chicago Tribune. 

The officers had stopped a vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9pm Saturday on Chicago’s South Side, when a male passenger opened fire, said Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown.

Investigators said the officers had demanded one of the suspects get out of the car.

There was a physical altercation and the suspect then opened fire, shooting both officers. 

Officers returned fire, striking the passenger who appeared to fire back at them, said Brown. He did not release the condition of that man. 

When asked about the condition of the injured officer, Brown responded, ‘Critical. We need your prayers.’

The superintendent said it was too soon to say why the vehicle was stopped and what might have happened just before the shooting began. He said available evidence included police body camera footage. A gun was also recovered at the scene.

A large crowd of officers gathered outside the hospital’s ambulance entrance overnight, some hugging and praying, as Lightfoot first addressed the shooting to reporters nearby. 

Lightfoot said the officer who died ‘was very young on the job, but incredibly enthusiastic to do the work.’

More than a dozen Chicago police officers have turned their backs on Mayor Lori Lightfoot after one of their own was shot dead and another gravely wounded

As she spoke, more than a dozen police officers turned their backs on the Mayor.

‘A mother lost her daughter last night,’ Mayor Lightfoot said. ‘A brother, his sister. A family, forever shattered. Another continues to keep vigil at a hospital bed, sending up powerful prayers but no doubt fearing the worst.’ 

The brazen display unfolded around midnight on Saturday at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where cops were holding vigil for the officer injured in the shooting, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

French’s partner, an injured male officer, who has not been publicly identified, was shot twice in the head and is still fighting for his life.

On Saturday night, Lightfoot approached a group of grieving officers on the 7th floor of the hospital, where they anxiously awaited any news on their colleague’s condition, but the cops suddenly spun on their heels to face away from her, two sources who were present told the Sun-Times.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Lightfoot acknowledged that ’emotions run high’ in a time of tragedy, but added ‘now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting.’ 

CPD officers pay their respects outside the hospital where the wounded officer is being treated. There are no known images of cops turning their backs on Lightfoot

Moments before the back-turning incident, Lightfoot had approached the father of the injured officer, himself a retired Chicago cop, who yelled at her and blamed her for the shooting, the sources said.

One of the sources told the newspaper that Lightfoot remained calm in the face of the father’s outrage and listened to him with respect.  

‘The mayor was present at the emergency room to offer support and condolences to the families involved and the hundreds of line officers and exempts who were there, which she did,’ a spokesman for Lightfoot told DailyMail.com in a statement. 

‘In a time of tragedy, emotions run high and that is to be expected. The Mayor spoke to a range of officers that tragic night and sensed the overwhelming sentiment was about concern for their fallen colleagues,’ he added. 

‘As the mayor stated yesterday, now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting. This is a time for us to come together as a city,’ the statement said. 

No photos or video have emerged of the scene in Chicago, which was reminiscent of a 2014 incident in New York City, where hundreds of cops turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio after two officers were shot and killed in a cold-blooded ambush. 

At a press conference moments after leaving the hospital,’ Lightfoot told reporters: ‘It’s very sad. We must remind ourselves every day, our officers are fearless in the face of danger. They run to danger, to protect us.’

‘It’s a very sad and tragic day for our city,’ added the Democrat, who proposed cutting $80 million from the CPD budget amid ‘defund the police’ demonstrations last year. 

The proposal was later scaled back and Lightfoot has denounced the ‘defund’ movement, but Chicago’s police union still issued a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the mayor earlier this year.

‘The police are not our enemies,’ Lightfoot said later on Sunday. ‘We must come together… We have a common enemy: It’s the guns and the gangs.’ 

Chicago police officers salute as a procession for a police officer who was shot and killed drives by the Cook County Medical Examiners Office on Sunday

Chicago Firefighters hang an American flag from firetruck ladders, outside the Cook County Medical Examiners Office on Sunday to honor French as her remains pass by

Chicago police officers stand at attention as a procession for a police officer who was shot and killed earlier during a traffic stop at 63rd and Bell drives by

Lightfoot urged Chicagoans to end the acrimony between police supporters who believe cops are hamstrung by bureaucracy, and opponents who want to see police departments defunded or abolished.

‘Stop. Just stop,’ she said. ‘This constant strife is not what we need in this moment.’

John Catanzara, the president of the Chicago police union, told the Sun-Times that the officers’ decision to turn their backs on Lightfoot was ‘significant.’

‘Turning their backs on the mayor was an excellent example of how the hundreds of police officers felt waiting outside the hospital,’ Catanzara said, adding that officers no longer support Lightfoot’s leadership. 

‘They have had enough and are no longer going to remain silent anymore,’ said the union boss. 

The shooting of the officers occurred on another violent summer weekend in the nation’s third largest city, with at least 64 people shot, 10 fatally, by Sunday afternoon.   

Chicago police work the scene where two police officers where shot during a traffic stop in the 6300 block of South Bell in the West Englewood neighborhood on Saturday

Officers had stopped a vehicle with two men and a woman inside just after 9pm Saturday on Chicago’s South Side, when a male passenger opened fire 

The last Chicago officer shot to death in the line of duty was 28-year-old Samuel Jimenez, who was killed after responding to a shooting at a hospital on November 19, 2018.

Two officers, Conrad Gary and Eduardo Marmolejo, died when they were struck by a train while pursuing a suspect on December 17, 2018. The department also considers the COVID-19 deaths of four officers last year line-of-duty deaths.

The last female officer shot to death in the line of duty was Irma Ruiz, who was shot inside an elementary school in 1988. 

Full statement from Lightfoot’s office on back-turning incident

A spokesperson for Mayor Lightfoot provided the following statement to DailyMail.com regarding the shooting and the mayor’s interaction with police at the hospital: 

‘This is an extremely difficult and heartbreaking time for the Chicago Police Department, and for our entire city. The Mayor was present at the emergency room to offer support and condolences to the families involved and the hundreds of line officers and exempts who were there, which she did. 

‘In a time of tragedy, emotions run high and that is to be expected. The Mayor spoke to a range of officers that tragic night and sensed the overwhelming sentiment was about concern for their fallen colleagues. As the Mayor stated yesterday, now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting. This is a time for us to come together as a city. We have a common enemy and it is the conditions that breed the violence and the manifestations of violence, namely illegal guns, and gangs. 

‘The Mayor is focused on healing the wounds and will reject any and all that try to use this moment to drive further divisions in our city. The Mayor remains committed to continuing supports for our dedicated and heroic police officers who risk their lives every day to keep all our neighborhoods safe from senseless violence. 

‘As the Mayor stated yesterday morning, we must come together as a city and wrap our arms around all those who knew and loved Officer French and pray for the health and recovery of her partner who continues to fight for his life today.’ 

Source Article from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9878339/Man-21-charged-degree-murder-Chicago-cop-Ella-French-shot-dead.html


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto faced fresh questions on Wednesday about his dealings with a company at the center of a conflict-of-interest scandal, after it emerged that he enjoyed rent-free use of a house belonging to the firm as a campaign office.

Already under pressure over the government’s handling of the presumed massacre of 43 students abducted by corrupt police in southwestern Mexico in September, Pena Nieto is facing his most difficult period since taking office two years ago.

On Nov. 3, the government announced a Chinese-led consortium had won a no bid contract to build a $3.75 billion high-speed rail link in central Mexico.

Three days later, the government abruptly canceled the deal, just before a report by news site Aristegui Noticias showed that a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a company that formed part of the consortium and had won various previous contracts, owned the luxury house of first lady Angelica Rivera.

Under public pressure, Rivera said she would give up the house. But neither she nor Pena Nieto have addressed the apparent conflict of interest stemming from the government’s business with Grupo Higa.

On Wednesday, Aristegui Noticias published a new story that said Pena Nieto used a different property belonging to another Grupo Higa subsidiary as an office when he was president-elect in 2012.

Eduardo Sanchez, the president’s spokesman, said Pena Nieto unwittingly used the property. Sanchez said it was leased from the Grupo Higa firm by Humberto Castillejos, the president’s legal adviser, who lent it rent-free to Pena Nieto’s team.

“If I invite you to my house, do you come to my house and ask me under whose name it is? Neither does the president,” Sanchez said, denying there were conflicts of interest.

The spokesman also said there were no more properties Pena Nieto or his team had used belonging to Grupo Higa.

“No, there is no other house that was used in a professional capacity,” Sanchez said.

Castillejos could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jorge Luis Lavalle, a senator with the opposition conservative National Action Party, said the public saw a clear conflict of interest in the dealings of Pena Nieto and his government with Grupo Higa.

“It needs to be investigated. All these doubts need to be dispelled fully and clearly,” he said. “We now have another case with no explanation.”

(Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Editing by Simon Gardner and Tom Brown)

Source Article from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/26/us-mexico-president-idUSKCN0JA22220141126

GUADALAJARA, JALISCO (15/SEP/2015).- Revisa lo más importante del 15 de septiembre en México en este resumen de noticias publicadas a través de los sitios web de los medios que conforman los Periódicos Asociados en Red.

CAMPECHE

Alejandro Moreno asume gubernatura de Campeche

Con la promesa de trabajar para todos los campechanos de tiempo completo y la alegría de realizar su sueño de hace 23 años, Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas tomó protesta este medio día como gobernador de Campeche, relevando al también priista Fernando Ortega Bernés.

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO

Cuentan con el apoyo del gobierno: Peña Nieto a víctimas en Egipto

Enrique Peña Nieto reiteró a las víctimas del bombardeo en el desierto de Egipto y a sus familiares, que ”cuentan con el apoyo y respaldo del gobierno de México”.

DURANGO

El INM rescata a 20 indocumentados en Durango

El Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), informó sobre el rescate de 20 indocumentados, entre los que se encontraban 15 centroamericanos y cinco indios.

JALISCO

Aristóteles se reúne con líderes de migrantes de Jalisco

Este martes, diversos líderes de las comunidades de migrantes de Jalisco en Wisconsin, Nevada, Illinois, California y Washington sostuvieron un encuentro con el gobernador del estado, Aristóteles Sandoval.

Source Article from http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2015/614638/6/mexico-en-resumen-las-noticias-del-15-de-septiembre.htm

La Gran Época le presenta un resumen de las últimas noticias del mundo para que se mantenga actualizado sobre los últimos acontecimientos. En primer lugar, dos sismos de 5,5 y 6,0 sacudieron el centro de Italia y –si bien aun no hay reportes de víctimas- causó gran conmoción debido a que el epicentro se encuentra a solo unos kilómetros del sismo fatal de octubre. Por otro lado, un suceso inédito ya que justamente Estados Unidos se abstuvo de votar sobre el embargo a Cuba. Venezuela impidió entrar a periodistas a cubrir la multitudinaria “Toma de Venezuela” convocada por la oposición y –por último- un derrumbe en Colombia dejó al menos 2 muertos y 17 desaparecidos.

Dos fuertes sismos sacuden el centro de Italia

El Centro Geológico de Estados Unidos informó que el sismo tuvo su epicentro a 7 kilómetros al suroeste de la localidad de Visso, a unos 170 kilómetros de la capital italiana.

Las ciudades de Roma, L’Aquila, Perugia, Florencia y Nápoles sintieron el movimiento y mucha gente salió de sus casas para buscar un lugar seguro.

No hubo reportes de víctimas de forma inmediata, pero este temblor llega casi dos meses después de que un terremoto de magnitud 6,3 causara la muerte de unas 300 personas en la misma región. La localidad de Amatrice, una de las que registró más daños por el temblor de agosto, se ubica a unos 70 kilómetros al sur de Visso.

Más tarde se reportaron al menos 9 réplicas de baja intensidad y un nuevo sismo aún más fuerte que el anterior (6,0) se registró dos horas después, según el Servicio Geológico de Estados Unidos.

El foco sísmico del segundo sismo estuvo localizado a 10 km de profundidad y el epicentro estuvo ubicado a 3,2 kilómetros al norte de Visso y a 58,2 kilómetros al este-sureste de Perugia.

EE.UU. se abstiene en la votación sobre embargo a Cuba

La embajadora estadounidense en las Naciones Unidas Samantha Power anunció este miércoles la abstención de su país en la votación anual de la Asamblea General de la ONU sobre la resolución presentada por Cuba exigiendo el levantamiento del embargo.

Al hacer el anuncio explicó que se trata de una decisión que rompe la política de aislamiento seguida por Washington por más de 50 años y que está a tono con la política de acercamiento iniciada por el presidente Barack Obama en diciembre del 2014.

“Hemos elegido el camino del compromiso”, dijo la diplomática estadounidense. Y destacó que el voto no significa que se esté de acuerdo con las políticas y prácticas del gobierno de Cuba.

Con la abstención, Washington asume la postura de la mayoría de los Estados miembros y vota en contra de su propio Congreso, que ha rechazado levantar el embargo a pesar de los llamados del presidente Obama para hacerlo.

Venezuela impide entrar a periodistas antes de la marcha contra la suspensión del revocatorio

Autoridades venezolanas retuvieron en el aeropuerto de Caracas a un grupo de periodistas peruanos de la cadena mexicana Televisa y a un fotógrafo argentino que viajaron al país para cubrir la protesta convocada por la oposición tras la suspensión del referendo revocatorio contra el presidente Nicolás Maduro.

Los medios informaron que los periodistas se encuentran en buen estado y que se están realizando gestiones diplomáticas para que el gobierno de Venezuela autorice su entrada puesto que los periodistas de Televisa tienen los documentos que acreditan que trabajan para ella y además tienen su visa al día.

Dos muertos y 17 desaparecidos por derrumbe en Colombia

Dos personas muertas y al menos 17 desaparecidas dejó hoy un derrumbe al parecer generado por una explosión en una cantera ubicada en el sector de El Cabuyal, de la vía Medellín-Bogotá, en el noroeste de Colombia, indicaron medios locales. “La Cruz Roja de Antioquia evalúa emergencia en Copacabana y Bello, 17 desaparecidos según informe preliminar”, indicó la institución en Twitter.

El derrumbe taponó los cuatro carriles de la autopista, en una longitud de 200 metros y llegó hasta la puerta de dos viviendas cercanas a la vía.

A su paso, arrasó con cuatro postes de luz y varios árboles.

Según las primeras versiones, el deslizamiento se dio en una cantera donde se hace explotación ilegal. “Es una cantera de explotación de roca de piedra a cielo abierto. Con la cantidad de lluvias que tenemos en el municipio se saturó la tierra y ocasionó el deslizamiento”, aseguró el alcalde del municipio de Copacabana, Óscar Restrepo.

La Gran Época le recomienda el siguiente artículo: La influencia de Xi Jinping sobre China antes de una importante conferencia del partido

Source Article from http://www.lagranepoca.com/ultimas-noticias/95358-ultimas-noticias-del-mundo-sismo-sacude-centro-italia.html

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/us/911-attack-anniversary/index.html

DURHAM, N.C. — Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said he disagreed with some Trump administration policies — particularly on immigration — but dodged questions Wednesday about the president reportedly intervening to secure top-secret security clearances for his daughter Ivanka Trump and son–in–law, Jared Kushner.

Kelly, in an appearance at Duke University, did not deny reports that President Donald Trump circumvented the usual process to grant the security clearances or that he later wrote a memo outlining his concerns about it. He simply said he believes any such conversations with the president would be privileged and that he’s not at liberty to discuss security clearances.

It was a notable contrast to Kelly’s aggressive pushback on news reports while in the White House about his actions and relationship with Trump. On Wednesday he even stressed several times the importance of a free press.

Relatively subdued and cautious, Kelly landed some gloved swipes on his former boss — at one point saying if Trump’s former Democratic rival had won the presidency and asked him to serve, he would have worked for her.

“If Hillary Clinton had called me, I would have done it,” Kelly said.

The wide-ranging question-and-answer session before several hundred people marked the first time Kelly, who left the White House at the end of 2018 after a rocky tenure, has publicly addressed the president’s role in his family members’ security clearances.

A retired four-star general, Kelly initially served as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary. But it was the chief of staff job he took in July 2017 that he said was “the least enjoyable job I’ve ever had.”

“But it was he most important job I’ve ever had,” he said.

Kelly, though diplomatic, showed repeatedly where he disagreed with Trump on immigration issues.

On the administration’s handling of children at the southern border, he was critical, though he blamed then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for catching the White House by surprise with the adoption of a “zero tolerance” policy.

Contrary to Trump’s comments that many immigrants coming to the U.S. border are criminals, Kelly added: “And by the way, they’re overwhelmingly not criminals. They’re people coming up here for economic purposes. I don’t blame them for that.”

He didn’t defend Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to get funding for a border wall and said: “We don’t need a wall from sea to shining sea.”

Kelly also expressed disagreement with deploying U.S. troops, even National Guard troops, to the border, as Trump did last fall before the midterm elections.

“Generally speaking I would always look for another way to do it,” Kelly said.

Asked about Trump’s executive order establishing a travel ban just days after taking office — while Kelly was Homeland Security secretary — he said it was a mistake made by inexperienced White House staff who didn’t run the policy through the usual process-gathering process for input from relevant government agencies.

The White House staff “got a little bit maybe out in front if their skis,” he said.

Kelly also defended the cost of maintaining the NATO alliance, the merits of which Trump has repeatedly questioned. And he took credit for initially organizing a series of briefings that convinced Trump not to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Syria.

When Trump tapped Kelly as his chief of staff the White House had little internal structure and was largely seen as chaotic. Kelly didn’t seem eager for the job and spent his initial weeks trying to install process and order to the West Wing.

Despite reports by NBC News and others that Kelly saw himself as the “adult in the room,” he denied taking that view.

“In my view everyone in the room was an adult,” he said.

When he decided it was time to leave, saying the job exhausted him, he joked that the advice he gave to his successor, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, was: “Run for it.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/john-kelly-differs-trump-immigration-mum-security-clearances-n980326

Los comentarios publicados son de exclusiva responsabilidad de sus autores y las consecuencias derivadas de ellos pueden ser pasibles de sanciones legales. Aquel usuario que incluya en sus mensajes algún comentario violatorio del reglamento será eliminado e inhabilitado para volver a comentar. Enviar un comentario implica la aceptación del Reglamento.

Source Article from http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1894712-sintesis-de-noticias

CLOSE

Former President George W. Bush remembers former President George H.W. Bush’s love for his country, his family and a good laugh during his eulogy for his dad.
USA TODAY

As many Americans watched the funeral services for President George H.W. Bush this week, Isa Leshko found herself tuning out the coverage. Things were missing. Recent events glossed over. It left her feeling sickened, she said.

Shortly after news broke of Bush’s death, Leshko, 47, an artist and activist, took to Twitter.

“Many members of the LGBTQ community, people of color, and women have a hard time praising Bush’s memory today,” she wrote, launching a threaded series of tweets

She touched on Bush’s handling of the AIDS crisis, his veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990. Near the end of her thread, Leshko brought up a more recent controversy that she and other activists have found questionably absent from remembrances and discussions of Bush’s legacy: the groping allegations.

A little more than a year before his death, allegations emerged from eight women dating back to 1992. The details were similar: During a photo op with the former president, Bush touched or squeezed their butts without consent. Some of the women say he made a joke first.

Bush apologized last year through spokesman Jim McGrath, saying he “does not have it in his heart to knowingly cause anyone distress, and he again apologizes to anyone he offended during a photo op.”

With attention focused on other men who were still in office or high-powered jobs, involved in severe incidents, the allegations have received little mention since they first came to light in October 2017. USA TODAY, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press did not include the allegations in obituaries. Headlines praised his decency and character and called him a gentleman. Even in Twitter’s liberal bubbles, the topic has been cautiously broached.

BUSH AND TRUMP: The contrast that went unspoken but was impossible to miss at the funeral

BUSH STATE FUNERAL: ‘America’s last great soldier-statesman’

MORE: George H.W. Bush leaves mixed record on race, civil rights

Michelle Nickerson, an associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago who specializes in women and gender and U.S. politics, says memorializations happen with every president. 

“The purpose in this case is to recognize ourselves as a nation. So it’s almost like we keep quiet about the mistakes of the dead because we want to focus on the things that we appreciate and we value and the things that we want to honor,” Nickerson said. “There are going to be things that we recall and we chose to forget because we are honoring not just Bush but the presidency as an institution.”

Yale University history professor Joanne B. Freeman says these remembrances, and presidential legacies, are shaped by current political climates. And in this case, she says, the need for a retort to the increasingly caustic political landscape has been palpable in our eulogizing.

“It feels to me like a very emotionally needy moment that’s making use of Bush’s reputation to serve a purpose,” said Freeman. “It’s become a mourning for decency moment that really isn’t about Bush at all.”

Using a polished version of a president’s reputation for specific ends is “a tradition that goes back to the dawn of the republic,” Freeman says.

Anyone who has seen the musical Hamilton knows the story of the Federalist Party’s attempt to discredit Alexander Hamilton as a co-author of George Washington’s farewell address to make Washington, and in turn the party, look better.

But Freeman says this moment is unique in its near-total focus on Bush’s character as opposed to his political impact. A record that includes unwavering support for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Bush’s nominee who was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill in a grueling confirmation process that activists say paved the way for the similarly contentious confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The problem, for activists and survivors of sexual assault, is that the exaltation of Bush as a “gentleman” and “America’s last great soldier-statesman” feels incomplete.

“Which part of him was ‘boy-next-door bonhomie’ when he groped numerous women?” says Elizabeth Xu Tang, an equal justice fellow with the National Women’s Law Center, referencing a New Yorker tribute.

“We’ve sanitized the history of so many things,” Tang says. “To start that process immediately, the second they die, is so irresponsible, it’s untruthful.”

Tang notes that Bush’s last tweet praised Sen. Susan Collins for her “political courage and class” following her vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault; he denies any wrongdoing.

Bush “felt that it was necessary to publicly speak out about [someone accused of] serial sexual assault, and that it was commendable and courageous,” Tang says. “I think that tells you everything you need to know about his thoughts on #MeToo and sexual assault and women’s bodily autonomy.”

Leshko, too, noted the tweet.

“The fact that the Kavanaugh hearing and confirmation is still raw for so many women, and recognizing that his final tweet was in support of Kavanaugh, it just makes it really hard for me to hear people say he harkens back to a kinder and gentler time in our politics,” Leshko said. “If you actually look back on certain periods of history as kinder and gentler, odds are you benefit from privilege you’re not fully aware of.”

An overwhelming response to mentions of the groping allegations, as well as other Bush critiques, has been “not now.” Vox, one of the few media outlets to broach the allegations and Bush’s legacy, was met with derisive replies on Twitter, saying the decision to publish a day after his death was “disgusting” and “uncalled for.”

“We have this powerful cultural belief you’re not supposed to talk badly about people who have died,” said Mahri Irvine, an adjunct lecturer on race, gender and culture studies at American University. “Now that they’re dead we can’t bring up anything bad or shady about their past.”

This extends beyond presidents to celebrities but everyday Americans, as well. It’s why stigmatized issues, like suicide, remain rarely mentioned after someone dies and why candid obituaries about drug use go viral.

Part of the reason for glossing over, says Irvine, is that many people struggle with duality. 

“You can have men, and you do, who genuinely are kind, compassionate, respectful, care for children and care for their spouses, who are very kind and good to most people,” and behave differently around others.

Nickerson said in terms of presidential legacy, it’s important to embrace complexity.

“It’s appropriate to do it as soon as possible lest we fail to recognize all of this as part of a collective legacy, the good and the bad, the warts and all,” she said.

Many people want to ignore complexity, but when that happens with someone as powerful as a president, historians say it can be problematic.

“When something becomes complicated, one rather useless response is ‘Oh, we’ll just not say anything about it at all.’ Which makes matters worse by erasing it,” said Freeman. “There are all kinds of populations and constituencies that get erased that way. Until recently, race was a non-issue for Thomas Jefferson, and … think of all the people who were thereby erased, all the people who were not included in history.”

Irvine says women’s voices are often erased.

“Women and girls are taught, even if they have a very valid complaint about something, they need to be polite and respectful,” Irvine said. “By telling Bush’s victims that they need to stay silent right now, or by complaining about reporters who are going to cover the topic, it’s reinforcing this patriarchal idea that women’s voices are less important and less valued than dead men’s.”

Women are told it’s never a good time for sexual allegations, Tang said: When a young woman accuses a young man, it’s not the right time because the boy has his whole life ahead of him. In middle age, it’ll ruin the man’s reputation at the height of his career. When men are old, it’s dismissed as having happened so long ago. And after death, it’s unacceptable to speak ill of the dead.

It’s that frustration that inspired Leshko to speak out.

“I have total empathy for the Bush family. They had two major losses in seven months. I understand that,” she said. “But I think expressing these viewpoints is important, particularly while his legacy is being discussed in the public eye. Bush wasn’t my father, he wasn’t my uncle. He was my president and his actions had significant consequences for people in this country and abroad. It needs to be considered part of the legacy.”

 

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2018/12/07/george-h-w-bush-why-were-not-talking-his-history-women/2228683002/