Detail of a scarf print from the Beyond Buckskin Boutique. Photo courtesy of shop.beyondbuckskin.com. Download Full Image
Morris said by spearheading innovative partnerships and leveraging resources from ASU, tribes and community organizations, she hopes that Inno-NATIONS will create a “collision community,” causing a ripple effect of economic change in tribal communities.
Both events are free and take place at The Department in downtown Phoenix.
Inno-NATIONS will also launch a three-day pilot cohort with approximately 20 Native American businesses starting in June.
“Beyond Buckskin” features Jessica Metcalfe, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Dartmouth graduate and entrepreneur, who grew a small online store into a successful boutique on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
The store promotes and sells Native American-made couture, streetwear, jewelry, and accessories from more than 40 Native American and First Nations artist, employing tribe members from the Turtle Mountain community.
ASU Now spoke to Metcalfe to discuss her work.
Jessica Metcalfe
Question: We’ve seen Native American fashion emerge and evolve. How did you get into the business?
Answer: I was writing my master’s thesis in 2005 and my advisor at the time had told me about some research she had done, which looked at Native American fashion in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. She had wondered if I was interested in picking up where her research left off. I looked into it and found that there were these breadcrumbs, little bits here in there, that something had been going on in the past 60-70 years, but hadn’t been looked at as a collective movement.
Through my doctoral dissertation, what I discovered was that Native American fashion has gone through waves of acknowledgements by the broader public, but what we’re experiencing now is perhaps the biggest wave yet.
You have designers like Patricia Michaels out at New York’s Style Fashion Week and the Native Fashion Now traveling exhibit touring the country, so there’s really a lot of exciting things happening lately. It’s coming from a collective movement. Designers basically grouping together to share costs but also to put together more events to cause a bigger ruckus.
Q: How did you build your online store into a brick-and-mortar business?
A: I first launched a blog in 2009 as an outlet for my dissertation research, and wanted to share it with more people and to also get more stories and experiences. My readers kept asking where could they see and buy these clothes? At that time, there wasn’t an easy way to access functions like a Native American Pow Wow or market in order to do that.
I had established a rapport with designers through my research and writing. They saw what I was doing through the blog and then a question popped into my head. “How would you feel about creating a business together?” There were 11 initial designers who said they needed the space, and I worked with them to sell their goods online. We just now opened our design lab on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. We are creating a system where we can meet demand and maximize a need in Indian Country.
We employ Native Americans from ages 15 to 22. There aren’t a whole lot of opportunities for people that age on the reservation. They either work at the grocery store or the gas station. One of them is interested in film and photography and so they run our photo shoots. Another person is interested in business entrepreneurship, and they get to see how an idea goes from concept to execution.
Q: The subtext is that this isn’t just about fashion but, history, representation and cultural appropriation?
A: Our clothing is just more than just objects. It’s about how the material was gathered, what the colors represent, what stories are being told and how does that tie into our value system. One of the things I often discuss is the Native American headdress. Our leaders wear them as a symbol of their leadership and the dedication to their communities. These stories are a way to share our culture with non-Natives and protect our legacy for future generations.
Q: Why is it important for Native American businesses to branch out into other cultures?
A: Native American people desperately need to diversify their economic opportunities on and off the reservations. Up until recently, people haven’t thought of fashion or art as a viable career path.
A recent study conducted by First Peoples Fund that found a third of all Native American people are practicing or are potential artists. That is a huge resource we already have in Indian Country and we need to tap it and develop it, and push for Natives in various fields to look at themselves as entrepreneurs and launching businesses.
Now, Native American people have an opportunity to make a positive impact in their local communities by reaching people through their art and sharing our culture with the rest of the world.
Until this week, Trump had issued only threats to regulate or penalize Facebook, Google-owned YouTube and Twitter over a range of claims, even suggesting at one point that the industry tried to undermine his election. Previously, however, the White House has backed down, even shelving prior versions of its executive order targeting social media companies.
Two weeks ago, as she was preparing to walk across the graduation stage and finish her high school career, she got a call from March for Our Lives: It was time to organize.
“Most of the work was done by me and my co-director,” she said. “We both just graduated high school, and we spent two full weeks, night and day, getting everything we could.”
The result was a turnout of at least hundreds of people of all ages — Schramkowski said about 2,000 people RSVPed, but she thinks the number of people who took part was likely double that.
Marches against gun violence were planned in other cities across Georgia, including Marietta, Snellville, Gainesville, Columbus and Augusta. The national effort is a renewed push for gun control measures after recent deadly mass shootings — from the Uvalde, Texas, school where 19 students and two teachers were killed, to a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, where 10 people died.
Of those in attendance was 16-year-old Leah Cox. She brought her dad with her to the march to support a cause they both strongly believe in.
“I’ve grown up seeing these shootings on the TV screen, being reported for my entire life, and I think this is the least I could do to show my support,” she said. “Our schools should not be built to be bulletproof. You should be able to be in institutions of learning and not have to worry about gun safety and what could happen in the next moment.”
Like many protesters, Leah said she was deeply impacted by the Parkland shooting. She was in seventh grade at the time.
“I think hearing and seeing the coverage of this of the shooting, and the helicopters are hovering the school and seeing all the kids that had to run out and file out for safety, and hearing about how so many people died, I think it was really shocking to me,” Leah said.
Her father, Tyrone Cox, said he has always believed in gun control. When comparing today’s gun violence in schools to when he was in school, he says the difference is “unimaginable.”
“I think it’s just senseless,” he said. “And I think that all the politicians need to be held accountable.”
Many other parents were in attendance, both on their own and with their children in tow. One group, Moms Demand Action, had many protesters sporting their bright red T-shirts.
“I don’t want to be afraid for my children when they’re in college, but it happens on college campuses too,” mother Tommie Campbell said. “We just got to end this gun violence immediately. We can’t have the police afraid to go in and save children because they’re armed with more gun power than they are.”
Campbell, brought to tears while describing why she’s marching, said “something’s gotta be done.”
“I guess I understand that people are afraid, and they want to protect themselves, but I don’t think it’s acceptable to have machine guns,” she said.
The approximately one-mile march, which started at Ebenezer Baptist Church and ended at Woodruff Park, was punctuated by passionate speeches from community leaders and politicians, including U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath and Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs.
Nearly every speaker mentioned the late congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis. Lewis marched alongside protesters in 2018 in Atlanta’s first March for Our Lives. That year’s rally, which happened less than two months after 17 students and adults were killed in the Parkland school shooting, featured student survivors as speakers and drew about 30,000 downtown.
On Saturday, Williams told the crowd, “Each of you is building on the legacy of my friend, my mentor, my predecessor, the late John Lewis.”
Credit: Reann Huber
Credit: Reann Huber
Credit: Reann Huber
Credit: Reann Huber
“Y’all, I’m proud of y’all,” Griggs said as he looked out into the crowd at Woodruff Park. “John would be proud of you right now. Martin (Luther King Jr.) would be proud of you right now. This is the birthplace of civil rights. But I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: We’re also the birthplace of social justice. So let’s send a message to Washington. The message is, protect these young people’s lives.”
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz delivered scathing testimony Wednesday about the FBI’s missteps in applying for a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser.
Horowitz was grilled for nearly six hours by lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Republicans and Democrats using their time to advance competing narratives about the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia.
Here are five takeaways from the hearing on the inspector general’s inquiry.
It was a bad day for the FBI
Horowitz’s testimony laid bare the extent of the breakdown in the FBI’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, a point Republicans repeatedly hammered.
The inspector general reported a total of 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the applications to monitor Page, taking particular issue with applications to renew the FISA warrant and chastising the FBI for a lack of satisfactory explanations for those mistakes.
The FBI got a reprieve from many Democratic lawmakers who expressed admiration for its work and sought to underscore Horowitz’s finding that the bureau was not influenced by political bias in launching its investigation.
Horowitz’s criticism of the FBI offered plenty of talking points for Trump and his defenders, some of whom have distorted the conclusions of the report to baselessly accuse agents of a politically motivated effort to investigate the Trump campaign.
The inspector general turned up evidence that an FBI lawyer altered a document in connection with a renewal application for the Page warrant, a detail that Trump and Republicans have seized on.
Horowitz reiterated that he found no testimonial or documentary evidence of political bias or other improper motivation driving the FBI’s decision to open the counterintelligence investigation — dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” — into the Trump campaign and Russia.
Horowitz also said that it was his conclusion that the investigation was adequately predicated. Those findings and other details of the report have undercut arguments made by Trump and his allies about the impropriety of the investigation.
But at the same time, Horowitz said that the explanations his office received from officials about the errors and omissions were not “satisfactory” and was careful about making a definitive statement about a lack of bias in the attorney’s actions with respect to the warrant.
Republicans argued that the mistakes made during the course of the investigation were deliberate and malicious.
“It may have started lawfully. It got off the rails quick,” Graham said. “It became a criminal conspiracy to defraud the FISA court, to put Mr. Page through hell, and to continue to surveil President Trump after he got elected. And I hope somebody pays a price for that.”
Rare agreement for reform of the process
Republicans and Democrats appeared in agreement on one thing following Wednesday’s hearing: the need for changes to the FISA program to avoid the missteps Horowitz identified in his report.
“If the [FISA] court doesn’t take corrective action and do something about being manipulated and lied to, you will lose my support,” Graham said, adding that he would like to see more “checks and balances.”
“I’d welcome suggestions from FBI Director [Christopher] Wray … to ensure the errors we saw here in the Page process don’t happen again,” Coons said, adding there should be considerations for civil liberties as well.
Horowitz said the inspector general’s office does not make legislative recommendations to Congress, but instead would relay its suggestions within the Justice Department about how the FISA process could be improved.
Horowitz resists political fight
The watchdog chose his words carefully throughout Wednesday’s appearance.
He tiptoed around some of the more politically charged questions from members, seeking to avoid wading into debates about whether the president’s campaign was “spied” on and declining to speculate on matters beyond his report.
Horowitz also declined to weigh in on Barr’s disagreement with his findings after the attorney general issued a statement Monday saying the investigation had been launched on the “thinnest” of suspicions.
“He’s free to have his opinion. We have our finding,” Horowitz said.
His effort to avoid political statements did not come as a surprise; Horowitz, a former assistant U.S. attorney, has been described as an independent voice and a straight shooter who seeks to stay away from politics.
Spotlight on internal Justice Department disagreements
Horowitz’s testimony offered new details about the daylight between him and some top Justice Department officials over his finding that the investigation was adequately predicated.
He also said he met with Durham in November to discuss his findings, at which point Durham told Horowitz he believed the FBI would have been justified in opening a “preliminary investigation,” but not a full one.
“He said that he did not necessarily agree with our conclusion about the opening of a full counterintelligence investigation, which is what this was,” Horowitz recalled.
Horowitz also said he communicated with Barr, who also disagreed with the conclusion as to the predicate, before the report’s release.
“None of the discussions changed our findings here,” Horowitz said.
Barr elaborated on his opinions during an NBC News interview Tuesday, calling the FBI’s case “flimsy” and saying the steps taken were not justified by the evidence.
Quién le teme a Marcos Peña: Secretos del mariscal zen de Macri. La pulseada que terminó con Prat-Gay e Isela Costantini fuera del Gobierno. Vacaciones en Uruguay y pasado de mochilero. Las bromas por su humilde patrimonio. Además: el mandato de su tatuaje chino.
Ministro pequeño, lobby grande: Por qué la City y Clarín festejan el nombramiento de Nicolás Dujovne. El verdadero vínculo con Trump. Denuncian presiones de su padre para construir en Puerto Madero.
Provocación: a 20 años del crimen, liberan a Prellezo, el asesino de José Luis Cabezas.
La nueva perla K en Miami: US$ 2,2 millones por un piso en Key Biscaine. Está a nombre de la esposa de Pablo Copetti, hijo del ex tesorero del Frente para la Victoria, Raúl Copetti.
Además:
María del Cerro: llegó a la semifinal del “Bailando por un sueño” y conduce dos series por Discovery. La seguridad que ganó al ser madre y cómo la movilizó hacer pública su historia familiar.
Febo asoma: Los especialistas recomiendan unos 20 minutos diarios de sol, con protección en verano. Los peligros de la falta de vitamina D.
Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged during a news conference in Rome that he listened in on the call, on which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son.
Current and former U.S. officials also told The Washington Post that Trump involved Vice President Pence in efforts to pressure Zelensky at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to Biden.
The former vice president, meanwhile, told reporters at a forum on guns that the president’s actions were “beyond anything I frankly thought he would do.” And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a television interview that she believes Trump is “scared” of the inquiry.
●Impeachment inquiry erupts into battle between executive, legislative branches
6:15 p.m.: Trump on Schiff: ‘They should look at him for treason’
Trump on Wednesday renewed his attacks on Schiff by arguing that the California Democrat should be tried for treason — which is defined as aiding an enemy with which the United States is at war.
“It should be criminal,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, referring to Schiff’s characterization of his phone call with Zelensky at a hearing last week. “It should be treasonous. … He should resign from office in disgrace, and frankly, they should look at him for treason.”
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Trump’s assertion that Schiff committed treason. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether Trump has directed his administration to pursue legal action against Schiff.
The U.S. Constitution defines treason as the act of someone who, “owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.”
While the common usage of the term can be very broad, the legal definition of treason is limited to Americans who act on behalf of a country with which the United States is at war. There are fewer than three dozen treason convictions in U.S. history, including during World War II and the Whiskey Rebellion.
— Devlin Barrett
6 p.m.: Trump involved Pence in efforts to press Ukraine’s leader, though aides say vice president was unaware of pursuit for dirt on Bidens
Trump repeatedly involved Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to a Democratic rival, current and former U.S. officials said.
Trump instructed Pence not to attend the inauguration of Zelensky in May — an event White House officials had pushed to put on the vice president’s calendar — at a time when Ukraine’s new leader was seeking recognition and support from Washington, the officials said.
Months later, the president used Pence to tell Zelensky that U.S. aid was still being withheld while demanding more aggressive action on corruption, officials said. At that time — after Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenksy — the Ukrainians probably understood action on corruption to include the investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
4:45 p.m.: Biden: ‘It’s way beyond anything I frankly thought he would do.’
Biden told reporters that he was surprised that Trump asked a foreign leader for help getting information that could damage his presidential campaign, saying, “It’s way beyond anything I frankly thought he would do.”
Biden, who spoke to reporters at a forum on gun violence in Las Vegas, was told that the president that afternoon had referred to Biden and his son Hunter as “stone cold crooked.” Asked whether he has spoken to his son about any of the controversy, Biden said they’d “communicated a couple times.”
“Look, the issue is — this president of the United States engaged in something apparently that is close to, well, engaged in activity which, at minimum, gives a lot of running room for the Russians and Ukraine, and I think we should just focus on — he’s the issue,” Biden said. “Nobody has ever asserted that I did anything wrong except he and what’s that fellow’s name? Rudy? … Giuliani?”
— Chelsea Janes
4:15 p.m.: Buttigieg and Castro dodge questions about whether they’d allow their vice president’s child to serve on a foreign board
Pete Buttigieg and Julián Castro, both 2020 candidates, were asked whether they’d allow the son or daughter of their vice president to serve on a foreign board as former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter did in Ukraine.
Both candidates dismissed the question as doing Trump’s bidding.
“So one thing that is really important right now is to deny this president to change the subject, and the subject is that the president confessed on national television to an abuse of power. Let’s deal with that and not get caught in the shiny objects he’s going to throw out,” Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., said.
Castro, who was housing and urban development secretary in the Obama administration, said the question allows Trump to “use the same playbook against Joe Biden as he used against Hillary Clinton.”
“He’s trying to besmirch the reputation of an honorable public servant who has given a lot of honest years of public service so that he can try and win a narrow electoral college victory,” Castro said.
Buttigieg and Castro each spoke to reporters after speaking at a forum on gun violence. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) were asked about impeachment and their role as jurors if the Senate holds trial, but not the specific question related to Hunter Biden.
— Chelsea Janes
3:30 p.m.: White House will preserve records of Trump’s communications, Justice Department says
Justice Department attorneys promised a federal judge Wednesday that the White House will not destroy records of the president’s calls and meetings with foreign leaders while the court weighs a lawsuit brought by historians and watchdog groups.
In a two-page filing, Justice Department lawyer Kathryn L. Wyer told a federal judge in Washington that the Trump administration and executive office of the president “voluntarily agree … to preserve the material at issue pending” litigation.
The filing came after U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday set a 3 p.m. deadline for the government after the suing groups requested a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed in May to compel the administration to comply with the federal Presidential Records Act.
Three organizations — government watchdog groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, and National Security Archive, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations — alleged that the White House was failing to create and save records as required of Trump’s meetings and communications with foreign leaders.
The lawsuit preceded the current storm surrounding a Democratic House impeachment inquiry into the White House. However, the plaintiffs on Tuesday asked Jackson for an emergency order, saying the whistleblower’s complaint and the White House’s subsequent’s admissions exposed record keeping practices “specifically designed to conceal the president’s abuse of his power,” CREW said in a statement.
The Justice Department has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying appeals courts have precluded courts from weighing in on presidents’ compliance with the archiving law, “not to mention the President’s broad authority to negotiate with foreign leaders.”
— Spencer Hsu
3:15 p.m.: Trump doesn’t answer when asked what he wanted from Ukraine on Bidens
During Wednesday’s joint news conference, Trump refused to answer what exactly he wanted from the Ukrainian president regarding Joe and Hunter Biden.
Instead, Trump ignored the question and focused his answer on why he held back military aid to Ukraine, citing, as he has in the past, corruption in Ukraine and the unsubstantiated claim that the United States is the “only one who gives the big money to Ukraine.”
When Reuters’s Jeff Mason tried again and again to ask the Biden-specific question, Trump became angry and demanded that Mason “not be rude” and instead ask a question of the Finnish president. When Mason pressed him, Trump responded that “Biden and his son are stone cold crooked,” then leveled his oft-made attack against the “fake news” media.
3 p.m.: With no evidence, Trump accuses Schiff of having helped write whistleblower complaint
At a fiery joint news conference late Wednesday afternoon with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, Trump continued to lash out at Schiff, accusing him, with no evidence, of having helped write the whistleblower’s complaint.
Trump made the comment in response to a question about a New York Times report stating that Schiff had learned the outlines of the whistleblower’s concerns days before the individual filed a formal complaint.
“Well, I think it’s a scandal that he knew before,” Trump said of Schiff. “I’d go a step further. I think he probably helped write it, okay? That’s what the word is. … He knew long before, and he helped write it, too. It’s a scam. It’s a scam.”
Schiff said in a statement ahead of the news conference that “at no point did the Committee review or receive the complaint in advance,” and that his panel did not receive the complaint until the night before acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testified last Thursday.
The whistleblower first contacted the Intelligence Committee “for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Community,” Schiff said.
“This is a regular occurrence, given the Committee’s unique oversight role and responsibilities,” he said, adding that “consistent with the Committee’s long-standing procedures, Committee staff appropriately advised the whistleblower to contact an Inspector General and to seek legal counsel.”
2:10 p.m.: Pelosi said Trump ‘scared’ of impeachment inquiry
Pelosi said during a television interview Wednesday that she believes Trump is “scared” of the impeachment inquiry being led by House Democrats.
“I think the president knows the argument that can be made against him, and he’s scared,” Pelosi said in an interview with ABC News, excerpts of which were released Wednesday afternoon. “And so he’s trying to divert attention from that to where [he’s] standing in the way of legislation.”
ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi whether Trump had fear in his voice when the two spoke last week before her announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry in response to the whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s call with Zelensky.
“I saw the surprise in his voice that he didn’t understand that I thought what he did was wrong,” Pelosi said. “That he was undermining our national security, that he was undermining our Constitution by his actions, and he was undermining the integrity of our elections. He just didn’t see it.”
1:30 p.m.: California’s governor offers a rejoinder to Trump
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) took to Twitter to respond to Trump’s comments about him during a 13-minute stretch of Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Niinistö in which they fielded questions from reporters.
In the midst of insults directed at Pelosi and Schiff, Trump also derided Newsom as “a do-nothing” as he complained about a California law that would keep him off the primary ballot in the state next year if he doesn’t publicly release his taxes.
“Hello @realDonaldTrump…heard you just gave me a shout out in the Oval Office,” Newsom tweeted. “Actually watched your press conference — mainly just feel bad for the poor President of Finland who had to endure that. Today, we are all Sauli Niinistö.”
Hello @realDonaldTrump…heard you just gave me a shout out in the Oval Office.
Actually watched your press conference — mainly just feel bad for the poor President of Finland who had to endure that.
12:50 p.m.: Trump says identity of the whistleblower’s sources should be public
Trump, during an event in the Oval Office, called for the identity of those who provided information to the whistleblower to be publicly disclosed.
“This country has to find out who that person was, because that person’s a spy, in my opinion,” Trump told reporters while visiting Finnish President Sauli Niinistö looked on.
The whistleblower said his complaint was based on conversations with more than a half dozen U.S. officials.
In his remarks Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that there is value in protecting the identity of whistleblowers in some cases.
“I think a whistleblower should be protected if the whistleblower’s legitimate,” he said.
Trump also expanded on grievances aired earlier Wednesday on Twitter and took repeated shots at Schiff and Pelosi.
The president called Schiff “a low life” and a “shifty dishonest guy” and again called for him to resign.
Among other things, Trump took issue with Schiff having criticized Pompeo, saying “that guy couldn’t carry his blank strap.” Trump said he was trying to sanitize a common phrase about carrying a jock strap.
Trump suggested Pelosi should focus on her San Francisco-area congressional district, where he said there are people living in tents and “people dying in squalor.”
12:15 p.m.: State Department employees feel caught in the middle, diplomat says
Many State Department employees feel that they are caught in the middle of a political battle between the agency and House committees, said a U.S. diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to comment frankly about the adverse impact on morale.
Career Foreign Service officers are expected to follow the direction of State Department leadership and respond to congressional requests. It may not be possible to do both now.
“People are not politicized, and they’re very anxious not to be,” the diplomat said, referring to a number of clashes, including the impeachment inquiry, the pressure on Ukraine that led to the removal of the U.S. ambassador to Kiev and a reopened investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. “They want to do their jobs, serve their country and not be pulled into this.”
The diplomat has not spoken to anyone who feels bullied and intimidated, as Pompeo characterized the reaction to congressional outreach.
But the diplomat said employees expect Pompeo to defend them more vociferously than he has so far. The gold standard, still recalled with admiration in Foggy Bottom, the diplomat said, was set by George Shultz when he was secretary of state. In 1985, he threatened to resign over a Reagan administration proposal to require lie detector tests for all employees with access to highly classified information.
“The idea is that the secretary of state should stand up for them,” the diplomat said. Of Pompeo, he added: “There have been some generic comments, but nothing specific. The expectation is he should say more, and do more.”
— Carol Morello
11:50 a.m.: Trump insults Pelosi and Schiff, uses profanity to describe inquiry
Trump continued to hurl insults at Pelosi and Schiff as they conducted their news conference, and he later referred to the impeachment inquiry as “BULLSHIT.”
Writing on Twitter, Trump dismissed comments by Pelosi that House Democrats continue to want to work with the White House on trade and lowering prescription drug prices.
“She is incapable of working on either,” Trump said of Pelosi. “It is just camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment. The Do Nothing Democrats are stuck in mud!”
Trump also sought to make the case that Schiff compares unfavorably to Pompeo.
“Adam B. Schiff should only be so lucky to have the brains, honor and strength of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” Trump tweeted. “For a lowlife like Schiff, who completely fabricated my words and read them to Congress as though they were said by me, to demean a First in Class at West Point, is SAD!”
At a hearing last week, Schiff presented an embellished version of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. He later said it was meant as a parody and said that should have been apparent to Trump.
Shortly after the new conference wrapped up, Trump returned to Twitter.
“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306,” he wrote, referring to the electoral college results in the election. “Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!”
Trump’s tweet did not accurately convey the final electoral college results. Because of “faithless electors” who ended up voting for other people, Clinton’s final electoral college tally was 227, reduced from 232, and Trump’s went from 306 to 304.
11:30 a.m.: Schiff says, ‘We’re not fooling around here’
Schiff warned the White House on Wednesday that stonewalling could lead to an additional article of impeachment on obstruction of justice.
“We’re not fooling around here,” Schiff said as he appeared with Pelosi at a news conference on Capitol Hill shortly after House Democrats announced that they would subpoena the White House for documents. The subpoena will go out this week or next, Schiff said.
Democrats, he added, “are deeply concerned about Secretary Pompeo’s effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses whose testimony is needed before our committee.”
Pelosi said Democrats “place ourselves in a time of urgency” and observed that the country’s founders never thought they would have a president “kick those guardrails” of checks and balances provided by the Constitution.
She noted that “we have to give the president the chance to exonerate himself,” but so far, he’s described his actions as “perfect.”
11:20 a.m.: Trump accuses Democrats of trying to hurt the country
Trump asserted Wednesday that the stock market was going down because of the impeachment inquiry and accused House Democrats of trying to deliberately hurt the county.
He latest tweet came as Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) held a news conference on Capitol Hill.
“All of this impeachment nonsense, which is going nowhere, is driving the Stock Market, and your 401K’s, down,” Trump tweeted. “But that is exactly what the Democrats want to do. They are willing to hurt the Country, with only the 2020 Election in mind!”
10:35 a.m.: Trump attacks Democrats ahead of Pelosi news conference
Trump went on Twitter to attack House Democrats shortly before Pelosi was scheduled to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.).
In a pair of tweets, Trump renewed his call for Schiff to resign and attacked Democrats more broadly as “Do Nothing Democrats.”
At a hearing last week, Schiff presented an embellished version of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. He later said it was meant as a parody and said that should have been apparent to Trump.
“Congressman Adam Schiff should resign for the Crime of, after reading a transcript of my conversation with the President of Ukraine (it was perfect), fraudulently fabricating a statement of the President of the United States and reading it to Congress, as though mine! He is sick!” Trump tweeted.
He also shared a quote from Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College in New York state, who had appeared as a guest on Fox News.
“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats haven’t met the standards of impeachment. They have to be very careful here,” read the quote.
10:30 a.m.: House Democrats to subpoena White House for documents in its impeachment inquiry focused on Ukraine
In a memo issued Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said that the White House’s “flagrant disregard of multiple voluntary requests for documents — combined with stark and urgent warnings from the Inspector General about the gravity of these allegations — have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena.”
The subpoena will be issued Friday, according to Cummings’s memo.
The memo said the subpoena will seek documents that the committee first requested on Sept. 9.
9:30 a.m.: Eric Trump cites Republican fundraising as he taunts Democrats
The president’s son Eric Trump went on Twitter on Wednesday morning to taunt Democrats for their impeachment inquiry.
In a tweet, he attached an Associated Press news story about Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee having raised a record $125 million in the third quarter of the year.
“This is what happens when you manufacture nonsense… the American people see right through it. Keep it up @SpeakerPelosi,” Eric Trump wrote.
9:15 a.m.: State Department’s inspector general headed to Capitol Hill for afternoon meeting
Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general, plans to meet with staffers of key House and Senate committees Wednesday at 3 p.m. at his request.
The committees were notified Tuesday that Linick wants “to discuss and provide staff with copies of documents related to the State Department and Ukraine,” according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.
The offer by Linick’s office, which operates mostly independently from the State Department and is responsible for investigating abuse and mismanagement, comes amid a standoff between Pompeo and House Democrats, who are demanding documents and testimony on Ukraine-related matters for their impeachment inquiry.
Linick’s office “obtained the documents from the acting legal adviser of the Department of State,” the letter said. The inspector general doesn’t have to seek Pompeo’s approval to approach Congress with information, especially if it is not classified.
It is unclear exactly what Linick will provide the committees, which include the panels in charge of foreign relations, intelligence, appropriations and oversight in the House and Senate. But the demand for any credible information related to Ukraine and the State Department is at a fever pitch as Democrats seek to build the case for Trump’s ouster based on his dealings with Ukraine’s leadership.
— Karoun Demirjian and John Hudson
9 a.m.: Trump focuses on other issues in first tweets of the day
Unlike previous days, impeachment did not dominate Trump’s early activity on Twitter on Wednesday.
He instead turned to other topics, including his promised border wall and a federal judge’s order to block a California law that would require Trump to release his tax returns for access to the state’s primary election ballot.
“I won the right to be a presidential candidate in California, in a major Court decision handed down yesterday,” Trump wrote. “It was filed against me by the Radical Left Governor of that State to tremendous Media hoopla. The VICTORY, however, was barely covered by the Fake News. No surprise!”
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the state would appeal the ruling.
In early tweets, Trump also urged Louisiana voters to pick a Republican candidate in the state’s gubernatorial primary on Oct. 12. Candidates from both parties compete in the state’s “jungle primary.”
8:15 a.m.: Former staff members say it’s unusual for a secretary of state to listen in on a call with leader of small nation
Former staff members who worked on foreign leader calls said it is very unusual for a secretary of state to listen in on calls with leaders from a country as small as Ukraine.
Partly it is because the secretary of state’s schedule is very busy and rarely aligns with the president’s schedule of routine calls to heads of state, so they arrange only to be on major foreign leader conversations.
When Rex Tillerson was secretary of state, for example, he would coordinate plans to listen in on Trump’s calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The former staffers on the National Security Council said Pompeo’s presence on this call suggests the subject or the purpose of the call had high importance to the president, and thus to him. The former staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak more candidly.
— Carol D. Leonnig
7:15 a.m.: Pompeo confirms he was on Trump’s July call with Zelensky
Pompeo acknowledged publicly for the first time Wednesday that he was on the July call between Trump and the leader of Ukraine.
Asked about the episode during a news conference in Rome, Pompeo said, “I was on the phone call.”
In response to a multipart question, he did not say whether he was comfortable with Trump’s pressing of Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter.
Pompeo said the call focused on issues such as the threat that Russia poses to Ukraine and the need for Ukraine to root out corruption.
He said the United States would consider to pursue those issues “even while all this noise is going on.”
During a Sept. 22 appearance on ABC News’s “This Week,” Pompeo was asked what he knew about Trump’s conversation with Zelensky following an initial Wall Street Journal report that the call was part of a whistleblower complaint.
Pompeo responded by saying he hadn’t seen the whistleblower report. He later said he had seen a statement from the Ukrainian foreign minister that there was no pressure applied on Zelensky. Pompeo made no mention of being on the call.
During his news conference Wednesday, Pompeo also repeated his claims from a letter on Tuesday that House Democratic staffers have been seeking to intimidate State Department officials in their efforts to learn more about Trump’s call with Zelensky.
“We won’t tolerate folks on Capitol Hill bullying, intimidating State Department employees. That’s unacceptable, and it’s not something that I’m going to permit to happen.” Pompeo said.
6:30 a.m.: Country to hear directly from Trump, Pelosi on Wednesday
The country will hear directly from the two leading figures in the impeachment drama — Trump and Pelosi — at separately scheduled news conferences on Wednesday.
Pelosi plans to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill at 10:45 a.m. She will be accompanied by Schiff, who has become the public face for Democrats in the impeachment inquiry.
Trump, meanwhile, has a 2 p.m. joint news conference scheduled with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who is visiting the White House on Wednesday. Trump is certain to get questions from U.S. journalists about the impeachment drive.
6:15 a.m.: Critics blast Trump for calling his impeachment inquiry a ‘COUP’
Trump claimed he was a victim of a coup d’etat on Tuesday night, continuing his dramatic rhetoric that has drawn fierce pushback from legal scholars and Democrats since the House impeachment inquiry began last week.
“As I learn more and more each day,” he wrote on Twitter, “I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of the United States of America!”
Critics disputed the president’s tweet by pointing to basic definitions of a coup d’etat, a violent illegal overthrow of the government by an opposing group, and impeachment, a legal process laid out in the Constitution. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), a presidential hopeful, even suggested Trump should not be allowed to make such a remark on Twitter, sharing his “COUP” tweet with CEO Jack Dorsey.
6 a.m.: Giuliani suggests suing Democrats over Ukraine probe
On Tuesday night, Rudolph W. Giuliani proposed an unusual legal strategy in response to the ongoing investigation into President Trump’s dealings in Ukraine: suing Democratic members of Congress.
Speaking on the Fox News show “The Ingraham Angle,” Trump’s personal attorney said that he “had a couple of talks” with attorneys amid the accelerating impeachment probe and a House subpoena for his own personal records concerning Ukraine. Their recommendation, Giuliani said, was “that we should bring a lawsuit on behalf of the president and several people in the administration, maybe even myself as a lawyer, against the members of Congress individually for violating constitutional rights, violating civil rights.”
Host Laura Ingraham noted that Giuliani’s suggestion was “novel,” and that congressional immunity prevents House members from being sued for anything they say on the floor. But outside those parameters, Giuliani argued, they could be held liable for forming a “conspiracy” to deprive the president of his constitutional rights.
HONG KONG, 29 de mayo de 2017 /PRNewswire/ — G2A News es un sitio web en crecimiento dedicado a ofrecer a sus visitantes las noticias más recientes sobre la industria de los juegos. Como división periodística del mercado digital G2A.COM, hay varias categorías de contenido disponibles en el sitio web en constante crecimiento.
Este portal de noticias de juegos tiene una base creciente de más de mil artículos relacionados con la industria de los juegos. Los artículos se remontan a octubre de 2016 y el archivo crece diariamente. Esta categoría contiene información sobre anuncios y lanzamientos de juegos nuevos, eventos de tendencias y muchos otros aspectos de la industria de los juegos.
La categoría Reviews contiene las opiniones de los autores sobre juegos nuevos, presentadas en un registro informal fácil de leer. Cada reseña incluye un resumen de las características buenas y malas del juego reseñado, así como una calificación porcentual. Hay también tablas que detallan los requisitos de sistema y las especificaciones de hardware usadas para testear el juego, cuando es pertinente.
La categoría Previews es un conjunto de miradas iniciales sobre próximas producciones, y reúne información desarticulada de muchas fuentes en artículos exhaustivos.
La última de las categorías principales es Features. Esta sección reúne textos que no encajan en ninguna otra. En ella se incluyen listas mensuales de lanzamientos de juegos nuevos, juegos destacados, listas de juegos principales y otras cosas.
G2A News no se centra solamente en juegos para PC, sino que acoge también todas las ramas de la industria de los juegos, incluso la escena de los deportes electrónicos y, ocasionalmente, aplicaciones móviles. El sitio web está creado por personas profundamente conocedoras de la industria de los juegos y vinculadas a ella, lo cual asegura un alto valor de contenido.
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Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
The Duchess of Cambridge made an unannounced visit in south London Saturday, to the memorial held for Sarah Everard, a 33-year old woman whose remains were discovered Friday.
Everard went missing after leaving a friend’s apartment around 9 p.m on March 3. She is believed to have been abducted and killed by a police officer who was charged Friday.
Kate Middleton, 39, visited the memorial set up for Everard in Clapham Common, a neighborhood near her home in Brixton, and where she was last spotted before her disappearance.
“She wanted to pay her respects to Sarah and her family,” a royal source told PEOPLE. “She remembers what it felt like to walk around London at night.”
Middleton stopped in front of the memorial with other women paying tribute to Everard, whose case has captured international attention.
The murder of the 33-year old has forced many to take to social media to question why women continue to be threatened by predators, and share personal stories of attacks or their communal fears of violence when walking home at night.
“When she went missing, any woman who has ever walked home alone at night felt that grim, instinctive sense of recognition,” columnist Gaby Hinsliff wrote in The Guardian. “Footsteps on a dark street. Keys gripped between your fingers. There but for the grace of God.”
Constable Wayne Couzens, 48, a member of the London police’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder.
He was set to appear in court Saturday.
Organizers planned a vigil in Everard’s memory Saturday, but due to coronavirus restrictions the ceremony was not permitted to be carried out.
“No woman in London should be unsafe on London’s streets and I understand the strength of feeling that has grown following Sarah’s disappearance,” Metropolitan Police Commander Catherine Roper said in a statement Friday. “As a woman and a police officer, I want nothing more than for women to feel safe and protected by the police.”
“But we need to be clear. Our city is still in a battle with Covid-19 with people continuing to be infected and sadly losing their lives. Only a few weeks ago our NHS was at breaking point, we cannot risk undoing all the hard work to reduce the infection rate,” she added.
Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, criticized GOP colleagues who plan to object during the counting of states’ electoral votes in Congress on January 6.
The Electoral College formally certified President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory over President Donald Trump last Monday—with the Democrat garnering 306 votes to the president’s 232. But some close allies of Trump in Congress have said they plan to object to vote tallies from several key battleground states in a longshot bid to overturn the election results. Trump and his supporters have claimed without evidence that Biden won through widespread voter fraud.
The Quote
During an interview with CNN on Monday morning, Kinzinger called out conspiracy theories being pushed by Trump and his supporters on social media. The Republican lawmaker has been highly critical of the misinformation about the election being circulated online.
“Now, you believe that somehow on January 6 the U.S. Congress can overthrow the results of an election, or that we even have a role in determining who the president is. We don’t,” Kinzinger told CNN, commenting on what Trump supporters think because of widely debunked conspiracy theories circulating on social media.
“But there has been some not serious people in Congress that have convinced their base, for retweets and money, that we can as members of Congress go out and determine that we just want Trump to be the president again in 2020,” the congressman added.
Why It Matters
Representative Mo Brooks, an Alabama Republican, is leading the effort to object to the vote tallies of several key battleground states that went for Biden. Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, said over the weekend that he plans to throw his support behind Brooks’ plan.
“I’m joining with the fighters in the Congress, and we are going to object to electors from states that didn’t run clean elections,” Gaetz said Saturday at conservative group Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit.
The Constitution does allow for members of Congress to submit their objections in writing to any state’s electoral votes. But in order for the objection to be discussed, a member of the House and Senate must both sign on to the objection. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, along with other Senate GOP leaders, has urged his colleagues to not join any House efforts to object. But several Republican senators have suggested they are open to the idea.
For the objection to succeed in overturning a state’s results, both the Senate and the House must agree to the objection with a simple majority vote. The prospect of even one of the chambers of Congress agreeing to an objection is considered highly unlikely. Even in the GOP-controlled Senate, there are enough Republican senators who are expected to join their Democratic colleagues in shooting down any objections. Meanwhile, the House is narrowly controlled by Democrats.
GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger questions witnesses during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on September 16. Kinzinger on Monday criticized GOP colleagues planning to object to President-elect Joe Biden’s win when the electoral votes are counted in Congress on January 6. KEVIN DIETSCH/POOL/AFP/Getty
Opposing View
Trump and his supporters claim that Biden won through widespread voter fraud. They argue that the election results must be overturned in order to save the Republic, alleging that the election was “rigged.”
However, there is no evidence to support these allegations. Trump and his allies have filed dozens of failed lawsuits, as judge after judge has rejected or dismissed the allegations—pointing out that attorneys have not provided any evidence. Even judges appointed by Republicans and Trump himself have rejected the claims.
Attorney General William Barr, who has been widely seen as one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet members, said at the beginning of December that there is no evidence of fraud that would change the election’s results. Barr later submitted his resignation after significant criticism from the president.
Newsweek reached out to press representatives for Gaetz and Brooks for comment but did not hear back before publication.
Trump in a statement slammed the Republicans who voted in favor of the panel, accusing them of not supporting their party, which he called “ineffective and weak.”
“This is the Grand Old Party, the party’s done so much for our country. And quite frankly, many Republicans have courageously withstood the — shall we say — the assault on our democracy that is going forth,” she said.
“When you think of the Republicans and you think courage that they’ve had in the electoral system in our country and election decisions that have been made to support the fact that the election was legitimate. Many Republicans were the ones who came forward,” she added.
Five people died before, during or after the Capitol attack, including a Capitol police officer.
Trump recently called for the debate on the commission to end “immediately” on Tuesday.
A group of Florida doctors on Monday gathered outside a medical office to urge unvaccinated individuals to get the coronavirus vaccine as the delta variant has led to a statewide surge in COVID-19 cases.
Most of the more than 70 physicians at the gathering work for the Jupiter Medical Center and the Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, The Palm Beach Post reported.
“It’s the worst it’s ever been right now,” neurologist Robin Kass told the Post at the gathering. “And I just think that nobody realizes that.”
The doctors appealed to the community they serve, asking the residents to believe the doctors who have taken care of them for years.
“If you identify with one of these doctors up here, we’ve cared for your family and you’ve listened to us then, the time really is now [to get vaccinated],” the organizer of the event, neurologist Jennifer Buczyner, said.
The gathering was made up of a variety of medical professionals including neurologists, emergency room doctors, plastic surgeons, infectious diseases experts and others, according to the local outlet.
Florida has seen COVID-19 cases rising since July, Johns Hopkins University data shows, with the number of cases and hospitalizations spiking in August.
Florida and other states across the country have had health care resources strained as the delta variant has spread faster than previous COVID-19 strains.
The state has 53 percent of its population fully vaccinated against the virus but has still begun postponing elective surgeries again due to the rise in cases straining resources.
“If you’re having back pain … or cancer removal, is that really elective?” David Lickstein, a plastic surgeon and the chief of surgery at Jupiter Medical Center, said.
Doctors around the country have been speaking out about the vaccine, detailing patients they have taken care of who have said they regretted not getting vaccinated.
The gathering of doctors in Florida took place hours before the Federal Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin calls for full transparency on the former Russia adviser’s closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill. #FoxNews
FOX News operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Radio, FOX News Headlines 24/7, FOXNews.com and the direct-to-consumer streaming service, FOX Nation. FOX News also produces FOX News Sunday on FOX Broadcasting Company and FOX News Edge. A top five-cable network, FNC has been the most-watched news channel in the country for 17 consecutive years. According to a 2018 Research Intelligencer study by Brand Keys, FOX News ranks as the second most trusted television brand in the country. Additionally, a Suffolk University/USA Today survey states Fox News is the most trusted source for television news or commentary in the country, while a 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey found that among Americans who could name an objective news source, FOX News is the top-cited outlet. FNC is available in nearly 90 million homes and dominates the cable news landscape while routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre.
President Trump’s ‘America First’ approach has relied on slapping tariffs on countries, such as China and Mexico, which have led to current trade wars. What is a tariff and how do they work? We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – China on Thursday sidestepped the idea of another meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and threatened retaliation if the United States follows through with new tariffs on its exports.
“China will have to take the necessary countermeasures,” said a statement from China’s Ministry of Finance.
Trump suggested that Xi meet “directly and personally” with anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, saying that could lead to “a happy and enlightened ending” to the problems in that city.
The Chinese objected to Trump’s comments about Hong Kong, calling the situation an internal manner that is none of the president’s business.
Trump tweeted Wednesday night about the possibility of a “personal meeting” between him and Xi amid massive declines in financial markets, the result of anxious investors worried about the trade war between the United States and China, as well as the Chinese crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong.
“I know President Xi of China very well,” Trump tweeted. “He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “Regarding high-level communication, the Chinese and U.S. presidents have remained in contact with each other via meetings, phone calls and letters.”
Trump defended his tariff policy toward China and blamed the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies for the market slump.
This week, the Trump administration announced it would delay until Dec. 15 tariffs on Chinese goods that were supposed to go into effect in September. Trump said he made the move to prevent the tit-for-tat tariff war from affecting the holiday shopping period in the USA.
In the second major sell-off this week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 800 points Wednesday, or 3.05%, the worst percentage drop of the year.
In a series of tweets and statements, Trump said previous tariffs on Chinese products have hurt its economy and made the government more eager to strike a free trade agreement with the United States. The two nations have held on-and-off talks over the past year but have been unable to strike a deal.
Economists said U.S. consumers wind up paying for the tariffs, slowing economic growth and hamstringing markets.
“President Trump’s on-again, off-again tweets about new tariffs on Chinese imports have been dizzying,” said Chad Bown, senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “They have generated turmoil in financial markets and understandable confusion among consumers.”
The prospect of Chinese military action in Hong Kong, a major financial center, also rattled the markets.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Chunying repeated Trump’s words about the Hong Kong tensions.
“Hong Kong affairs are entirely China’s internal affairs,” he said. “As we noted, President Trump also said previously that ‘Hong Kong is a part of China. They’ll have to deal with that themselves. They don’t need advice.’ We hope the U.S. side will keep its word.”
President Donald J. Trump awards Sergeant John A. Chapman the posthumous Medal of Honor on August 22, 2018 in the East Room at the White House for his actions on March 4, 2002, on Takur Ghar mountain in Afghanistan. Chapman’s aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, ejecting one teammate rom the aircraft, and crippling the helicopter after it crashed in the valley below. Chapman and the remaining joint special operations team members voluntarily returned to the snow-capped mountain, into known enemy stronghold, in an attempt to rescue their stranded teammate. Sergeant Chapman’s spouse, Valerie Nessel, and family joined the President at the White House to commemorate his example of selfless service and sacrifice on Aug 22, 2018. Camille Fine, USA TODAY
Pemex se endeuda para pagar pasivos. Contrató crédito por 15 mil millones de pesos para pagar al 85% de sus proveedores.
A la presunta hija de El Chapo ya le dio frío por andar hablando. Que no dijo nada contra el gobierno ni contra el Mayo, que la difaman. Reportero de The Guardian dice que la tiene grabada.
En Guadalajara se dan con todo en marcha contra Uber. Desde ayer esta empresa inició operaciones en Aguascalientes, Cuernavaca, Hermosillo, Mérida, Mexicali y San Luis Potosí. Polémica por el modelo de taxis en el país, que está en una encrucijada.
El empresario mexicano David Martínez Guzmán compra Telecom Argentina y Nextel de aquel país. No hace ruido ni se tienen fotos de él, pero ahí anda gastando.
Las historias de Eva Gonda Rivera y María Asunción Aramburuzabala, dos de las mujeres más ricas del país, y todo gracias a las cervezas en Alfa y en Modelo.
¿Qué harías si perdieras 27 mil 100 millones de dólares de tu fortuna? A Carlos Slim le pasó: bajó su negocio de telecom y lo bailaron con el tipo de cambio.
AMLO acusa censura luego de que ordenaran bajar spot de Morena; Tribunal Electoral asegura que son actos anticipados de campaña, él lo niega “¿cuál campaña?” (sí, ¿cuál campaña?)
Costos y beneficios de usar Periscope contra el #vecinogandalla. ¿Tú lo usarías? Nexos reflexiona sobre el tema.
Murió George Martin, el llamado “quinto Beatle”; fue el productor de casi todos los álbumes del cuarteto de Liverpool.
Checamos al día 74 veces nuestro correo electrónico; el año pasado se enviaron 205 billones de e-mails diarios. Esto es factor de estrés y baja productividad. ¿Cómo hacer para no depender de esta forma de comunicación?
Amazon lanza su servicio de tv en streaming con un programa de modas. Seguirá metiéndose en generación de contenidos.
HBO presentó avances de la sexta temporada de “Games of Thrones”. Los fans enloquecieron con ellos.
Several Democrats traveled to Texas on Saturday and toured the same facility that Vice President Mike Pence visited the day prior. Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern tweeted out a video of a group of migrants crowded behind a glass panel at the McAllen, Texas border patrol station.
We have been able to confirm what other Members of Congress have heard & seen:
-no showers for over 40 days. -lights are kept on all night & people are sleeping on concrete floors. -some are complaining they have gone hungry. pic.twitter.com/ob6kiwrCoQ
He was one of several House lawmakers who documented the visit showing detainees cramped on concrete floors and in caged holding cells.
“The cruelty of people sleeping on the floor, being kept in such conditions for 60 days, it’s just beyond comprehension,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York.
Pence toured the same facility Friday. He pushed back against Democrats’ claims of a “manufactured crisis” and defended border agents.
“This is tough stuff, Pence said. “And when we have overflow, as we do in an overwhelmed system, the need for those temporary facilities is evident.”
But the images stood in stark contrast to a center for migrant families that the vice president visited earlier in the day where he said they were being properly cared for.
“One of the mothers just told me when I ask her how are you being treated here, she said ‘very good.’ That’s what the American people expect,” Pence said.
The Vice President says it’s up to Congress to act. Lawmakers have already approved a $4.6 billion package for emergency border funding and Democrats say they’re working on new legislation.
President Trump said he may visit a detention facility in the future.
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Hay quien cree que el superávit público alemán está siendo un problema para la zona euro.
Las últimas cifras económicas de la zona euro, hechas públicas esta semana, muestran variaciones significativas entre los países que la conforman.
Alemania, por ejemplo, sigue creciendo pero de una manera leve.
Tanto Berlín como la eurozona en su conjunto crecieron un 0,3% en los últimos tres meses del año pasado.
¿Pero está Alemania— la mayor economía de entre los estados miembro de la Unión Europea que adoptaron el euro— siendo un lastre para la región?
Hay quienes aseguran que el persistente patrón de Alemania de exportar mucho más de lo que importa está frenando el desarrollo de toda la eurozona.
Y el contexto de este argumento es la crisis financiera de la zona euro.
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No solo los recortes, sino Alemania estarían detrás del freno en el desarrollo de varios países, dicen algunos expertos.
Para entender por qué algunos ven a Alemania como un problema, hay que empezar a fijarse en los países más golpeados por la crisis.
Varios han tenido que hacer unos ajustes difíciles y poco populares ante ello: austeridad para mejorar las finanzas del gobierno y reformas económicas para impulsar el crecimiento a largo plazo.
Tensiones políticas
Muchos economistas dicen que la austeridad frena la recuperación.
Aunque también existe la visión contraria, la de aquellos que creen que a veces puede traer de vuelta el crecimiento.
Pero más allá de las discusiones económicas, esto sobre todo ha provocado tensiones políticas.
Varios gobiernos de la zona euro que implementaron políticas de austeridad se han topado con protestas en las calles y en las urnas.
Image copyright Getty
Image copyright Getty
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Image caption
Los países que implementaron políticas de austeridad se encontraron con protestas como éstas.
Pero ¿podría haber sido esto un poco más fácil?
Es ahí donde Alemania sale a relucir.
Varias voces insisten en que Berlín hizo las consecuencias de estas políticas más duras de lo que hubieran tenido que ser.
Pero, ¿cómo? ¿no es Alemania la sede de la prudencia y la virtud financiera de la eurozona?
Bueno, existe un caso en el que esas características de Alemania se vuelven un problema para el resto de los socios.
Y esta es la razón.
Desequilibrio económico
Las características más evidentes de la crisis de la zona euro han sido la presión sobre los bancos, los préstamos solicitados por los gobiernos y la quiebra del mercado inmobiliario en varias naciones.
Pero también se han creado enormes desequilibrios comerciales y financieros entre los países.
En los años previos a la crisis, los países que serían afectados de forma más grave empezaron a tener un déficit cada vez mayor en sus “cuentas corrientes”; esto es, los gastos realizados por el
Estado superaban a los ingresos no financieros.
Este déficit incluía las exportaciones e importaciones de bienes y servicios, y todo una gama de transferencias financieras.
Esa situación requería financiamiento exterior, algo que, cuando todo iba bien, fue bastante fácil.
Los bancos extranjeros prestaron dinero y los inversores compraron activos financieros, incluida la deuda pública. Y eso es también una forma de prestar dinero.
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Image caption
Los bancos extranjeros prestaron dinero a los países con déficit.
Pero este proceso se vio gravemente afectado por la crisis financiera de la eurozona, cuando la solidez de los bancos y los gobiernos de los países afectados empezó a ser cuestionada.
Estos debieron hacer ajustes.
Con los flujos financieros interrumpidos, tuvieron que disminuir el déficit en las cuentas corrientes, incluso llegar a tener superávit. Y lo lograron.
Todos los países de la zona euro que fueron rescatados tenían un gran déficit público antes de la crisis.
Grecia, Portugal y Chipre llegaron a tener un déficit de entre el 12 y el 15% sobre el Producto Interior Bruto (PIB).
Justo antes de la crisis España duplicó su déficit público, y en Irlanda llegó a ser del 5,7% del PIB.
Hoy todos ellos tienen superávit, salvo Chipre, donde el déficit ha disminuido.
El superávit creciente de Alemania
Ahora es cuando viene un importante ejercicio de aritmética económica.
Las cuentas corrientes a nivel mundial deben estar equilibradas.
Así, el déficit de un lugar compensará el superávit de otro.
De ello se desprende que el cambio de déficit a superávit en Grecia, Portugal y los demás debe reflejarse en un movimiento en la dirección opuesta en otros países.
Así que lo lógico es fijarse en lo que ocurrió con los países de la eurozona que tenían superávit antes de la crisis.
Esto incluye Austria, Finlandia y los Países Bajos.
Pero donde el superávit era realmente grande era en… acertaste, Alemania.
Pero entonces, ¿disminuyó el superávit alemán al ajustar la situación de los países en crisis?
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Muchos dicen que hubiera sido más fácil para los países en crisis hacer ajustes si el gobierno de Angela Merkel hubiera dejado de tener superávit.
No, se hizo más grande.
Pasó de ser de un 5,6% sobre el PIB en 2010 a ser del 8,5% el año pasado.
Sí ha habido ajustes como consecuencia del superávit de Grecia y los otros países.
Pero ha ocurrido fuera de la zona euro.
En 2010 la eurozona estaba más o menos en equilibrio con el resto del mundo, pero ahora tiene un superávit sustancial.
Planteado de otro modo: el resto del mundo tiene ahora un déficit considerable con la zona euro.
Muchos dicen que hubiera sido más fácil para los países en crisis hacer ajustes si Alemania hubiera dejado de tener superávit.
El persistente, incluso creciente superávit de Berlín implica que la carga de ajuste haya caído sobre los países en crisis y, como consecuencia, importen ahora menos de lo que hubieran importado de otra forma.
De hecho, ha habido un marcado descenso en las importaciones en Grecia en cinco años consecutivos.
Quizá con una demanda más fuerte de Alemania estos países hubieran podido crecer más rápido.
Esto a su vez les hubiera ayudado a restaurar las finanzas de sus gobiernos antes y, como consecuencia, a que el impacto negativo de las medidas sobre los estándares de vida de sus ciudadanos fuera menor.
Uno de los más críticos con las medidas con el crecimiento de Alemania y con las medidas de austeridad ha sido Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, el editor de economía internacional del diario británico Daily Telegraph.
“El superávit es… seguramente más peligroso para la unidad de la zona euro que cualquier otra cosa que esté pasando en Grecia”, escribió en una ocasión.
“Exceso de ahorros”
Para ser claros, esto no es una crítica a la industria alemana por producir productos de alta calidad que otros quieren comprar.
Daniel Gros, del Centro para el Estudio de Políticas Europeas (CEPS, por sus siglas en inglés), una institución con sede en Bruselas, así lo explica:
“Desde un punto de vista estrictamente económico, la interpretación de la situación sería distinta: el gran superávit actual en las cuentas refleja un exceso de ahorro interno frente a la inversión doméstica”.
Y este es el tema central.
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Alemania debería invertir en la economía doméstica, dicen algunos expertos.
El saldo de las cuentas corrientes de un Estado tiene que ver con las finanzas del gobierno y también con la cantidad que un país ahorra e invierte.
Si ahorras más dinero del que gastas, si un gobierno gasta menos de lo que recibe de los impuestos, ambos tendrán un superávit en las cuentas; esto es, un exceso de dinero.
Así que, para evitar eso, una de las opciones de Alemania sería o gastar más o bajar los impuestos.
¿Pero podría permitirse hacer eso?
Tiene superávit en sus finanzas desde 2012 y la carga de la deuda acumulada por el gobierno no es particularmente grande.
Gros cree que podría invertir más en infraestructura pública.
Y es que hay quien habla del “deterioro de la infraestructura”.
Image copyright Getty
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La infraestructura pública es un sector en el que Alemania debería invertir, insisten los economistas.
Para los visitantes extranjeros es algo exagerado, pero hay un debate activo sobre el tema.
Evans-Pritchard, del Daily Telegraph es más mordaz: “Cuanto antes abandone Alemania el fetichismo fiscal e invierta su propio dinero en su propio país para su propio beneficio, mejor será para todos”.
La idea es que si Berlín hubiera ahorrado menos, parte del dinero gastado hubiera ido al extranjero.
Y esto podría ocurrir de varias manera: ya sea por la importación de productos, porque los trabajadores alemanes podrían ir de vacaciones al extranjero, o porque Alemania podría emplear a trabajadores extranjeros y estos a su vez enviarían dinero a sus familias en su país de origen.
Defensa presupuestaria
Aún así, el superávit de Alemania se ve con frecuencia como un signo de su destreza económica.
Jens Weidmann, el presidente del banco central aleman, el Bundesbank, dijo que el equilibrado presupuesto del gobierno es todo un éxito.
“Sería absurdo discutir medidas para debilitar artificialmente la competitividad de Alemania con el fin de reducir el superávit actual de las cuentas frente a otros países de la zona euro”, declaró.
El volumen del excedente de Alemania también refleja el hecho de que, al igual que el resto de la eurozona, obtuvo algún beneficio del reciente debilitamiento del euro y que su competitividad mejoró.
Cualesquiera sean las razones, y se culpe a quien se culpe, es probable que las próximas cifras económicas de la zona euro muestren de nuevo una recuperación muy leve.
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