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Más de cien migrantes procedentes de diversos países centroamericanos que
viajaban en la parte trasera de un camión de carga fueron rescatados por las autoridades mexicanas en el estado oriental de Veracruz, que es una ruta tradicional de los flujos irregulares de personas hacia
Estados Unidos.

Los migrantes —55 hombres, 19 mujeres y 41 niños— viajaban en la parte trasera
en condiciones “deplorables”, por lo cual recibieron atención médica, dijo el domingo una fuente del gobierno de Veracruz.

Según el parte policial, todas las personas recibieron atención médica, rindieron declaración y
fueron trasladadas al puerto de Veracruz.

“Los migrantes fueron atendidos inmediatamente por paramédicos de la dependencia, al presentar severos signos de deshidratación (…) el Ejército Mexicano y la Marina-Armada (…) se trasladaron a Playa Muñecos para brindarles atención”, dijo la misma fuente.

De acuerdo con una ficha informativa de la policía estatal veracruzana, los hechos tuvieron lugar el sábado, cuando sus elementos se trasladaron a la localidad de Playa Muñecos, en el municipio de Alto Lucero, para apoyar al
Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) con el traslado de al menos 115 personas, entre hombres, mujeres y niños.

Durante el operativo, también
fueron detenidas las dos personas que transportaban a los migrantes.

Traficantes de personas suelen utilizar este tipo de unidades para cruzar ilegalmente a migrantes a Estado Unidos, cobrando miles de dólares por cada traslado.

El mes pasado,
10 inmigrantes fueron hallados muertos dentro de un camión en un estacionamiento comercial en Texas. Siete de ellos eran mexicanos.

Veracruz es un estado que por años ha sido paso para la migración ilegal a Estados Unidos, pero además se ha convertido en uno de los más violentos del país, con miles de muertos y desaparecidos.

Source Article from http://www.univision.com/noticias/inmigracion/hallan-en-el-sur-de-mexico-a-115-migrantes-centroamericanos-ocultos-en-un-camion

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President Trump flew over 14 hours, passed through 13 time zones and crossed the international date line to — essentially — be feted by the Japanese.

On a four-day visit to Japan, Trump enjoyed golf and double cheeseburgers (complete with U.S. beef), participated in an imperial gift exchange, attended a traditional sumo tournament and fielded questions from the media at the gilded Akasaka Palace. 

But like many strategies to influence and contain the president, the carefully planned Japanese attempt hit something of a skid on Trump’s first full day in Tokyo on Sunday, when Trump fired off a tweet that, in a single missive, undermined his national security adviser, aligned himself with a brutal dictator and attacked a Democratic rival on foreign soil. 

Then Monday, in a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump continued his headlong plunge into diplomatic mayhem, expressing such eagerness for a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he backed Kim over his own top aides (notably national security adviser John Bolton), his allies (Japan) and his fellow Americans (former vice president Joe Biden).

Calling Kim “a very smart man,” Trump said he was not “personally” bothered by North Korea’s short-range missile tests this month and does not believe the tests violate United Nations Security Council resolutions — a transgression about which Bolton had previously told reporters there was “no doubt.”

“My people think it could have been a violation,” Trump said, as Bolton sat just feet away. “I view it a little differently.”

Abe, meanwhile, referred to the North Korean tests with “great regret” — though, in an apparent attempt to maintain his bromance with Trump, Abe also credited the president with beginning negotiations with North Korea, saying Trump “cracked open the shell of distrust” with the regime.

Trump also seemed to side with Kim and his repressive regime over Biden, violating an unofficial rule of presidential behavior — that partisan politics stops on foreign soil. Asked about a tweet in which Trump appreciatively recounted North Korea’s state media calling Biden a “fool of low I.Q.,” the president simply doubled down on the insult.  

“Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low-IQ individual,” the president said, as Bolton and the U.S. ambassador to Japan, William Hagerty, chuckled lightly. “I think I agree with him on that.”

And Trump expressed openness to improving relations with Iran, currently one of America’s biggest geopolitical foes, after recently ordering 1,500 additional troops to the region. 

“We’re not looking for regime change,” he said, in another tacit rebuke of Bolton, who has long pushed for a more aggressive hard-line stance against Iran. “I just want to make that clear. We’re looking for no nuclear weapons.”

Still, when Trump wasn’t making unplanned news, he largely basked in his elevated status, with Abe playing humble guide. 

In some ways, the president’s Japan sojourn revealed Trump as part reluctant tourist, part eager honoree, and always deeply perplexed when the spotlight was not squarely on him. 

At Ryogoku Kokugikan stadium for the sumo championships Sunday, for instance, Trump suddenly found himself spectator rather than actor, and was notably subdued. After entering the arena to applause and craned necks, the crowd returned its collective attention to the ancient grappling, and Trump sat almost stone-faced as he took in the final matches. 

After donning slippers — no shoes are allowed in the ring — Trump did rise to present the 25-year-old champion with the first “President’s Cup,” a more than four-foot-tall and 60-pound silver trophy with an eagle taking flight set atop it. But he appeared to lack his trademark panache. He read from a certificate, smiled, clapped and bowed slightly before exiting the ring. 

In other moments, Trump’s interests seemed to drift stateside, at least according to his social media feed. During his four days abroad, the president tweeted about sports (the Indianapolis 500), culture (actor Jussie Smollett) and, of course, politics. 

The president attacked Democrats, impeachment efforts and Biden, even using the 1994 crime bill as foil to argue that Biden — who supported the legislation — is unelectable to large swaths of the Democratic base.  

“Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected,” Trump wrote from Tokyo. “In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you.”

Abe, for his part, at least publicly largely tried to ignore disagreements between himself and the president, and instead focused on honoring and entertaining his guest — the first foreign leader invited to an official state visit following the May enthronement of the new emperor, Naruhito. 

After all, Trump is a president who at times prefers to be treated like a monarch, reveling in the spotlight and celebrations of himself. And the Japanese were happy to oblige, hoping to woo Trump on everything from trade to security by tailoring the trip to his whims and professed likes. 

Abe and Trump played golf, took a selfie and, in a nod to the president’s preferred palate of bland Americana, consumed a carnivore’s bovine delight — burgers (at the country club), Wagyu beef (at the traditional robatayaki charcoal grill), and Cote de Boeuf Rotie (at the six-course black-tie gala at the Imperial Palace). 

And the president was simply thrilled to be the guest of honor — even if, at least at first, he seemed a little unclear on just what the celebration was. Before leaving for Japan, Trump told reporters that Abe persuaded him to visit the country twice in roughly a month — he returns in June to Osaka, for the Group of 20 leaders’ summit — by inviting him to a “very big event” that the prime minister promised Trump would be “one hundred times bigger” than even the Super Bowl.  

Once here to help usher in the “Reiwa” era under Naruhito, Trump continued to enthuse about Abe’s invite to be the first leader to meet the new emperor after ascending the Chrysanthemum Throne. 

“That was a great honor,” he said Monday, sitting alongside Abe. “That’s a big thing. Two hundred and two years — that’s the last time this has happened.” 

Trump has four foreign trips this summer, and a senior White House official said he was most excited about this first one to Japan and next week’s journey to Britain and France, which similarly includes an official state visit — complete with pomp and grandeur — during his British stop.

Before Trump departed for Japan, another senior White House official promised a “substantive” trip with “some substantive things.” Yet it was hard to point to any major diplomatic breakthroughs.  

As NBC’s Hallie Jackson quipped on MSNBC as the trip wound down, the only real deliverable “has been the delivery of that trophy to the sumo wrestling championship.”

Still, Trump did try to imbue his trip with some substance. Out of respect for Abe, he met with relatives of the abductees — those Japanese abducted by North Korea, never to be seen again — his second such meeting with the families. 

“The United States also remains committed to the issue of abductions, which I know is a top priority for Prime Minister Abe,” he said during their news conference Monday. “The United States will continue to support Japan’s efforts to bring these abductees home.”

 And he announced a new space agreement, albeit with few specifics. “I am pleased to confirm that Prime Minister Abe and I have agreed to dramatically expand our nations’ cooperation in human space exploration,” Trump said. 

“We’ll be going to the moon,” he continued. “We’ll be going to Mars very soon. It’s very exciting.”

Before leaving Japan Tuesday, Trump visited American troops — some sporting “Make Aircrew Great Again” patches on their uniforms — for Memorial Day at Yokosuka Naval Base outside Tokyo.

“From America’s earliest days, fearless Americans have said goodbye to their loved ones, gone off to war and stared down our enemies, knowing that they may never, ever return,” Trump said. “Memorial Day links every grateful American heart in eternal tribute to those brave souls who gave their last breath for our nation, from Concord to Gettysburg, from Midway to Mosul.”  

Despite some notable policy cracks between Trump and Abe, from the Japanese perspective, the trip was still largely a success. One of the main goals was simply to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship, and Abe is a careful student of Trump — understanding, among other things, that he is most likely to influence the president when physically by his side. 

To that end, Abe flew to D.C. in April to visit Trump, and by June, the two men will have met three times in as many months. They have also spoken and met in person more than 40 times.  

Noting all the red carpets — literal and proverbial — that the Japanese had rolled out for their American guest, one Japan-based journalist assessed the trip with a quip: “I’m surprised they didn’t put on a geisha show for him.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-basked-in-spotlight-in-japan-even-as-his-focus-seemed-elsewhere/2019/05/28/4545eade-80cc-11e9-9a67-a687ca99fb3d_story.html

São Paulo – The Brazilian government visited irrigation projects in Morocco and Spain with the objective of bringing back to the country knowledge of different global experiences in the segment. The Brazilian secretary for Irrigation at the Brazilian Ministry of National Integration, Guilherme Costa, visited the Arab country in the first four days of this month and saw up close the project in the Taroudant region, East of Agadir. The mission was promoted by the World Bank.

“They are heroes, they farm a difficult soil, under harsh climate, they are hard working, engaged, industrious. I was in awe with what they are doing with the resources they have,” the secretary told ANBA in an interview. Costa says that the irrigation project he has visited was sponsored by the Moroccan government. The producers who benefit from it also contribute financially, but the system is primarily supported by the public sector.

The crops in the region are predominantly of citrus fruit. However, some other products such as greens are also grown there. The secretary says that Morocco and Brazil share some similarities in the distribution of wealth, therefore the Moroccan experience can be used in Brazil. “Sometimes the government needs to contribute without getting anything in return,” he said.

Costa stayed from September 28th to 30th in the other country he visited, Spain, and there the projects are developed in a partnership between government and private enterprises. In one of the regions he visited, first the rural producers organized the project, then the government made the investments and later the project was passed on to private enterprises for improvement, maintenance etc. The producers pay a fee to use it. “We believe we need to have solutions to cater to several segments, this irrigation model needs to be in our portfolio,” said Costa about the Spanish system.

Currently there are six million hectares of irrigated land in Brazil, 95% of which are owned by private enterprises and 5% by the public sector. The government’s goal, according to the secretary, is to double this area in ten years’ time. Public-private partnerships are considered another option for this expansion, but Costa says different models are needed for each segment. Brazil’s irrigation projects span several regions, such as Northeast, Southeast, South and Midwest.

The mission Costa took part in also had officials from other countries: Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Guatemala. A similar trip, this time to Peru, should take place next March. The World Bank wants to create a forum for international debate and knowledge exchange in the area.

*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça

Source Article from http://www2.anba.com.br/noticia/21865530/agribusiness/brazil-learns-moroccos-irrigation-system/

  • Facebook had a difficult 2018.
  • Mark Zuckerberg’s public goal this year was to fix the social network’s issues.
  • “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Friday.
  • He wrote that Facebook has intentionally made changes that would harm its bottom line, in the name of building a stronger service: “One change we made reduced the amount of viral videos people watched by 50 million hours a day.”

Facebook has had a difficult 2018, enduring issues that included data-leakage scandals, congressional enquiries, and even accusations that foreign governments used the social network to spread misinformation and propaganda.

But looking back on the year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees a job well done.

“For 2018, my personal challenge has been to focus on addressing some of the most important issues facing our community — whether that’s preventing election interference, stopping the spread of hate speech and misinformation, making sure people have control of their information, and ensuring our services improve people’s well-being,” he wrote in a note posted to his Facebook page on Friday.

“In each of these areas, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.”

Zuckerberg famously gives himself an ambitious goal every year as part of his New Year’s resolutions. In 2018, it was to fix Facebook.

Mission accomplished, Zuckerberg said, although there’s still more work to be done.

“To be clear, addressing these issues is more than a one-year challenge. But in each of the areas I mentioned, we’ve now established multi-year plans to overhaul our systems and we’re well into executing those roadmaps,” Zuckerberg wrote.

The rest of Zuckerberg’s lengthy note goes into how Facebook has improved its systems and incorporated artificial-intelligence systems to fight propaganda, remove harmful content, and even reduce the amount of time people spend on viral videos on the site.

“One change we made reduced the amount of viral videos people watched by 50 million hours a day,” Zuckerberg wrote. “In total, these changes intentionally reduced engagement and revenue in the near term, although we believe they’ll help us build a stronger community and business over the long term.”

Zuckerberg didn’t reveal what his personal goal for 2019 is in Friday’s post, but if it’s anything like what he did last year, it’s sure to make headlines.

Read the entire note below:

Source Article from https://www.thisisinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reflects-on-facebooks-2018-2018-12

MIAMI — The first primary debate of the 2020 season saw cracks of daylight emerge in a Democratic field that has largely played to the progressive base, with the candidates clashing sharply over controversial policies like “Medicare-for-all” and calls to decriminalize illegal border crossings — while taking ample shots at President Trump in the process.

Staking out the left flank of the party on stage Wednesday night in Miami were Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — the highest-polling candidate in the first debate batch, with Round 2 coming Thursday — and long-shot Bill de Blasio, the New York City mayor.

WARREN CAN’T THINK OF A SINGLE ABORTION RESTRICTION SHE SUPPORTS DURING DEBATE

They were the only candidates to raise their hands when asked who’s willing to give up their private health insurance for a government option.

Warren went on to staunchly defend 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare-for-all” plan.

“I’m with Bernie on Medicare-for-all and let me tell you why,” she said. “I spent a big chunk of my life studying why families go broke and one of the number-one reasons is the cost of health care. Medical bills.”

Warren said those who challenge the policy are really saying “they just won’t fight for it.”

But the issue sparked fireworks when former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke said he would not replace private health insurance. De Blasio interrupted to say, “private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans.”

Former Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., who has positioned himself as more of a centrist, scolded his rivals by saying they “should be the party that keeps what’s working and fixes what’s broken.”

“We’re supporting a bill that would have every hospital close,” Delaney said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called a single-payer health care system a “bold approach” but said she worries “about kicking half of America off their health insurance in four years, which is exactly what this bill says.”

O’ROURKE GIVES DEBATE ANSWER IN SPANISH, WHILE DUCKING QUESTION ON 70 PERCENT TAX RATE

The policy was just one wedge on stage Wednesday night. The candidates were largely unified — as expected — in their condemnation of Trump, with O’Rourke calling for “impeachment now” in the wake of Robert Mueller’s report.

“It is the only way we can protect this country,” he said.

But O’Rourke, who was among a handful of candidates who gave some responses in Spanish, repeatedly found himself on the receiving end of swipes from rivals on stage. Former Housing Secretary Julian Castro was among those landing blows as he sought to distinguish himself from the field on the issue of immigration, perhaps gaining traction by targeting the one-time Democratic darling from Texas. And while Warren stayed center stage by hammering her myriad policy proposals and talking up the class divide, the debate production itself gained outsize attention when technical difficulties marred part of the NBC-hosted program — forcing the moderators to cut to commercial break to resolve them when candidates couldn’t hear questions as other voices were piped in over inadvertently open microphones.

Trump, from Air Force One en route to Japan, jeered the network.

But among those looking for a breakout, Castro may have come close with his vocal — and controversial — call for the decriminalization of illegal border crossings, challenging his fellow presidential hopefuls to agree to repeal the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that applies.

“I want to challenge all of the candidates to do that,” Castro said. “If you truly want to change the system then we have to repeal that section.”

He called out O’Rourke by name for not supporting his call. O’Rourke then said he’s more interested in comprehensive reform, saying Castro was looking at “one small part of this.”

Castro said: “I think you should do your homework on this issue. If you did your homework on this issue you would know that we should repeal this section.”

Discussing the heartbreaking photo that emerged this week of a migrant father and toddler daughter who drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande, Castro said it “should piss us all off.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., also weighed in, saying that the U.S. “has the power to better deal with this process through the civil process than the criminal process.”

“Our country has made so many mistakes by criminalizing things,” Booker said. There is a humane way that affirms human rights and dignity.”

Meanwhile, de Blasio sought to frame the immigration debate around a class warfare theme.

“Americans have been told immigrants have caused their problems,” de Blasio said. “The immigrants didn’t do that to you. The big corporations did that to you! The 1 percent did that to you!”

Two lower-polling candidates also clashed on the issue of military force. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard hit back at Tim Ryan after the Ohio Democratic congressman said the United States must stay “engaged” in Afghanistan.

“Is that what you will tell the parents of those two soldiers who were just killed in Afghanistan?” she said. “‘Well, we just have to be engaged.’ As a soldier, I will tell you, that answer is unacceptable. We have to bring our troops home from Afghanistan.”

“I don’t want to be engaged,” Ryan countered. “… But the reality of it is that if the United States doesn’t engage, the Taliban will grow. And they will have bigger, bolder, terrorist acts. We have got to have some presence there.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, meanwhile, hammered his signature issue of climate change.

But despite their differences on major issues, the candidates rallied to downplay economic successes and growth under the Trump administration, especially Warren.

“It’s doing great for a thinner and thinner slice at the top,” Warren said of the economy.

The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee rapid response team, though, sent email blasts and tweets “fact-checking” and defending the president’s economic record and the creation of “6 million jobs” since Election Day 2016.

Warren was the highest-polling candidate among those on stage Wednesday but others were looking for their breakout moment or to recapture lost momentum, especially contenders like O’Rourke of Texas. He didn’t appear to get it. Top-polling candidates including former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont are set to face off Thursday night on the same stage.

The format and sheer number of candidates, though, meant candidates had limited opportunity even during two hours of debate to make their case.

The rules, set by the Democratic National Committee, gave candidates 60 seconds to answer questions from the NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo moderators, and 30 seconds to respond to their follow-up questions. The candidates could not give opening statements but gave closing remarks later in the night.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2020-dems-downplay-economic-gains-under-trump-at-miami-debate

It’s Monday, April 8, 2019. Let’s start here.

1. Homeland insecurity

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stood next to President Donald Trump at the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday.

Two days later, she walked into the White House and quit.

Trump confirmed her resignation on Twitter after a meeting about border security turned into a discussion over her future, sources told ABC News.

However sudden the news felt, it was a long time coming, ABC News White House Correspondent Tara Palmeri tells us on “Start Here.”

“It was always known that President Trump was not happy with Nielsen,” Palmeri says. “It was a matter of not if it will happen, but when it will happen.”

2. Tourist trap?

An American tourist and her Congolese tour guide are safe and in “good health” after they were kidnapped in Uganda and a $500,000 ransom was demanded, police said.

A spokesperson for Wild Frontiers Uganda told ABC News a ransom was paid — it’s unclear exactly how much or by whom — raising concern over whether doing so may encourage more kidnappings, Senior Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell reports from Queen Elizabeth National Park.

“They want tourists to come back, they want them to see that this is a safe place, that it’s an unprecedented event,” Pannell says on today’s podcast. “If money’s changing hands in exchange for foreign tourists, then that potentially endangers others.”

(Martin Zwick/Reda & Co/UIG via Getty Images, FILE) The Crater Area in Queen Elizabeth National Park with view of the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda, East Africa in this Sept. 18, 2016.file photo.

3. Fungus among us

A deadly, drug-resistant fungus has broken out in healthcare facilities — and it’s spreading.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described Candida auris as a “serious global health threat” that can cause bloodstream infections and is difficult to identify with standard technology. More than 587 cases have been confirmed in the U.S., mostly in New York City, New Jersey and Chicago, according to the CDC.

“What we’ve learned is, this microbe, Candida auris, is resistant to the typical cleaning agents that hospital and health care facilities often use,” says infectious disease specialist Dr. Todd Ellerin. “If we don’t change the way we clean rooms, then the Candida will hang out there. It could potentially infect the next person that enters the room.”

4. Tangled with weed

Some immigrants fear careers in the legal cannabis industry have hurt their chances for full citizenship.

“I was led down a path to confess in my [citizenship] interview that I broke the law, that I willingly had known that I had broken the law,” Oswaldo Barrientos, who worked at a marijuana dispensary in Colorado, tells ABC News.

Because marijuana remains illegal under federal law, a related job may disqualify someone from lawful residency, ABC News’ Clayton Sandell explains on “Start Here.”

“It’s legal on one level,” he says, “and illegal on another.”

(ABC News) Denver Mayor Michael Hancock listens during a meeting about immigration problems stemming with legal marijuana jobs.

“Start Here,” ABC News’ flagship podcast, offers a straightforward look at the day’s top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or the ABC News app. Follow @StartHereABC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for exclusive content and show updates.

Elsewhere:

‘Leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants’: Lions feast on a suspected poacher killed by an elephant.

‘John asked co-workers to take pictures of him’: A man accused of murdering his elderly mother asks colleagues to help with his alibi.

‘We are pleased to be able to reach resolution in this matter’: Motel 6 agrees to pay $12 million after illegally sharing the personal information of 80,000 customers with U.S. immigration officials.

From our friends at FiveThirtyEight:

Willians Astudillo is a baseball enigma: While he looks something like Bartolo Colon, he’s hitting like Ty Cobb.

Doff your cap:

The U.S. Postal Service said it will honor George H.W. Bush by releasing a commemorative stamp on June 12, which would’ve been the former president’s 95th birthday.

The stamp features a portrait of Bush painted by Michael J. Deas from a 1997 photograph taken by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.

Bush, the 41st president, died Nov. 30, 2018.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/start-here-kirstjen-nielsen-quits-homeland-security-kidnapped-american/story?id=62142321

General Motors, Ford and other U.S. companies have started restricting employee travel to Wuhan, China, as an outbreak of a flu-like coronavirus that has killed at least 17 people spreads throughout Asia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Homeland Security started screening passengers flying to major U.S. airports from China for the disease over the weekend. The World Health Organization convened an emergency meeting in Geneva on Wednesday to assess the severity of the illness and issue recommendations to control the outbreak.

Fears that the coronavirus could disrupt travel and commerce and slow economic growth sent a chill through global risk markets, hitting Asian stocks hard, depressing copper and oil prices, and sending investors into safe havens, such as U.S. Treasurys and German bunds.

Business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, privately expressed concerns this week about the virus, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Some even raised the issue directly with President Donald Trump at a private breakfast Wednesday morning, according to an executive who attended the meeting.

  • The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents about 50,000 cabin crew members at 20 airlines including United, said Tuesday it was contacting airlines to put in place precautions for crew members, while the Air Line Pilots Association distributed information from U.S. and international health officials on the virus.
  • General Motors has placed a temporary restriction on travel to the Chinese city where the outbreak emerged over the holidays, “out of an abundance of caution,” the company said in a statement. “Employees are also reminded to take necessary protection measures suggested by medical authorities.”
  • Ford Motor “has suspended all business travel to Wuhan, specifically, and is monitoring the situation very closely,” a company spokesman said, adding that the Detroit automaker hasn’t suspended travel to other parts of China.
  • Fiat Chrysler hasn’t imposed any travel restrictions “at this time,” but it’s advising employees to travel to China only for “essential business.” It’s also implemented a travel advisory for all people who need to get around in the region, a company spokesman said.
  • Norwegian Cruise Line is beginning to screen passengers departing from Chinese ports, according to a company spokesperson. The Miami-based cruise line won’t let anyone who’s traveling from Wuhan, China, or who has been in the city over the last 30 days to board. It’s also denying boarding for guests with a body temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or more.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs, Brian Schwartz and Michael Wayland and Reuters contributed to this article.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/22/some-us-companies-have-started-restricting-china-travel-as-coronavirus-outbreak-spreads.html

Average tax refunds were down last week 8.4 percent for the first week of the tax season over the same time last year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Dipping refunds are inflaming a growing army of taxpayers stunned by the consequences of the Trump administration’s tax law — and the effects of the partial government shutdown.

The average refund check paid out so far has been $1,865, down from $2,035 at the same point in 2018, according to IRS data. Low-income taxpayers often file early to pocket the money as soon as possible. Many taxpayers count on the refunds to make important payments, or spend the money on things like home repairs, a vacation or a car.

The IRS had estimated it would issue about 2.3 percent fewer refunds this year as a result of the changes in the federal tax law, according to Bloomberg. MSNBC reports that 30 million Americans will owe the IRS money this year — 3 million more than before Trump’s tax law.

“There are going to be a lot of unhappy people over the next month,” Edward Karl of the American Institute of CPAs told Politico. “Taxpayers want a large refund.” Some 71 percent of taxpayers received refunds last year worth about $3,000 on average, according to Karl.

Scads of taxpayers are complaining on Twitter that they have always received a refund — but now owe the IRS instead.

The number of refunds sent out by the IRS was also down — about 24 percent — as the agency struggled to get up to speed after the government shutdown. The agency sent out about 4.67 million tax refunds in the week ending Feb. 1, compared with about 6.17 million in the same period in 2018, according to IRS data.

This year’s filing season, which began two days after the shutdown ended on Jan. 25, is complicated because it’s the first after the 2017 tax law was enacted. Though President Donald Trump boasted that the new code would be so simplified that people could file their taxes on a postcard, that’s not the case. 

In addition, the changes complicated payroll withholding, so that not enough money was withheld by employers in many cases, meaning that people now owe more taxes. The new law also capped IRS deductions for paid state and local taxes, including real estate taxes, resulting in a nasty surprise for many filers. Several other deductions are no longer allowed.

The frustrations will likely continue to fuel support for plans to boost taxes on the ultra-wealthy. A poll last month found that nearly 60 percent of registered voters support a plan by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to impose a 70 percent marginal tax rate on the portion of annual income that exceeds $10 million a year.

Twitter is filling up with complaints from people whose situation has changed radically.

California

State income tax: 1% to 13.3% 

Maine

State income tax: 5.8% to 10.15%

Oregon

State income tax: 5% to 9.9%

Minnesota

State income tax: 5.35% to 9.85%

Iowa

State income tax: 0.36% to 8.98%

New Jersey

State income tax: 1.4% to 8.97%

Vermont

State income tax: 3.55% to 8.95%

Washington, DC

State income tax: 4% to 8.95%

New York

State income tax: 4% to 8.82%

Hawaii

State income tax: 1.4% to 8.25%

Wisconsin

State income tax: 4% to 7.65%

Idaho

State income tax: 1.6% to 7.4%

South Carolina

State income tax: 0% to 7%

Connecticut

State income tax: 3% to 6.99%

Arkansas

State income tax: 0.9% to 6.9%

Montana

State income tax: 1% to 6.9%

Nebraska

State income tax: 2.46% to 6.84%

Delaware

State income tax: 2.2% to 6.6%

West Virginia

State income tax: 3% to 6.5%

Georgia

State income tax: 1% to 6%

Kentucky

State income tax: 2% to 6%

Louisiana

State income tax: 2% to 6%

Missouri

State income tax: 1.5% to 6%

Rhode Island

State income tax: 3.75% to 5.99%

Maryland

State income tax: 2% to 5.75%

North Carolina

State income tax: 5.75%

Virginia

State income tax: 2% to 5.75%

Oklahoma

State income tax: 0.5% to 5.25%

Massachusetts

State income tax: 5.1%

Alabama

State income tax: 2% to 5%

Mississippi

State income tax: 3% to 5%

Utah

State income tax: 5%

Ohio

State income tax: 0.495% to 4.997%

New Mexico

State income tax: 1.7% to 4.9%

Colorado

State income tax: 4.63%

Kansas

State income tax: 2.7% to 4.6%

Arizona

State income tax: 2.59% to 4.54%

Michigan

State income tax: 4.25%

Illinois

State income tax: 3.75%

Indiana

State income tax: 3.3%

Pennsylvania

State income tax: 3.07%

North Dakota

State income tax: 1.1% to 2.9%




Energy Tax Credit: Which Home Improvements Qualify?

Taxpayers who upgrade their homes to make use of renewable energy may be eligible for a tax credit to offset some of the costs. As of the 2018 tax year, the federal government offers the Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit. The credits are good through 2019 and then are reduced each year through the end of 2021. Claim the credits by filing Form 5695 with your tax return.

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Top 5 Reasons to File Your Taxes Early

Every April, many taxpayers wait until the last minute to file their federal income tax returns. Despite this tendency, there are many reasons to file your taxes early. If you will receive a refund, you may want to submit your return as quickly as possible. Additionally, there are benefits to filing early for those taxpayers who have a balance due.

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How Does Your Charitable Giving Measure Up?

Giving is truly better than receiving, especially when your generosity can provide income tax benefits.

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What is IRS Form 8615: Tax for Certain Children Who Have Unearned Income

Typically, children are placed in a lower tax bracket than their parents and the reason for this is quite simple: most children don’t have that much income, and those that do, rarely earn more than their parents. Some parents have attempted to take advantage of this by putting investments in their children’s names, hoping that any investment profits would be taxed at the child’s lower rate. In response, the federal government changed the tax treatment of children’s unearned income by taxing it at the parent’s tax rate. Form 8615 is used to make the child’s tax calculations for this income.

Read More

Brought to you by TurboTax.com

Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/finance/2019/02/09/average-tax-refunds-down-84-percent-as-angry-taxpayers-vent-on-twitter/23665728/

More than four days after it ignited, the wind-driven Kincade Fire surged through Sonoma County early Monday morning, burning new homes and other structures as it moved south through rugged terrain toward neighborhoods on the north edge of Santa Rosa that were ravaged by the deadly Tubbs Fire of 2017.

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES ON THE KINCADE FIRE AND THE PG&E OUTAGES

But it slowed almost as quickly as it had surged by 3 a.m., bringing a sigh of relief — if only momentary — to an area ravaged over the past four days.

At 11 p.m. Sunday, as the winds kicked up, firefighters raced to the area, battling hot spots from the Shiloh community east to Mark West Springs, while warning people to flee Larkfield-Wikiup to the south, where hundreds of homes are being rebuilt after they were lost two years ago.

Structures burned on Faught Road as well as Shiloh Ridge, where palatial estates sit on spacious lots in a fire-prone area.

The hills surrounding Chalk Hill Road near Windsor glowed dark red. Smoke billowed into the roadway. Trees burned. Fire crews stationed themselves at each property along the road, working to usher the flames past without damage to the homes.

“They’re doing tactical patrol. They’re going from house to house making sure they have proper clearance, defensible space and if there’s any residents still at home, try to evacuate them,” said Rigo Herrera, a spokesman for the state’s Cal Fire agency. “And they make sure all power is out, gas and electricity is shut to the house. They make sure your windows and doors are closed. You don’t want embers to get into your house.”

Flames were also reported a few miles east near Safari West, a 400-acre wildlife preserve on Porter Creek Road that had been saved in 2017 by its founder, Peter Lang. While his own home burned, Lang spent hours racing around in his truck, dousing spot fires near the cheetah barn and the hyena pen.

The spread of the fire came after a near-apocalyptic day of horror around the Bay Area that saw blazes break out in multiple counties despite mass PG&E power outages designed to prevent just that. Fueled by a historic windstorm, the fires closed freeways, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and intensified fears that parts of California could become almost dangerous to inhabit.

The fires forced the temporary evacuations of hundreds of residents in Vallejo, Crockett, Martinez, Lafayette, Clayton and Oakley on Sunday. But the monster inferno in Sonoma County forced more than 180,000 residents to flee — with no promise they could return to their homes soon.

After 10 p.m. Sunday, David Fincher, 67, was hosing down the roof of his mobile home at a park on Old Redwood Highway north of Santa Rosa, as crews set up a line against flames raging less then a mile away.

Fincher’s neighborhood had been evacuated earlier, but as he peered off into the orange glow in the distance, he said he planned to stay until he no longer felt safe.

“I stayed last time too,” he said, referring to the Tubbs Fire. “The wind was blowing this way and then it shifted. It totally tore up Wikiup.”

At 10:30 p.m, police were making passes through a nearby Larkfield-Wikiup neighborhood, sirens blaring, to encourage any remaining residents to leave immediately as flames leaped on Faught Road.

“I’ve got clothes and my meds in the car. When I feel threatened I’ll leave,” Fincher said. “But not before then.”

Marcos Nunez, 47, who has lived on Shiloh Road for more than a decade, said, “It’s just carnage up there,” after he packed up and left.

More than 3,400 firefighters and other personnel had battled the Kincade Fire on Sunday, keeping the flames from entering dense neighborhoods in Healdsburg and Windsor and from roaring over Highway 101, which could possibly set off a rampage that could reach the Pacific Ocean.

The fire, though, did extensive damage in the Alexander Valley east of Healdsburg, ruining many homes and wineries including Salt Rock and Field Stone.

Ferocious winds reaching nearly 100 mph over the weekend turned the fire, now more than 54,000 acres — 84 square miles — into a blast furnace that had destroyed at least 94 structures, including at least three dozen homes.

The fierce winds died down early Monday morning, but firefighters were bracing for strong gusts to resume Tuesday into Wednesday.

The fire nearly doubled in size Sunday despite the numerous air tankers, dozens of bulldozers and more than 350 engine crews hopscotching across the region in an effort to get the upper hand.

Containment dipped to 5%, down from 10% percent earlier in the day. Two firefighters were injured, including one who was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with burns. Cal Fire estimated that the fire would not be fully contained until Nov. 7.

“We’re in the heart of the battle with this fire,” said Cal Fire Division Chief Jonathan Cox. “To say the conditions are a tinderbox is probably an understatement.”

Shelters for evacuees opened in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Marin County and San Francisco. Some shelters were powered by generators, as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. shut-offs continued to affect nearly 1 million customers across Northern California.

Among the evacuated towns were Sebastopol, Guerneville, Forestville, Occidental and Bodega Bay. Roughly 100 patients at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital were transferred to medical facilities in Novato and San Francisco. Sonoma County officials emptied a jail as well, just in case.

Just about everyone in the county was either under an evacuation order, an evacuation warning, or the power outages imposed by PG&E.

Mother and daughter Becky and Joan said they left their their home on the west side of Santa Rosa Saturday morning and headed to the Finley Community Center, only to be evacuated from there just 90 minutes later. With other shelters already full, they went to what they thought was an open site, but it was locked.

“We we’re trying to navigate the streets with no traffic lights,” said Becky, who, with her mother, declined to give their last names, fearing their personal information could be abused. “We ended up in a parking lot in the dark in our car.”

On Sunday, they made their way to the Sonoma Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma.

“It’s scary. It’s very scary,” Joan said. “For me it’s unnerving because we don’t know when we can go back.”

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick sympathized with the tens of thousands of people displaced, but said he had no regrets about ordering evacuations.

“When this fire decides to make a run and the winds push it, you can’t win,” he said. “We lost 24 people in 2017. There is absolutely no reason to lose a human life here.”

Not everyone abided by Essick’s orders. The town of Windsor was empty Sunday except for Mike Costlow, who stayed so he could lug a 250-foot-long fire hose from house to house in his neighborhood.

There were no flames in the neighborhood, just clouds of smoke, but Costlow sweated and panted as he deftly maneuvered the hose, which he had borrowed from a retired fireman and attached to the nearby fire hydrant.

“It’s preventative,” he said. “I have too much to lose. I’m a new business owner and all my tools are in the house. It’s just impossible to lose everything.”

Elsewhere Sunday, a fire in Lafayette incinerated a tennis club near Highway 24. Fires on each side of the Carquinez Strait — one in Vallejo and one in Crockett — forced evacuations, prompted a 5-hour shutdown of Interstate 80 and the Carquinez Bridge and burned part of the California State University Maritime Academy in Vallejo.

The second biggest fire in the state, known as the Tick Fire, burned 4,615 acres in Los Angeles County, damaged or destroyed 49 structures, and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Early Monday morning, around 1:30 a.m., another fire ignited in Los Angeles, near Interstate 405 and the Getty Center museum. Mandatory evacuations were ordered in the area, not far from the location of the December 2017 Skirball Fire.

After the last two fire seasons, during which more than 100 people died, entire neighborhoods in Santa Rosa burned and the town of Paradise (Butte County) was destroyed, the series of fires caused nervousness up and down the state that the next big fire disaster was at hand.

“There’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of anxiety and fear out there,” Essick said. “Your life is our priority.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom Sunday extended the state of emergency for Sonoma County to a statewide emergency because of the “unprecedented’ wind that blew embers more than a mile ahead of the main conflagration near Geyserville and forced fire crews to rush around extinguishing scores of spot fires.

The declaration will help pay for the Kincade, Tick and other fires burning in the state. Newsom said fires and power shut-offs “make for a moment in our history that we hope we don’t have to repeat.”

“The fires we’re experiencing are not completely abnormal,” he said. “What makes this moment so different are the shut-offs that overlay it. And that’s where obviously people are feeling even more stress.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency to provide mutual aid for those affected by the fire, including a 200-bed shelter at Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, at 1111 Gough Street, starting at 8 a.m. Monday.

PG&E reported that equipment on one of its transmission towers broke near the Kincade Fire’s origin point shortly before the blaze was reported at 9:27 p.m. Wednesday. Power had been shut off in the area, but not on that specific transmission line, in an effort to prevent such an event.

If the investigation were to conclude that PG&E equipment ignited the Kincade Fire, it would be the latest blow for the utility, already mired in bankruptcy court and closely monitored on federal criminal probation.

Paul Doherty, a PG&E spokesman, said another wind event is forecast for Tuesday that could complicate efforts to restore power and extend blackouts into the week.

A Spare the Air alert was called for the entire Bay Area on Monday because of an anticipated shift in winds that will draw Kincade Fire smoke across the region — particularly San Francisco, the East Bay and the North Bay.

Leilani Cooper, 57, rushed through the billowing smoke in northern Windsor Sunday to save her family’s 30-year-old horse, Oliver, which had been left behind by her brother-in-law Saturday when the area was evacuated.

“He helped raise my children,” Cooper of Healdsburg said of the horse as she walked the nervous animal past a burning carport. “I’ve been thinking about it all night. I couldn’t just let him suffer.”

San Francisco Chronicle writers Kurtis Alexander, Megan Cassidy, Jill Tucker, Peter Fimrite and Tatiana Sanchez contributed to this story.

Sarah Ravani, Erin Allday and Demian Bulwa are San Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, eallday@sfchronicle.com, dbulwa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sarravani @erinallday @demianbulwa

Source Article from https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Kincade-Fire-won-t-let-up-rages-south-14567209.php

A private group called “We Build the Wall” says they’ve finished construction on a segment of border wall in New Mexico, closing a gap in the existing border wall themselves rather than waiting for Congress and the President to come to an agreement over how to fund the massive construction project along the United States’ southern border.

The Washington Times reports that We Build the Wall unveiled their half-mile section over the weekend.

“The 18-foot steel bollard wall is similar to the designs used by the Border Patrol, sealing off a part of the border that had been a striking gap in existing fencing,” the Times says. The gap runs from the Texas border, where it ends at the Rio Grand, up, through southern New Mexico, along the “lower elevations” or Mount Cristo Rey.

We Build the Wall claims the half-mile section of steel wall is the first privately constructed part of the border wall, and that their project moved faster and, at $8 million, required less funding than a similar project headed up by the federal government. The group, led by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, also says they’ve got the blessing of President Donald Trump and United States Border Customs and Protection, who were grateful for the help.

“We’re closing a gap that’s been a big headache for them,” Kobach told reporters.

The half-mile segment of border wall, the group says, closes a gap frequently used to smuggle both people and drugs. Kobach added that on a “typical night” around 100 migrants and $100,000 worth of illegal narcotics passed through the half-mile hole.

The Trump Administration was working on a plan to construct around 234 miles of steel fencing, effectively sealing off the southern border with a “border wall,” but attempts to secure funding for the project have stalled. Congress refused to agree to any funding for the border wall beyond the $1.6 billion promised in the 2018 budget, and President Donald Trump’s “national emergency” declaration — which would have detoured funding to the border wall from other Army Corps of Engineers projects — was halted by a judge pending ongoing litigation.

Funding for the border wall has also taken a backseat to a more urgent need: funding for border processing. More than 100,000 migrants are presenting themselves at the United States’ southern border per month now, and, forced by law to process anyone who requests asylum, the CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now overwhelmed with detained immigrants.

Although the Trump Administration officially ended the “catch and release” policies of the Obama Administration, the federal government has reportedly — according to Politico — been shipping migrants who declare asylum to cities in Texas and California, far from the southern border, in order to relieve the stress on border patrol facilities.

“The Trump administration is flying migrants to San Diego and Del Rio, Texas, and busing them to El Centro, Calif., and Laredo, Texas, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official familiar with the plan,” Politico says. “There, they are being processed — which includes photographs, health screenings, fingerprints and background checks — before they are often released and told to return for a court hearing at a later date.”

The administration is also reportedly considering sending migrants to less populated areas in Florida and in the American southwest, in the hopes that, by personally relocating them, they’re better able to track asylum seekers while they await their day in court.

Source Article from https://www.dailywire.com/news/47710/fed-waiting-feds-private-groups-are-building-emily-zanotti

President Trump abruptly walked away from negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam and headed back to Washington on Thursday afternoon, saying the U.S. is unwilling to meet Kim’s demand of lifting all sanctions on the rogue regime without first securing its meaningful commitment to denuclearization.

Trump, speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam, told reporters he had asked Kim to do more regarding his intentions to denuclearize, and “he was unprepared to do that.”

“Sometimes you have to walk,” Trump said at a solo press conference following the summit.

Trump specifically said negotiations fell through after the North demanded a full removal of U.S.-led international sanctions in exchange for the shuttering of the North’s Yongbyon nuclear facility. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the United States wasn’t willing to make a deal without the North committing to giving up its secretive nuclear facilities outside Yongbyon, as well as its missile and warheads program.

“It was about the sanctions,” Trump said. “Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that. They were willing to denuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.”

“I’d much rather do it right than do it fast,” Trump added, echoing his remarks from earlier in the day, when he insisted that “speed” was not important. “We’re in position to do something very special.”

Both leaders motorcades roared away from the downtown Hanoi summit site within minutes of each other after both a lunch and the signing ceremony were scuttled. Trump’s closing news conference was moved up, and he departed for Washington on Air Force One several hours ahead of schedule.

“Sometimes you have to walk.”

— President Trump on his dealings with North Korea

TRUMP PRAISES ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’ WITH NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN AT START OF HANOI SUMMIT

The president said he trusted Kim’s promise that he would not resume nuclear and missile testing, but that the current U.S. sanctions would stay in place.

President Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to reach an agreement on denuclearization. (Associated Press)

“No agreement was reached at this time, but their respective teams look forward to meeting in the future,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement prior to Trump’s press conference.

Regardless, Sanders described the meetings between Trump and Kim as “very good and constructive.”

As for a potential third summit, Trump remained noncommittal.

Kim had signaled during an earlier, unprecedented question-and-answer session with reporters that he is “ready to denuclearize,” reaffirming a commitment long sought by the Trump administration and the international community.

“If I’m not willing to do that, I won’t be here right now,” Kim said through an interpreter.

“That’s a good answer,” Trump replied.

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un take a walk after their first meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. At front right is Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief. At left is national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Trump and Kim signed a document during last year’s summit in Singapore agreeing to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but tensions have since flared between the two nations, and North Korea later said it would not remove its nuclear weapons unless the U.S. first reduced its own nuclear threat.

A working lunch was supposed to get underway between the two leaders in Vietnam on Thursday afternoon, after a whirlwind day on Capitol Hill that threatened to steal the spotlight from the second major summit between the two leaders. But neither Trump nor Kim showed up.

GUTFELD ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF HANOI AND COHEN

Earlier, history appeared to have been made when Kim answered questions from a foreign journalist — almost certainly for the first time ever.

Asked by a member of the White House press pool about his outlook for Thursday’s summit, Kim said: “It’s too early to say. I won’t make predictions. But I instinctively feel that a good outcome will be produced.”

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which deals in affairs with North Korea, couldn’t confirm whether it was the first time Kim answered a question from a foreign journalist.

Asked if he was willing to allow the U.S. to open an office in Pyongyang, Kim said through a translator, “I think that is something which is welcomable.”

Reporters didn’t get opportunities to ask questions of Kim during his three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his four meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Kim ignored questions shouted at him during his first summit with Trump last June in Singapore.

Trump, speaking next to Kim at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel, said that “a lot of great ideas” are “being thrown about.” He asserted that “when you have a good relationship, a lot of good things happen.”

“I just want to say: I have great respect for Chairman Kim, and I have great respect for his country,” Trump told reporters as he sat at a table across from Kim in Hanoi. “And I believe it will be something — hard to compete with for other countries. It has such potential.”

Kim, meanwhile, said the “whole world” was watching the talks and suggested that, for some, the image of the two “sitting side by side” must resemble “a fantasy movie.”

People watch a TV screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump’s press conference, during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. The nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un collapsed Thursday after the two sides failed to reach a deal due to a standoff over U.S. sanctions on the reclusive nation, a stunning end to high-stakes meetings meant to disarm a global threat. The signs read: ” Trump talks with North Korea about denuclearization.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Trump added that while reaching a lasting agreement was critical, “speed is not important.” The two leaders then retired to begin their negotiations privately, but were photographed shortly afterward walking on the Metropole hotel’s pool patio, where they were joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol.

The group then went into a glass-enclosed area and sat down around a table for more talks.

Last year, at the Singapore summit, Trump caught U.S. ally South Korea off guard by announcing the suspension of major U.S. military exercises with the South. Trump critics said he squandered critical U.S. leverage before the North had taken any concrete steps toward denuclearization.

For his part, Moon Jae-in said he plans to offer new proposals for inter-Korean engagement following the high-stakes nuclear summit. Moon’s announcement is planned for a Friday ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of a 1919 uprising by Koreans against Japan’s colonial rule and will likely include plans for economic cooperation between the rival Koreas.

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One after a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Hanoi. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

It was widely presumed that Trump made the decision during his private talks with Kim — his description of the war games as “very provocative” seemed to be in line with North Korea’s view of the drills as rehearsals for invasions. Both Washington and Seoul have insisted for years that the exercises were routine and defensive in nature.

Bong Young-shik, an analyst at Seoul’s Yonsei University, was less worried, saying that the criticism Trump faced in Singapore could make him less likely to make huge, impulsive decisions during his private meetings with Kim this time around.

“There’s always a certain level of risk in this kind of meeting, but it’s hard to say Trump will be dragged into a decision by Kim just because of what happened in Singapore,” Bong said.

Former President Barack Obama was known to occasionally hold impromptu chats with leaders on the sidelines of major global summits with only their interpreters at their sides.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

At former President Ronald Reagan’s first meeting with then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in November 1985, the two men met alone with only trusted interpreters. Only 15 minutes had been allotted for the discussion, but it went on for an hour.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-wasnt-prepared-to-lift-us-sanctions-on-north-korea-leading-to-abrupt-end-to-summit

“This allowed the governor to sexually harass Ms. Bennett, a subordinate employee who is almost 40 years his junior, with impunity,” Ms. Katz said. “We are confident that a thorough investigation of the workplace environment in Governor Cuomo’s office will conclude that the governor and his senior staff fostered a culture of abuse, harassment and secrecy.”

Ms. Garvey, the governor’s special counsel, responded by saying that “Ms. Bennett’s concerns were treated with sensitivity and respect and in accordance with applicable law and policy.”

The paperwork that Ms. James has asked the administration to preserve will be especially important as investigators scrutinize how members of the governor’s staff handled sexual harassment complaints made by its employees. Questions have already been raised about whether Mr. Cuomo’s aides followed proper protocol in reporting the allegations made by Ms. Bennett, who was an executive assistant at the time.

When Ms. Bennett told Jill DesRosiers, the governor’s chief of staff, that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed her in June, shortly after the alleged incident, the disclosure should have been reported to a state labor office. That would have prompted an investigation into her complaint.

It remains unclear whether the governor’s aides properly reported her complaint to the labor office, known as the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, as required under an executive order that Mr. Cuomo issued in 2018 amid the #MeToo movement.

Ms. Bennett said she gave a lengthy statement regarding her interactions with the governor to a special counsel to Mr. Cuomo, Judith Mogul. Ms. Bennett said she made it clear to Ms. Mogul that she believed the governor had propositioned her and was grooming her for sex, telling Mr. Cuomo’s aides that she feared retaliation for reporting his behavior.

Shortly after her initial complaint to Ms. DesRosiers, Ms. Bennett was transferred to another job in a different part of the State Capitol. The governor’s office did not say on Friday whether Ms. Bennett’s complaint was reported or investigated.

“As the documents will reflect, I acted consistent with the information provided, the requirements of the law, and Charlotte’s wishes,” Ms. Mogul said in a statement on Friday.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/nyregion/cuomo-investigation-sexual-harassment.html

(AP)-As the latest federal pandemic relief package makes its way to President Joe Biden’s desk, Americans may be wondering when the benefits will reach them.

The $1.9 trillion known as the “American Rescue Plan” is massive, both in size and scope. It includes direct payments to most Americans, aid to small businesses, financial help for schools and much more to help the country recover from the financial ravages of the pandemic.

The house is expected to give its final approval early this week and then it heads to Biden for his signature. The timing of its passage is crucial — most notably because some pandemic unemployment benefits will be coming to an end on Sunday.

Millions of taxpayers could begin to see direct benefits almost immediately, some later this month and others taking several months to accomplish.

Here’s what you need to know about the main planks of the spending plan:

RELIEF CHECKS

The legislation provides a direct payment of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple that files jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000.

The size of the check would shrink for those making slightly more, with a hard cut-off at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.

Biden estimates that 85% of Americans will be eligible for the payment. Some groups that were not eligible for prior payments — such as dependent college students and disabled adults — are now eligible.

Biden said the goal is to send out the payments starting this month.

“That means the mortgage can get paid. That means the child can stay in community college. That means maintaining the health insurance you have,” Biden said. “It’s going to make a big difference in so many of lives in this country.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the administration is doing everything in its power to expedite payments. As such, the Treasury is working to get more payments to taxpayers by direct deposit. The agency will be able to send direct deposit payments to those who have their information on file from 2019 or 2020 tax filings or who provided it through other programs.

Biden’s signature will not appear on the checks, a move his predecessor made that was criticized as a delay in getting payments out.

new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 30% of Americans say their current household income remains lower than it was when the pandemic began.

The IRS and the Treasury Department began to issue the last round of payments by both direct deposit and check in only a matter of days after the outlays became law in late December.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government would be extended through Sept. 6 at $300 a week. That’s on top of payments from state unemployment insurance program.

Despite a modest recovery, millions of Americans remain unemployed. The plan would also extend two key pandemic programs, which benefit about 11.8 million Americans.

These pandemic unemployment benefits were set to expire Sunday, so if there is a delay in the bill’s passage there could be a gap in benefits. But the National Employment Law Project anticipates if things are finalized this week, states and existing beneficiaries likely won’t see any interruption in payments.

The first $10,200 of jobless benefits would be non-taxable for households with incomes under $150,000 but only for benefits from 2020. The IRS will have to issue guidelines on how to put this into practice.

Additionally, the measures provides a 100% subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums to ensure that the laid-off workers can remain on their employer health plans at no cost from April 1 through the end of September.

TAX BREAKS

The package contains a number of valuable tax breaks. One of the most notable is an increase in the tax credit that taxpayers can claim for dependent children.

Under current law, most taxpayers can reduce their federal income tax bill by up to $2,000 per child. The bill would increase the tax break to $3,000 for every child age 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under the age of 6.

Families would get the full credit regardless of how little they make in a year.

The aim is to deliver the money, which is an advance payment on the tax credit, in smaller monthly payments instead of one larger lump sum.

The exact timing of when this money would arrive is still unclear. If the Treasury determines that a monthly payment isn’t feasible, then the payments are to be made as frequently as possible.

Elaine Maag, principal research associate in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said monthly payments could begin as soon as July but if the government opts for a quarterly payments it take until could fall.

Add in the $1,400 checks and other items in the proposal, and the legislation would reduce the number of children living in poverty by more than half, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

The bill also significantly expands the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021 by making it available to people without children. The credit for low and moderate-income adults would be worth $543 to $1,502, depending on income and filing status.

The benefit of the EITC would not be felt until taxpayers file their returns for the 2021 tax year, which would typically be in the beginning of 2022.

The plan does not include student loan forgiveness, but it does allow for any income from the forgiveness of student loans be to be tax-free from 2021 through 2025.

___

AP congressional reporter Kevin Freking and staff reporter Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://fox8.com/news/third-stimulus-checks-when-to-expect-payments-other-benefits-from-relief-package/

A little boy who’s lucky to be alive said he does not know how he managed to survive the horrifying escape from his Mexico City school after a powerful earthquake that killed more than 200 people destroyed the building while he was in the middle of class.

“I was in my English class and the ground started to vibrate,” Luis Carlos Tomé, told NBC News partner Noticias Telemundo on Wednesday, visibly shaking and crying.


Luis Carlos said he noted out loud that the ground was shaking because no alarm had sounded and everyone left the classroom quickly.

“That’s when I made the best decision of my life — which was not to go to the left, which is where everything fell first,” he said, crying. “I went to the right with my friends.”

The boy said he, his friends and others were all going down the stairs when suddenly people started to fall.



PHOTOS: Desperate Rescuers Dig Through Rubble After Powerful Mexico Quake

“There were many [people on the stairs] but all of a sudden I didn’t see them anymore,” he said.

After he escaped, he said he “could only see how the whole school had fallen.”

Luis Carlos said he looked around and did not see many of his classmates, or his teacher.

“All the dust, we could only cover ourselves,” he added.


The boy then came to the realization that many of the classmates and teachers he knew may already be dead.

“Everything happened so fast, I did not see her,” Luis Carlos said of his teacher. “In about thirty seconds my school was down and I don’t even know how I saved myself.”

Luis Carlos’ mother, who was unidentified, told Noticias Telemundo that she thanked God after she found out both of children survived the massive quake.

“My life came back,” she said.

Rescue workers pulled at least 25 bodies, all but four of them children, from the Enrique Rebsamen school in the south of the capital after it collapsed following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked Mexico Tuesday afternoon.

Related: Mexico Quake Turns Classroom Into Coffin, Rescuers Scramble for Survivors

Eleven people were rescued from the school, while two children and one adult were still missing, Mexico’s Education Minister Aurelio Nuño said Wednesday morning.

Crews wearing hard hats worked throughout Wednesday to find the missing, and rescuers found a surviving child in the ruins, the Associated Press reported.



Three workers entered the rubble, the AP reported, and spotted the girl. Rescuers had been trying to secure the child for hours, according to the AP.

Dr. Pedro Serrano, one of the volunteers, told the AP that he managed to crawl into the crevices of the tottering pile of rubble and made it into a classroom, but found all of its occupants dead.

“We saw some chairs and wooden tables,” he said. “The next thing we saw was a leg, and then we started to move rubble and we found a girl and two adults — a woman and a man.”



Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mexico-earthquake-little-boy-describes-horrifying-escape-collapsed-school-n803201

Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has stirred racial tensions, says he has no plans to visit the late Congressman John Lewis as the civil rights icon lies in state at the US Capitol.

“No I won’t be going,” the president said. “No.”

The president delivered the news as he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina. As he took reporters’ questions, Mr Lewis’ casket had just arrived at the Capitol, where a military honour guard carried his American-flag draped casket up the white stairs and into the rotunda.

Gathered were lawmakers from both parties and Mr Lewis’ family.

Vice President Mike Pence, a former GOP congressman who served with Mr Lewis is expected to visit the Capitol on Monday night. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Mr Trump’s presumptive general election foe and a former US senator, also is expected to pay his respects.


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke under the Capitol dome with the casket on a black curtain-covered stand in the centre of the room.

Mr Lewis is among only a handful of African-Americans who ever have lied in state in the building.

Attendees wore masks and sat six feet apart.

Source Article from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-john-lewis-capital-rotunda-washington-dc-joe-biden-a9640886.html