Image caption
Cuando tenía 20 años, Jill Dodd vivió una relación muy distinta a las que terminan en “y se casaron y vivieron muy felices” que se escriben para el cine en su nativa Los Ángeles.
El pasado de la empresaria y diseñadora Jill Dodd, fundadora de la marca internacional de ropa deportiva Roxy, es sin duda exótico. Su vida tuvo un giro inesperado un fin de semana a principios de los ochenta, cuando con 20 años trabajaba como modelo en París. Le reveló a la BBC un mundo que pocos conocemos.
Todo empezó con una invitación a una fiesta…
“Mi agente me llamó para preguntarme si yo quería ir a Monte Carlo con ella y le dije ‘¡Sí… maravilloso!’. La noche que llegamos fuimos a una fiesta loquísima”.
El lugar era Le Pirate, donde camareros de pelo largo y sin camisa tocaban guitarra mientras una fogata crepitante, de seis metros de altura, iluminaba el cielo.
“Un ‘pirata’ me entregó una copa de champán. Me lo tomé y tiré la copa al fuego, como los demás invitados. Todo era tan salvaje y decadente. Quería bailar y vi a un hombre sentado en la mesa que parecía inofensivo: era como el papá de una amiga. Nos miramos y empezamos a bailar alrededor de la fogata”.
“Mientras estábamos bailando, mi agente se acercó y me preguntó si sabía con quién estaba bailando. Le contesté que no, que no me importaba. Me dijo: ‘Adnan Khashoggi’ y le pregunté: ‘¿Qué es Adnan Khashoggi?’… no le entendí nada“.
Khashoggi era un multimillonario saudita, comerciante de armas y conocido por su papel en algunos de los más famosos escándalos de los ochenta, entre ellos el Irán-Contra o Irangate, (1985 y 1986), en el cual Estados Unidos, bajo el gobierno de Ronald Reagan, le vendió armas al gobierno iraní que estaba en guerra con Irak y financió el movimiento Contra nicaragüense, dos operaciones prohibidas por el Senado. Khashoggi fue un intermediario clave.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
A finales de los 80, Khashoggi fue extraditado a EE.UU. para ser juzgado por establecer negocios ilegales con Ferdinand Marcos de Filipinas. En la foto se le ve al salir de la cárcel en Nueva York tras pagar la fianza de US$10 millones. En 1990 fue absuelto.
Escrito con sangre
“Cuando nos sentamos, él me subió la manga y escribió “Te amo” en mi brazo en letras grandes y rojas”.
“Al principio no me di cuenta de que lo había escrito con sangre”.
“Me senté para tratar de entender lo que acababa de pasar (…)
Estaba perdida en mi propio mundo, mareada por el alcohol y rodeada de extraños en este loco lugar. Lo único que hacía era mirar mi brazo (…)
Me gustó que escribiera ‘Te amo’. No me lo limpié“
Jill Dodd en su libro “The currency of love” (La moneda del amor)
“Me pareció divertido. Cuando bailamos era tan inocente, infantil y divertido. Y cuando hizo eso me pareció que era muy imaginativo. La gente hace cosas locas en Europa en las fiestas… escandalosas, a veces”.
“Al final de la noche, mi agente me dijo que Adnan quería que fuera a su bote a tomar café. Le contesté que lo único que quería era irme a dormir”. Me dijo: ‘Pero es ese bote que ves allá’, señalando hacia el Mediterráneo. Ahí estaba un barco que parecía un transatlántico… yo nunca había visto un barco tan grande“.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
El yate de Khashoggi era el más grande del mundo en esa época y fue usado en la película de James Bond “Nunca digas nunca”. Cuando tuvo problemas financieros se lo vendió al Sultán de Brunei quien a su vez se lo vendió a Donald Trump.
Jill no fue a tomar café esa noche, pero aceptó una invitación a cenar la noche siguiente.
A bordo
“El barco era enorme. Tenía al menos diez habitaciones, una discoteca, un hospital en el que se podía hacer cirugía a corazón abierto (…) Cuando llegamos nos preguntó si nos queríamos cambiar de ropa y nos llevó a un cuarto repleto de trajes de noche de alta costura. Me impresionó”.
“Tras una elegante cena me preguntó si quería que me mostrara el barco. Fuimos a su cuarto: la cama estaba cubierta de pieles, las manijas de las puertas eran de oro y tenía paredes estilo James Bond que rotaban para revelar habitaciones ocultas… me pareció que todo era una gran máquina ingeniosa”.
Una máquina cuyo siguiente dueño fue Donald Trump, el actual presidente de Estados Unidos.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
Las paredes revestidas de piel de gamuza en una sala de estar amarilla, diseñada por Luigi Sturchio, a bordo del yate de 86 metros cuando ya era de Donald Trump. Él lo bautizó “Trump Princess”. (1988)
“Adnan se comportaba como si realmente quisiera saber quién era yo y cuáles eran mis intereses. Nos sentamos a charlar por horas. Aunque me dijo: ‘Tengo que ser honesto: sé todo sobre ti. Tuve que investigarte por razones de seguridad'”.
“Sabía dónde había nacido, que mi papá era bombero, en qué había trabajado… una persona normal se habría quedado atónita pero yo no era muy rápida juzgando a la gente”, recuerda.
“Después de esa noche, yo definitivamente quería volverlo a ver, pero no sabía si alguna vez sucedería. ¿Sabes cómo a veces conoces personas que te parecen familiares, como si las hubieras conocido antes, y no sabes por qué pero todo encaja?”.
“Además, me dejó una buena impresión el que no hubiera tratado de besarme. Eso hizo que pensara más en él”. Y así continuó la relación por un tiempo, sin que hubiera nada físico.
Derechos de autor de la imagen JILL DODD
Image caption
Jill se ganaba la vida como modelo en París.
Esposa de placer
“Estábamos con un grupo en Marbella y Adnan aún no había llegado. Una noche me despertó, me tomó de la mano y me llevó a su suite. Empezamos a hablar y de repente preguntó: ‘¿Te gustaría un baño de espuma?’. Me metí a la bañera, él se sentó en el borde y charlamos.
“Luego fuimos a su recámara y para entonces yo quería besarlo. Pero dijo: ‘No puedo besarte hasta que aceptes un contrato’. No entendía de qué estaba hablando. Me explicó: ‘Yo no me caso de la manera tradicional’. Se comparó con la realeza en Arabia Saudita y otros hombres poderosos que tienen permitido tener tres esposas legales y 11 esposas de placer.
“‘Me gustaría que fueras mi esposa de placer. Hagamos un contrato de 5 años. Yo me encargaré de ti, me podrás contactar en cualquier momento, si quieres verme enviaré el avión. Podrás salir con otros hombres…’, así me propuso matrimonio de placer”.
“A mí no me importaba todo eso. Yo quería ser independiente… y quería besarlo”.
Yo era unos 12 cms. más alta que él, su cabeza era redonda y calva y tenía barriga… ¡A mí me parecía adorable!”
El contrato no era escrito, sino verbal. Con un beso quedó sellado y Jill se convirtió en su esposa de placer.
“Eso significaba que yo tenía su estilo de vida cuando estaba con él: vivía en sus hermosas casas, atendida por empleados domésticos, alimentada por chefs, relajada por masajistas. A Adnan le fascinaba la moda y le gustaba vestirme”.
“No lo dejé todo para estar sólo con él. Seguí pagando mi arriendo, vivía sola y trabajaba”.
Armas
Jill era consciente de que estaba con un hombre extremadamente rico, pero no sabía todavía que Khashoggi era comerciante de armas.
“Ni siquiera sabía bien cuál era su apellido. Y no había internet… ¿cómo iba a encontrar esa información? Lo que sabía era que me interesaba y que quería estar más tiempo con él”.
“Pasó mucho tiempo antes de que me enterara de cómo ganaba dinero. Le pregunté al principio pero no mencionó armas”.
“Fue en un viaje a Las Vegas que me dijo que estaba cerrando un gran negocio. Cuando me explicó de qué se trataba exclamé: ‘¡Pero son máquinas de guerra!‘ y me respondió: ‘No tienen todos los países el derecho de defenderse de una guerra con otros países?'”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen JILL DODD
Image caption
Jill no dejó su trabajo cuando se “casó” con Khashoggi. La llamaban mucho para modelar trajes de baño. Después empezó a estudiar y eventualmente fundó Roxy, una marca conocida entre surfistas.
Las otras mujeres
“Conocí a las otras esposas de placer en reuniones o en cenas. Con el tiempo se volvió normal. Nos tratábamos con respecto pero guardábamos la distancia. Yo sentía que yo era especial para él. Fue más tarde que empezó a cambiar”.
“Una noche me trajo un collar que era para otra persona. Yo estaba dormida en mi cama y él entró en medio de la noche con un paquete. Me besó en la cabeza y me volteé y dijo: ‘¡Me equivoqué de habitación! Quédate con el regalo'”.
“Me sentí destrozada. Esa fue la primera vez que realmente me hirió”.
Separación
“Había empezado a estudiar y así que no estaba con él tanto como antes. Entonces me di cuenta de que estaba buscando otra mujer. Me pareció horripilante. Adnan y yo estábamos en su suite cuando un hombre entró con un folder negro grande que tenía fotos de modelos”.
Las empezaron a mirar y de repente caí en cuenta de lo que estaba pasando.
‘¿Qué estás haciendo? ¿Estás buscando chicas para comprar? ¿Fue así como me encontraste? ¿Me escogiste en un catálogo?‘. Se miraron y empezaron a reírse”.
“Me sentí traicionada. Todo estalló en ese momento. En ese entonces, él tenía hordas de mujeres a su alrededor. Todo era cada vez era más sórdido”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
Image caption
La actriz italiana Lory Del Santo en el baño del yate de su amigo Adnan Khashoggi, en marzo de 1981, la época en la que Jill Dodd todavía estaba con él.
“Luego conocí a una chica llamada René, que era idéntica a mí, sólo que menos alta y más joven. Empecé a sentir que era muy vieja para él (tenía 22 años)”.
El fin
Jill se fue, pero siguió en contacto con Khashoggi por años.
“Me llamaba y me preguntaba si quería volver con él. Si alguna vez me hubiera dicho que me amaba y que quería estar sólo conmigo, sin harén, lo habría considerado”.
“Adnan murió el día que publiqué mi libro (6 de junio, 2017). Para mí fue un shock que me duró una semana. En medio de la noche me levantaba llorando y sentía que estaba hablando con él, diciéndole que lo quería”.
Derechos de autor de la imagen jill dodd
Image caption
Khashoggi murió el mismo día en el que “La moneda del amor” salió a la venta.
“Realmente no tengo más que recuerdos gratos de él. Por más que suene loco, fue una de las relaciones más sanas que he tenido con un hombre”.
“Hubo mucha honestidad. Me respetó, nunca me habló con crueldad. De hecho, después de la relación con Adnan, estuve en una relación abusiva con un estadounidense que fue horrenda. Como una mujer adulta -tengo 57 años y he estado felizmente casada por casi 20 años- aún la recuerdo como una hermosa amistad”.
No obstante, si una de sus dos hijas le dijera que está en una relación como la que ella tuvo con Khashoggi, “sentiría terror”.
Image caption
La acelerada urbanización de China ayudo a impulsar el crecimiento de su economía.
Pero para Wade Sheppard, autor de Ghost cities of China (“Ciudades fantasmas de China”) y del blog vagabondjourney, se trata de una percepción simplista e interesada.
“Las mal llamadas ciudades fantasmas de la China fueron noticia en Occidente porque contribuían a generar la idea de un sistema demente que construía monstruos urbanos que nadie habitaba”, le dijo a BBC Mundo.
“Pero cuando, como está sucediendo, estas ciudades son habitadas, dejan de ser noticia porque muestran que, detrás de estas iniciativas, hay un proyecto de urbanización diferente”, indicó.
La foto y la película
La consigna oficial “construyamos primero que se habitarán después” refleja con claridad este modelo chino de desarrollo urbano.
Una de las cifras más citadas sobre el programa urbano chino es que, desde 1978, se construyeron unas 500 ciudades.
Según Sheppard hay que comprender estas cifras en el contexto chino.
Image copyright afp
Image caption
Por primera vez en la historia china los habitantes urbanos superan en número a los rurales.
“La palabra ciudad es un término administrativo. Cuando decimos que hay 600 nuevas ciudades, es que 600 zonas rurales fueron reorganizadas como ciudades”, le dijo a BBC Mundo.
“En muchos casos son nuevos distritos, barrios o municipalidades para millones de personas. En otros son nuevas ciudades, cercanas a algún centro importante”, explicó Sheppard.
“Pero todos tienen una característica común: son construidas desde cero antes de que siquiera un residente habite la ciudad o exprese un interés en hacerlo“, detalló.
El caso de Dantu, distrito en Jiansu, provincia al este de China, es emblemático.
Según publicó en diciembre de 2010 la publicación de negocios “Business Insider”, “la ciudad fantasma Dantu ha estado vacía durante más de una década“.
Y, por la misma fecha, el matutino británico “Daily Mail” comentaba que “en la mayoría de los barrios de Dantu no hay coches, no hay señales de vida“.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption
La otra cara de la moneda: las aglomeraciones propias de ciudades como Pekín.
En ambos casos se basaban en fotos satelitales tomadas al comienzo del emprendimiento.
Pero la diferencia entre foto y película de un lugar es grande.
En el mejor de los casos, la foto capta un momento. La película, en cambio, puede ver el desarrollo: hoy Dantu tiene unos 380 mil habitantes.
“La visité en 2012 y encontré una ciudad activa, con las señales vitales en perfecto orden. Comparada con otras ciudades chinas está menos poblada, pero había gente en las calles, negocios abiertos, gente comiendo, ropa tendida en las ventanas de las casa. De ciudad fantasma, nada”, señala Sheppard.
Los habitantes de la nueva ciudad
Dantu no es una excepción.
Un reciente informe del banco Standard Chartered muestra que, entre 2012 y 2014, Zhengdong, un nuevo distrito del tamaño de San Francisco en Henan, centro del país, duplicó su población.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Changzhou es otra de las zonas de rápida urbanización.
Un emprendimiento similar, la prefectura de Changzhou, en el este de China, aumentó de un tercio de la población.
“Lo que se llama ‘ciudad fantasma’ es un fenómeno transitorio que se debe a la continua urbanización china”, señala el informe del banco.
“Un nuevo distrito de China tiene tres fases de desarrollo: una inicial en la que se colocan los cimientos y la infraestructura básica, una segunda fase de crecimiento y una final de madurez. El proceso tarda normalmente entre 10 y 15 años”, se lee ahí.
El proceso urbanizador que comenzó con Mao Tse Tung, y se aceleró con las reformas de Deng Xiao Peng en los 80, alcanzó su ritmo actual con la urbanización nacional de principios de este siglo.
Y ya ha resultado en un cambio demográfico sin precedentes: por primera vez en su historia milenaria hay más chinos en centros urbanos que en el campo.
Image copyright Reuters
Image caption
Muchos departamentos son comprados como inversión para el futuro de los hijos.
Las razones que llevan a emigrar a estas localidades reflejan tanto el tipo de urbanización como la misma sociedad china.
“Hay urbanizaciones que se convertirán en el nuevo centro de una ciudad ya existente. Otras son suburbios dónde escapar del bullicio o encontrar más espacio y mejores precios”, indicó a BBC Mundo Sheppard.
“El estado contribuye con una serie de beneficios como pasajes gratis de autobús, alquileres muy bajos, subsidios para las cuentas de gas”.
“Pero también hay tendencias sociales. Un notable porcentaje de departamentos son adquiridos para el futuro de los hijos y, sobre todo, para mejorar sus chances de casamiento. Otros son simplemente una inversión o un lugar para jubilarse“, explicó.
¿Despilfarro o planificación?
El término “ciudad fantasma” confunde porque no se trata de lugares abandonados por alguna razón económica, social, política o ambiental sino de una fase del proceso urbanizador.
Los malentendidos en torno al financiamiento de estos emprendimientos son igualmente notorios.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption
El distrito de Pudong en Shangai es uno de los casos más exitosos de desarrollo urbanístico en China.
El mensaje mediático es que estas ciudades son más el capricho corrupto de algún funcionario que la estrategia planificadora racional de un gobierno.
Pero la urbanización es hoy un motor de la economía china.
El último plan de urbanización nacional, que abarca 2014 a 2020, fue anunciado en marzo del año pasado con un costo de US$7 billones.
Este plan forma parte de la transición china de una economía basada en las exportaciones a otra en consumo y constituye una fuente de demanda para la economía global por las necesidades de materias primas y productos elaborados implícitas en cualquier programa urbanizador.
Errores y aciertos
En un país de las dimensiones geográficas (tercera a nivel mundial) y poblacionales (primera) de China todo plan está condenado a un porcentaje de error.
El actual modelo urbanístico produjo grandes éxitos como Shenzhen, una ciudad de pescadores, que se convirtió en un centro financiero, exportador e importador; o Pudong, un distrito de Shanghái, construido en los 90, que permaneció semivacío durante más de una década y hoy tiene cinco millones de personas.
Image copyright afp
Image caption
Hace pocos años Huaxi era una zona rural.
Junto a estos éxitos, se encuentran caprichos arquitectónicos imitativos como la”Manhattan china” en la norteña Tianjin y la réplica de ciudad británica, Thames Town, en Shanghai.
“Ha habido denuncias de corrupción, planes que no se cumplen, avances a los saltos, abuso de poder. Las urbanizaciones son importantes para las carreras de los políticos que las usan para escalar posiciones en el Partido Comunista. El desplazamiento de campesinos por estos procesos ha sido extraordinario”, señala Sheppard.
But I’m not here to defend or attack Trump. While our system of jurisprudence holds that where there may not be sufficient evidence to indict someone, that doesn’t mean a person wasn’t predisposed to or clumsily attempted to engage in criminal activity. Regardless, he’s not in my orbit.
But as someone who spent 25 years working for the FBI, every man or woman who has ever served within the FBI is in my orbit. For that reason, I view their conduct, as they should view my own, through a vastly more scrutable lens.
The events involving credible information and allegations that led up to the initiation of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane case occurred during the Obama administration. An intelligence community led by notable Trump critics John Brennan, James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Susan Rice, Loretta Lynch, and James Comey recognized the efforts from the Kremlin to sow chaos in our democratic system — dating back to the inception of the Cold War. Tradecraft has evolved significantly since the 1950s. Efforts to undermine our democracy are conducted in plain sight across the internet and social media platforms.
But no one, least of all Trump, expected Trump to win. The leader of the FBI at the time of the 2016 election, James Comey, nicknamed the “Cardinal” for his holier-than-thou mien and nonstop virtue-signaling, had surrounded himself at FBI headquarters with callow sycophants bent on career advancement who denigrated political candidates they loathed on their bureau cellphones. Afflicted with groupthink and endowed with a penchant for confirmation bias, these Comey idolaters were oblivious to their resemblance to the gaggle of admirers who couldn’t bring themselves to advise the naked emperor about his invisible threads.
No, the true disappointment for me and other retired FBI agents isn’t our president’s conduct. It’s the conduct of promoted-before-their time, panicked senior executives who made poor decisions in promoting a shoddily prepared, political opposition-financed, wholly unverified piece of garbage known as “the dossier” to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court.
Don’t tell me they didn’t realize what they were championing as evidence was dreck.
For the Adam Schiffs of the world, those who purposely mischaracterized and misrepresented what they claimed to have seen with their own eyes in closed chambers, shame on you. Your clownish double down is injurious to our justice system. Please stop. Your self-righteous, sanctimonious, pious indignation is a joke.
But cravenly misbehaving politicians aside, allow me to focus on the two men most familiar with the potent weaponization of the flawed cornerstone behind the predicate for spying on George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, please announce yourselves. Both of you shamelessly attempted to manage outsized expectations prior to the Mueller report’s release.
McCabe, in his recent book The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump, deftly leverages the bureau’s widely criticized decision to “announce a result that did not include bringing charges against anyone” in the Clinton email investigation. Comparing it to the collusion case, McCabe meekly allows that “the same might happen with the Russia case.”
Here’s the guy who sounded the alarm, supposedly discussed 25th Amendment provisions for presidential removal with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and offered the dossier as unimpeachable evidence for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant and three renewals.
This is the same man who in February said, “I think it’s possible” Trump is a Russian asset. McCabe signed off on the dossier multiple times as the predicate to continue re-upping the FISA warrant against the Trump campaign and had all the relevant information. Yet somehow the reality of the Mueller report, which found not a shred of evidence of Trump campaign collusion, let alone evidence of Trump being a Russian asset, was light-years away from McCabe’s judgment.
Shameful. But when one nurses at the teat of an FBI director whose ego grows with every word he hears himself speak, we understand.
Comey, of course, released a post-report Twitter follow-up to his “So many questions” forest photo of his gazing high into the redwoods. This one, simply captioned “So many answers,” featured the forest floor, with new growth flora emergent. The man who famously advised Katie Couric that “I hope to be forgotten” craves remaining a central figure in the continued diminution of the FBI. After disgracefully leaking FBI documents to the New York Times, he testified to the Senate to his fecklessness and lack of courage while at the helm. An overtly partisan second act beclowns him and adds fuel to the fire for those who always believed his FBI decision-making was tainted by political considerations.
His insulting pronouncement, “I have no idea what he’s talking about,” regarding Barr’s comments that the Trump campaign was “spied” upon are rich. This is the same Comey who, along with his ardent supporters, continues to argue that any criticism of the FBI’s actions in the Trump-Russia case are “corrosive attacks on our institutions of justice.”
Boy, please.
The reckoning is coming, folks. There are four ongoing investigations that will seek to explain why a collection of falsehoods, including pee tapes and meetings in Prague that never occurred, were eagerly accepted as fact by Comey’s Keystone Cops.
The Mueller report will assuredly marinate a while longer in the disappointed mainstream media echo chamber. Let’s face some uncomfortable facts when we can turn our attention to the pending inspector general report, the Senate investigation, the attorney general’s review of bureau actions, and Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber’s investigation into Crossfire Hurricane misconduct.
I bleed FBI blue and gold. I spent half of my life serving an agency I love dearly. But it’s time to cease the political papering-over of the Comey era. I’m angry, and you should be as well.
James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) worked in the FBI for 25 years. He is a law enforcement analyst for CNN and an adjunct assistant professor in homeland security and criminal justice at St. John’s University.
More than 200 former Boy Scouts are coming forward with sexual abuse allegations against the century-old organization. USA TODAY
More than 200 individuals have come forward with new allegations of sexual abuse by members of the Boy Scouts of America in recent weeks as a trio of law firms seek to uncover unidentified child abusers.
A few of the victims are young, still underage or in their 20s, but many have held their secrets close for decades.
“Nobody would have listened to me,” said James Kretschmer, 56, who says a leader groped him at a Boy Scouts camp when he was in middle school. “The problem is, then you think, ‘Is it something I did? What was I doing, was it my fault? If I hadn’t done whatever, he wouldn’t have done that.’ It took me years and years to realize it wasn’t that little child’s fault. It was the adult who had control.”
Samuel, 17, said he was fondled by a leader a decade ago, who told him, “Don’t say anything.
“For awhile, I lived with those three words,” Samuel said. “That’s why I didn’t say anything.”
Advised by Tim Kosnoff, an attorney who has litigated more than a thousand cases of sexual misconduct against organizations such as the Scouts and the Mormon church, the group of attorneys said it has identified 150 alleged pedophiles never before publicly accused.
The law firms began running TV and Google ads encouraging victims to sign on as clients for a potential lawsuit after a report in December that Boy Scouts of America prepared for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The volume already gathered could double the number of legal cases the organization already is facing, although a bankruptcy would halt existing and future litigation, the attorneys told USA TODAY.
In a statement about the new allegations, Boy Scouts of America said, “Any incident of child abuse is one too many, and nothing is more important than the safety and protection of children in our Scouting programs.”
Kosnoff and his colleagues said a bankruptcy filing would have a chilling effect on victims’ ability to expose predators who are a threat to their communities. The number of victims who have signed on since last month is evidence for the Seattle-based attorney that many more have yet to step forward.
“That’s proof that we’ve barely scratched the surface,” Kosnoff said. He added that FBI research has shown that each “perpetrator has over 100 victims over a lifetime of offending.”
Kenneth Rothweiler, a partner at one of the three firms, Eisenberg Rothweiler,said that only a handful of the new allegations are related to previously identified perpetrators. About 90%, he said, are new.
Kretschmer and Kendall Kimber, 60, are among those making their allegations public for the first time. They described a culture of shame and secrecy that kept them silent. That worry has not been erased over the years.
Kimber said he was abused by a leader who offered to help him prepare for the Order of the Arrow, an honor society within the Boy Scouts that he was invited to join. At the leader’s house, Kimber said, the man forced him to perform oral sex.
“He did that while he was talking to his mother on the phone,” Kimber said. “He had nothing about the Boy Scouts or about what I was doing on his mind.”
Kimber said he never went back to the man’s house and eventually quit the Scouts. He said he didn’t tell anyone about his experience until much later, when he learned his brothers were abused by the same man. One committed suicide, which Kimber said was tied in part to the abuse.
“I probably would have gotten kicked out” for coming forward at the time, Kimber said.
Kretschmer said his abuser was his psychologist through the Air Force base where his dad was stationed. He was a kid with attention issues, he said, which were less understood at the time.
Both men said they are speaking out now to help prevent future abuse.
“There are thousands of kids who may not have ever had this happen to them if people would have stood up and said, ‘No, no, no, we’re not tolerating this, we’re not allowing this to happen,’ ” Kretschmer said. ” ‘There may be a little bit of mud on our face right now, but it’s the children that are important.’ “
The Boy Scouts have been dogged by abuse allegations since a landmark case in 2010 that ended with an $18.5 million damage award and the release of more than 20,000 confidential documents, dubbed the “perversion files.”
Those records revealed that the 100-year-old organization had long kept track of suspected and known abusers – banning more than 1,000 leaders and volunteers between 1965 to 1985. But the records also showed the Scouts had rarely, if ever, reported those individuals to police. In a news conference Tuesday, attorney Jeff Anderson revealed court documents indicating that reviews of the “perversion files” found nearly 8,000 volunteers previously banned from the organization due to accusations of child sexual abuse.
Much like USA Gymnastics and the Catholic Church, the Scouts have been accused of covering up the abuse. The Scouting organization faces 200 lawsuits that its insurance companies threatened to stop covering. USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy protection in December, following the lead of more than a dozen church dioceses.
In response to those proposals,“organizations like BSA and the Catholic Church are now taking legal maneuvers to try to prevent victims from bringing these cases,” Rothweiler said.
Bankruptcy would create a limited window for victims to file claims. Those filings would be confidential, meaning names of perpetrators would not be made public.Afterward, Scouts BSA would emerge as a reorganized debtor and would not have to face civil litigation for – or negative publicity about – claims of wrongdoing.
“That’s why they’re going into bankruptcy, not because they don’t have the money,” Kosnoff said. “They’re going into bankruptcy to hide, to hide these dirty secrets.”
Rothweiler said that among the responses the law firms received through their hotline and website, abusedinscouting.com, were two minors, one alleging an incident in 2018. Their experiences call into question whether the Scouts have made good on promises to take proactive steps to prevent abuse.
Samuel – whose name was changed to protect his identity,because he is a minor and an alleged victim – said he was assaulted by an assistant Scout leader around 2008, when he was 7 or 8. His parents had separated, and after a move across the state, he joined the Scouts to meet new people, at his mother’s urging. One of the assistant leaders positioned himself as a mentor, he said, frequently driving him to and from meetings.
On one such occasion, Samuel said, the man followed him to his door. He asked Samuel’s mother if he could invite Samuel to his home, to introduce him to his extensive technologycollection. She said yes.
“She trusted the guy because he was always there,” said Samuel, now 17.
Once they got to the house, Samuel said, the leader called him into his bedroom and began touching him inappropriately.
“I remember it graphically; the one thing I don’t want to remember,” he said.
Samuel never went back to the man’s house and dropped out of Scouts. He eventually confided in his grandmother, his legal guardian, but didn’t go any further until he saw the law firms’ TV ads.
The attorneys probably will share their list with child protective service agencies, Kosnoff said, and may file a large suit. They’ve considered sharing the list directly with Scouts BSA but remain skeptical the organization would take action.
“It’s striking to me that we’ve had this kind of response in such a short period of time with such limited outreach,” Kosnoff said. “If we could do this with our limited resources, why couldn’t the Boy Scouts of America have done this?”
In a statement, Boy Scouts of America asked anyone who has been harmed to call the Scouts First Helpline (1-844-726-8871) or email scouts1st@scouting.org.
CLOSE
Despite a national policy banning the hire of openly-gay scout leaders, the greater New York City council of Boy Scouts has hired a gay Eagle Scout to work as a summer camp leader. (April 2) AP
Jurors are set to start their fourth day of deliverations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
It comes after Thursday ended without a verdict on Thursday, when jurors were sent home following more than 24 hours of deliberation across three days this week.
They jury will reconvene at 9am CT on Friday.
On Thursday, Judge Bruce Schroeder barred MSNBC from covering the trial inside the courthouse for the remainder of the trial, after a freelancer journalist was stopped by the Kenosha Police Department for allegedly running a traffic signal behind a bus used to transport jurors to the courthouse. Police said they believed the man tried to photograph the bus.
NBC News said in a statement that the journalist did not intend to contact or photograph the jurors and is cooperating with authorities. Police said “there was no breach of security regarding the jury, nor were there any photographs obtained”.
Mr Rittenhouse, 18, is facing five felony charges for shooting three men in the aftermath of police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin on 25 August 2020. The most serious charges are first-degree homicide for the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber.
Follow the latest updates live:
To receive our free breaking news alerts direct to your inbox click here
Sheriff tried to defuse tensions outside court by handing out cookies
Sheriff David Beth tried to break the tension outside court by distributing coffee and cookies to protesters during the third day of Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
The Kenosha County sheriff set up a small counter outside the courthouse with a signboard that said “Cookies for peace” on Thursday.
Rudy Giuliani: Rittenhouse case ‘has become a travesty’
Appearing on Newsmax, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed Kyle Rittenhouse has not had a fair trial.
“Particularly when you consider all the errors in this case, we’re at a point judges will be justified in throwing the case out. Meaning there are so many errors, any one of which could normally reverse a case,” the former Donald Trump lawyer said.
“The case has become a travesty,” he added. “They commented on the 5th amendment privilege which never gets done. I ran the US attorney’s office for five years. [I was] the third ranking officer in the Justice Department for three years and I don’t remember how many cases I have tried. I don’t remember a prosecutor doing it,” he added.
Giuliani said the judge has the ability to give a not guilty verdict in this case saying the verdict was not supported by evidence.
Former Missouri house speaker calls MSNBC ‘domestic terror group’
Former Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones described MSNBC as a “domestic terror group” after judge Bruce Schroeder banned the broadcaster from the Rittenhouse trial courthouse.
It was after the police suggested that a freelance MSNBC journalist was following or trying to photograph jurors.
He was stopped by the Kenosha police for allegedly running a traffic signal behind a bus used to transport the jurors.
MSNBC has denied any wrongdoing.
“Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them,” NBC News said in a statement to CNN.
“We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation.”
Most unbelievable moments from Kyle Rittenhouse trial so far
From confusion over an iPad camera’s ‘pinch to zoom’ technology to the prosecutor pointing Rittenhouse’s rifle at the jury, this trial has been full of dramatic and unexpected scenes unfolding inside the courtroom.
BLM and Kyle Rittenhouse supporters share pizza together outside trial court
As Kyle Rittenhouse’s fate was being decided, protesters from both the “guilty” and “not guilty” camps outside Wisconsin courthouse displayed unusual bonhomie.
The supporters of Black Lives Matter and those of Rittenhouse shared pizza together and spoke of unity as they withstood the bitter cold together despite their opposing views.
But shortly after that, a protester allegedly assaulted and was caught body-slamming a journalist. A man wearing a a “f*** Kyle Rittenhouse” t-shirt was captured on camera hitting a journalist’s camera, forcing him to back down.
Republican senator Wendy Rogers says self defence is human right
Arizona senator Wendy Rogers has joined the growing list of Republican candidates, elected officials, and other influential conservatives who have backed Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rogers tweeted on Friday: “Pray for Kyle Rittenhouse and that decency prevails. Self defense is a human right.”
It comes after Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said he might offer Rittenhouse an internship.
As the nation’s eyes remain glued to the double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, viewers have scrutinised the judge presiding over the high-profile case.
His courtroom manner and arguments with prosecutors have drawn significant attention as the trial draws to a close.
Man who carried AR-15 outside Rittenhouse trial was fired police officer
A man who was confronted by police for carrying a rifle without a permit and hurled obscenities about Black Lives Matter protests confirmed he was a fired Ferguson police officer.
The man, who first identified himself as “Maserati Mike”, is Jesse Kline, who was a member in a police department of Missouri for three years.
He has been protesting outside the Kenosha County Courthouse for the past three days as Kyle Rittenhouse jury deliberation continues.
He first brought a rifle to the court and returned with a rifle bag and a dog the next day.
Since becoming president, Mr. Trump has spent 99 days at Mar-a-Lago compared with 20 days at Trump Tower, according to NBC News. Although Mr. Trump ran his presidential transition from Trump Tower and some aides had expected him to spend many weekends there in his Louis XIV-style triplex on the 58th floor, his presence created traffic headaches for New Yorkers and logistical and security challenges for the Secret Service.
White House officials declined to say why Mr. Trump changed his primary residence, but a person close to the president said the reasons were primarily for tax purposes.
In his Twitter posts on Thursday night, the president claimed that he paid “millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year.” There is no way to fact-check his assertion; he has never released his tax returns.
Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in New York, was infuriated by a subpoena filed by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, seeking the tax returns, the person close to the president said. Changing his residence to Florida is not expected to have any effect on Mr. Vance’s case, which Mr. Trump has sought to thwart with a federallawsuit.
It was unclear how much time he would spend in New York in the future or if he would keep his triplex at the top of Trump Tower. Under New York law, if he spends more than 184 days a year there, he will have to pay state income taxes.
Florida, which does not have a state income tax or inheritance tax, has long been a place for the wealthy to escape the higher taxes of the Northeast.
Rep. Matt Gaetz apologized late Tuesday for comments many regarded as threatening to Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney who is set to testify Wednesday in front of the House Oversight Committee.
“While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
The Florida Republican and Trump ally came under fire for a tweet earlier Tuesday that asked Cohen, “Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…”
Gaetz later defended his comments, telling reporters, “We’re witness testing not witness tampering. And when witnesses come before Congress their truthfulness and veracity are in question and we have the opportunity to test them.”
Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, is expected to testify Wednesday about Trump’s knowledge of leaked Democratic emails and negotiations for Trump Tower Moscow during the campaign, along with the hush-money payments to two women who alleged affairs with Trump that led to Cohen’s guilty plea for campaign finance violations.
Gaetz’ apology was in response to a statement from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who had issued an admonishment after Gaetz’ initial tweet to members about comments that “can adversely affect the ability of house committees to obtain the truthful and complete information necessary to fulfill their duties” — comments she said should be monitored by the Ethics Committee.
President Donald Trump doubles down on his criticism of Rep. Elijah Cummings and the Baltimore community he serves. USA TODAY
On Sunday, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh addressed his role in stirring racist rhetoric in politics in the past while announcing his intentions of challenging President Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
Walsh apologized for his past comments during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” in which he said he had a role in Trump’s ascension.
“I helped create Trump, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
Walsh went on to offer his opinion of Trump: “He’s nuts, he’s erratic, he’s cruel, he stokes bigotry.”
He also wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed that Trump “inspires imitators” but brought up his own “share of controversy.”
“At times, I expressed hate for my political opponents. We now see where this can lead,” he wrote. “There’s no place in our politics for personal attacks like that, and I regret making them.”
Walsh’s past comments
In 2014, Walsh was pulled off the air during his radio show for using racist slurs. He also promoted the “birther” conspiracy during former President Barack Obama’s time in office and said Obama was only elected because he is black.
Just got kicked off the air until further notice. Tried to have honest discussion about racist terms and management censored my language.
When asked by Stephanopoulos on Sunday to address instances of his own racism, including his promotion of the false conspiracy that Obama is Muslim and remarks against Sen. Kamala Harris, Walsh said he has reflected on his previous statements.
“I said some ugly things about President Obama that I regret,” Walsh said.
In 2017, Walsh tweeted “We LOWERED the bar for Obama. He was held to a lower standard cuz he was black.”
“I had strong policy disagreements with Barack Obama, and too often I let those policy disagreements get personal,” he said Sunday.
I have a right to pray to whatever God I want to pray to.
I have a right to call Obama a Muslim and call Trump a thin-skinned ego maniac.
I have a right to use an AR-15 to defend my family and my home.
Walsh has a history of inconsistency in his opinions of Trump’s rhetoric. At times, he has denounced the president as a racist. This summer when Trump told four Democratic congresswomen, who are people of color and citizens of the U.S., to “go back and help fix” the countries he said they “originally came” from before trying to make legislative changes in the USA, Walsh spoke out.
“To say ‘go back to where you came from’ is gross. It’s offensive, ignorant, anti-American, and racist,” Walsh tweeted.
The most racist thing Donald Trump said yesterday? Of Baltimore, he said: “No human being would want to live there.”
So all those black Americans who live in majority black Baltimore aren’t human beings?
But it was not that long ago that Walsh thought Trump’s language made him a bully, but not a racist, and that Walsh was still making racist claims about Obama:
Trump treats everyone like shit. Not just black women.
Walsh said the one good thing about Trump’s language since he has been in office is that Trump has made him realize his attacks were inappropriate. The difference between them?
“We have a guy in the White House who’s never apologized for anything he’s done or said. I think it’s a weakness not to apologize,” Walsh told Stephanopoulos. “I helped create Trump, there’s no doubt about that. The personal, ugly politics, I regret that and I’m sorry for that. And now we’ve got a guy in the White House, George, that’s all he does.”
Poland’s Solidarity labor union has joined forces with climate skeptics from America to call for “a restoration of the Scientific Method and the dismissal of ideological dogma” in the study of climate change as part of a joint declaration the union has submitted to the United Nations in partnership with a U.S.-based free-market think tank.
This is the same labor union founded under the leadership of Lech Walesa, the Nobel Prize winner who organized anti-Soviet movements in the 1980s.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly made the case that catastrophic climate change is imminent and that human emissions are largely to blame. The latest in a series of reports from the IPCC was released in October to measure “the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.”
The IPCC has maintained a significant presence throughout the U.N.’s 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is widely known as COP24. U.N. officials view the recently released IPCC report as a “wake up call” for conference participants to finalize negotiations for implementing the Paris climate agreement, which calls on participating countries to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Although 195 countries adopted the language of the climate agreement during a December 2015 COP meeting in Paris, the agreement cannot be fully implemented until after 55 of the countries responsible for producing a combined total of 55 percent of the world’s emissions accept the treaty’s terms, according to the U.N.
Media coverage of the intergovernmental panel’s climate change report has made the case for “urgent and unprecedented changes” built around emissions restrictions to curtail global warming that could lead to catastrophic conditions.
But the joint declaration — which was signed by Jaroslaw Grzesik, chairman of Solidarity’s energy and mining secretariat; Dominik Kolorz, president of Solidarity in Poland’s Silesian region; and James Taylor, a senior follow for environment and energy policy with the Heartland Institute — makes the point that “there is no scientific consensus on the main causes and consequences of climate change.”
The Heartland Institute, which is headquartered in Illinois, has gained international recognition for challenging the premise of theories that link human activity with catastrophic levels of global warming. The free-market think tank released the latest version of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change at a media event last week in Katowice just as the COP24 meeting was getting underway. More than 100 scientists, economists, engineers, and other experts from across globe who have insight into the dynamics of earth’s climate have come together to take part in the nongovernmental panel, which began releasing the studies in 2009.
They conclude that “[t]he global war on energy freedom, which commenced in earnest in the 1980s and reached a fever pitch in the second decade of the twenty-first century, was never founded on sound science or economics. The world’s policymakers ought to acknowledge this truth and end that war.”
Unlike its U.N. counterpart, the nongovernmental panel performs a cost-benefit analysis into the use of fossil fuels that highlights the benefits to humanity.
“Despite calling for the end of reliance on fossil fuels by 2100, the IPCC never produced an accounting of the opportunity cost of restricting or banning their use,” the report says. “That cost, a literature review shows, would be enormous. Estimates of the cost of reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the amounts said by the IPCC to be necessary to avoid causing ~2°C warming in the year 2050 range from the IPCC’s own estimate of 3.4% to as high as 81% of projected global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050, the latter estimate nullifying all the gains in human well-being made in the past century.”
Solidarity’s willingness to defy climate alarmism while making a principled stand on behalf of sound science will reverberate across Europe long after COP24 comes to an end, James Lakely, the director of communications for the Heartland Institute, said in an email.
“Propaganda fades, truth endures,” he said. “Solidarity proved with its joint statement with Heartland that it will not be pushed around by the jet-set bureaucrats of the United Nations. I think that is the case with Poland as a whole. The people of Poland get 80 percent of their power from coal. Going ‘carbon free’ in the next decade or so will destroy their economy and society. The Polish people know this, so they will not be pushed around by the UN — nor should it, as Solidarity made clear in their meeting with Heartland.”
He added:
Still, the money and organization standing behind climate change policies is considerable. That much was made clear in remarks made by Michal Kurtyka, a Polish energy official who is serving as the COP24 president.
Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., who writes for several national publications.
El FBI dijo que no hay crimen en los correos electrónicos de Clinton
El FBI no ha encontrado evidencia criminal en el nuevo lote de correos electrónicos de Hillary Clinton. En una carta enviada a los miembros del Congreso, el director del FBI James Comey, expresó que la agencia había terminado su revisión y no encontró nada que cambiara su posición.
En el mes de julio, Comey dijo que la ex secretaria Clinton había sido descuidada, pero no criminal en el manejo de material sensible en su servidor de correo electrónico privado, mientras que ejercía como secretaria de Estado.
La investigación se volvió a abrir con el descubrimiento de nuevos correos electrónicos “pertinentes” y relacionados al primer lote enviado al FBI. Según los informes, los correos se encontraron en la computadora portátil de Anthony Weiner, ex esposo de una de las asesoras más cercanas de la candidata demócrata.
La noche del domingo, dos días antes de las elecciones, WikiLeaks liberó 8.000 nuevos correos hackeados del Partido demócrata, que amenazan con desestabilizar nuevamente la campaña.
Alerta en Oklahoma tras sismo junto a núcleo petrolífero
La noche del domingo se registró un sismo de una magnitud de 5,0 en las cercanías de uno de los núcleos petrolíferos más importantes del país, ocasionando varios destrozos como ventanas rotas, volteando fachadas de edificios lo que puede haber provocado daños estructurales, según reportaron los medios locales.
En una conferencia de prensa, Jeremy Frazier, un gestor asistente indicó que hubo varios heridos leves y que algunos edificios comerciales quedaron en escombros.
Como prevención de posibles réplicas, la policía acordonó la zona y pidió a las personas que se mantengan alejados del lugar. Un centro residencial para ancianos sufrió daños y fue evacuada, dijo Frazier. Además el distrito escolar canceló las clases del lunes.
Posible escenario en México: ¿qué pasa si gana Trump el martes?
Las autoridades mexicanas están creando un plan de contingencia si Donald Trump llegara a la presidencia, que en principio haría frente a lo que llamaron un “huracán” para la economía mexicana.
“Si el escenario adverso se manifiesta, es posible que las autoridades mexicanas respondan de alguna manera”, dijo el gobernador del Banco de México, Agustín Carstens, a la emisora mexicana Milenio TV. “Es un plan de contingencia sobre el cual estamos hablando con el secretario de Hacienda”, agregó el responsable del banco central.
Esto se debe a que el aspirante republicano en varias ocasiones ha hablado de imponer un arancel del 35% sobre los bienes fabricados por empresas estadounidenses en México, que luego son vendidos en Estados Unidos. Las exportaciones representan un tercio de la economía de México y casi todas ellas van hacia Estados Unidos.
(Foto: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Venezuela sobre Argentina y Chile: “son unos vulgares”
Delcy Rodríguez, la ministra venezolana de Relaciones Exteriores, exigió respeto de Argentina y Chile, cuyas cancillerías pidieron resultados en el diálogo entre el gobierno y la oposición de Venezuela.
Rodríguez señaló, en conferencia de prensa en Caracas, que el gobierno venezolano repudia cualquier tutoría o injerencia extranjera en sus asuntos internos.
Por ello, la canciller venezolana exigió respeto a sus pares de Argentina, Susana Malcorra, y de Chile, Heraldo Muñoz, al referirse a Venezuela, especialmente en materia de derechos humanos.
“Son unos vulgares que pretenden pronunciarse sobre nuestro país cuando ni siquiera son capaces de aceptar un reto en materia de derechos humanos”, dijo la ministra venezolana.
“Con qué cara vienen a hablar de Venezuela, yo les he dicho, y me disculpan que lo diga en estos términos, pero antes de hablar de Venezuela tienen que lavarse su boca, antes de pronunciar nuestro nombre”, apuntó Rodríguez y agregó que desde el Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, el gobierno venezolano hizo un llamado al cese del “hostigamiento” contra el país.
(Foto: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images)
España no cumplió con su compromiso con el cambio climático
España desembolsó menos del 1 por ciento de lo que ha comprometido entre 2015 y 2018 para el Fondo Verde del Clima, destinado a ayudar a los países menos desarrollados en su adaptación y mitigación contra el cambio climático, ya que estos son los más afectados por sus consecuencias, según informó ABC.
De acuerdo al informe de Oxfam Intermón “Contra viento y marea: España ya no puede poner más excusas en la lucha contra el cambio climático”, España aportó hasta ahora apenas un millón de euros de los 120 millones que anuncióque desembolsaría y la ONG ha calculado que en función de su Producto Interior Bruto, la contribución justa del país debería ser de 540 millones de dólares (unos 500 millones de euros).
El Fondo Verde había solicitado 15.000 millones de dólares en todo el mundo para hacer frente a la emergencia global del cambio climático.
El cambio climático avanza más rápido de lo previsto. Foto: Pixabay
Millions of people around the world will be watching Santa’s journey on Christmas Eve, thanks to the Official NORAD Santa Tracker. With it, you can find out where is Santa Claus right now? And, you can estimate what time he will arrive in the United States tonight.
As of 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus was in Russia and had delivered more than 2 billion gifts so far. If his schedule keeps up with previous years he should arrive near the U.S. East Coast tonight around 10 p.m. You can follow Santa’s journey tonight live below.
The tracker, which is run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), has been tracking Santa Claus and his trip since 1955. NORAD is a binational organization that controls aerospace and monitors man-made objects in space.
NORAD Tracks Santa Program Director Preston Schlachter previously told Newsweek that the command had received a phone call more than 60 years ago from a boy due to a typo in a department store newspaper ad, telling children they could make phone calls to Santa.
“We know that Santa Claus flies West from the International Date Line and only comes when children are sleeping,” Schlachter previously told Newsweek. “So he takes off right at the beginning of the day and zigzags up and down the different time zones, generally North to South and then coming back South to North.”
The biggest day for NORAD is on Christmas Eve. As of Monday 8:30 a.m. EST, Santa Claus has passed through Rockhampton in Australia and is heading for Maryborough, Australia, according to the NORAD Santa Tracker. To watch Santa’s journey around the world, click here.
Before Christmas Day, NORAD had set up a Santa countdown trackers on its website and gave visitors the chance to explore the North Pole with Santa’s village. The website also gave visitors movies to watch and Christmas games to play.
This December 24, 2012, photo shows a woman monitoring the progress of Santa Claus in Washington, D.C. The Santa tracker, set up by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), follows Santa’s journey around the world every year. KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images
The NORAD website also answers questions about Santa, his trip and his reindeer. Some of the questions asked: What is Santa’s favorite cookie, and if certain siblings were placed on Santa’s naughty or nice list.
Despite the partial government shutdown, NORAD announced on Twitter that it will still track Santa’s journey on Christmas Eve.
“In the event of a government shutdown, NORAD will continue with its 63-year tradition of NORAD Tracks Santa on Dec. 24. Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by approximately 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible each and every year,” NORAD tweeted on Friday.
Democrats were livid Wednesday about Hope Hicks’ stonewalling but hoped to glean information about her time on the Trump campaign in 2016. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
Hope Hicks refused to answer 155 questions from House Democrats on Wednesday about her tenure as communications director in the Trump White House, according to a transcript of her closed-door testimony released Thursday.
The longtime confidante of President Donald Trump spent nearly eight hours clinging closely to White House attorneys’ demands that she refuse to answer every question about her time in the White House, as Democrats ticked through a lengthy, detailed and at times monotonous recitation of questions they knew the answer to: “Objection.”
Story Continued Below
The House Judiciary Committee’s interview yielded virtually no new information about Hicks’ role in the Trump campaign, and none at all about her testimony to former special counsel Robert Mueller centering on Trump’s repeated attempts to constrain or thwart Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The transcript — and the dozens of objections from White House lawyers — further documents the White House’s efforts to prevent witnesses from complying with House Democrats’ investigations, as part of its assertions that Hicks and other former aides have “absolute immunity” from testifying.
During Wednesday’s testimony, Hicks refused to answer several questions about the president’s actions, her conversations with him and her discussions even with officials outside the White House, according to the transcript. She did not answer questions about her testimony to Mueller, either — a fact that enraged Democrats who argued that she had no legal basis to refuse to discuss events that she already described in detail to the special counsel.
Most notably, the White House objected to lawmakers’ questions about Trump’s attempts to constrain the special counsel’s investigation, including his directives to then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller.
Hicks also refused to answer basic questions such as where her desk was located in the White House, and whether there was a war between Israel and Egypt during her tenure.
Two White House lawyers, Michael Purpura and Patrick Philbin, objected to lawmakers’ and committee staffers’ questions every time the inquiry touched on Hicks’ service in the White House and during the presidential transition period, which pre-dates Trump’s presidency.
Purpura told Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) that the White House was not formally asserting executive privilege to block Hicks’ testimony; he only stated the White House’s view that Hicks “may not be compelled to speak about events that occurred during her service as a senior adviser to the president.”
Hicks abided by Purpura’s demands, telling Nadler: “As a former senior adviser to the president, I’m following the instructions from the White House.” Hicks’ attorney, Robert Trout, said his client was “simply following the guidance of the White House.”
At one point, Nadler challenged those claims of “absolute immunity,” telling Purpura: “With all due respect, that is absolute nonsense as a matter of law.”
At times, Hicks grew snarky with Democratic staff as they grilled her, joking that “contrary to popular belief,” she doesn’t speak Russian, and dismissing a question about the value of a leaked Democratic opposition research file by noting, “We have a thing called Google now.”
Hicks also volunteered that she believed there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. But when asked what she makes of the president saying “no obstruction occurred,” she said: “I’m here to talk about the campaign.”
Hicks was permitted by White House lawyers to answer innocuous questions such as where she usually ate her lunch and whether it was sunny or cloudy on her first day on the job. She was also permitted to discuss her April dinner with Trump, during which she said they were “reminiscing about events from the campaign, rallies, things like that.” She said she did not discuss her congressional testimony with the president, but Philbin objected when Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) asked her if they discussed Trump’s comments about the congressional investigations, which Trump has railed against.
Nadler has not specified whether he will seek a court order that would force Hicks to answer questions that involve her White House tenure and her testimony to the special counsel.
Democrats were livid Wednesday about the stonewalling, but hoped to glean information about her time on the Trump campaign in 2016, when the claims of immunity did not apply. But the transcript revealed little information that was not previously known.
Hicks said she had no knowledge of Trump’s arrangement with his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, to buy the silence of various women who alleged that they had affairs with Trump. Cohen is currently serving a three-year sentence for the scheme — which prosecutors said violated campaign-finance laws — and for lying to Congress about the timing of the failed negotiations surrounding the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Hicks appeared to show that she remains loyal to Trump, often refusing to break with the president’s views on how he conducted his campaign. For example, she defended the Trump campaign’s use of hacked Democratic National Committee emails and other materials at rallies and on social media, saying it was simply done to “show a differentiation” between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Hicks said she felt “relief” when WikiLeaks released those hacked materials, telling the committee she was relieved to know “that other campaigns had obstacles to face as well.”
But Hicks appeared to break with Trump’s willingness to accept foreign dirt on his political rivals, saying that she would call the FBI “if I felt it was legitimate enough to have our law enforcement dedicate their time to it.” She also said she “would not” advise anyone to accept information offered from a foreign government during a U.S. election campaign.
The transcript shows that Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, slammed Democrats for discussing Hicks’ interview while it was ongoing. In particular, he called out Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who spoke with reporters and was using his Twitter account to decry the White House’s objections.
After the transcript was released, Collins said “we’ve learned nothing new from a witness who has been cooperating with this committee for months.”
Un mullah dispuesto a lanzar una operación militar contra las mujeres en vaqueros, yihadistas del ISIS “no circuncidados” y un ataque de gambas indias contra un restaurante en Karachi. En Pakistán, la exitosa página web “Khabaristan Times” utiliza la sátira para exponer las obsesiones de una nación.
Hace un año, el 14 de agosto de 2014, Pakistán estaba en plena ebullición política. Los opositores Imran Khan y Tahir ul Qadri movilizaban a sus partidarios en una acampada gigante en Islamabad para reclamar, en vano, la renuncia del primer ministro Nawaz Sharif. En ese momento, un ovni mediático nacía en el más completo anonimato. Khabaristan Times, página web similar a la española El Mundo Today, y cuyos autores se inspiran en el presentador Jon Stewart, quien puso fin a la semana pasada a su irreverente “Daily Show” tras 15 años de emisión en Estados Unidos.
“¡Jon Stewart! Lloré en su último programa. Dije: ‘Nooooooooooo’ Tiene tanto talento, cómo no dejarse influenciar por este tipo”, subraya la sonriente Luavut Zahid, de 28 años y cofundadora de Khabaristan Times.
El nombre del sitio web es un juego de palabras con “Khabar” (‘informaciones”, en urdu) y “Stan” de Pakistán.
Para leer el Khabaristan Times hay que estar informados. “Si no siguen la actualidad diaria, no pueden comprender ni la mitad de lo que Jon Stewart dice y tampoco la mitad de lo que nosotros publicamos“, señala el también cofundador Kunwar Khuldune Shahid.
A pesar de tratarse de noticias claramente satíricas para un paquistaní con cierto sentido del humor, medios indios y británicos reprodujeron la primavera pasada una información de Khabaristan Times como si fuera “real”.
El artículo tomaba una presunta declaración del jefe de uno de los principales partidos islamistas del país, el mullah Fazlur Rehman, instando a una intervención militar contra “las mujeres con vaqueros”, calificadas como el “peor enemigo” de Pakistán, al ser las responsables de “sismos”, de la “inflación” y de atentados.
La “noticia” se volvió viral, ante la gran estupefacción del pequeño equipo de Khabaristan Times. “Varios occidentales escribieron en nuestra página: ‘No sabíamos que era sátira, porque no estaba escrito’ (…) ¡Pensaban que todo era verdad!”, recuerda Luavut.
Con estas informaciones jugosas, pero inventadas, el Khabaristan utiliza el humor absurdo para exponer las conspiraciones y las obsesiones del país.
Por ejemplo, el titular “Pakistán no tolerará ningún drone no estadounidense” se mofaba de las ambigüedades de Islamabad sobre los ataques estadounidenses contra los talibán y otros grupos, que denuncia en público pero que favorece en privado.
Pero, ¿de qué y de quién se puede uno burlar en el país de la ley contra la blasfemia y del poderoso ejército? ¿Y por qué? Si Pakistán cuenta con una larga y rica tradición de caricaturistas, la sátira escrita es más reciente, pero muy viva pese a las conservadoras leyes.
En Pakistán, país con un 20% de sus casi 200 millones de habitantes con acceso a internet, la controvertida ley contra la blasfemia prevé hasta la pena de muerte para cualquiera que profane al profeta Mahoma.
Y, aunque la Constitución garantiza la libertad de expresión, también impone restricciones cuando se trata de “la gloria del islam” y de la “defensa” del país.
“El aparato militar sabe lo que hacemos (…) Quizás no le gusta, pero también sabe que no es serio“, subraya Kunwar.
Con todo, el Khabaristan critica con ironía a políticos, mullahs, a la religión, ateos de pacotilla e incluso al ejército. “Para cambiar algo, deben poder criticarse ustedes mismos, su país, sus líderes”, apunta Kunwar.
En el apartado “blasfemia”, el Khabaristan anunció, por ejemplo, que un líder del partido islamista local había elogiado al papa Francisco por sus declaraciones contra la blasfemia, tras el atentado en enero contra el semanario satírico francés Charlie Hebdo, al calificarlo del “mejor de los ‘kafirs'” (infieles).
“Nos imponemos límites, especialmente en los temas religiosos”, admite Kunwar. “Pero algunos piensan que ya vamos muy lejos”.
Las amenazas son por el momento virtuales. “Hemos leído que debían colgarnos (…) Pero sabemos que no van a pasar a la acción”, confía Luavut.
Por el momento, el éxito parece prometedor. En un año, el sitio ha pasado de 400 lectores mensuales a más de 100.000 actualmente.
Para Luavut, este humor es hoy día más necesario que nunca para animar el asfixiante día a día paquistaní. “En un país como el nuestro, todos necesitamos darnos un respiro de las verdaderas noticias”.
Noticias Telemundo’s “Inmigración, Trump y los Hispanos” (Immigration, Trump and the Hispanic Community) Town Hall broadcast on Sunday, February 12 at 7PM/6 C, ranked # 1 in Spanish-language TV in primetime across all key demographics, averaging 1.57 million total viewers, 708,000 adults 18 to 49 and 325,000 adults 18 to 34, according to Nielsen. The news special moderated by Noticias Telemundo News Anchor José Díaz-Balart also positioned Telemundo as the #1 Spanish-language network during the entire primetime on Sunday, across all key demos.
“Noticias Telemundo is empowering millions of Latinos with reliable and TRANSPARENT information at a time of change,” said José Díaz-Balart. “Viewers trust us because they know our only commitment is to present the facts the way they are, with professionalism and a total commitment to our community.”
“Immigration, Trump and the Hispanic Community” also reached 1.6 million viewers on Facebook, generating 23,000 global actions on the social network.
The Town Hall answered viewers’ questions about the impact of President Trump’s immigration policy on the Hispanic community. The news special featured a panel of experts, including immigration lawyer and Telemundo contributor Alma Rosa Nieto; Telemundo conservative political analyst Ana Navarro; the Deputy Vice President of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Clarissa Martínez, and CHIRLA’s Executive Director, Angélica Salas. In addition, “El Poder en Ti”, Telemundo’s robust community initiative, launched an Internet site for Hispanics looking for information, tools and resources on immigration in parallel to the Town Hall.
“Inmigración, Trump y los Hispanos” is part of a series of Noticias Telemundo specials, including “Trump en la Casa Blanca,” produced the day after the elections, and “Trump y los Latinos,” which aired on Inauguration Day. All of these programs share an emphasis on allowing audiences to express their views and empower them by giving them access to trustworthy, rigorous and relevant information presented under Noticias Telemundo’s banner “Telling It Like It Is” (“Las Cosas Como Son” in Spanish).
Noticias Telemundo is the information unit of Telemundo Network and a leader provider in news serving the US Hispanics across all broadcast and digital platforms. Its award-winning television news broadcasts include the daily newscast “Noticias Telemundo,” the Sunday current affairs show “Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart” and the daily news and entertainment magazine “Al Rojo Vivo con María Celeste.” The rapidly-growing “Noticias Telemundo Digital Team” provides continuous content to US Hispanics wherever they are, whenever they want it. Noticias Telemundo also produces award winning news specials, documentaries and news event such as political debates, forums and town halls.
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Barry touched down on the Louisiana coast on Saturday, weakening to a tropical storm with the potential to linger over this low-lying state and soak it with as much as 20 inches of rain.
“We are not, in any way, out of the woods,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D) said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.
By the time the storm hit, many along the coast had either evacuated or sheltered in place. Now,thousandsare bracing for days of flooding.
“The Mississippi is [the river] that’s levee’d and doesn’t pose a threat,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said at a news conference. “Every other river poses a threat to flooding.”
Barry became the first hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season. Seven hurricanes have made landfall in the Lower 48 and Puerto Rico since 2017, causing billions of dollars in damage.
Múltiples incidentes se reportan este domingo durante las elecciones en el Estado de México, Coahuila, Nayarit y Veracruz:
Edomex
La policía municipal de Ecatepec presentó ante el Ministerio Público a Alejandro Bernal, funcionario de la delegación Cuauhtémoc, encabezada por Ricardo Monreal, ya que en el auto que conducía había un arma (una escuadra calibre 32), cartuchos y dinero en efectivo (dos fajos de billetes de 10 mil pesos cada uno).
La camioneta con placas de Zacatecas fue retenida por la autoridad.
*****
La Fiscalía Especializada para la Atención de Delitos Electorales (Fepade) interceptó dos autobuses en las inmediaciones del Metro Oceanía; pretendían recoger a votantes y trasladarlos a Ecatepec y Nezahualcóyotl.
Los conductores fueron detenidos y dijeron que forman parte de un operativo mayor de 70 autobuses de la línea Pullman de Morelos para “acarrear” a más de 3 mil 500 electores. Se desconoce el partido o fuerza política detrás de esto.
Así reaccionó el Secretario de Desarrollo Social, Luis Miranda, al no poder votar en el Estado de México, pues su credencial de elector estaba vencida.
“No aparezco en la Lista Nominal y ésta siempre ha sido mi casilla, no sé qué habrá pasado… sí tengo otra credencial también, pero sí yo tendría que estar en la lista nominal. No sé qué haya pasado, ahorita voy a buscar mi otra credencial y ver dónde estoy”, declaró.
JOOOYA.
Luis Miranda, Secretario de Desarrollo Social, no pudo votar, tenía su credencial de elector vencida. pic.twitter.com/uw6bJLPEYT
Se presentó una denuncia ante la Fiscalía General de Justicia del Estado de México y la Comisión Estatal de Seguridad Ciudadana por el presunto plagio de dos militantes de Morena en la entidad, lo cualestá siendo investigado, informó José Manzur, Secretario General de Gobierno.
*****
Conferencia de prensa “Ni un fraude más”:
Coahuila
El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) en Coahuila alista las denuncias correspondientes por la caída de telefonía celular de militantes.
Verónica Martínez, presidenta de ese instituto político en la entidad, expuso que desde las 6:00 horas de este domingo se suspendieron líneas de servicio de personas adheridas a ese partido y uno de los casos correspondió al candidato a la gubernatura Miguel Ángel Riquelme.
****
El Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) en Coahuila condenó la agresión en contra de su candidata a regidora y expresidenta del Comité Municipal de Múzquiz, Ernestina Hernández, quien sufrió daños a su patrimonio, luego de que su vehículo fue incendiado afuera de su domicilio durante la madrugada de este domingo.
“Reprobamos este tipo de acciones y exigimos un juego limpio en esta jornada electoral, no queremos ningún acto en contra de nuestros candidatos y pedimos a las autoridades realizar las indagatorias correspondientes”, afirmó la presidenta priista en esta entidad, Verónica Martínez.
*****
Por otra parte, ya se registró la votación de Los Moreira.
Desconocidos balearon un automóvil estacionado afuera de la casa de la candidata de la coalición PRI-PVEM en el Municipio de San Rafael, Lorena Piñón.
En el municipio de Álamo, ocho policías municipales que distribuían propaganda del candidato del Partido del Trabajo fueron detenidos.
En Santiago Tuxtla, 11 policías municipales fueron consignados debido a que estaban realizando actividades de apoyo a favor del candidato de la alianza PAN-PRD, Donaldo Errasquin.
En Xalapa, el partido Morena denunció la presencia de taxistas en el Velódromo y Plaza Cristal, a quienes acusó de ser parte de la estrategia de acarreo de la alianza PAN-PRD.
En Soconusco, una camioneta vinculada al PAN fue atacada a balazos por sujetos que viajaban en otro vehículo.
En Acayucan fueron dejadas ayer cuatro mantas ligadas al Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). Asimismo, habitantes reportaron una balacera, y, durante un operativo de la Fuerza Civil y la Policía Naval, fueron detenidos tres sujetos que portaban cuatro armas de fuego, entre ellas un “cuerno de chivo” en la Colonia José Maria Morelos.
Comienza la semana con muchas noticias que captaron la atención de nuestros lectores. Sucesos políticos y una lamentable partida constan entre los hechos que más reacciones generaron. Te los detallamos a continuación:
1. El ex ministro de Educación de la Nación, y actual precandidato a senador de Cambiemos por la provincia de Buenos Aires, Esteban Bullrich,realizó una polémica comparación entre el aborto legal y el colectivo Ni Una Menos. Desde la oposición lo criticaron con dureza en redes sociales.
2. Mauricio Macri apunta al “peronismo de caudillos” y tiene cuatro provincias en la mira. Tucumán, Formosa, La Rioja y San Luis, son distritos que Presidente busca arrebatarle al PJ. La jugada electoral y una fuerte frase contra Juan Manzur.
3. Donald Trump despidió a su director de Comunicación: duró solo 10 días en el cargo. El empresario Anthony Scaramucci estuvo en funciones menos de dos semanas, pero se le atribuye la salida del anterior jefe de gabinete, Reince Priebus.
5. Una triste noticia sacude al mundo del vóley tras la confirmación de la muerte del hijo mayor de Marcos Milinkovic, una gloria de la selección argentina de los últimos 25 años, mientras disfrutaba de sus vacaciones en familia en un playa de Croacia.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
#AHORA Primeras Imágenes de los Daños que dejo el Fuerte Terremoto M5.3 en Cushing (Oklahoma) – EEUU. Hoy 06/11/2016.
