President Trump holds a doctored chart as he talks with reporters after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office of the White House, on Wednesday in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
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President Trump holds a doctored chart as he talks with reporters after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office of the White House, on Wednesday in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
The parent agency of the National Weather Service said late Friday that President Trump was correct when he claimed earlier this week that Hurricane Dorian had threatened the state of Alabama.
The surprise announcement in an unsigned statement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) essentially endorsed Trump’s Sunday tweet saying that Alabama will “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”
After the president’s tweet, the National Weather Service, in Birmingham, Ala., responded with its own tweet, saying “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”
The NOAA statement takes the National Weather Service to task, declaring “The Birmingham National Weather Service’s Sunday morning tweet spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time.”
The surprise statement on Friday has left meteorologists around the country baffled and upset.
“Some administrator, or someone at the top of NOAA, threw the National Weather Service under the bus,” Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, told NPR.
“The part that really smells fishy is that this is five days after that tweet by Trump,” he added. “If the National Weather Service did issue a misleading or incorrect tweet, that would need to be amended or fixed in an hour or two.”
“I am very disappointed to see this statement come out from NOAA,” Oklahoma University meteorology professor Jason Furtado told The Associated Press. He said the controversy over the president’s tweets and the NOAA statement undermines public confidence in meteorologists.
Since his original tweet, Trump has re-visited the controversy almost every day this week, including displaying a doctored version of a map showing Hurricane Dorian’s projected path to include Alabama.
In the early days of the hurricane, when it was predicted that Dorian would go through Miami or West Palm Beach, even before it reached the Bahamas, certain models strongly suggested that Alabama & Georgia would be hit as it made its way through Florida & to the Gulf….
In fact, as NPR’s Brian Naylor reported, one National Hurricane Center map showed that Alabama could see tropical-force, not hurricane-class winds. Such winds range between 39-73 mph. That map also shows that there was only a 5 percent chance of such winds, below hurricane level, reaching Alabama.
Underlining the reaction by meteorologists to the escalating debate over the president’s claims is the fear that weather forecasting itself is becoming politicized.
“Hurricanes have never been a left or a right object,” said McNoldy. “And I hope they don’t become one.”
“La responsabilidad de si no somos Gobierno hoy no la busquen en mí, sino en todos los errores que se cometieron antes. Yo no soy funcionario, soy un humilde periodista”. Así se descargo el periodista deportivo y panelista Diego Brancatelli tras ser apuntado como supuesto responsable del resultado electoral del último domingo. Primer dato insólito: si están seguros de que ganaron ¿de qué sería culpable?
La supuesta responsabilidad se le atribuyó desde las redes sociales, donde Brancatelli siempre oficia de blanco preferido de los opositores al kirchnerismo por sus comentarios como panelista del ciclo Intratables que se emite por América.
Sin embargo, a “Branca” comenzaron a pegarle los propios. La punta de lanza de la política de comunicación en redes del kirchnerismo, Anita Montanaro, quien dijo “Brancatelli es ellos, déjense de joder”.
No fue el primer ni único caso. Una de las cuentas más activas en el universo kirchnerista publicó un video del filósofo Darío Sztajnszrajber en el que se puede ver una exposición sobre cómo se contribuye al poderoso desde una oposición poco inteligente.
La idea es pintar a Brancatelli como una suerte de Herminio Iglesias del siglo XXI. De hecho, se ha usado abundantemente esa comparación según la cual es lo mismo un panelista entrevistando que un dirigente y candidato de un partido prendiendo fuego un ataúd con el logo de la competencia.
Y así se van extendiendo las puteadas contra Brancatelli (pueden chusmearlas en el buscador de la red social) a quien, de pronto, señalan como un agente infiltrado en las filas del kirchnerismo, un ser funcional a la derecha, un empleado macrista al que le pagan por hacer de kirchnerista en un show con el objeto de caricaturizar al kirchnerista promedio. De ser así, el papel le sale muy bien.
Lo insólito es que, si uno repasa los hechos, lo único que hizo Brancatelli fue preguntarle, cara a cara, a María Eugenia Vidal por todos los argumentos que el kirchnerismo utiliza para pegarle al macrismo. En ese marco, el desapego hacia Brancatelli sólo se explica si el plan de acción era mentir sin dar derecho a réplica. Si tan seguro está el antimacrismo de las críticas que sostienen, ¿cuál sería el problema de preguntárselo cara a cara a una de sus mayores figuras? ¿O acaso Brancatelli no le enrostró a Vidal todos y cada uno de los puntos por los que cuestionan al oficialismo? Todo pareciera tener una respuesta: es preferible repetirlo en Twitter y Facebook que preguntarlo de frente. Porque en la cara no vale. Mirá si responden, todavía…
Comparar a Brancatelli con Herminio es un chiste, y lo sabemos todos. No era candidato a nada y no realizó ninguna incitación a la violencia en un contexto de odio. Sólo preguntó lo que para algunos son mentiras, pero otros presentan como verdades absolutas. De pronto, pareciera que no eran ni tan absolutas ni tan verdades. De pronto, pareciera que eran conscientes de que no eran ni tan absolutas ni tan verdades. De allí la bronca a Brancatelli de parte de los kirchneristas: los puso en evidencia.
Culparlo por un resultado marca dos problemas. El primero ya fue detallado: de qué sería culpable si dicen que ganaron. El segundo presupone que un votante de Cristina no tiene idea de quién es esa mujer, ni de qué hizo durante ocho años de gobierno, y que por una pregunta se horrorizó y decidió votar a la contra. No hay forma de que eso suceda ni remotamente, ya que es el principal problema que tuvo Cristina para sumar votos: la conocen demasiado.
En todo caso, deberían felicitarle a Brancatelli el coraje de preguntar cuando tuvo la oportunidad de hacerlo. Pero en tiempos de relatos, una verdad no puede manchar una buena historia. Los que facilitan la mancha, son traidores por acción u omisión. No se bancaron la respuesta y la culpa no es del que respondió sino de quien le dio el pie para que lo hiciera.
HANOI, Vietnam — For his second summit with President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opted to go retro — riding the rails like his grandfather decades before.
Kim’s decision to take the train all the way across China was probably prompted at least in part by security considerations— his train is built like a tank and almost as slow. But it also marks a major attempt at showmanship designed to bring back memories of North Korean “eternal president” Kim Il Sung’s many travels by railroad.
Kim Jong Un’s journey aboard his forest green train from Pyongyang to the Vietnamese border town of Dong Dang took more than two and a half days. That’s longer than it took Trump to fly halfway around the world, even with Air Force One stopping for fuel along the way.
“Kim Jong Un is already putting on a big show, opting for more than a 60-hour train journey, when he can get to Hanoi in just four hours by flight,” Nam Sung-wook, a former South Korean intelligence official, told Reuters.
For that trip, Kim traveled aboard an Air China Boeing 747, meaning the first images from that history-making arrival showed him disembarking from an American-made plane emblazoned with a Chinese flag.
This time around, when Kim stepped down early Tuesday from his distinctive yellow-trimmed train, he was greeted with a bouquet of flowers on a patterned red carpet lined with a Vietnamese honor guard and the five-pointed communist-starred flags of North Korea and Vietnam. He then switched to a black limousine for the final drive to Hanoi.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrives in Vietnam on Tuesday.Nhac Nguyen / AFP – Getty Images
That’s a much more on-message scene for the North Koreans, who want their home audience to see Kim as the man in charge.
But it’s also familiar on another level.
North Koreans grow up seeing images of Kim’s grandfather traveling by train, which he took to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, among other places. Kim Il Sung visited Vietnam in 1958 and 1964, though he used a mix of airplanes and trains on those journeys.
A mock-up of a car from the train is on permanent display at the mausoleum where Kim Il Sung and his son, late leader Kim Jong Il, lie in state, along with maps that light up to show the routes he took on his travels.
Inside the car is a desk used by the leaders, along with chairs and a sofa. Guides explain that the carriage was used as a mobile office — proof, they insist, the leaders worked tirelessly for the people.
Kim Jong Un will mimic aspects of his grandfather’s trip to Vietnam by traveling to some of the same locations visited by the elder Kim, two sources with direct knowledge of security and logistics planning told Reuters.
“This is legacy politics,” said Christopher Green, a North Korea expert with the International Crisis Group. “North Korea will want to play up Kim’s succession to the role of his grandfather, who successfully built up North Korea’s international legitimacy after the establishment of the state.”
Kim Jong Il, who was Kim Jong Un’s father, was known to have hated flying and traveled by train on several trips to China. He is said to have fitted his train out to accommodate lavish parties and karaoke sessions.
During his father’s rule, trips abroad were often not reported for days after they were over, if at all.
But that appears to be changing, also suggesting the importance in the minds of the North’s propagandists of getting their own visuals out quickly to the nation.
Kim Jong Un waves from his train before leaving Pyongyang on his way to Vietnam.KCNA via KNS / AP
It took North Korean state media less than half a day from the time his train — which is made up of carriages decked out with pink leather chairs and big-screen televisions — was spotted crossing the border into China to report that Kim was onboard.
Images released by the official Korean Central News Agency showed him inspecting an honor guard in Pyongyang and waving from the train.
Canadian authorities said they commited more resources to search for two teens wanted for three murders.
Officers were swarming a community in the Canadian province of Manitoba on Sunday after a possible sighting of the two teens suspected of at least three murders – including the killings of an American woman and her Australian boyfriend, police said.
Chief Leroy Constant with York Factory First Nation said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) would be conducting a search for Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky “in our community of York Landing” after a “possible sighting” around a landfill on Sunday night.
Police said Sunday the search for Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky continues. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
About two-and-a-half hours later he added, “Police have deployed multiple resources in the area of York Landing” in an attempt to apprehend the suspects.
Constant said the suspects had not been caught and that RCMP would stay in the area with helicopters, police dogs and emergency response teams “until further notice.”
He said “heavily armored officers” were “conducting ground searches with dogs,” but helicopters and drones were limited because of heavy winds.
“Everyone please remain indoors with your doors locked. And all vehicles should be parked,” Constant advised.
RCMP confirmed its presence in the area tweeting on Sunday evening that multiple police resources were being sent to York Landing “to investigate a tip that the two suspects are possibly in, or near, the community.”
“A heavy police presence can be expected in the area,” the tweet continued.
A source close to the investigation told Fox News on Saturday that McLeod and Schmegelsky may have escaped from the Manitoba town where they were last seen “with someone who is not police friendly.”
The source added that the two may have altered their appearances and offered cash to a driver to leave the area of Gillam, a town of approximately 1,200 people in the north of the province. Gillam is about a four-hour drive from York Landing.
Earlier Sunday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police tweeted that officers had spent the day searching cottages, cabins, waterways, and along the rail line in Gillam for any signs of the suspects. They added that the search of remote areas was being conducted both on the ground and in the air.
The tweet went on to say, “The terrain is immense & varied w/lakes, ponds, muskeg etc.”
Police have been asking “anyone who may have inadvertently provided assistance to the suspects to come forward and contact police.”
Earlier Sunday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said officers were searching cottages, cabins, waterways, and along the rail line for any signs of the suspects. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
On Friday, police confirmed that a resident of Cold Lake, Alberta, had helped the suspects get their Toyota Rav-4 unstuck from a local trail on July 21. Investigators said the suspects “continued on their way after a short, unremarkable interaction.”
McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18, were wanted in connection with the deaths of American Chynna Deese, 24, her Australian boyfriend Lucas Fowler, 23, and Leonard Dyck, 64, of Vancouver, British Columbia.
23-year-old Australian Lucas Fowler, left, and 24-year-old American girlfriend Chynna Deese posing in an undated photo. The couple turned up dead earlier this month. (Deese Family via AP, File)
Deese and Fowler’s bodies turned up July 15 along the side of the Alaska Highway near Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia. Both had been shot to death.
McLeod and Schmegelsky have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Dyck, whose body was discovered five days after the remains of Deese and Fowler were found.
A possible motive was unclear.
The teens originally were considered missing but were named as suspects in the murders this past Tuesday. On Thursday, the RCMP said the suspects had been spotted in the area of Gillam, over 2,000 miles from where the three bodies were found.
The RCMP said Saturday that officers had started canvassing “every home and building in the Gilliam area.” Assets from the Canadian Armed Forces arrived in Gillam early Saturday to assist with the aerial search, officials added.
Defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh breaks down Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s conviction of first-degree murder in the death of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts.
The media appeared to have downplayed the migrant status of the murderer who was convicted in the brutal 2018 killing of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera was found guilty of first-degree murder on Friday after a two-week trial in Davenport, Iowa, in a case that drew national attention because of the suspect’s immigration status.
However, media outlets are burying the fact that Rivera was in the country illegally when he murdered Tibbetts.
“Farm worker found guilty of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts,” CNN wrote in its headline.
CNN’s report didn’t mention that the convicted murderer was an “undocumented immigrant” from Mexico until the fifth paragraph.
The AP similarly ran the headline, “Farm laborer convicted in 2018 stabbing death of Iowa runner.”
“The verdict came after a two-week trial at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, in a case that fueled public anger against illegal immigration and concerns about random violence against women,” the AP reported in the fourth paragraph.
The report concluded by taking a swipe at Republicans, including former President Trump, for pointing to Tibbett’s murder in the immigration debate, writing “Then-President Donald Trump, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and other Republicans had cited the vicious crime ahead of the 2018 midterm elections to call for harsher policies to deter illegal immigration. But their efforts eventually stopped after Tibbetts’ parents said the slaying should not be used to advance a political agenda that Tibbetts would have opposed.”
The Daily Beast also headlined “Iowa Farmworker Found Guilty of Murdering Mollie Tibbetts” and buried the mention that he entered the U.S. illegally to the sixth paragraph.
The New York Times, meanwhile, put out a tweet that read, “Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-old farmworker, was found guilty of first-degree murder on Friday in the killing of Mollie Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student who had vanished while jogging in 2018.”
The Times’ report later mentioned in the fourth paragraph of its report that he was an “undocumented” immigrant.
Bahena Rivera, who came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico as a teenager, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which is a mandatory sentence upon conviction. He will be held without bond pending a July 15 sentencing hearing.
Defense attorneys Chad and Jennifer Frese said they plan to appeal the jury’s decision on their client’s behalf.
During closing arguments, prosecutors urged the jury to convict Bahena Rivera, 26, for the death of the University of Iowa student, citing “overwhelming evidence” that tied him to the killing.
The defense rested its case Wednesday after Bahena Rivera testified that two men killed Tibbetts and forced him to transport her body in his car.
Prosecutor Scott Brown called Bahena Rivera’s testimony “a figment of his imagination.” He argued that Bahena Rivera drove past Tibbetts as she was running on July 18, 2018 in Brooklyn, Iowa and made advances towards her.
When she rebuffed him, he got angry, Brown said.
“The way he reacts with that anger is to stab this young woman to death and to dump her body in a cornfield,” he told the jury.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano and Stephanie Pagones contributed to this report.
“Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December,” Bondy said.
Shokin was dismissed from his post in 2016 after a pressure campaign from Western leaders, including Biden, over concerns that he was taking insufficient action to tackle corruption.
Nunes is one of the White House’s chief allies on Capitol Hill and emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of President Trump during the impeachment hearing, which he dubbed a “circus.”
Nunes’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
Bondy told CNN that Parnas put Nunes in touch with Ukrainians to help Nunes get damaging information on Biden, one of the president’s chief political rivals.
Giuliani has previously discussed his conversations with Shokin and Parnas as part of his work on behalf of the president. However, Bondy’s discussions with CNN mark the first time Nunes has been implicated in the effort to dig up dirt on Biden.
Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, have been thrust to the heart of the House’s impeachment investigation into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Parnas and Fruman were indicted in connection with an alleged campaign finance fraud scheme in which they planned to use a shell company to donate money to a pro-Trump election committee. Parnas has indicated that he will cooperate with the House’s impeachment investigation.
A las 4.41 de la madrugada de este viernes se registró un fuerte sismo en el territorio nacional.
El Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recusrsos Naturales (MARN) informó que tuvo una magnitud de 6.2 escala Richter, frente a la costa de Sonsonate, a 93 km al suroeste de la playa Los Cóbanos.
Sismo mag. 6.2, frente a la costa de Sonsonate. A 90 km al suroeste de Playa Los Cóbanos. Prof. 12 km. [2017-05-12, 04:41 pic.twitter.com/IQsSuq8wOa
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talk as they attend the conference on Peace and Security in the Middle East in Warsaw on Feb 14. | Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images
Even as U.S. officials pressured European allies this week to break with Tehran, there was little indication the Islamist regime is worried about survival.
WARSAW — The Trump administration is warning Iran’s Islamist rulers that, after 40 years, their time in power is almost up. But the Iranian government is betting Trump will be gone first.
Even as top Trump officials traveling in Europe this week threatened to hit Iran with more economic sanctions and pressured allies to break with Tehran, there was little indication that the country’s theocratic regime fears it is in mortal peril.
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In fact, on the same day the Trump administration hosted a conference in Poland unofficially intended to rally global opposition against Tehran, Iran’s president was meeting his Russian and Turkish counterparts, in part to discuss new international financial mechanisms to evade U.S. sanctions.
Meanwhile, in Poland, Trump’s closest aides and a top ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unfurled unexpected comments that likely left Iran with even more leverage and incentive to run out the clock on the Republican president.
First, Netanyahu set off alarm bells with a tweet suggesting a coming “war” with Iran, undermining the administration’s effort to portray its Poland event as a peace conference. Then, Vice President Mike Pence went off script to demand that the Europeans quit the Iran nuclear deal, a call sure to be dismissed. It also did not go unnoticed that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called for regime change in Iran at a separate gathering in Warsaw.
The developments come as a flock of Democrats have launched White House bids, a probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign continues to encircle the president and Republicans wonder if Trump will face a primary challenge or even not run again.
“Both sides are waiting and hoping for regime change in one another’s countries, but the clock in Washington is running faster than the clock in Tehran,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group.
For now, Trump’s top advisers are certainly not willing to countenance the possibility that their boss may be a one-term president. Instead, the administration is doubling down on what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
But the conference in Warsaw — which faced numerous stumbles, including boycotts by allies and crucial players in the Middle East — cast serious doubt that the pressure campaign would succeed anytime soon.
For much of this week, the administration sought to capitalize on the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought Islamists to power in Tehran. Trump himself sent out tweets in both Farsi and English slamming the regime.
“40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure,” he tweeted on Monday. “The long-suffering Iranian people deserve a much brighter future.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif replied with his own tweet, claiming the U.S. has shown “#40YearsofFailure to accept that Iranians will never return to submission.”
National security adviser John Bolton released a video message attacking Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “You are responsible for terrorizing your own people and terrorizing the world as a whole,” Bolton said. “I don’t think you’ll have many more anniversaries to enjoy.”
But despite its heated rhetoric, the Trump administration still insists it is not seeking to oust the Iranian regime. Instead, it said, the regime must change its behavior.
Such assertions have proven tough to swallow for U.S. allies, especially Britain, France and Germany. The three countries have worked to preserve the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the months since Trump abandoned it. And on Thursday, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, flatly rejected the idea of Europeans ditching the deal.
“For us it is a matter of priority to keep implementing it at full,” Mogherini said.
The Europeans have set up an economic mechanism called INSTEX that is designed to allow companies to do business with Iran without violating the U.S. sanctions Trump reimposed on the country after walking away from the nuclear deal. Under the deal, the Obama administration had rolled back economic sanctions in exchange for strict curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.
Pence on Thursday slammed the financial work-around, calling it “an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the E.U. and create still more distance between Europe and the United States.”
Supporters of the nuclear deal say its survival hinges on biding time — and especially on Tehran’s willingness to stick with the agreement, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
One ex-official who helped draft the deal said the Iranian government appears to be calibrating its approach by trying to gauge Trump’s political prospects.
“Iran is driving this in the sense that I think Iran believes that if it looks like Trump is not going to be reelected maybe they should stay where they are, and then resurrect some form of the JCPOA,” the ex-official said. “If it looks like Trump is going to get reelected, then it’s a different ballgame. So I think they are trying to assess what their best posture is.”
As evidence of Iran’s struggle to find the right balance, the ex-official pointed to threats last month by Iran nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi that Iran could enrich uranium up to 20 percent within four days — well above the 3.67 percent enrichment cap set in the JCPOA.
The ex-official said such proclamations were a way for the Iranian government to answer hardliners, including those in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are insisting their country should just abandon the deal in response to Trump’s withdrawal.
Such threats, the ex-official said, are “a way for them to say to the IRGC, ‘We’re being tough. We’re … not going to get pushed around. We hold all the cards,’ while at the same time, not actually taking action that would abrogate the deal.”
“Right now, the world is mad at the Trump administration, not mad at Iran,” the ex-official added. “If they start doing things that undercut the deal, then Iran becomes the bad guy quite quickly.”
The Trump administration, too, has been trying to strike its own balance.
It is warning the world that Iran — through its sponsorship of terrorism, its human rights violations, its ballistic missile program and its military activity in neighboring countries — is a menace that must be confronted.
But it’s also trying to do so while insisting that Trump made the right move by walking away from what he deemed a terrible nuclear agreement. The latter is an argument that many U.S. allies don’t support.
“For us, the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran is a matter of European security … and we see it is working,” said Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, who skipped the Warsaw conference. “On other issues, we can work very closely together with the United States.”
Tensions between the U.S. and other countries were on full display throughout the Warsaw conference this week.
The gathering was originally designed to focus on Iran, but after it became clear many U.S. allies might not attend, the Trump administration sought to broaden the agenda to look at security and stability in the Middle East. Even then, many top European officials declined to participate.
Poland, which has been trying to curry favor with Trump for a variety of reasons, was a conference co-host. But the country officially still supports the Iran nuclear deal. Polish diplomats repeatedly had to explain that stance, making for several awkward, tongue-tied moments.
Netanyahu, perhaps America’s most staunch supporter in its anti-Iran campaign, raised eyebrows before leaving for Warsaw when declared “Iran” would be the focus of the event, contradicting U.S. claims. Once at the event, Netanyahu again startled with a tweet saying he looked forward to sitting with Arab leaders to “advance the common interest of war with Iran.” The tweet was later changed to say “combating” Iran, but Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, still lashed out at “Netanyahu’s illusions.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin was hosting a rival gathering with Iran President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, further adding to the sense that U.S. influence in the Middle East is eroding.
At the Russian-hosted event in Sochi, Erdoğan, reportedly said that not only is Turkey willing to join the European’s INSTEX financial vehicle, but it may also create a bilateral mechanism to facilitate trade with Iran.
Rouhani, for his part, tried to turn the tables by criticizing Washington. “While we are taking new steps for boosting stability in the region and fighting terrorism in Syria,” he said in a statement, “some who are sponsoring terrorists are hatching plots against the region in Warsaw.”
The main message out of Sochi, however, seemed to be that these three countries — far more than the Americans — would determine the future of the Middle East.
Back in Warsaw, Trump administration supporters stressed some of the strides made in holding the conference. For one thing, Israel’s leader was in the same space as a number of prominent Arab officials, all of whom have grown weary of Iran’s military assertiveness and other meddling throughout the Middle East.
The conference also gave Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner a venue to discuss his efforts to craft a new peace deal for the Israelis and Palestinians. Kushner told officials that the plan will likely be unveiled after Israeli elections in April.
Toward the end of the conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted that more than 60 countries sent representatives to the event.
“No country, no country spoke out and denied any of the basic facts that we all had laid out about Iran — the threat it poses, the nature of the regime. It was unanimous,” he insisted.
The Cook County sheriff’s office is questioning if a hospital violated state law by not immediately reporting that a woman who claimed to be the mother of a newborn had not given birth.
The woman, Clarisa Figueroa, and her daughter, Desiree, were later charged with strangling the baby’s mother, Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, and cutting the newborn from her womb.
At a bail hearing last week, prosecutors explained how the 46-year-old Figueroa was examined in a birthing center at Christ Medical Center on April 23 “but showed no signs consistent with a woman who had just delivered a baby.”
A technician at the Oak Lawn hospital cleaned blood from Figueroa’s arms, face and hands, prosecutors said, but it was unclear if anyone verified that she had actually given birth.
Figueroa was allegedly able to pass off the baby as her own for weeks.
It wasn’t until May 9 that a “mandated reporter” — someone required to report suspected neglect or abuse — notified the Department of Child and Family Services about the newborn, DCFS spokesman Jassen Strokosch said. The child was then taken into protective custody.
After a DNA test proved that the baby was actually that of Ochoa-Lopez’s husband, the agency let the 48-hour protective custody lapse, and the baby was turned over to his father, Strokosch said.
Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. | Google Maps
The sheriff’s office has asked DCFS why it was not notified sooner that Clarisa Figueroa claimed to have given birth but showed no signs of it.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office said it will investigate the hospital if it finds the medical center violated the Abuse and Neglected Children Reporting Act.
“We will consult with DCFS and if they determine the facts and circumstances of this tragedy were such that should have been reported by mandated reporters, we will ensure an investigation takes place,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Cara Smith said in an email.
In a statement, DCFS said it “will provide any support needed to the family in this case and to those handling any investigations into this matter.”
There is currently no law or regulation to ensure a baby belongs to the person presenting the baby at a hospital.
Hospital regulation falls under the purview of The Illinois Department of Public Health and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Strokosch said.
A spokesman for Christ Medical Center said the hospital cannot comment due to patient privacy laws. The hospital is cooperating with local authorities, the spokesperson said.
Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter are being held without bail in the murder of 19-year-old Ochoa-Lopez and cutting the baby out of her womb. The newborn is on life support and not expected to survive.
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The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) attacked New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Twitter on Thursday, saying the 2020 candidate is “full of sh–” after he tweeted his condolences over the death of an officer on Long Island, and calling him out for comments made during Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate.
An off-duty Bronx police officer committed suicide in his home Thursday, the fourth to do so this month. De Blasio had this to say via Twitter following the news: “We’re devastated by the news out of the NYPD this morning. An officer took his own life — one of four in recent weeks. The job of protecting this city demands so much from the officers who serve. Our city is here for them.”
The SBA responded to the tweet with its own: “Your full of sh–! You bashed every cop in the country last night in the DNC debate. You use cops for your own gain. Truth is you could care less about cops, so save the sympathy card for the clowns who believe your cr–.”
“I’ve had to have very, very serious talks with my son, Dante, about how to protect himself in the streets of our city … including the fact that he has to take special caution because there have been too many tragedies between young men and our police,” de Blasio said during the debate.
The president of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), Patrick Lynch, released a statement condemning the mayor’s remarks.
“Mayor de Blasio has apparently learned nothing over the past six years about the extremely damaging impact of anti-police rhetoric on both cops and the communities we serve,” Lynch said.“The hostile and dangerous environment we now face on the street is a direct result of the demonization of cops by de Blasio and other elected officials.”
Lynch added, “By rolling out that rhetoric again on a national stage, it’s clear he wants to take the country down the same path.”
De Blasio has drawn the ire of law enforcement throughout his tenure in office, facing the allegation that he doesn’t have officers’ backs.
In 2017, hundreds of officers turned their backs on the mayor as he delivered a eulogy at a slain officer’s funeral.
Donald Trump Jr. seized on de Blasio’s lack of popularity in his state as he tweeting during the debate, “Deblasio using anything that he has done in NYC as a model for the country isn’t a winning plan … just ask anyone in NYC.”
Este jueves estuvo marcado por novedades sobre la muerte del fiscal Alberto Nisman, que luego fueron desplazadas por las declaraciones de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sobre ese caso, la desaparición de Santiago Maldonado y las críticas al gobierno actual. Te resumimos lo más destacado a continuación:
1. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner denunció un clima de autoritarismo en el Gobierno de Mauricio Macri, durante el cual “nadie puede opinar nada”. En el extenso reportaje que concedió este jueves al periodista Luis Novaresio, la expresidenta destacó que durante su gestión “hubo una libertad absoluta en Argentina”.
4. Una pericia clave de la Gendarmería confirmaría en los próximas días que al fiscal Alberto Nisman lo mataron. Así se desprende de un informe preliminar que elaboran peritos de la Gendarmería, luego de que ayer se hiciera una recreación en el edificio Centinela sobre lo sucedido en el baño del departamento de Le Parc donde el fiscal de la UFI AMIA apareció con un tiro en la cabeza el 18 de enero de 2015.
5. Antes de partir a España, donde ayer también viajó Nicole Neumann generando una polémica con Fabián Cubero, Facundo Moyano dio algunos detalles al respecto. El diputado, que también es presidente de la Mutual de los Trabajadores de Peajes y afines, aseguró que el costo del viaje lo pagó este sindicato.
(CNN)With the more dangerous Delta variant of Covid-19 sweeping across the nation, state and health officials continue to warn the public that the pandemic is far from over despite summertime reopenings and optimism.
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, John Bonifield, Elizabeth Cohen, Melissa Alonso, Chuck Johnston, Alexandra Meeks and Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.
Tsai Ing-wen’s victory is a sign that Beijing’s efforts to co-opt Taiwan’s political and commercial institutions instead mobilized a younger, more pro-independence electorate.
Carl Court/Getty Images
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Carl Court/Getty Images
Tsai Ing-wen’s victory is a sign that Beijing’s efforts to co-opt Taiwan’s political and commercial institutions instead mobilized a younger, more pro-independence electorate.
Carl Court/Getty Images
Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has won a landslide victory in a hotly contested election, dealing a stinging rebuke to Beijing’s efforts to control the island’s democratic government.
“Democratic Taiwan and our democratically elected government will not concede to threats and intimidation,” Tsai declared to thousands of cheering supporters at an election rally outside her party’s campaign headquarters Saturday night. “The results of this election have made that answer crystal clear.”
A record 8.17 million voters cast their ballots for Tsai, according to Taiwan’s election commission, the most ever for a presidential candidate since the island began holding direct presidential elections in 1996.
Tsai’s vote total put her ahead of her opponent, the populist mayor Han Kuo-yu, by almost 20 percentage points in what has become one of the island’s most closely-watched presidential and legislative races in its short democratic history. Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, also maintained its majority in Taiwan’s legislature, clearing a path for Tsai to push through a number of educational and health care reforms.
Tsai’s margin of victory — she garnered more than 57% of the popular vote — marked a stunning turnaround. More than half a year ago, she lagged behind the Kuomintang party’s Han in the polls. She staged a comeback in large part by taking an aggressive stance in support of Hong Kong residents protesting Beijing’s rule.
“Young people in Hong Kong have used their lives and shed their blood and tears to show us that ‘one country, two systems’ is not feasible,” Tsai said, referring to Beijing’s system of governance in Hong Kong, at a rally the night before the vote. “Tomorrow, it is the turn of young people of Taiwan to show Hong Kong that the values of democracy and freedom overcomes all difficulties.”
Han, by contrast, had welcomed closer economic ties with Beijing and promised repeatedly at political rallies to “make Taiwan safe,” an implicit criticism that Tsai’s policy toward China might provoke military action.
Han, who entered the race with deep pockets of support among Taiwan’s rural communities, was hurt by a series of rhetorical gaffes and a perceived unwillingness to confront Beijing over protests in Hong Kong in the months before the election.
Tsai’s victory is a sign that Beijing’s efforts to co-opt Taiwan’s political and commercial institutions through a mixture of sticks and carrots has had the opposite effect, mobilizing a younger, more pro-independence electorate to support Tsai.
“Demographics played in Tsai’s favor. Young people identify with Taiwan and the democratic values that Tsai’s platform promised to represent and protect to a greater degree than her competitor,” said Jonathan Sullivan, China program director at the University of Nottingham and a Taiwan studies specialist. “These same demographics ought to worry Beijing, because they only point in one direction, and it’s not unification.”
China has vowed to “reunify” Taiwan ever since the retreating Kuomintang party set up a government-in-exile on the island in 1949, and it considers Taiwan a Chinese province. In the decades since, Beijing has sought to isolate Taiwan, whittling down Taipei’s diplomatic allies. It has also refused to rule out military force against Taiwan for the sake of reunification.
But while China looms in the background of every Taiwanese election, this presidential race turned into an especially heated proxy vote on how Taiwan should engage with China, whose role in suppressing protests in nearby Hong Kong has cast a shadow over Taiwan’s own future.
Beijing had sought to co-opt Taiwan’s in the months leading up to Saturday’s vote. In July, Beijing banned Chinese citizens from traveling to Taiwan on their own, decimating Taiwanese businesses dependent on mainland tourism. China has sailed its new aircraft carrier, the Shandong, weeks ahead of the presidential election and circled Taiwanese airspace with its fighter jets. Taiwanese authorities also suspect Chinese state-backed agents are behind a wave of political disinformation that have plagued both its 2016 legislative election and this year’s presidential race.
On Saturday, Chinese state media published muted reports of Tsai’s win, criticizing her for what they saw as her deliberate antagonizing of Beijing.
“Taiwan’s DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen is expected to sweep a landslide victory in elections, and analysts from Chinese mainland forecast more obstacles in cross-Straits relations after her reelection, leading to some calling for a firm preparation for reunification,” Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times tweeted, just minutes after Tsai officially declared victory.
In her next four years in office, Sullivan said, Tsai will have to delicately balance growing calls for independence among her supporters with Beijing’s more pugnacious approach to cross-Strait relations.
“She will face pressure [from her own party] on one side and Beijing on the other,” said Sullivan. “I expect Beijing to continue to squeeze Taiwan internationally, go after more allies, invest in Taiwanese media, keep up its [political influence] activities and indulge in shows of military might and bellicose rhetoric.”
The perceived urgency of this year’s election spurred some voters to undertake extreme measures. Taiwan does not allow absentee voting, so thousands of Taiwanese living abroad flew back to Taiwan to cast their ballot. Twice the number of Taiwanese living abroad registered to vote this year than the number who did so in the last election.
Among those flying to Taipei specifically for the election: Hong Kong residents.
“We want to thank Taiwan for their support of Hong Kong,” said Gary Chiu, a Hong Konger who took a flight to Taiwan ahead of the vote.
Hong Kongers peppered political rallies in support of Tsai throughout the week, eager to witness direct democracy.
“This is only the country with a Chinese community that enjoy real democracy and real freedom,” said Samantha Lu, another Hong Kong resident who was in Taipei for the vote. “Once you lose your freedom, it’s not easy to get it back.”
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