Month: December 2020

Categories
Politics

Choose denies bail to accused Jeffrey Epstein confederate

Prosecutors oppose bail for Ghislaine Maxwell, accused Jeffrey Epstein maadam

Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her trial in which she was denied bail for assisting Jeffrey Epstein in the recruitment and eventual abuse of underage girls in federal court in Manhattan on July 14, 2020 in New York in this court sketch.

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

A federal judge on Monday denied bail for the second time for Ghislaine Maxwell, the wealthy British celebrity accused of grooming underage girls in order to be sexually abused by money manager Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Alison Nathan, like the first bail denial in July, stated that Maxwell poses a serious aviation risk given her property, multi-country citizenship, and the severity of the charges she faces.

The rejection came three days after Maxwell celebrated her 59th birthday on Christmas Day in a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York.

In her most recent bail motion, Maxwell requested the release of a $ 22.5 million personal note of appreciation, with seven relatives and friends pledging $ million as security for their appearances in court.

Maxwell also suggested that armed guards have her stay in a residence in New York City and be monitored with an electronic device.

Prosecutors firmly denied the motion, and Nathan agreed to their order in Manhattan federal court on Monday.

“The court … finds that the defendant’s proposed bail conditions would not adequately guarantee her appearance in future trials,” wrote Nathan in the judgment.

“The Court concludes that none of the new information provided by the defendant in support of its application has a material bearing on the Court’s finding that it constitutes a flight risk.”

Nathan also wrote a lengthy statement explaining her reasons for not bailing Maxwell.

However, the judge is holding this document from the public court records for the time being to give Maxwell attorneys and prosecutors time to suggest editorships they believe are warranted to protect potentially confidential information.

Maxwell, arrested in New Hampshire on July 2, pleaded not guilty to the case.

In addition to allegations related to allegedly recruiting and caring for several underage girls for her ex-boyfriend Epstein in the 1990s, Maxwell is charged with perjury for alleged lying during a deposit of a lawsuit filed by an Epstein prosecutor.

She is due to stand trial next year.

The 66-year-old Epstein died in August 2019 in a federal prison in Manhattan as a result of a suicide by hanging.

At the time of his death, Epstein was being held without bail for trafficking in children.

Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, previously pleaded guilty to Florida charges of including paying an underage girl for sexual services.

In this case, he was imprisoned for 13 months but was released for much of that time on account of being fired.

Categories
Business

Co-ops in Spain’s Basque Area Soften Capitalism’s Tough Edges

Co-ops in Spain’s Basque Region Soften Capitalism’s Rough Edges

If the Erreka Group had operated like most companies, the pandemic would have dealt a traumatic blow to its workers.

Based in the rugged Basque region of Spain, the company produces a wide variety of goods including sliding doors, plastic parts for cars and medical devices sold worldwide. When the coronavirus ravaged Europe in late March, the Spanish government ordered the company to close two of its three local factories, threatening the livelihoods of 210 workers there.

However, the Erreka Group prevented layoffs by temporarily cutting wages by 5 percent. It continued to pay workers who were stuck at home in exchange for promising that they would make up some of their hours when better days returned.

This flexible approach was possible because the company is part of a large collection of cooperative companies based in the city of Mondragón. Most employees are partners, meaning they own the company. Though Mondragón Corporation’s 96 cooperatives need to make a profit to stay in business – like any business – these businesses are designed not to distribute dividends to shareholders or shower stock options to executives, but receive the paychecks.

The concept of the cooperative may evoke ideas of hippie socialism and limit its value as a model for the world economy, but Mondragón is a really big company. The cooperatives employ more than 70,000 people in Spain, making them one of the largest paychecks in the country. They have an annual turnover of more than 12 billion euros. The group includes one of the country’s largest grocery chains, Eroski, as well as a credit union and manufacturers that export their goods around the planet.

“Mondragón is one of the landmarks of the social economy movement because of its size,” said Amal Chevreau, policy analyst at the Center for Entrepreneurship of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “They show that it is possible to be profitable and still achieve social goals.”

In a world grappling with the consequences of expanding economic inequality, cooperatives are gaining attention as a fascinating potential alternative to the established form of global capitalism. They emphasize a specific purpose: protecting workers.

The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the pitfalls of companies built to maximize shareholder returns. The closure of much of the world economy has driven unemployment and threatened workers’ ability to support their families and keep rent and mortgage payments up to date – particularly in the US. Government bailouts have emphasized protecting assets like stocks and bonds, empowering investors and leaving workers vulnerable.

In the corporate world, high profile initiatives have marked the beginning of a more socially conscious mentality. Last year, 181 members of the Business Roundtable, a leading group of executives, pledged loyalty to a new mission statement in which they pledged to conduct their business not only to enrich the shareholders, but also to supply other so-called stakeholder workers , Suppliers, the environment and local communities.

The pandemic was the first real test of the principles of stakeholder capitalism. The results have been reviewed, with one study showing that the promise’s signers did no better than the average company.

Many large corporations have distributed much of their profits to shareholders in the form of dividends and purchases of their own stocks, causing stock prices to rise. When the pandemic hit, many lacked the resources to weather a downturn, prompting managers to take vacations and lay off workers to cut costs.

Cooperatives were specifically set up to prevent such outcomes. They usually require managers to put the majority of their profits back into the company to prevent layoffs in times of need.

“Our philosophy is not to lay off people,” said Antton Tomasena, Managing Director of the Erreka Group. “We wanted people not to worry too much.”

While co-operatives are increasingly part of the discussion about updating capitalism, they remain confined to the limits of business life. They can be found in Italy and Belgium. In the north of England, the city of Preston has sponsored cooperatives as an antidote to a decade of national austerity. A number of Cleveland cooperatives have been organized by a nonprofit organization, the Democracy Collaborative.

In Mondragón, cooperatives date back to the rubble of the Spanish Civil War in the early 1940s when a priest, José M. Arizmendiarrieta, came to the area with unorthodox ideas about economic improvements.

The Basque Country, rich in ore, has long been the scene of industry, particularly steel making, but most of the workers were poorly paid. People usually started working when they were 14 and had little progress.

Updated

Dec. Dec. 29, 2020 at 5:11 pm ET

When the priest turned to the owner of a private vocational school to see if it was open to all, he was turned away. So he started his own now known as Mondragon University.

The priest saw cooperative principles as the key to raising the standard of living. In 1955, he persuaded five of the first few graduates of the local engineering program to buy a company that made heating systems and run it as a cooperative. They elevated workers to owners – partner is the term in art – with each one receiving a single vote in a democratic process that determines wages, working conditions and the proportion of profits to be distributed each year.

Over the decades numerous other cooperatives have established themselves and dominated the city’s economy. Each company is autonomous, but operates on a common set of principles, particularly the understanding that someone who loses a job in a cooperative has the right to take up a position with one of the others. If there is no work, the partners are entitled to vocational training plus unemployment benefits for up to two years.

In the United States, the executives of the 350 largest corporations receive roughly 320 times the typical worker, according to the Washington Economic Policy Institute. At Mondragón, executive salaries are capped at six times the lowest wage.

The lowest level is now € 16,000 per year (about $ 19,400), which is above the Spanish minimum wage. Most people earn at least double that and receive private health benefits, annual profit-sharing and pensions.

Each cooperative pays into a collective money pool that covers unemployment benefits and aid for struggling member cooperatives. When a crisis requires production to be limited, workers continue to be paid as usual, with residual amounts of working time that management can assign later.

The system proved robust during the global financial crisis of 2008, followed by the so-called sovereign debt crisis across Europe. Unemployment in Spain rose to over 26 percent. But in Mondragón, the cooperatives divided the pain into future hours through wage cuts and advance payments. Unemployment barely moved.

The crisis sparked the downfall of the original Fagor cooperative, which manufactured household appliances including refrigerators. This meant that almost 1,900 people were unemployed.

The Fagor collapse provoked talk that a weakness in the cooperative model had been exposed. Another type of business that has managed to maximize returns would have concluded much earlier that making refrigerators is a treacherous undertaking for a Spanish company given the stiff competition from low-wage countries in Asia. Endeavoring to keep jobs, Mondragón supported Fagor for years so as not to revive his fate.

Yet within six months of Fagor’s death, 600 of his former workers had found positions with other cooperatives, and the rest were receiving severance pay and early retirement packages, according to the group. As the leaders in Mondragón put it, the fact that Fagor collapsed while its employees were protected confirmed the value of the cooperative model.

“When a typical company goes bankrupt, we’re not saying that it is the end of the capitalist system,” said Ander Etxeberria, who oversees Mondragón’s communications.

In recent years the co-operatives have added contract and temporary workers who lack property rights, raising questions about whether the model can last as their business grows and competes with larger players. Many of Mondragón’s businesses have grown overseas, following their customers to Mexico, Brazil, China and numerous other countries. Most of the international subsidiaries are not cooperatives but traditional companies. They work under a loose guideline to improve local working conditions, but Mondragón leaders acknowledge that this is more aspiration than a reality.

Eventually, the Mondragón Cooperatives were created to improve livelihoods in Mondragón, not to reform labor markets worldwide.

“While the cooperative model protects people, it has to be competitive,” said Zigor Ezpeleta, who oversees social programs at Mondragón. “Otherwise it will go away.”

During the spring, when many Mondragón customers had to close their factories due to the pandemic, orders for parts fell. Production at the Mondragón factories dropped to 25 percent of capacity. The cooperatives responded with a 5 percent wage cut. Nobody was happy about it, but the opposition was limited.

Since then, almost all cooperatives have been working to capacity again, as the partners pay back the hours they were compensated for when the factories were closed. Overall, the cooperatives expect profitability for the year.

Mondragón cites its pandemic performance as evidence of its agility as well as the operational benefits of the trust that comes from a common goal.

“If you explain the situation very clearly and people know they own the company, you can make that kind of effort,” said Iñigo Ucín, president of Mondragón Corporation.

Most multinationals adapting to the pandemic tend to have divergent interests between shareholders and employees. Executives have continued to benefit from stock-based compensation promoted through public bailouts, even at companies that have resorted to layoffs.

At Mondragón, workers know that as owners they can benefit from sacrifices that strengthen their business.

“This is more than a job,” said Joana Ibarretxe Cano, production manager at the Erreka Group, whose plant was closed for the whole of April. “This is part of a team.”

The mother of two said she was concerned as the first wave of the pandemic unfolded – for her family, for the team she oversees, and for business. “Nobody likes not being able to go to work,” she said.

The way the company weathered the crisis has increased their confidence in the structure of their company. Their income was largely unaffected, even though the factory remained closed.

“The cooperative system has given us peace,” she said.

Rachel Chaundler contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Entertainment

How Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Animates Jazz

How Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Animates Jazz

Pixar’s animators have done an impressive job in the past, making characters and textures feel more authentic in increasingly complex ways. (That flowing hair! These landscapes!) But how would they represent jazz?

With “Soul” (streaming on Disney +) the challenge was to translate the emotional and improvisational qualities of the music through a technical process with little room for improvisation. While many animations have awakened the spirit of jazz over the years, “Soul” sits right next to the piano keys to show in detail how a musician creates. And Pixar knew that many eyes, especially those of jazz musicians, would examine his work.

The film follows Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a school band teacher by day, a talented but unsuccessful jazz pianist by night (and always). He struggles to perform, but when he’s at the piano he’s transported, his stress subsides and his passion emerges with every note.

The Pixar filmmakers, known for their attention to detail – in “Cars”, the engine noise of each vehicle came from the actual engine of the same model – knew that without the collaboration of jazz artists it would not be possible to capture the fundamentals of jazz performance .

“We wanted to make sure that when this guy becomes a jazz musician, he knows the clubs and the backstory,” said the film’s director Pete Docter in a video interview. He and his team went to clubs in New York to gain a better understanding. “We just went upstairs and talked to musicians and asked them where did you study?” he said. “How did you get here? What other jobs did you do? And tried to really refine the world of these characters.”

They also consulted with a number of marquee musicians, including Herbie Hancock, jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and Questlove (who also did vocal work).

Pixar also brought in keyboardist Jon Batiste, band leader and music director of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert”. He created the original compositions that Joe performs on the screen. Batiste recorded the music with a band in a New York studio, and Docter captured those sessions with multiple cameras. “We have 80 GoPros set up everywhere,” said Docter. They then studied the video to get a more detailed picture of how the scene could be animated.

Docter said the animators exaggerated certain movements in Joe’s game for visual effects, but “in terms of posture and striking the right notes, this was crucial for us to make sure it really felt authentic.”

Together with the video, they were able to digitally save the notes they played. This digital stream could be programmed backwards into the animation in a way that acted almost like a player piano, signaling to the animators which key was being played with each note. When you see Joe at the piano, he’s playing the exact notes you hear.

At the recording sessions, Docter said, his approach to directing Batiste was similar to directing actors: he avoided doing certain line readings or inputs to the music and instead tried to paint a picture so that Batiste set the mood of the Scene could understand.

“I could just say, ‘You know the point when you play and the world just disappears and you wake up and three hours have passed? This is what we’re looking for, ”said Docter. Batiste made adjustments to his composition during the session to suit the needs of the film. “It was a pleasure to watch him work,” said Docter. “It was like a private concert.”

Batiste said that he had a connection with Docter in creating these scenes – “Pete is a healer and a philosopher,” he said via email – and that he was glad to see the care with which black music was treated .

Docter grew up with music. Two sisters are professional musicians and his parents are music educators. That made it easier to sync with the film’s musical passions. And on his team, he said, those who animated a particular instrument often had either experience with that instrument or a strong appreciation for it.

Joe in all his complexity is brought to life in three ways: through Foxx’s vocal performance; the design and movement of the character; and Batiste’s compositions and performances. These close-ups of Joe’s moving hands reflect the pianist’s spirited playing style – so much so that Batiste was surprised when he saw these moments on screen.

“My hands are central to my life,” he said. “I had tears in my eyes when I saw my essence come to life in Joe. To have this as part of my creative heritage is an honor. “

Categories
Health

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn on three most regarding existential dangers

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn on 3 most concerning existential risks

Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn

Center for the Investigation of Existential Risk

LONDON – Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn has figured out what he believes are the top three threats to human existence this century.

While the climate emergency and coronavirus pandemic are viewed as issues that urgently require global solutions, Tallinn told CNBC that artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and so-called unknown unknowns each pose an existential risk through 2100.

Synthetic biology is the design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems, while unknown unknowns, according to Tallinn, are “things we may not be able to think about right now”.

The Estonian computer programmer, who helped set up the Kazaa file-sharing platform in the 1990s and the Skype video call service in the 00s, has become increasingly concerned about AI in recent years.

“Climate change will not be an existential risk unless there is an out of control scenario,” he told CNBC over Skype.

Of course, the United Nations has recognized the climate crisis as the “defining issue of our time” and recognized its impact as global and unprecedented. The international group has also warned that there is alarming evidence that “critical turning points leading to irreversible changes in key ecosystems and the planetary climate system may have already been reached or passed”.

Of the three threats Tallinn is most concerned about, AI is at the center and it spends millions of dollars making sure the technology is developed safely. This includes investing early in AI labs like DeepMind (partly so he can keep an eye on their activities) and funding AI security research at universities like Oxford and Cambridge.

Referring to a book by Oxford Professor Toby Ord, Tallinn said there was a one-in-six chance people will not survive this century. Why? One of the biggest potential threats in the short term is AI, according to the book, while the likelihood that climate change will cause human extinction is less than 1%.

Predicting the future of AI

When it comes to AI, nobody knows how smart machines get, and it’s basically impossible to guess how advanced AI will be in the next 10, 20 or 100 years.

Trying to predict the future of AI is made even more difficult by the fact that AI systems are starting to create other AI systems without human input.

“There is a very important parameter in predicting AI and the future,” Tallinn said. “How much and how exactly will AI development give feedback on AI development? We know that AI is currently being used to search for AI architectures.”

If AI turns out to be not good at building other AI, we needn’t be unduly concerned as there will be time to dissipate and use AI skill gains, Tallinn said. (Should this line be in quotes? I think we should rephrase if this is not a literal quote.) However, if AI is able to create other AIs it is “very justified to be concerned … about what happens next, “he said.

Tallinn explained how there are two main scenarios that AI security researchers are looking at.

The first is a laboratory accident in which a research team leaves an AI system in the evening to train on some computer servers and “the world is no longer there in the morning”. The second is where the research team produces a prototechnology which is then adopted and applied to different areas “where it has an unfortunate effect”.

Tallinn said it is focusing more on the former as fewer people think about this scenario.

When asked if he’s more or less concerned about the idea of ​​superintelligence (the hypothetical point where machines reach and then quickly surpass human-level intelligence) than three years ago, Tallinn says his point of view is “muddier” or less has become more “nuanced”. “”

“If you say that it will happen tomorrow or that it won’t happen in the next 50 years, I would say that both of them are cocky,” he said.

Open and closed laboratories

The world’s largest tech companies are investing billions of dollars in advancing the state of AI. While some of their research is openly published, many are not, and this has raised alarm bells in some corners.

“The question of transparency is not at all obvious,” says Tallinn, claiming that it is not necessarily a good idea to reveal the details of a very powerful technology.

Tallinn says some companies take AI security seriously than others. For example, DeepMind is in regular contact with AI security researchers at places like the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford. It also employs dozens of people who focus on AI security.

At the other end of the scale, business centers like Google Brain and Facebook AI Research are less connected to the AI ​​security community, according to Tallinn. We must seek comment from both of them.

If the AI ​​becomes an “arms race,” it will be better if there are fewer participants in the game, according to Tallinn, who recently heard the audiobook for “Making the Atomic Bomb” where we were (typo? Goods?) Great concern about how many research groups worked on science. “I think it’s a similar situation,” he said.

“If it turns out that AI isn’t going to be very disruptive in the near future, it would certainly be useful for companies to actually try to solve some of the problems in a more distributed manner,” he said.

Categories
Business

On-line procuring results in pressure at Port of Los Angeles

Online shopping leads to strain at Port of Los Angeles

The number of shipments delivered through the country’s busiest container port complex in Los Angeles has increased significantly from the first half, driven by a recovery in business and a change in consumer habits.

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said during an appearance on CNBC on Monday that cargo volume increased 50% in the second half of 2020 after arriving at the docks in the first six months of the year, and that loaded ships often anchor at sea waiting for a dock to open.

“It’s all the change in the American consumer,” Seroka said on Power Lunch. “We don’t buy services, we buy goods.”

The surge in shipments has put a strain on the seaport supply chain, which is managed by the Los Angeles Port Authority. It’s a stark contrast to spring, when volume plummeted as the coronavirus pandemic plunged the global economy into recession.

With retailers seeing a surge in online ordering and e-commerce in the world of stay-at-home, it has created long delays in unloading ships at ports across the country and a lack of desired storage space.

Seroka said the port expects demand to surge. The Port of Southern California has been the busiest container port in North America for the past two decades, welcoming 17% of all US cargo.

In November, the Port of Los Angeles saw 890,000 shipments, equivalent to 20 feet, passing through its facilities, up 22% from the same month last year, partly due to vacation orders. Imports from Asia are at a record level, announced the port authority. Meanwhile, exports at the port have declined in 23 of the last 25 months, partly due to trade policy with China.

“In addition to trade policy, it is the strength of the US dollar that makes our goods a bit more than would otherwise be the case for competing nations in the same product categories,” Seroka said. “And right now the most amazing statistic is that we are sending back twice as many empty boxes as we are American exports through our docks.”

Monthly cargo volumes averaged 930,000 units in 20 foot units since August, which Seroka called “unusual” at the end of the year. The activity is expected to last several months.

Seroka said the port has been focusing on digitization to streamline shipping schedules and logistics.

“The port is tense,” he said.

Categories
World News

Australia’s economic system after Covid-19 pandemic

Australia's economy after Covid-19 pandemic

The national flags of Australia and China are displayed in front of a portrait of Mao Zedong overlooking Tiananmen Square.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP via Getty Images

Australia’s economy has been hit hard by escalating trade tensions with China – and it is possible that even after the pandemic ends, growth “will never return to pre-virus levels,” according to research firm Capital Economics.

China is by far Australia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 39.4% of goods exports and 17.6% of services exports between 2019 and 2020.

But Beijing has been targeting a growing list of imported products from Down Under for months – tariffs on wine and barley and suspension of beef imports.

Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) could continue to shrink if Beijing continues to pile tariffs on more Australian imports, its chief economist Marcel Thieliant said in a note last week.

Goods and services already “in the line of fire” are worth almost a quarter of Australia’s exports to China – 1.8% of economic output, according to the research company.

But it can’t end there.

“That number could climb to around 2.8% of GDP if China targets other products for which it does not depend heavily on Australian imports,” Thieliant said.

While Australia should be able to reroute some shipments to other countries, the escalating trade war is another reason why the Australian economy will never return to its pre-virus path, even after controlling the pandemic.

Marcel Thieliant

Economist, capital economy

Canberra-Beijing bilateral relations deteriorated earlier this year after Australia backed a growing demand for an international investigation into China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Other restrictions from Beijing could come, including exports of gold, aluminum oxide – a type of material for industrial use – and “a wide variety of smaller goods,” the report said.

“While Australia should be able to reroute some shipments to other countries, the escalating trade war is another reason the Australian economy will never return to its pre-virus path even after the pandemic is controlled,” Thieliant said.

Overall, the country’s gross domestic product could lag its pre-virus level by about 1.5 percentage points by the end of 2022 – and additional trade restrictions from China could exacerbate this shortage, Capital Economics said.

The pain could be alleviated, however, as “Australia may find other destinations for its exports,” said the economist.

A ray of hope for Australia

Australia is the world’s largest iron ore producer, another commodity that has been in the spotlight as tensions between Australia and China increased.

But there is a ray of hope for Australia: iron ore exports would likely continue to be spared as Australia supplies half of China’s needs.

China imports 60% of its iron ore from Australia and is heavily dependent on the commodity from which steel is made.

Analysts say the lack of available alternatives could be the reason iron ore has so far been spared the tariff war.

Iron ore prices recently rose as demand from China increased and were further fueled by dwindling supply and disruption caused by storms in Australia.

“We still believe that iron ore exports will be spared … Without Australia, China would not be able to meet all of its current needs,” Thieliant wrote.

Categories
Politics

Barr Leaves a Legacy Outlined by Trump

Barr Leaves a Legacy Defined by Trump

WASHINGTON – Kurz nachdem er Anfang Dezember die unbegründeten Behauptungen von Präsident Trump über weit verbreiteten Wahlbetrug untergraben hatte, raste die Zeit von Generalstaatsanwalt William P. Barr auf der Spitze des Justizministeriums zu Ende. Der Präsident und seine Verbündeten griffen Herrn Barr öffentlich und privat an und machten klar, dass er seine Einschätzung zurückziehen oder die letzten Wochen der Regierung herabsetzen und möglicherweise auf erniedrigende Weise entlassen sollte.

Laut den mit seinen Bemühungen vertrauten Personen musste Herr Barr an einem Ausstiegsplan für das Gesicht arbeiten. Er und seine Verbündeten begannen mit der Kommunikation mit dem Weißen Haus, um seine Chancen auf einen einvernehmlichen Abschied einzuschätzen, und er verbrachte ein Wochenende damit, einen Brief zu schreiben, in dem er seine Abreise ankündigte und gleichzeitig seine Beziehung zum Präsidenten aufrechterhielt.

Die Bemühungen gelang es Herrn Barr, weitgehend zu seinen Bedingungen zu gehen. Mr. Trump lobte Mr. Barr sehr, als er seinen Ausstieg ankündigte, und der Generalstaatsanwalt erwiderte den Gefallen und verwischte die Tatsache, dass er so gut wie vertrieben worden war.

Der orchestrierte Abschied war ein Spiegelbild dessen, wie Herr Barr während seiner Amtszeit ein Justizministerium für einen Präsidenten leitete, der es als feindlich gegenüber ihm ansah. Die Zeit von Herrn Barr war weitgehend von der Wahrnehmung geprägt, dass er die Unabhängigkeit der Abteilung aufhob, um die politischen und persönlichen Interessen des Präsidenten voranzutreiben, indem er hauptsächlich seine eigenen Ermittlungen in Bezug auf Russland und die Trump-Kampagne untergrub und sich mit Kampagnenfragen befasste, einschließlich der Auseinandersetzung mit Ängsten vor Wahlbetrug.

Aber Herr Barr zeigte am Ende seiner Amtszeit auch Autonomieblitze. Seine Umkehrung des Wahlbetrugs brach vom Präsidenten ab. Er sagte, er sehe keine Notwendigkeit für einen besonderen Anwalt, um den Sohn Hunter des gewählten Präsidenten Joseph R. Biden Jr. zu untersuchen, als Mr. Trump nach einem verlangte. Und Herr Barr gab sogar zu, dass einige seiner Verdächtigungen bezüglich der Prüfung der russischen Wahlbeeinflussung durch die Obama-Regierung falsch waren.

Historiker werden darüber diskutieren, ob der 70-jährige Barr versucht hat, seinen Ruf zu bewahren. Er war bereits eine polarisierende Persönlichkeit und hatte in den letzten Wochen erneut Kritik bekommen, weil er die Beschränkungen für wahlbezogene Ermittlungen gelockert hatte, als Herr Trump seine Beschwerden über Abstimmungsunregelmäßigkeiten verschärfte und dafür sorgte, dass die Prüfung der Russland-Ermittlungen durch das Ministerium im Biden fortgesetzt wurde Verwaltung.

Die Verbündeten von Herrn Barr sagen, er sei einfach seinen Instinkten gefolgt, gestärkt durch seine maximalistische Sicht der Exekutivgewalt, und sei nicht beunruhigt darüber, dass er Herrn Trumps persönlicher Agenda diente.

In jedem Fall zeigt eine Untersuchung der Amtszeit von Herrn Barr auf der Grundlage von Interviews mit Verbündeten, Kritikern, gegenwärtigen und ehemaligen Strafverfolgungsbeamten und Akademikern, dass Herr Trump, egal was Herr Barr sagt oder tut, letztendlich sein Erbe als Anwalt definieren wird Allgemeines.

“Bill Barr wird untrennbar mit Donald Trump verbunden sein”, sagte Nancy Baker, eine Politikwissenschaftlerin, die Generalstaatsanwälte studiert und Herrn Barr für ein Oral History-Projekt des Miller Center an der University of Virginia interviewte. Während Kritiker der Regierung Herrn Barr die Widerlegung der falschen Wahlbehauptungen von Herrn Trump zuschrieben, sagte sie letztendlich: “Er wird immer Trumps Typ sein.”

Herr Barr, der letzte Woche den Job verlassen hatte, sagte auf seiner letzten Pressekonferenz, dass er die Stelle angenommen habe, weil er das Gefühl habe, der Abteilung in einer schwierigen Zeit helfen zu können.

„Ich wusste, dass ich mich für einen schwierigen Auftrag in dieser Abteilung anmelde. Wie gesagt, es gab schwierige Zeiten “, sagte Barr, der sich weigerte, Fragen zu diesem Artikel zu beantworten. “Ich bereue es nicht, reingekommen zu sein, weil ich denke, es ist immer eine Ehre, der Nation zu dienen.”

Als Herr Barr, der während der ersten Bush-Regierung Generalstaatsanwalt gewesen war, Anfang letzten Jahres ins Büro zurückkehrte, betrachteten einige Trump-Kritiker seine Erfahrung als potenzielle Kontrolle des Präsidenten. Aber seine eigenen Aufzeichnungen zeigten, dass Herr Barr die Macht des Präsidenten als weit gefasst ansah, und Herr Trump bot die Gelegenheit, das wiederherzustellen, was Herr Barr als Exekutivautorität ansah, die in der Zeit nach Watergate verloren gegangen war.

„Als Kabinettsmitglied unterstützte der Generalstaatsanwalt die Verwaltung und viele ihrer Prioritäten. Dafür wurde er zu Unrecht kritisiert “, sagte Brian Rabbitt, sein ehemaliger Stabschef und scheidender Leiter der Kriminalabteilung des Justizministeriums. „Aber du nimmst keinen Job wie seinen an, um Widerstand zu leisten. Sie übernehmen die Aufgabe, der Verwaltung zu helfen, ihr Bestes für das Land zu geben. “

Herr Barr war begeistert von Themen wie der Ausweitung der Religionsfreiheit und der Unterstützung von Reservaten der amerikanischen Ureinwohner und Strafverfolgungsbehörden der Stämme, sagten ehemalige Kollegen, und setzte seinen Kampf gegen Drogen, Gewaltverbrechen und die seiner Meinung nach politisch motivierte Strafverfolgung weitgehend fort.

Diese Arbeit wurde durch die Russland-Untersuchung in den Schatten gestellt, von der sowohl er als auch Herr Trump glaubten, dass sie einen Machtmissbrauch durch das FBI darstelle

“Er hatte eine wachsame Haltung gegenüber der Russland-Untersuchung – ‘Ich allein werde das beheben'”, sagte Rebecca Roiphe, Professorin an der New York Law School, die die Geschichte und Ethik des Rechtsberufs studiert.

Nach seiner Bestätigung im Februar 2019 begann Herr Barr eine zielstrebige Mission, um etwaiges Fehlverhalten von Ermittlern aufzudecken.

Herr Barr begann damit, die Wahrnehmung der Öffentlichkeit für die politisch am stärksten belasteten Ermittlungen einer Generation im bestmöglichen Licht für Herrn Trump neu zu gestalten. Er fuhr fort, es als politischen Knüppel zu definieren, der dazu diente, die Präsidentschaft von Herrn Trump zu „sabotieren“, selbst nachdem der Generalinspekteur des Justizministeriums etwas anderes beschlossen hatte. “Staatsanwälte können manchmal zu Headhuntern werden, die damit beschäftigt sind, ihr Ziel zu erreichen”, sagte Barr in diesem Herbst. In seinen letzten Tagen im Amt sagte er, die Ermittler des Sonderbeauftragten, Robert S. Mueller III, seien zu voreingenommen, um das Fehlverhalten des FBI aufzudecken.

Herr Barr ging über das Gerede hinaus und tippte auf John H. Durham, den US-Anwalt in Connecticut, um eine strafrechtliche Untersuchung der Ursprünge der Russland-Untersuchung einzuleiten. Herr Barr sprach in den Monaten vor der Wahl über die Arbeit von Herrn Durham und verstieß gegen die Normen des Justizministeriums, um zu vermeiden, dass laufende strafrechtliche Ermittlungen öffentlich diskutiert werden, da Herr Trump die Untersuchung als sicher bewarb, um eine Verschwörung gegen ihn zu beweisen.

“Er hatte einen blinden Fleck in Russland”, sagte Frau Baker über Herrn Barr. “Blind gegenüber der Tatsache, dass er bei der Behandlung der Russland-Ermittlungen politisch gehandelt hat, auch wenn er in seinem Glauben aus der Überzeugung heraus gehandelt hat, dass seine Handlungen mit der Rechtsstaatlichkeit vereinbar sind.”

Nach der Wahl spielte Herr Barr inmitten eines Sturms von Beschwerden von Herrn Trumps Verbündeten, dass Herr Durham keine Informationen enthüllt hatte, die dem Präsidenten hätten helfen können, die Erwartungen herunter, dass er kriminelle Handlungen aufdecken würde. Er sagte einem Meinungskolumnisten des Wall Street Journal, dass die politische Klasse andere verächtliche Verhaltensweisen entschuldige, indem sie sich ausschließlich auf Anklagen konzentriere.

Und obwohl er im selben Interview seinen Verdacht auf die Prüfung der russischen Wahlbeeinträchtigung durch die CIA im Jahr 2016 zurückwies, bestätigte er auch, dass Herr Durham die Einschätzung der Geheimdienste von 2017 über die Einmischung der russischen Wahlen noch prüfte.

Innerhalb des Justizministeriums kam der Wendepunkt mit den Interventionen von Herrn Barr in zwei hochkarätigen Fällen, die sich aus der Russland-Untersuchung ergaben, denen von Herrn Trumps langjährigem Freund Roger J. Stone Jr. und seinem ehemaligen nationalen Sicherheitsberater Michael T. Flynn. Einige Staatsanwälte zogen sich aus den Fällen zurück. Einige verließen die Abteilung vollständig. Eine typisch diskrete Belegschaft forderte den Rücktritt von Herrn Barr und beschuldigte ihn, die Abteilung “in einen Schutzschild zum Schutz des Präsidenten” und ein Instrument für Herrn Trump zur Beilegung politischer Probleme verwandelt zu haben.

Mr. Barr wies diese Anschuldigungen zurück und tadelte Mr. Trump öffentlich, weil er sich zu dem Fall Stone geäußert hatte. Ehemalige Berater sagten, dass Herr Barr sowohl Herrn Trump als auch der Bundesanwaltschaft die Botschaft übermittelte, dass er aufgrund seiner Überzeugungen und nicht aufgrund seiner Politik handelt.

Aber die Interventionen von Herrn Barr in einer Weise, die Herrn Trump zugute kam, gingen über die Untersuchung des Sonderbeauftragten hinaus. Das Justizministerium untersuchte die Geschäfte von Herrn Trump mit der Ukraine, die zur Amtsenthebung führten, und stellte schnell fest, dass er kein Verbrechen im Bereich der Kampagnenfinanzierung begangen hatte, lange bevor die umfassenden Bemühungen des Präsidenten, Druck auf Kiew auszuüben, in den Mittelpunkt gerückt waren.

Die Abteilung nahm auch Klagen wegen Büchern auf, die von Trump-Gegnern geschrieben wurden. Im Fall des ehemaligen nationalen Sicherheitsberaters John R. Bolton, der in Ungnade gefallen war, wurde eine strafrechtliche Untersuchung eingeleitet, ob er Verschlusssachen illegal offengelegt hatte.

Ein erfolgreicher Generalstaatsanwalt zu sein “bedeutet nicht nur, das Richtige zu tun, sondern die Legitimität der Institution zu wahren”, sagte Frau Roiphe. “Auch wenn er diese Überzeugungen ehrlich vertrat, sprach er sie auf eine Weise an, die nur von seinen eigenen politischen Anhängern respektiert wurde.”

Einige Beamte des Justizministeriums glaubten, dass Herr Barr die Überzeugung des Präsidenten, sein Generalstaatsanwalt sei sein politischer Fixierer, privat schärfte und dieses Kapital zusammen mit Herrn Trump zum Schutz des Ministeriums verwendete, um es vor Rückschlägen zu schützen, als es Fälle verfolgte, die die Handelsverhandlungen mit China störten und um den FBI-Direktor Christopher A. Wray davor zu schützen, wegen der Feindseligkeit des Präsidenten gegenüber dem Büro gefeuert zu werden.

Nach Angaben von ehemaligen Beamten hielt Herr Barr einen ungewöhnlich kleinen inneren Kreis von Adjutanten und verließ sich auf sie und nicht auf die Abteilungsleiter, um Rat zu erhalten.

Herr Barr schien Beiträge von anderen Stellen in der Abteilung, insbesondere von Karrieremitarbeitern, als unnötigen Lärm zu verachten, der seinen schnellen Überlegungsprozess verlangsamte, sagten ehemalige Beamte.

Herr Barr machte seine niedrige Meinung in einer Rede in diesem Jahr deutlich und sagte, dass keine erfolgreichen Organisationen Entscheidungen von Mitarbeitern auf niedriger Ebene als „sakrosankt“ betrachteten oder auf „was auch immer diese Untergebenen tun wollen“ verschoben wurden.

Zu Beginn dieses Jahres schien er jedoch blind gegenüber einer Reihe von Fehlern zu sein, vor allem aufgrund seiner Führungsrolle bei der Reaktion des Bundes auf die diesjährigen landesweiten Proteste gegen rassistische Ungerechtigkeiten. Herr Barr wurde unter Beschuss genommen, weil er Bundesbeamten befohlen hatte, im Juni einen Park in der Nähe des Weißen Hauses zu räumen, kurz bevor Herr Trumps weithin kritisiertes Foto vor einer Kirche veröffentlicht wurde. Er frustrierte einige im Weißen Haus und widersprach auch Mr. Trumps Erklärung, während der Proteste in einem Bunker Schutz zu suchen.

Und später in diesem Monat distanzierte sich Herr Trump fast sofort von Herrn Barrs Entlassung des obersten Bundesstaatsanwalts in Manhattan.

In seinen letzten Wochen begann Herr Barr, die Agenda von Herrn Trump, die er unterstützte, als getrennt vom Präsidenten selbst und seinen persönlichen Mängeln zu betrachten, wie seine Weigerung, die Wahlergebnisse zu akzeptieren, sagten Mitarbeiter.

Mr. Barr akzeptierte Mr. Bidens Sieg und sagte, kein Betrug, den er gesehen hatte, würde ihn aufheben. Er hatte sich bereits spät in der Kampagne zur Verfolgung der Demokraten gegen Trumps Druck gewehrt.

Er schwieg auch die potenziell explosive Nachricht, dass Hunter Biden strafrechtlich untersucht wurde. Die Offenlegung, dass, wie Mitarbeiter sagten, eine zukünftige Präsidentschaft von Biden hätte untergraben können, eine Handlung, die Herr Barr als potenzielles Echo der Untersuchung ansah, die vier Jahre zuvor gegen Herrn Trump eingeleitet worden war.

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Business

Joseph Bachelder III, Engineer of the Golden Parachute, Dies at 88

Joseph Bachelder III, Engineer of the Golden Parachute, Dies at 88

In 2003, Mr. Bachelder testified before a Senate committee on the subject of overpaid CEOs what Senator John McCain said at the time “angered many Americans.” Mr. Bachelder said he did not believe executive pay has “grown outrageously” and argued that generous pay was justified by the overriding importance of a CEO to a company’s success.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Dec. Dec. 23, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. ET

Mr. Bachelder closed his firm in 2012 and joined the national law firm McCarter & English at their Manhattan office as a special advisor at the age of 79. He continued to represent clients, lectured at Harvard, and write a monthly column for the New York Law Journal. Most recently, he wrote about the impact of Covid-19 on executive compensation.

For his part, perhaps unsurprisingly, Mr Bachelder was able to obtain impressive compensation for himself. Joseph Boccassini, managing partner at McCarter & English, said in an interview that Mr. Bachelder was billed at $ 1,115 an hour.

Joseph Elmer Bachelder III was born on November 13, 1932 in Fulton, Missouri, about 100 miles west of St. Louis. The family moved frequently.

His mother, Frances Gray Bachelder, was a housewife and painter. His father, Joseph E. Bachelder Jr., was a professor and pollster who was the only one in his field to predict Harry S. Truman’s presidential victory in 1948.

His father’s statistical mind was believed to have influenced the mindset of Mr Bachelder, his sister Jane Johnson said in a telephone interview. He had “a computer chip for a brain,” she said.

Joseph graduated from Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1950 and magna cum laude from Yale University in 1955, the same year he married Louise Mason. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1958 and practiced tax law before choosing executive compensation as his niche. He settled in Princeton early in his career and lived there for most of his life.

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Health

Don’t Let the Pandemic Cease Your Pictures

Don’t Let the Pandemic Stop Your Shots

Experts fear that vaccination rates have continued to fall during the pandemic, as has happened with children when older people fail to go to doctor’s offices or pharmacies and do not fire off shots.

Financial and bureaucratic obstacles also prevent vaccination efforts. Medicare Part B fully covers three vaccines: influenza, pneumococci and, when indicated, hepatitis B.

However, the Tdap and shingles vaccines fall under Part D, which can make reimbursement difficult for doctors. The vaccines are easier to get in pharmacies. Not all Medicare beneficiaries buy Part D, and for those who do, coverage varies by plan and may include deductibles and co-payments.

However, older adults can get access to most recommended vaccines for free or at low cost through doctors’ offices, pharmacies, supermarkets, and local health departments. For the good of all, they should do it.

The CDC recommends the following:

flu An annual shot in autumn – and it’s not too late because the flu season is at its peak from late January to February. Depending on which strain is in circulation, the vaccine (ask about the stronger versions for seniors) prevents 40 to 50 percent of cases. It also reduces the severity of the disease for those infected.

Flu activity so far this year has been exceptionally low, possibly due to social distancing and masks or because closed schools prevented children from spreading it. Manufacturers have shipped a record number of doses, so more people may have been vaccinated. In any case, fears of influenza / Covid wind chemistry have not yet been recognized.

Even so, infectious disease experts urge older adults (and anyone over six months old) to get a flu shot now. “Flu is moody,” said Dr. Conductor. “It could take off like a rocket in January.”

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Business

U.S. can miss Covid pressure ‘as a result of the holes in our web are too huge’

U.S. can miss Covid strain ‘because the holes in our net are too wide’

The lack of Covid testing capacity in the US could mean that the new, highly transmissible strain of coronavirus, which first appeared in the UK, is already making its way through communities in the US

That’s what Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston Medical Center.

“To find this strain, we need to take a percentage of the diagnosed samples and do an in-depth genetic analysis (in the) In the US, our capacity was not spectacular, “said the infectious disease doctor “The News with Shepard Smith” on Monday. “If the burden is here, we may be missing it because the holes in our net are too wide.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new variant was not discovered in the United States

However, the agency said viruses were only sequenced from approximately 51,000 of the 17 million infections in the country. The UK recorded the most sequences with 125.00. The infections in Great Britain reached their second highest daily value on Christmas Eve. The country confirmed 39,036 new Covid-19 cases that day.

As of Monday, the US will have to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test from all travelers flying from the UK as concerns about the new variant of the virus grow.

Dr. Bhadelia, who is also the medical assistant for NBC News, said the measures did not go far enough.

“You can still have people who test negative, get on the plane and then come back positive. So I think testing needs to be linked to some kind of quarantine,” she said.

Japan has taken stricter measures and stopped all arrivals of foreign nationals. More than a dozen countries have reported cases of the rapidly spreading mutation, including Canada, France, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Health experts in the UK and US found that while the new variant appears to be more transmissible, there is still no evidence that it is more lethal. Dr. Bhadelia warned that the results shouldn’t make people complacent when it comes to the new strain.

“The problem is that while we don’t think it increases mortality, the fact that it is more easily transmitted is also a bigger problem because the more people get infected, the more people end up in hospitals. and possibly die, “she added.