Tag: Case

QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley pleads responsible in Capitol riot case

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Post date September 4, 2021

Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, known as the QAnon shaman, is seen at the capital city riots on January 6, 2021.

Brent Stirton | Getty Images

“QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley pleaded guilty Friday to interfering with a Congressional process, nearly eight months after he became widely known for his bizarre looks when he entered the Capitol with a horde of other Trump supporters.

Chansley, who has been detained since his January arrest, faces up to 20 years in prison, one of six charges he was originally tried in federal court in Washington, DC

But the 33-year-old man from Phoenix, Arizona, is likely to receive a less severe sentence when convicted on Nov. 17 than under federal guidelines.

A prosecutor said that a rough calculation of these guidelines would indicate a sentence of between 41 and 51 months in prison. Chansley would count this sentence for the time imprisoned since his arrest.

Judge Royce Lamberth accepted Chansley’s consent with the prosecutors after ruling that he was mentally able to understand the proceedings.

“Are you actually guilty of this offense?” asked Lamberth.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Chansley replied in a sober voice.

Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, who requested his release pending conviction, told the judge that his client was “not a planner” of the uprising, “he was not violent”.

“I am confident the court will fuel Mr. Chansley’s growth and healing,” said Watkins.

Lamberth said he would decide on the release request later.

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Chansley wore no shirt, wore a spear, wore face-paint and a fur hat with horns as he walked into the Capitol complex with thousands of other people on Jan. 6 and the continuing confirmation from Congress of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

Prosecutors accused Chansley of running the QAnon fake conspiracy theory into the Senate Chamber and up to the podium where then-Vice President Mike Pence was leading the case minutes earlier.

He left a note on the podium warning, “It is only a matter of time before justice comes,” prosecutors said.

His attorney told Reuters in July that Chansley was negotiating a plea after prison psychologists diagnosed him with mental illnesses including transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety.

Friday’s hearing was held remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 160 people listened over the phone to the hearing, which began after at least one voice shouted the word “Freedom!”

Nearly 600 defendants have been charged in cases related to the Capitol Riots, which began after then-President Donald Trump called on supporters at a rally to march to Congress and oppose confirmation of Biden’s victory.

Tags Capitol, Case, Chansley, guilty, Jacob, pleads, QAnon, riot, shaman

Politics

Costs in Bali Bombing Case Are Delayed at Guantánamo

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Post date August 31, 2021

The three prisoners’ lawyers also told the judge that in 2020 the court’s official Indonesian translator believed that “the government is wasting money on these terrorists; they should have been killed long ago, ”adding that they had an affidavit from a witness who heard the comment. The public prosecutor’s office demands life imprisonment in the case.

Mr. Bin Lep’s attorney, Brian Bouffard, declared the Indonesian-American contract translator to be “irretrievably biased.” Mr. Bin Amin’s attorney, Christine Funk, asked why the prosecutors even needed an interpreter when bringing charges: “Are you spying on us? I do not know.”

The Trial Judge, Navy Cmdr. Hayes C. Larsen, tried to fix the problems. He gave the court’s official translation team a 10-minute break every 20 minutes. He urged defense attorneys to file legal motions if they believed there were problems of interpretation that required remedial action. And he postponed the reading of the charges until Tuesday, which was the reason for the hearing on Monday.

Both civilian and military defense attorneys, all paid by the Pentagon, said the case was still in its infancy. Prosecutors, they said, provided perhaps 2 percent of the pre-trial documents that could be used in the case, including reports of interrogations the FBI conducted with the detainees in 2007 shortly after they were transferred to military custody by the CIA was.

Mr. Hambali’s attorney, James R. Hodes, described the case as “absurd,” in part because of his client’s long prison term and nearly two decades late in bringing charges against him. He told reporters before the hearing that Mr. Hambali had been “brutalized” and had spent at least half of his detention in solitary confinement. He said the prisoner was due “an apology” and repatriation “to avoid being held in a cage on a Caribbean island.”

The hearings in Guantánamo took place mainly between English and Arabic, but also had translation problems. In 2015, one of the men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks blurted out in court by the name of a translator – revealing that the linguist had previously worked for the CIA in a black place, his identity and derailed a week of hearings.

Tags Bali, bombing, Case, charges, delayed, Guantanamo

Health

NIH director says new Israel information is constructing case within the U.S.

Post author By
Post date August 17, 2021

New data from Israel on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines over time is causing U.S. health leaders to rethink their position on vaccine booster shots in the U.S., National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday.

“The people who got immunized in January are the ones that are now having more breakthrough cases,” Collins said during an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” referring to Covid infections in fully vaccinated individuals. Israel released new data Monday showing a reduction in the effectiveness of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine against severe illness among people 65 and older who were fully vaccinated in January or February.

NIH Director Fr. Francis Collins holds up a model of the coronavirus as he testifies before a hearing looking into the budget estimates for National Institute of Health (NIH) and the state of medical research on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 26, 2021.

Sarah Silbiger | AFP | Getty Images

Collins said the rise in so-called breakthrough cases in Israel is likely due to a combination of the highly contagious delta variant and Covid vaccine protection waning over time.

“Mostly, of course, these are symptomatic, but not serious,” he said. “But you’re starting to see a little bit of a trend toward some of those requiring hospitalization.”

Collins’ comments come as federal health officials are expected to recommend that most people in the U.S. who are eligible for Covid vaccinations should get booster shots eight months after their second doses.

The federal guidance, which would apply only to the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, could go into effect as early as mid-September, pending FDA authorization, a person familiar with the discussions told CNBC.

The New York Times reported Monday that federal health officials are particularly concerned about data from Israel, where Covid vaccinations began ahead of many other countries. The data reportedly showed that for people vaccinated in January who are age 65 and older, the Pfizer vaccine was less than 55% effective against severe disease and hospitalization.

Collins said Tuesday that federal officials are starting to see the same thing in U.S. data.

“Although right now, it still as if our vaccine protection is working really well,” he said. “But we don’t want to wait until it’s like oh, too late. So that’s why we’re looking at the data.”

Up until now, federal officials haven’t recommended booster doses for the general public. On Friday, they approved administering Covid booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to Americans with weakened immune systems, which includes cancer and HIV patients and people who have had organ transplants.

Covid vaccine makers, including Pfizer and Moderna, have repeatedly contended that everyone will eventually need a booster shot and potentially extra doses every year, just like for the seasonal flu.

The NIH, Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a joint statement Tuesday saying they have a “rigorous process” to determine when boosters would be necessary.

“This process takes into account laboratory data, clinical trial data, and cohort data – which can include data from specific pharmaceutical companies, but does not rely on those data exclusively,” the agencies said. “We continue to review any new data as it becomes available and will keep the public informed.”

On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech said they have submitted early stage clinical trial data to the FDA as part of their U.S. application seeking authorization of a Covid vaccine booster for everyone 16 and older. The companies said they would seek approval for a booster dose via a supplement to their application once the agency grants the vaccine full approval.

If the booster shots are approved, the U.S. would likely vaccinate nursing homes, health-care providers and the elderly first, Collins said Tuesday. He said “ideally” people should stick with the same manufacturer they got their first two doses from.

“But if for some reason you don’t have access to it, well, then get the other one,” he said. “Again, I’d feel more comfortable as a scientist fixing our plans on real data, and that means sticking to the same kind of vaccine that you got to begin with.”

–CNBC’s Tom Franck contributed to this report.

Tags building, Case, Data, Director, Israel, NIH

World News

China partially shuts down port after one Covid case

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Post date August 14, 2021

Heavy cranes in the port of Ningbo in China.

Philippfotograf | iStock | Getty Images

China closed a key terminal in its port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, the world’s third largest port, after a worker was discovered to be infected with Covid – a move that is likely to put further pressure on already congested utility networks.

It was the second time this year that the country ceased operations at one of its major ports.

Analysts say China’s “zero tolerance” approach to Covid will tighten already stressed supply chains this year. Some warn that this may not be the last port closure as long as Beijing takes this stance.

Dawn Tiura, CEO of the Sourcing Industry Group – an association for the procurement and procurement industry, said China’s stance will lead to “serious” ramifications for the supply chain.

“China has zero tolerance for COVID. One person who tests positive is enough to close (the) port, ”she told CNBC in an email.

Ningbo-Zhoushan is the third largest container volume in the world. According to the World Shipping Council, 27.49 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) of container handling were handled in 2019. The container volume rose in 2020 by almost 5% to 28.72 million TEU.

As long as the authorities adhere to this “zero covid” stance, there is still a risk of sudden disruptions due to tests or bans …

Nick Marro

Economist Intelligence Unit

All incoming and outgoing services at the Meishan Terminal at the port of Zhoushan were suspended until further notice on Wednesday, according to Chinese state media. The terminal is the key to processing shipments to Europe and North America.

The supply chains have already been severely disrupted this year by crises such as the shortage of shipping containers and the incident in the Suez Canal. In June, Covid infections sparked disruption at shipping hubs in southern China, including major ports in Shenzhen and Guangzhou – the first time China has shut down ports due to Covid cases.

Effects of China’s “zero covid” stance

China’s zero tolerance for Covid suggests this latest port disruption may not be the last, said Nick Marro, head of global trade at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“China’s ‘zero-covid’ approach means officials will prioritize containment of the pandemic above all else, especially given the highly contagious nature of the Delta tribe and the risks the current outbreak poses to future economic performance in the third quarter “He said in a note on Wednesday.

“As long as the authorities maintain this ‘zero covid’ stance, there is still a risk of sudden interference from tests or bans, which ties all hopes of normalcy closely to factors such as national vaccination deadlines,” he added.

China is experiencing a resurgence of Covid cases due to the highly transferable Delta variant. The daily cases exceeded the 140 mark on Monday – the highest number of daily infections since January, according to Reuters. The Chinese authorities have ordered mass tests in some areas and wide-ranging restrictions on movement in major cities such as Beijing.

The suspension of services at the Meishan Terminal comes as container shipping rates continue to rise this year. The container freight rates from China and East Asia to the west coast of North America have risen by over 270% to over 15,800 USD per TEU this year, according to the global container freight index from Freightos Baltic. Meanwhile, rates on the east coast have risen by over 220% to over USD 17,500 per TEU, according to the index.

U.S. academics union says Covid case surge in youngsters led to again necessary photographs

Post author By
Post date August 11, 2021

A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a student during a ‘Vax To School’ campaign event at a high school in the Staten Island borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A recent surge of Covid cases in kids across the U.S. led the nation’s second-largest teachers union to back vaccine mandates for educators as schools prepare for in-person learning this fall, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

“This is what really scares me: in the last three weeks, we’ve gone from the number of kids testing positive from 20,000 to 40,000 to 72,000,” she said, citing data from July. The number of kids who tested positive for Covid during the week ended Aug. 5 was even higher at 93,824, according to the most recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Weingarten, who was speaking in an interview Wednesday with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said schools should give teachers time off to get the shots and allow for medical and religious exemptions for those who don’t want them.

“Kids under 12 can’t get vaccines, this delta virus is very transmissible, so we need to be in school for our kids, with our kids, but we need to keep everyone safe,” Weingarten said. “And that means vaccines are the single most important way to do it, and the second way to do it is masks.”

Approximately 90% of teachers are already vaccinated, Weingarten said during the interview, citing White House data. But with many children still ineligible for vaccination, Weingarten stopped short of advocating for an immunization requirement for students under 12.

As the delta variant surges, states have begun enhancing their Covid mitigation protocols to prevent the virus from spreading among faculty and students. On Aug. 4, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker introduced a mask mandate for all state students regardless of their vaccination status.

New Jersey also issued a mask mandate for all students and staff on Friday, and Louisiana’s mask mandate for public indoor settings includes students from kindergarten through college.

Becky Pringle, president of the largest U.S. teachers’ union, the National Education Association, told the New York Times last week that any vaccine mandate should be negotiated at the local level.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Tags Case, Covid, Kids, led, mandatory, shots, surge, teachers, union

Health

Choose might unseal some psychological well being data in Elizabeth Holmes case

Post author By
Post date August 10, 2021

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes (center) and her lawyer are leaving the court on June 15, 2021. Holmes is due to stand trial later this year on wire fraud and other charges.

CNBC

The federal judge in the fraud case of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes is considering unsealing details of her psychological assessment as part of a media request to make parts of her case public.

Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, petitioned the court to unseal documents in the Holmes case. Dow Jones attorneys said that around 40% of the documents in Holmes’ case are kept under lock and key.

“This is a very significant amount of material, as the court is painfully aware,” said John Cline, a Holmes attorney, during the hearing on Tuesday. “And Ms. Holmes’ view is that a significant portion of it can likely be unsealed at this point, but not all of it.”

The federal prosecutors support the motion to unseal parts of the case, stating that Holmes must be prepared if they are planning a mental health defense.

“The main thing we are dealing with is the continued sealing at the current level, including high-level issues including the defense of Ms. Holmes under Rule 12.2, and that hinders the preparation of the process by the government,” said Kelly Volkar, an assistant US attorney. Indication of a psychological defense. “The question is how far the seal will go.”

Prosecutors had Holmes examined by a psychological expert after defense lawyers announced that they were planning to hire a clinical psychologist to testify about a “mental illness or defect” related to the guilt issue.

Another set of documents that can potentially be unsealed is why Judge Edward Davila separated the trials of Holmes and her co-defendant Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. Balwani was her business partner and served as COO at Theranos. The couple had a romantic relationship but never revealed it to their investors.

Holmes and Balwani’s relationship reportedly ended around the same time he left Theranos.

“I will reiterate that Mr. Balwani has never requested that any part of these trial files be filed under lock and key,” said Jeffrey Coopersmith, a Balwani attorney. “Dow Jones has had a sealed filing notification for a year and a half. You are filing this now. I think we understand why, they like to sell newspapers. It is on the eve of the trial of Ms. Holmes.”

Holmes and Balwani both face a dozen criminal wire fraud and conspiracies to bring wire fraud charges. Prosecutors say the two misled patients, doctors and investors about Theranos’ blood testing technology. Neither of them pleaded guilty.

In a July interview with CNBC, former Wall Street Journal reporter who exposed the Theranos scandal, John Carreyrou, said Holmes’ defense strategy may be blamed on her ex-boyfriend.

“A large part of her defense now seems to be blaming Sunny, basically telling the jury that Sunny kept her in his psychological grip,” said Carreyrou. “Your defense plans to take on the case that he was the older friend, 19 years older, who was really the puppeteer here, and she was the puppet. And obviously they’re going to see a psychologist to sort this out.”

Davila ordered Holmes and Balwani’s lawyers to look into which documents could be unsealed and redacted by the end of the week.

Tags Case, Elizabeth, health, Holmes, Judge, mental, records, unseal

World News

With #MeToo Case In opposition to Kris Wu, China Hits Out at Celebrities

Post author By
Post date August 2, 2021

China’s ruling Communist Party has seized on the high-profile detention of a Canadian Chinese pop singer in Beijing on suspicion of rape to deliver a stark warning against what it regards as a social ill: celebrity obsession.

In less than a month, the pop singer Kris Wu, 30, has gone from being one of China’s biggest stars, with several lucrative endorsements and legions of young female fans, to perhaps the most prominent figure in the country to be detained over #MeToo allegations. The police said over the weekend that Mr. Wu was being investigated after weeks of public accusations of sexual wrongdoing against him, though officials provided few details.

Born in China and raised partly in Canada, Mr. Wu rose to fame as a member of the Korean pop band EXO, before striking out on his own as a singer and actor. He built a huge following in China with his manicured good looks and edgy swagger. He amassed endorsement deals with many domestic and international brands, including Bulgari and Louis Vuitton.

Mr. Wu has not been formally charged, but his career in China has already taken a big hit. After mounting public pressure, more than a dozen brands cut ties with him. His Weibo social media account, where he had over 51 million followers, was taken down shortly after the news of his detention. His songs have also disappeared from Chinese music platforms.

Chinese women’s rights activists have hailed the detention as a rare victory for the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement. But the Communist Party’s official news outlets have largely cast the investigation into Mr. Wu as proof that the party, led by Xi Jinping, one of its most hard-line leaders in decades, defends the interests of ordinary people.

Guo Ting, a gender studies scholar at the University of Hong Kong, said, “Xi has tried to reinvent the party as the legitimate party for the people and the party of Chinese socialism for the people.” By going after Mr. Wu, she added, the party is “targeting the so-called rich and powerful, while evading the real kind of gray area of that wealth and power within the party elite.”

When the accusations against Mr. Wu first emerged weeks ago, the party’s propaganda outlets largely stayed quiet. But after his detention, they put out commentaries and news reports hailing it as a lesson to celebrities.

“Wu Yifan has money, he’s handsome and he has the status of being a ‘top star,’” read a commentary in The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper, referring to the singer by his Chinese name. “Perhaps he thought that ‘sleeping with women’ was his advantage, maybe even his privilege.”

“But on this precise point he has made a mistake,” the newspaper noted.

Some of the rhetoric noted that foreign citizenship did not place celebrities beyond the reach of the law, pointing in part to continuing tensions between China and Canada as well as rising anti-Western sentiment among Chinese.

CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, said in a commentary, “No one has a talisman — the halo of celebrity cannot protect you, fans cannot protect you, a foreign passport cannot protect you.”

The state news media’s approach reflects the Chinese government’s recent crackdown on the entertainment industry and the culture of celebrity worship that Beijing has accused of leading the country’s youth astray. The authorities have stepped up censorship, cracked down on the widespread practice of tax evasion within the industry and ordered caps on salaries for the country’s biggest movie stars.

Concerns about the outsize influence of celebrities on the country’s youth reached a peak in May when fans supporting contestants in a boy band competition spent huge sums of money buying — then apparently dumping — yogurt drinks to vote for their favorite idols. The government promptly issued regulations aimed at cracking down on what they called “chaotic” online fan clubs and their “irrational” behaviors. The authorities on Monday said they had already taken down thousands of “problematic groups” as part of an ongoing effort to address “bad online fan culture.”

The authorities “are concerned about the impact on the youth,” said Bai Meijiadai, a lecturer at Liaoning University in northeastern China who studies fan culture. “They want to see the youth studying and working, not spending excessive amounts of money to chase stars.”

Mr. Wu, too, had an army of fans eager to open their wallets to bolster his image by buying albums and even making donations to charities in his name. He has also sought to use his influence to pressure his critics into silence, according to his accuser and a producer of a popular showbiz program.

The producer, Xiao Wei, said his show, “Xiu Cai Kan Entertainment,” had been compelled to remove a video it had posted online in which its hosts criticized Mr. Wu after the allegations of sexual misconduct had emerged. Mr. Xiao said the short-video platform Douyin had told the program that they had been contacted by Mr. Wu’s lawyers.

“This is an age of stars, fans and traffic,” Mr. Xiao said in an interview. “Money has become the only criterion to success — this is not right.”

China’s Tightening Grip

- Xi’s Warning: A century after the Communist Party’s founding, China’s leader says foreign powers would “crack their heads and spill blood” if they tried to stop its rise.
- Behind the Takeover of Hong Kong: One year ago, the city’s freedoms were curtailed with breathtaking speed. But the clampdown was years in the making, and many signals were missed.
- One Year Later in Hong Kong: Neighbors are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. The Communist Party is remaking the city.
- Mapping Out China’s Post-Covid Path: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is seeking to balance confidence and caution as his country strides ahead while other places continue to grapple with the pandemic.
- A Challenge to U.S. Global Leadership: As President Biden predicts a struggle between democracies and their opponents, Beijing is eager to champion the other side.
- ‘Red Tourism’ Flourishes: New and improved attractions dedicated to the Communist Party’s history, or a sanitized version of it, are drawing crowds ahead of the party’s centennial.

The police investigation into Mr. Wu came weeks after a university student, Du Meizhu, now 18, accused the singer of enticing young women like herself with the promise of career opportunities, then pressuring them into having sex.

Ms. Du’s public accusations were met with an outpouring of support, but also criticism from the singer’s fans, prompting debates about victim shaming, consent and abuse of power in the workplace.

Some women’s rights activists saw Mr. Wu’s detention as a sign that feminist values had finally permeated the mainstream to the extent that the authorities could no longer afford to look the other way. They said they were hopeful that it would encourage more women to come forward to share their experiences and that it could lead to wider avenues for legal recourse for sexual assault survivors.

“This time, progress was made very suddenly, but it was very satisfying,” said Li Tingting, a gender equality activist in Beijing. “Everyone is looking forward to what will happen in the future.”

But it remained unclear if the police in Beijing were looking specifically into Ms. Du’s complaints. The authorities last month released initial findings about her allegations that said she had hyped her story to “enhance her online popularity.”

Ms. Du did not respond to requests for comment. Emails to Mr. Wu’s studio and his lawyer received no response. Mr. Wu denied the allegations on his personal Weibo account last month, saying he would send himself to jail if they were true.

Despite the surprise development, activists know that China’s #MeToo movement is tightly constrained by the government’s strict limits on dissent and activism. Women who have previously come forward with accusations of sexual harassment and assault against prominent men have often become targets of threats and defamation lawsuits. Feminist activist accounts and chat groups on Chinese social media sites are routinely shut down.

The swift manner in which the authorities have addressed the complaints against Mr. Wu contrasts with how they responded to #MeToo accusations against Zhu Jun, a prominent television personality at CCTV, the state broadcaster. Mr. Zhu was accused by a former intern, Zhou Xiaoxuan, in 2018, of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2014 while she was working on his program, accusations that he has denied. Ms. Zhou has sued Mr. Zhu for damages, but three years later, her complaint remains unresolved.

Mr. Wu, by comparison, is not part of the party establishment.

Professor Guo, of the University of Hong Kong, said, “It is still a state capitalist system and Wu Yifan is not a part of that official establishment,” adding, “His nationality and his status, I think, make it easy for the party to on one hand cut him off, while still maintaining its own legitimacy.”

Tags Case, Celebrities, China, Hits, Kris, MeToo

World News

Hong Kong Protester Is Sentenced to 9 Years in First Safety Legislation Case

Post author By
Post date July 30, 2021

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court sentenced a protester to nine years in prison on Friday for terrorism and inciting secession, highlighting the power of a sweeping new national security law to deter those who might speak out against the authorities.

The protester, Tong Ying-kit, had faced up to life in prison after being convicted earlier this week. The case against Mr. Tong, who crashed a motorcycle into police officers while flying a protest flag, was the first brought under the security law, which was imposed on Hong Kong by China’s central government last year.

His case has heightened concerns among activists and legal experts that the security law is transforming Hong Kong’s judicial system, which is separate from mainland China’s. They fear that cherished civil and political rights are being trampled under a push to eliminate the sort of unrest and widespread opposition that was seen in the city during months of mass protests in 2019.

The power to interpret the security law rests with Beijing, and some observers say the outcome of Mr. Tong’s trial shows how much less space Hong Kong’s courts will have to weigh individual rights when considering security-related charges.

“Thus far, the government has run the table on N.S.L. cases, both on key procedural matters and now on guilty verdicts,” said Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, using an abbreviation for the national security law. “This is not a good sign that the courts will be able to mitigate the worst elements of the N.S.L..”

Mr. Tong, 24, was arrested on July 1 of last year after colliding with police officers while driving his motorcycle, which had a flag mounted on it that bore a popular protest slogan. Three officers were injured.

He was held for a year without bail. Instead of facing a jury, as is customary for serious crimes in Hong Kong, he was tried by a panel of three judges, all of them from a group of jurists selected by Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, to hear security law cases.

Mr. Tong’s lawyers acknowledged that he had driven dangerously but said his actions did not amount to terrorism. They noted that he had been carrying first aid equipment, and that he had scheduled a lunch meeting with friends near the site of his collision with police.

During the 2019 protests, the slogan on Mr. Tong’s banner — “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times” — was widely chanted, written on signs and spray-painted on walls. Defense witnesses argued that the phrase did not have a single, specific meaning, but instead expressed a broad desire for fundamental change.

But the court ruled that a call to separate Hong Kong from China was one key meaning of the phrase, and that the context of Mr. Tong’s motorcycle ride — in which he repeatedly defied the police on the day after the security law came into effect — showed that he intended to convey that secessionist message.

Legal scholars said that finding would be significant not just for other cases involving the “Liberate Hong Kong” slogan, but for an array of language that will now be parsed for illegal meanings.

“This is a green light for the prosecution to do more ambitious prosecutions in the future,” said Surya Deva, an associate professor of law at City University of Hong Kong. “People will be more careful about what they say and what they write about, because anything could be argued by the government as being capable of having that meaning of inciting secession.”

More than 130 people have been arrested under the security law over the past year, and more than 60 have been charged. Most of those awaiting trial are accused of nonviolent offenses. They include dozens of opposition politicians who prosecutors say committed subversion by trying to win an election, gain control of Hong Kong’s legislature and block the government’s agenda.

Tags Case, Hong, Kong, Law, Protester, Security, sentenced, years

Politics

The case towards Tom Barrack may draw categorized materials into courtroom

Post author By
Post date July 29, 2021

Tom Barrack, chairman of Colony NorthStar Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, the United States, on Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Tom Barrack’s attorneys have a big job given the volume and specificity of the evidence in the 45-page federal indictment filed against him last week.

Prosecutors allege that Barrack secretly took orders from the United Arab Emirates government and used his status as Trump’s informal White House advisor on Middle East strategy to enforce policies told by Emirati officials.

In a case where a co-defendant worked for the United Arab Emirates’ intelligence agency, and a sensitive issue like U.S. Middle East politics, experts say there could be several interesting avenues for defense.

For example, if Barrack’s lawyers argue that the White House knew he was working for the United Arab Emirates, the conversations Barrack had with US officials telling them who he worked for could contain classified information.

If so, chances are Barrack’s defenders are using a legal defense tactic called Graymail.

Graymail happens when the defense threatens to divulge government secret information during a trial in hopes of forcing the government to drop the case instead of risking disclosing potentially harmful state secrets.

Barrack’s lawyers did not respond to questions from CNBC about their strategy.

“It is entirely possible that the defense is threatening to divulge classified information in order to produce evidence [Barrack] did not act without the knowledge of anyone, “said a former top national security official who was granted anonymity to discuss how classified information is used.

To prevent defense lawyers from using graymail in national security cases, prosecutors typically tailor their strategy to avoid making classified information a relevant or necessary part of the defense.

Barrack, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was charged along with Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati citizen with close ties to the royal family, and Matthew Grimes, a junior employee at Colony Capital, which founded Barrack.

Grimes and Barrack have pleaded not guilty. Al Malik is still at large.

Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Donald Trump who ran the former President’s Inaugural Fund, stands next to his co-defendant and former employee Matthew Grimes and attorney Matt Herrington during their indictment at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, United States. July 26, 2021 in this court sketch.

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

Odd timeline

The desire to avoid classified information could help explain a strange element of the formal indictment against Barrack: the timeline.

It appears to be carefully designed to keep suspected crimes within a certain time frame from April 2016 to October 2017.

After 18 months of almost constant communication between the three defendants, the last contact in the indictment was a text message on October 11, 2017.

The news suggests that at this point the three co-defendants were stepping up their efforts to influence the US response to a UAE-Saudi-led blockade of Qatar.

But whether Barrack and his co-defendants succeeded may never be publicly known, as the indictment ends abruptly with the October 11 news.

“It seems like they have some evidence afterward that they don’t want to surface because it may be relevant to these charges,” said the former National Security official.

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the entire conspiracy lasted two years, from April 2016 to April 2018.

However, the indictment does not describe what happened in the six months between October 2017 and April 2018.

However, even with careful planning by the prosecutor, there are still several defense strategies that could draw on classified information while staying within the current time window.

Back channels

Barrack’s attorneys could argue that he did not break the law prohibiting acting as a foreign agent in the United States without registering with the Justice Department because people in the Trump administration could know he was acting on orders from the UAE.

As Trump’s top campaign bundle and chairman of his founding committee, Barrack had access to key players in US Middle East politics. In the west wing, this was spearheaded by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

“Given Jared Kushner’s involvement in these and other high-level issues, it’s hard to believe that there was no conversation between Barrack and some people at that level about what he heard from the Emiratis,” said the former national Security guard.

If Barrack discussed his work on behalf of the United Arab Emirates with senior White House officials, his lawyers could argue that while Barrack did not officially register as an agent of the UAE as required by law, it was disclosed in a practical manner Has.

A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to questions about whether the two men had ever spoken about Barrack’s work.

However, the Trump administration’s preference to conduct foreign policy through informal back channels is well documented.

“I think the Trump administration has created new norms for communicating through the back rather than transparent and official channels,” said Michael Atkinson, inspector general of the intelligence community for 2018-20.

“We saw it with Russia and Ukraine, and there were allegations that it was done with China.”

Shortly after Trump’s election in 2016, Kushner tried to open a return channel for Trump to communicate privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A few months later, Kushner worked privately with China’s ambassador to arrange a summit meeting for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Palm Beach Resort.

In 2019, Trump was charged with pressuring the President of Ukraine to open a mock investigation into Trump’s political rival, then-candidate Joe Biden.

The proliferation of these unofficial channels made it difficult to know exactly what the Trump administration was saying to allies and opponents overseas at all times.

But that confusion could feed into another possible defense strategy for Barrack, said Atkinson, now a partner at Crowell & Moring.

Barrack’s attorneys “could argue that it did no harm because the interests of the United States and the United Arab Emirates coincide on these matters. So no harm, no foul,” he said.

“You might even try to argue that what these defendants did was in the best interests of the United States,” he said.

This is the argument Al Malik’s attorney Bill Coffield made to The Intercept in 2019. Coffield denied that his client was a spy but declined to answer specific questions.

Al Malik “is a businessman who loves the United Arab Emirates and the US,” Coffield said at the time. “He has openly shared his belief that the best way to forge stronger bonds is through economic prosperity.”

However, Atkinson is skeptical that this defense would work.

“This is not a viable defense under the law,” he said.

“Even in cases where the United States and a foreign country are pursuing the same goals, the government does not want people to sit in such meetings and not know that they are at the behest or direction of a foreign government.”

Tags Barrack, Case, classified, Court, draw, material, Tom

Health

Citing New Knowledge, Pfizer Outlines Case for Booster Photographs

Post author By
Post date July 29, 2021

Pfizer reported on Wednesday that the power of its two-dose Covid vaccine wanes slightly over time, but nonetheless offers lasting and robust protection against serious disease. The company suggested that a third shot could improve immunity, but whether boosters will be widely needed is far from settled, the subject of heated debate among scientists.

So far, federal health officials have said boosters for the general population are unnecessary. And experts questioned whether vaccinated people should get more doses when so many people have yet to be immunized at all.

“There’s not enough evidence right now to support that that is somehow the best use of resources,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta.

Still, the findings raise questions about how well the Pfizer vaccine will prevent infection in the months to come. And with coronavirus cases surging again in many states, the data may influence the Biden administration’s deliberations about delivering boosters for older people.

If third shots are cleared for the general population, the boosters would likely represent a multi-billion-dollar business for Pfizer.

In a study posted online but not yet peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists reported that the vaccine had a sky-high efficacy rate of about 96 percent against symptomatic Covid-19 for the first two months following the second dose. But the figure declined by about 6 percent every two months after that, falling to 83.7 percent after about four to six months.

Against severe disease, however, the vaccine’s efficacy held steady at about 97 percent.

“This drop is very slight — I wouldn’t say it’s waning,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. She did not see in the new study any evidence that boosters should go into use for the general population. “These data don’t support a need for that right now,” she said.

The findings fit with what scientists have learned about how the immune system fends off viruses. Antibodies are the only defense to prevent an infection, but their levels typically drop in the months after vaccination or recovery from the disease. If the coronavirus takes hold, immune cells can swoop in to destroy infected cells and make new antibodies.

That enduring defense produced by the vaccine may explain how the virus can sometimes breed in the nose — producing a cold or sore throat — but fail to reach the lung where it can cause serious disease.

“Everything that’s engaged by the vaccine is able to fight off that spread that ultimately leads to severe disease,” Dr. Iwasaki said. “That’s probably not declining at all.”

The study period ended before the rise of the Delta variant, the highly contagious version of the virus that now dominates in the United States and makes vaccines somewhat less effective against infection.

The findings come from 42,000 volunteers in six countries who participated in a clinical trial that Pfizer and BioNTech began last July. Half of the volunteers got the vaccine, while the other half received a placebo. Both groups received two shots spaced three weeks apart.

The researchers compared the number of people in each group who developed symptoms of Covid-19, which was then confirmed by a P.C.R. virus test. When the companies announced their first batch of results, the vaccine showed an efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19 of 95 percent.

Updated

July 28, 2021, 8:48 p.m. ET

In other words, the risk of getting sick was reduced by 95 percent in the group that got the vaccine, compared with the group that got the placebo. That result — the first for any Covid-19 vaccine — brought an exhilarating dose of hope to the world in December when it was riding what had been the biggest wave of the pandemic.

Since then, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has made up the majority of shots that Americans have received, with more than 191 million doses given so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In the new study, the researchers followed the volunteers for six months after vaccination, up to March 13. Over the entire period, the researchers estimated, the vaccine’s efficacy was 91.5 percent against symptomatic Covid-19. (The study did not measure the rate of asymptomatic virus infections.)

But within that period, efficacy did gradually drop. Between one week and two months after the second dose, the figure was 96.2 percent. In the period from two to four months following vaccination, efficacy fell to 90.1 percent. From four months after vaccination to the March cutoff, the figure was 83.7 percent.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

Those figures still describe a remarkably effective vaccine, however, and may not convince critics that booster shots are widely needed.

The study comes on the heels of data from Israel suggesting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s protection may be waning there. But experts have pushed back against a rush to approving a booster there. The data have too many sources of uncertainty, they say, to make a precise estimate of how much effectiveness has waned. For example, the Delta-driven outbreak hit parts of the country with high vaccination rates first and has been hitting other regions later.

“Such an analysis is still highly uncertain,” said Doron Gazit, a physicist at Hebrew University who analyzes Covid-19 trends for the Israeli government.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pfizer reported that a third dose of its vaccine significantly increases blood levels of antibodies against several versions of the virus, including the Delta variant.

Results were similar for antibodies produced against the original virus and the Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa. Pfizer and BioNTech expect to publish more definitive research in the coming weeks.

The announcement was a preliminary snapshot of data contained in an earnings statement. And although antibody levels are an important measure of immunity, they are not the only metric. The body has other defenses that turn back infection.

Pfizer also said in its statement that vaccines for children ages 5 through 11 years could be available as early as the end of September. The vaccine is already authorized in the United States for everyone ages 12 and up.

Pfizer’s vaccine brought in $7.8 billion in revenue in the last three months, the company said, and is on track to generate more than $33.5 billion this year.

The vaccine is poised to generate more sales in a single year than any previous medical product, and by a wide margin. Pfizer did not disclose its exact profits on the vaccine, but reiterated its previous estimate that its profit margins on the vaccine would be in the high 20 percent range. Even if the drugmaker’s profits fall on the lower end of that range, that would work out to about $3 billion in profit so far this year.

Rebecca Robbins contributed reporting.

Tags booster, Case, Citing, Data, Outlines, Pfizer, shots

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