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Trump Org safety chief Matthew Calamari Jr. to testify earlier than Manhattan grand jury

Trump Org security chief Matthew Calamari Jr. to testify before Manhattan grand jury

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cullman, AL.

Marvin Gentry | Reuters

Matthew Calamari Jr., the Trump Organization’s director of security and son of its chief operating officer, is expected to testify Thursday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s company, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told CNBC on Wednesday.

Calamari Jr. was served a subpoena for his testimony earlier this week, the person said.

The person declined to be named in order to discuss the secret grand jury proceedings.

The development in the ongoing investigation comes two months after the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were charged in connection with an alleged tax-avoidance scheme spanning 15 years. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty.

Calamari Jr.’s testimony could grant him crucial immunity protections in the wide-ranging and long-running criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James is also probing Trump’s company “in a criminal capacity.”

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A spokesman for Vance’s office declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the testimony.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Wednesday that Calamari Jr. is expected to testify this week, also reported that senior Trump Organization finance official Jeffrey McConney is expected to go before the grand jury this week as well.

The prosecutors are looking at how Calamari Jr. reported on his taxes an apartment he received from Trump’s company, the Journal reported.

McConney prepared the personal tax returns of Matthew Calamari Sr., according to the newspaper.

The elder Calamari has reportedly come under scrutiny by prosecutors over whether he violated tax rules when he received benefits from the company.

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Social Safety is projected to be bancrupt a yr sooner than beforehand forecast.

Social Security is projected to be insolvent a year earlier than previously forecast.

The financial outlook for social security is eroding faster than previously expected as the coronavirus pandemic has squeezed government revenues and puts additional strain on one of the country’s top social safety nets programs. However, overall Medicare finances are expected to remain stable, although the health program is expected to remain under financial pressure in the coming years.

Annual government reports on the solvency of the programs, released Tuesday, highlighted questions about their long-term viability at a time when a wave of baby boomers is retiring and the economy faces persistent uncertainty as variants of the coronavirus increase. The US economy is already facing rising national debt in the coming decades, but both Democrats and Republicans have been cautious about making significant structural reforms to popular programs.

“A strong Social Security and Medicare program is essential to ensure a safe retirement for all Americans, especially our most vulnerable populations,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris government is committed to protecting these programs and ensuring that they continue to provide economic security and health care to older Americans.”

Senior administration officials said the long-term impact of the pandemic on programs was unclear. Actuaries were forced to make assumptions about how long Covid would continue to lead to unusual patterns of hospital admissions and deaths and whether it would contribute to long-term disability in survivors.

The Social Security Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund will now be depleted in 2033, a year earlier than previously forecast, according to the report. By that time, the trust fund’s reserves will be depleted and the program will be insolvent as the new tax revenue cannot cover the planned payments. The report estimates that 76 percent of scheduled benefits can be paid out unless Congress changes the rules to allow full payouts.

Understand the Infrastructure Act

    • A trillion dollar package passed. The Senate passed a comprehensive bipartisan infrastructure package on Aug. 10 that concludes weeks of intense negotiations and debates on the largest federal investment in the nation’s aging public construction system in more than a decade.
    • The final vote. The final balance in the Senate was 69 to 30 votes against. Legislation yet to be passed by the House of Representatives would touch almost every facet of the American economy and strengthen the nation’s response to planet warming.
    • Main Spending Areas. Overall, the bipartisan plan focuses on spending on transportation, utilities, and removing pollution.
    • transport. About $ 110 billion would be used on roads, bridges, and other transportation projects; $ 25 billion for airports; and $ 66 billion for the railroad, making Amtrak most of the funding it has received since it was founded in 1971.
    • Utilities. The Senators have also raised $ 65 billion to connect hard-to-reach rural communities to high-speed internet and attract low-income urban dwellers who can’t afford it, and $ 8 billion for western water infrastructure.
    • Cleaning up pollution: Approximately $ 21 billion would be used to rehabilitate abandoned wells and mines, as well as Superfund sites.

The Disability Insurance Trust Fund is now expected to be depleted by 2057, which is eight years earlier than previously assumed, at which point 91 percent of benefits will be paid.

Medicare finances are effectively staying stable. While tax revenue for the Medicare program declined due to the Covid-related recession, Medicare also spent less than usual last year as people avoided electoral care.

Medicare’s Hospital Trust Fund is expected to be unable to pay all of its bills by 2026. This estimate is similar to that of Medicare Trustees in recent years. That loophole could now be closed by increasing the Medicare wage tax rate from 2.9 percent to 3.67 percent or by reducing Medicare spending by 16 percent each year, the report said.

However, the report highlighted that the official estimate may be unrealistically optimistic. If certain policies that expire in the next 10 years are renewed or other expected policy changes occur, the projections would look much more worrying.

In the long run, the actuaries said they did not believe that Covid-19 itself would have a significant impact on Medicare’s hospital care spending. On the one hand, the death of many vulnerable, elderly Americans from the virus can reduce future expenses that they would otherwise have received. On the flip side, the actuaries expect that some people might have additional health needs due to the syndrome known as Long Covid.

Biden’s budget 2022

Fiscal year 2022 for the federal government begins October 1, and President Biden has announced what he plans to spend from that point on. But any issue requires the approval of both houses of Congress. The plan includes:

    • Ambitious total expenditure: President Biden wants the federal government to spend $ 6 trillion in fiscal year 2022 and total spending to rise to $ 8.2 trillion by 2031. This would bring the United States to its highest sustained federal spending level since World War II, while running deficits of over $ 1.3 trillion over the next decade.
    • Infrastructure plan: The budget outlines the President’s desired first year of investment in his American Jobs Plan, which aims to fund improvements to roads, bridges, public transportation, and more for a total of $ 2.3 trillion over eight years.
    • Family plan: The budget also addresses the other major spending proposal that Biden has already launched, his American Families Plan, which aims to strengthen the United States’ social safety net by expanding access to education, lowering childcare costs, and bringing women in the world of work are supported.
    • Compulsory programs: As usual, mandatory spending on programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare is a significant part of the proposed budget. They grow as America’s population ages.
    • Discretionary issues: Funds for the individual budgets of the agencies and executive programs would reach around $ 1.5 trillion in 2022, a 16 percent increase over the previous budget.
    • How Biden would pay for it: The president would fund his agenda largely through tax hikes for businesses and high earners, which would begin to reduce budget deficits in the 2030s. Administrative officials said tax increases would fully offset employment and family plans over the course of 15 years, which the budget request supports. In the meantime, the budget deficit would stay above $ 1.3 trillion each year.

The actuaries declined to estimate the effects of Aduhelm, a very expensive Alzheimer’s treatment recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The report said officials waited for Medicare to issue guidelines on drug coverage before doing any calculations. The drug could cost tens of billions of dollars in spending each year.

Democrats in Congress are considering a number of changes to the Medicare program, such as the addition of new benefits, including coverage for dental, hearing and visual aids. While these changes are expected to affect Medicare’s overall finances, none of them are likely to have a major impact on the trust fund, which only covers hospital care.

“Medicare Trust Solvency is an incredibly important, long-standing issue and we are determined to work with Congress to continue building a dynamic, equitable, and sustainable Medicare program,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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World News

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

Hong Kong Protester Is Sentenced to 9 Years in First Security Law Case

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.

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Politics

Biden fires Social Safety boss Andrew Saul, a Trump appointee

Biden fires Social Security boss Andrew Saul, a Trump appointee

New York businessman Andrew Saul testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his hearing as Commissioner for Social Security Administration in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill October 02, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

President Joe Biden fired the social security chief on Friday after the official appointed by former President Donald Trump refused to resign.

The White House said Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul “undermined and politicized” the agency’s benefits, including which justified his dismissal. Saul’s deputy, David Black, who was also appointed by Trump, resigned on Friday at the request of the White House.

“Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized social security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s teleworking policy used by up to 25 percent of the agency’s workforce, failed to terminate the SSA’s relationships with relevant federal employee unions, including in the context of COVID- repaired. 19 Occupational safety planning, reduced protection from due process in appeal hearings and other actions taken that run counter to the agency’s mandate and the president’s political agenda, “the White House said.

However, Saul told the Washington Post that he would like to get back to work on Monday.

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“This was the first time I or my deputy knew about it,” Saul told the newspaper, referring to the email he received Friday morning from the White House Human Resources office. “It was a bolt of lightning that nobody expected. And at the moment it has left the agency in a state of turmoil.”

Saul, 74, is a longtime Republican donor, a former vice chairman of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a wealthy businessman who turned over women’s clothing company Cache.

The president named Kilolo Kijakazi, currently deputy commissioner for pensions and disability policies, as acting commissioner, a White House official told NBC News.

Kijakazi previously worked as a fellow at the Urban Institute, as a program officer for the Ford Foundation, and as a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A search for the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner will be carried out.

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World News

Hong Kong’s Safety Regulation: One 12 months Later, a Metropolis Remade

Hong Kong's Security Law: One Year Later, a City Remade

HONG KONG – With each passing day, the border between Hong Kong and the rest of China is fading faster.

The Chinese Communist Party is rebuilding this city, permeating its once lively, irreverent character with ever more open signs of its authoritarian will. The structure of daily life is attacked as Beijing shapes Hong Kong into something more familiar, more docile.

Local residents are now teeming with police hotlines with reports of disloyal neighbors or colleagues. Teachers were told to fill students with patriotic zeal through 48-volume book sets entitled “My Home Is In China.” Public libraries have withdrawn dozens of books, including one on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Hong Kong has always been an improbability. It was a flourishing metropolis on a headland of inhospitable land, an oasis of civil liberties under iron rule. As a former British colony that returned to China in 1997, the city was promised freedom of speech, assembly and press unimaginable on the mainland in an agreement that Beijing called “one country, two systems”.

But under Xi Jinping, China’s leader, the Communist Party is fed up with Hong Kong’s dueling identities. For the party, they made the city unpredictable and even brought it to the brink of rebellion in 2019 when anti-government protests erupted.

Now, armed with the sweeping national security law it imposed on the city a year ago, Beijing is pushing to transform Hong Kong into yet another of its mainland megacities: economic engines that instantly stifle disagreements.

“Hong Kong people from all walks of life have also recognized that ‘one country’ is the foundation and foundation of ‘two systems’,” said Luo Huining, Beijing’s senior official in Hong Kong, this month.

Hong Kong today is a montage of unfamiliar and for many unsettling scenes. Police officers were goose-stepped in the Chinese military style, replacing decades of British-style marching. City guides regularly denounce “external elements” that seek to undermine the country’s stability.

Senior officials in Hong Kong have gathered with their hands raised to pledge allegiance to the country, just as mainland bureaucrats are regularly called to “biao tai”, Mandarin, to “express their position”.

When the government ordered ordinary employees to sign a written version of the oath, HW Li, a seven-year-old civil servant, resigned.

The new requirements not only require loyalty professions; they also warn of dismissal or other vague consequences in the event of violations. Mr. Li heard some supervisors nag their co-workers to fill out the form right away, and employees vie for how quickly they complied.

“The rules that should protect everyone – as employees and as citizens alike – are being weakened,” said Mr. Li.

In some corners of society the rules have been completely rewritten. However, Beijing denies failing to keep its promises to Hong Kong and insists on reiterating them.

When China revised Hong Kong’s electoral system to purge disloyal candidates, Beijing described the change as “Hong Kong’s perfecting electoral system.” When Apple Daily, a major pro-democracy newspaper, was forced to close after police arrested its senior executives, the party said the publication had abused “so-called freedom of the press”. When dozens of opposition politicians organized an informal pre-election, Chinese officials accused them of subversion and arrested them.

China’s power has become so ubiquitous that Chan Tat Ching, once a hero of the Hong Kong democracy movement, spent the past year urging his friends not to challenge Beijing.

Three decades ago, after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Chan, a Hong Kong businessman, helped direct an operation that smuggled students and academics from the mainland.

But Beijing is more demanding today than it was in 1989, Chan said. It had intimidated Hong Kong without even sending troops; that demanded respect.

He admitted that the security law was enforced too strictly, but said that nothing could be done.

“Some young people don’t understand. They think the Communist Party is a paper tiger, ”he said. “The Communist Party is a real tiger.”

China’s new power has also established itself in the Hong Kong business community. For decades, the mainland economy had tried to catch up with that of Hong Kong, the financial center so proud of its global identity that its government dubbed it “Asia’s metropolis.”

Now China’s economy is booming, and officials are increasingly turning Hong Kong’s global identity towards that one country.

Chinese state-owned companies have recently moved into offices in Hong Kong’s iconic skyscrapers that have been vacated by foreign banks. In November, Meituan, a Chinese grocer, ousted Swire, a British conglomerate, from the city’s main stock index. Financial analysts have called it the end of an era.

The rush on the mainland money has brought some new conditions with it.

After Beijing ruled that only “patriots” could run for office in Hong Kong earlier this year, the Bank of China International – a state-run institution – posted an advertisement for a director-level position stating that candidates should be “the country.” love”.

The central government is trying to convince Hong Kongers that the compromises on the mainland’s promise of prosperity are worthwhile. Officials encourage young Hong Kong residents to study and work in southern China’s cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, saying that those who do not go risk missing out on opportunities.

Toby Wong, 23, grew up in Hong Kong and had never considered working on the mainland. Her mother came from the mainland for work decades earlier. The salaries there were significantly lower.

But recently, Ms. Wong saw a subway advertisement promoting open positions in Shenzhen, in which the Hong Kong government promised to subsidize nearly $ 1,300 from a $ 2,300 monthly wage – more than at many entry-level positions at home. A high-speed rail link between the two cities allowed her to return to her mother at the weekend, who has to support Ms. Wong financially.

Ms. Wong applied to two Chinese technology companies.

“It’s not a political question. It’s a practical question, ”she said.

After all, the government is hoping to make the motivation political. At the heart of Beijing’s campaign is an attempt to educate future generations who will never think of separating the party’s interests from their own.

China’s firm grip

    • Behind the Hong Kong acquisition: A year ago, the city’s freedoms were being curtailed at breakneck speed. But the crackdown took years and many signals were overlooked.
    • Mapping China’s Post-Covid Path: China’s leader Xi Jinping tries to balance trust and caution as his country moves forward while other places continue to grapple with the pandemic.
    • A challenge for US global leadership: As President Biden predicts a battle between democracies and their adversaries, Beijing seeks to defend the other side.
    • ‘Red Tourism’ is flourishing: New and improved attractions dedicated to the history of the Communist Party, or an adjusted version of it, draw crowds ahead of the party’s centenary.

The Hong Kong government has issued hundreds of pages of new curriculum guidelines designed to “inspire affection for the Chinese people.” The geography class must confirm China’s control over the disputed areas of the South China Sea. Schoolchildren from the age of 6 learn the criminal offenses according to the Security Act.

Lo Kit Ling, who teaches a citizenship course at a high school, now makes sure to say only positive things about China in class. Although she has always tried to offer multiple perspectives on any subject, she feared that a critical perspective could be taken out of context by a student or parent.

Ms. Lo’s subject is particularly sensitive – city leaders have accused her of poisoning Hong Kong’s youth. The course had encouraged students to critically analyze China and convey the country’s economic successes alongside topics such as the Tiananmen Square raid.

Officials have ordered that the subject be replaced with an abbreviated version that emphasizes the positive.

“It’s not a class. It’s like brainwashing, ”said Ms. Lo. Instead, she will teach an elective in Hospitality Studies.

Not only school children are asked to watch out for dissenting opinions. In November, Hong Kong police opened a hotline to report suspected security law violations. “#YouCanHelp #SaveHK,” wrote the police on Twitter. An official recently applauded residents for leaving more than 100,000 messages in six months.

Constant neighborhood surveillance by informants is one of the Communist Party’s most effective tools for social control on the mainland. It’s supposed to keep people like Johnny Yui Siu Lau, a radio host in Hong Kong, from being so free in his criticism of China.

Mr. Lau said a producer recently told him that a listener reported him to the Broadcasting Authority.

“It will be a competition or a struggle to see how people in Hong Kong can protect freedom of expression,” Lau said.

Other freedoms that were once at the core of Hong Kong’s identity are disappearing. The government announced that it would censor films that are considered a threat to national security. Some officials have called for works of art by dissidents like Ai Weiwei to be banned from museums.

However, Hong Kong is not just another metropolis on the mainland. Residents have proven extremely reluctant to give up their freedom, and some have rushed to preserve totems of a discreet Hong Kong identity.

Masks labeled “Made in Hong Kong” are very popular. A local boy band, Mirror, has become a source of hope and pride as interest in canto pop resurfaces.

Last summer, Herbert Chow, who owns the children’s clothing chain Chickeeduck, installed a two-meter-tall protester figure – a woman with a gas mask and a protest flag – and other protest art in his shops.

But Mr Chow, 57, has come under pressure from his landlords, several of whom have refused to renew his leases. Last year there were 13 chickeeduck stores in Hong Kong; now there are five. He is unsure how long his city can withstand the burglaries of Beijing.

“Fear – it can make you stronger because you don’t want to live under fear,” he said. Or “it can kill your desire to fight.”

Joy Dong contributed to the research.

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Health

France’s Le Maire says peace and safety in danger if African Covid restoration left behind

France's Le Maire says peace and security at risk if African Covid recovery left behind

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Wednesday warned that peace, security and global stability are in danger if the world’s economic superpowers do not contribute to Africa’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

African leaders met in Paris over the past two days in a summit convened by France to strike a multibillion-dollar “New Deal” to aid the continent’s economic and health revival.

The Summit on the Financing of African Economies brought together 21 heads of state from Africa and leaders of continental organizations along with European leaders and the heads of major international finance organizations. In a press conference Tuesday night, French President Emmanuel Macron said the summit had yielded “a New Deal for Africa and by Africa.”

The signatories called for an additional $650 billion of IMF Special Drawing Rights to be released to close the gap between developed and emerging economies. However, only $33 billion of this has been earmarked for African countries and European leaders have vowed to donate their own shares in order to bring the total for the continent close to $100 billion.

The IMF may also contribute some of its gold reserves and in a joint communique after the summit leaders suggested that “flexibility on debt and deficit ceilings” could be used to further alleviate the burden.

G-7 and G-20 urged to contribute

Le Maire indicated on Wednesday that the French government would be pushing for greater contributions from other major economies at the upcoming G-7 (Group of Seven) summit in the U.K. in mid-June, and would also be reaching out to the G-20.

“Developed countries have invested more than 25% of their GDP to fight against the consequences of the crisis and to engage a very strong economic recovery. In Africa, it is less than 2% of their GDP,” Le Maire told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick, adding that this trajectory risked a great divergence in the recoveries of economies and health care systems.

Workers transport the second shipment of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine upon its arrival at the O R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on February 27, 2021.

Kim Ludbrook | AFP | Getty Images

“This would be a very important danger not only from an economic point of view, but a real danger for security, for peace, for stability, for illegal immigration, so I really urge everybody to be aware of the current situation of the African countries and to be aware of the necessity of putting more money (into) Africa.”

He suggested that rather than just deploying grants, governments should look to invest in small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting African entrepreneurs who are “at the core of the economic recovery.”

Despite maintaining comparatively low Covid-19 infection and death rates compared to the rest of the world, sub-Saharan Africa is projected by the IMF to have experienced a 3.3% decline in economic activity in 2020, the region’s first recession in 25 years. GDP growth projections for 2021 also lag significantly behind the rest of the world’s 6% estimate.

The drop in activity is expected to cost the region $115 billion in output losses this year and could push another 40 million people into poverty, effectively wiping out five years of progress against poverty.

In Tuesday’s press conference, Macron also set a goal to vaccinate 40% of the population of Africa by the end of 2021, calling the current situation both “unfair and inefficient.”

‘Vaccine apartheid’

The summit has urged the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization and the Medicines Patent Pool to remove intellectual property patents blocking the production of certain vaccines.

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva cautioned on Tuesday of dire global economic consequences if the vaccine rollout fails in developing countries and the health crisis continues.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday told France24 that he welcomed the group’s call for major economies in the northern hemisphere to share their vaccine supplies.

“They have a huge surplus and we have no access, and that to me is vaccine apartheid and it can also be characterized as vaccine imperialism,” Ramaphosa said.

“We will never be able to defeat the pandemic, Covid-19, if we try to defeat it in the northern hemisphere only and not in the south.”

A landmark proposal to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines was jointly submitted to the World Trade Organization by India and South Africa in October.

Several months on, however, it continues to be stonewalled by a small number of governments. These include the U.K., Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Canada, Australia, Brazil, the EU and — until recently — the United States.

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U.N. Safety Council requires full adherence to Gaza cease-fire

U.N. Security Council calls for full adherence to Gaza cease-fire

A woman gestures after finding her home collapsed after the cease-fire brokered by Egypt between Israel and Hamas in Beit Hanoun, Gaza on May 21, 2021.

Mustafa Hassona | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday called for a “full adherence” to the cease-fire in Gaza and urged immediate humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in its first statement on the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.

The cease-fire, which took affect at 2 a.m. Friday local time, has held so far despite clashes in Jerusalem outside Al Aqsa mosque between Israeli police and Palestinians just hours after the truce officially began.

Al Aqsa mosque is one of the most sacred places in Islam and sits in a site known in Judaism as the Temple Mount, the religion’s holiest site. Clashes at the complex were one of the factors that sparked the war.

The security council urged a “restoration of calm in full” and emphasized “achieving a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders.”

The U.S. had previously blocked the U.N’s most powerful body from calling for an end to the conflict, arguing that doing so would hinder diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration to help achieve a cease-fire.

Israel hit Gaza with scores of airstrikes and Hamas militants fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel. Palestinian medical officials said at least 248 people were killed in Gaza, including 66 children and 39 women. At least 12 people were killed in Israel, all civilians except one soldier.

The security council “mourned the loss of civilian lives resulting from the violence” and expressed support the U.N. Secretary General’s call to develop an “integrated, robust package of support for a swift, sustainable reconstruction and recovery.”

More than 77,000 Palestinians have been displaced and reconstruction costs in Gaza could amount to tens of millions of dollars, according to Palestinian officials, with damage to infrastructure affecting water, sanitation and hygiene services.

The U.N. said Friday that it released $22.5 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza. A day earlier, President Joe Biden promised the U.S. would work with the U.N. to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians and help rebuild Gaza.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to Israel and the West Bank next week to build on the cease-fire, according to Reuters. Egyptian mediators are also continuing talks with Hamas and Israel to secure longer-term calm after the truce

— Reuters contributed reporting

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Politics

Homeland Safety Will Assess How It Identifies Extremism in Its Ranks

Homeland Security Will Assess How It Identifies Extremism in Its Ranks

WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security will go through an internal review to eradicate white supremacy and extremism within its ranks as part of a larger effort to combat extremist ideology in the federal government, officials said Monday.

The task of identifying extremists in the United States, and particularly in government agencies, has been high on President Biden’s agenda since January 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. Many of the rioters were members of extremist groups.

“We recognize that domestic violent extremism and the ideology, the extremist ideologies that spit it out are widespread,” said Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Minister of Homeland Security. “We have a responsibility, given our activities, to ensure that this harmful influence does not exist in our department.”

The review comes shortly after the Pentagon completed a 60-day anti-extremism “shutdown” after it was discovered that a number of veterans participated in the Capitol riot. The Biden government is currently considering whether other agencies will conduct similar investigations as part of a wider review launched this year to assess how the federal government is addressing domestic extremist threats.

Monday’s announcement underscores the government’s decision to prioritize fighting domestic extremism after decades of intermittent dismissal of it as a minor threat or reluctance to invest additional resources to combat it. This is also a lynchpin of the approach taken by President Donald J. Trump, who pressured federal authorities to divert resources to counter the anti-fascist movement and left-wing groups, despite law enforcement officials concluding that violence against the rights and the militia plays a bigger role in Serious Threat.

The Homeland Security Review is asking a team of senior officials to determine if extremist ideologies are prevalent in the various agencies, including the Border Guard, Immigration and Customs Service, Intelligence and the Coast Guard. The division works to prevent domestic terrorism threats, enforce immigration, protect the president and respond to national emergencies.

Fighting extremism across government is a tremendous challenge. The military alone has 1.3 million soldiers on active duty. With more than 240,000 employees, Homeland Security is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the country.

Gil Kerlikowske, who served as Customs and Border Protection commissioner under President Barack Obama, said the internal review would be complicated with many agents communicating on private social media sites or in chat rooms.

“That’s pretty tricky,” he said. “At every level.”

As part of the review, senior officials will set up an internal process for agents who are found to be associated with extremist groups or who hold these beliefs online or on duty, Mayorkas said.

He said he was “aware of the constitutional right to freedom of expression”.

“There is a clear difference between this right and violence to promote extremist ideologies,” Mayorkas said.

He added that the team will develop training and resources for staff and hold listening sessions for officers and agents, similar to the methods used by the Department of Defense this year.

Following his “resignation,” the Pentagon said a task force would be set up to investigate how to better screen recruits and train service personnel who may be targeted by extremist organizations.

The term “resign” is used in the military to refer to any issue the Secretary of Defense deems important enough to be addressed through discussion within the armed forces.

Mr Biden made combating domestic extremism an early priority.

Shortly after taking office, he ordered the director of the National Intelligence Service to work with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for a comprehensive assessment of the government’s fight against extremism. The government followed suit last month with an intelligence report to Congress identifying white supremacists and militia groups as the top national security threats.

In a memo to all department staff on Monday, Mayorkas described domestic extremists as “the deadliest and most persistent terrorist threat to our country today.”

The department will also provide guidance to employees in the coming days for reporting “inside threats and other actions related to domestic violent extremists,” the memo said. Mr Biden released a spending proposal this month that included an additional $ 84 million on Customs and Border Protection and ICE to improve the investigation of workers’ complaints, “including those related to white supremacy or ideological and non-ideological Relate beliefs “.

The Department of Homeland Security has come under scrutiny after several episodes of wrongdoing in recent years, including the 2019 revelation that dozens of border guards had joined private Facebook groups and other social media sites displaying obscene images of Hispanic lawmakers and threats against members of Congress contained.

A Coast Guard lieutenant who described himself as a white nationalist was arrested in Maryland that same year for plotting to kill journalists, Democratic politicians, professors, Supreme Court justices, and people he called “leftists in general, according to prosecutors “designated.

Mr Mayorkas declined to say in an interview how many active members of his department had participated in the Capitol riot, citing an ongoing investigation.

Department staff have the right to share their views on immigration policy, Mayorkas said. When a person “communicates anti-immigrant sentiment in a back office, that is one thing that a regulatory address may or may not justify”.

However, if an ICE agent made such a statement during enforcement, it could “compromise the integrity of the department’s work” and warrant another possible action, Mayorkas said.

Mr Kerlikowske said the review could lead to a backlash in the agency.

“I think there is real potential for that,” he said, “if you tell them what to post and what to post.”

Categories
Health

What My Father’s Covid Survival Taught Me About Safety

What My Father’s Covid Survival Taught Me About Security

My father protects his livelihood but is by nature invisible. For more than two decades he watched the halls of a shopping mall in Koreatown, Los Angeles, as a security guard. The square is a three-story building with salmon-colored walls and a distinctive glass skylight. It is a community landmark for Korean immigrants who have survived financial insecurities, language barriers and other problems with uncharted territory in a strange place. In 1997 my father went there looking for a job. Our family had just arrived from the Philippines and he needed to anchor our landing on a steady income. As an electrician with no experience in safety work, he was immediately hired. Over time, he found purpose in securing his new life, family, and mall.

As a kid, I loved walking in the square to look at foreign goods that made me feel at home: copper bowls that can hold an ocean of stews, K-pop tunes on imported speakers, red bean cookies that bulge like clouds is. I loved to watch my father during his patrols. It was a rare glimpse into his full expression of himself temporarily unrelated to fatherhood. He chased shoplifters a few times a year. He once rescued a shopkeeper who suffered a concussion after a faulty metal grate fell on him while he was closing his booth. My father played peacemakers and tempered business rivalries he barely understood. But as he grew into his job, it made him small. He hardly earned a minimum wage. Buyers passed him, unaffected by his presence. As I got older, it hurt to see him as a silhouette of myself, faceless.

Like him, I took on a profession that was about safety, but there was a great gap between his and my work. I explored one of the most violent forms of destruction invented by human hands: nuclear weapons. I armed myself with the power of speeches and textbooks, political memos and conferences to convince governments to secure nuclear facilities and practice arms control. I envisioned my work to prevent a hypothetical terrorist from building a dirty bomb or an unpredictable politician from threatening nuclear war. Security became a complicated patchwork of policies and diplomatic agreements, all of which in theory would save them from nuclear annihilation. “Everyone” is vaguely defined, but it sounds impressive.

I felt my father’s pride in my career, but we lacked the language to express the depth of our working lives. Over the years we remained silent, convinced that if we talked we would pass each other. It never occurred to me to associate what I do with my father’s work or mine.

Categories
Politics

Home managers present senators beforehand unseen, graphic Capitol safety footage from Jan. 6.

House managers show senators previously unseen, graphic Capitol security footage from Jan. 6.

Whispered, panicked calls from frightened employees barricaded in an office. Violent scenes of broken windows and pushed open doors. Frenzied audio between Capitol cops.

On the second day of the impeachment trial, the House impeachment managers showed Senators previously unseen Capitol security footage and displayed a terrifying portrait of the violence that the pro-Trump mob sparked in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The new evidence was presented by Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, who created a methodical narrative of the day and timestamped each new video. Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, continued the presentation.

When it began, Ms. Plaskett recalled the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and reported that a plane was heading for the Capitol.

“Almost every day I remember 44 Americans giving their lives to stop the plane that went to this Capitol,” said Ms. Plaskett, who was serving as the adjutant at the time. “I thank them every day for saving my life and that of many other people. These Americans sacrificed their lives for the love of the country, honor, duty, and all the things America means. The Capitol stands because of such people. “

As each new video and audio clip was introduced, a map of the Capitol remained in the lower corner of the screen, with a red dot tracking the progress of the rioters in the building while more violent images flickered across the screen.

In one scene, Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney was walking down a corridor where he met Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who appeared to be warning him of the progress of the rioters. Mr. Romney ran off.

Security footage from the Capitol showed the mob pounding through windows first to break through the building before turning to other doors to break them open from the inside as rioters flooded in. Ms. Plaskett recalled the threats the rioters had made publicly against the lives of California spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

“You were talking about the assassination of the Vice President of the United States,” said Ms. Plaskett. She added that Mr. Pence and his family never left the Capitol during the siege.

After Ms. Plaskett played scenes of lawmakers and their coworkers escaping to safety, she played audio of frightened coworkers from Ms. Pelosi’s office barricaded in a room.

“We need the Capitol Police to get into the hall,” said one, and whispered into a phone in the hope that the rioters outside would not hear anything.

Mr. Swalwell introduced perhaps the cruelest video showing the moment when Ashli ​​Babbitt, one of the rioters, was killed and warned viewers before playing the clip that it would be graphic.

As the impeachment executives played videos and never-before-heard recordings of radio communications from the Capitol Police on January 6, senators from both parties sat in tense silence. Many tried to get a better view. In the back row on the Democratic side, Senators Mark Warner from Virginia and Michael Bennet from Colorado stood up to watch.

On the Republican side, the senators showed little emotion, but paid close attention to it. Many turned their heads from the video screens just to take notes.