New York Attorney General Letitia James Files $250M Lawsuit Against Donald Trump And Three Of His Children
New York Attorney General Letitia James Files $250M Lawsuit Against Donald Trump And Three Of His Children https://digitalalabamanews.com/new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james-files-250m-lawsuit-against-donald-trump-and-three-of-his-children/
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization, alleging an illegal scheme that amassed $250 million by fraudulently overvaluing assets. The civil lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, seeks to recover $250 million that James said was received through deceptive practices. James is also seeking to bar Trump and his children – Eric, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. – from serving as officers or directors in any New York company, and Trump himself would also be barred from entering any commercial real estate transactions or applying for loans for five years.
James said during a news conference, “I want to be clear, white-collar financial crime is not a victimless crime. When the well-connected break the law to take in more money than they are entitled to, it reduces resources to working people, to regular people, to small businesses and all taxpayers. Everyday people cannot lie to a bank about how much money they have in order to get a favorable loan to buy a home or to send their kid to college. And if they did, the government would throw the book at them. Why should this be any different?”
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities in a fraudulent scheme that touched all aspects of Trump’s business, properties and golf courses. The lawsuit also names former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and longtime company executive Jeff McConney and includes 23 properties in the Trump Organization portfolio.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba called the allegations politically motivated and meritless, saying in a statement: “Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the attorney general’s political agenda. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the attorney general’s meritless claims.”
Editorial credit: Christian David Cooksey / Shutterstock.com
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Post Politics Now: House To Take Up Police Funding Bills; Senate To Consider Donor Disclosure Bill
Post Politics Now: House To Take Up Police Funding Bills; Senate To Consider Donor Disclosure Bill https://digitalalabamanews.com/post-politics-now-house-to-take-up-police-funding-bills-senate-to-consider-donor-disclosure-bill/
Today, the House is poised to take up four police-funding bills while Democrats in the Senate will try — and probably fail — to advance legislation to provide disclosure of donors to super PACs. None of the bills is expected to reach President Biden’s desk before the midterm elections, but party leaders think that considering them sends an important message. House Democrats are trying to fend off Republican attacks that they are soft on crime. Senate Democrats will attack Republicans for blocking campaign finance reform.
Meanwhile, Biden has several events in New York, including another fundraiser to benefit the Democratic National Committee, before returning to Washington. On Wednesday, he addressed the U.N. General Assembly, decrying Russia’s “brutal, needless war” in Ukraine.
Your daily dashboard
10:45 a.m. Eastern time: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) holds a weekly news conference. Watch live here.
11 a.m. Eastern: Biden hosts a bilateral meeting in New York with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central): Vice President Harris addresses the Democratic Attorneys General Association conference in Milwaukee. Watch live here.
2:15 p.m. Eastern: Biden receives a briefing in New York on Hurricane Fiona’s impact on Puerto Rico.
4:40 p.m. Eastern: Biden participates in a DNC reception in New York.
7:45 p.m. Eastern: Biden returns to the White House.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Analysis: House office to hold union vote today for first time in history
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For the first time in congressional history, a Capitol Hill office will vote on forming a union.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell, Theodoric Meyer and Tobi Raji relay that the office of Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.) will hold the vote Thursday and the results will be tallied Monday.
Per our colleagues:
The move follows the emergence of a viral Instagram account earlier this year that posted accounts of toxic working conditions in Hill offices and months of organizing by the Congressional Workers Union and its president, Philip Bennett.
If Levin’s staffers do vote to form a union, it will be short-lived. Levin lost his August primary to Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) after redistricting led the two to face off in the 11th District. But members of the CWU are celebrating the milestone nonetheless.
“As long as there are workers, there’s a need for a union,” Taylor Doggett, the CWU’s vice president of communications, told Tobi. “Rep. Levin will still represent Michigan’s 9th Congressional District until January 3, 2022, and staff will be employed up until that date.”
You can read the full piece here.
On our radar: House poised to take up police funding bills
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The Democratic-led House is poised Thursday to vote on a series of bills that would provide millions of dollars to local law enforcement and attach accountability measures.
The four bills include funding to improve responses to situations involving mental illness; to provide “de-escalation” training for police; to establish community-based violence reduction initiatives and to bolster investigations of shootings.
The Post’s Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell write that some Democrats have urged passage of the package ahead of the midterm elections as a counter to GOP attacks that paint Democrats as anti-police. Per our colleagues:
The latest: Trump says presidents can declassify docs ‘even by thinking about it’
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In his first TV appearance since a court-authorized search of his Florida home last month, Donald Trump reasserted Wednesday that any documents taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago were declassified while he was in office, adding that a president can carry that out “even by thinking about it.”
The Post’s Julian Mark has details:
“There doesn’t have to be a process, as I understand it,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. Prosecutors have said that about 100 of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified, including some labeled top secret.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified,” the former president added.
“You’re the president — you make that decision.”
Trump’s comments followed an announcement earlier in the day that New York Attorney General Letitia James was filing a lawsuit accusing him and his three children of manipulating property values to deceive lenders, insurance brokers and tax officials. On Hannity’s program, Trump called the lawsuit part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” that has been brewing since he first ran for office.
You can read the full story here.
Analysis: The GOP claim that Democrats support abortion ‘up to moment of birth’
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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently tweeted that his Democratic opponent, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), supports abortion “up until the moment of birth.” Similarly, the web site of Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters asserts that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) believes in “nationwide abortion on-demand up until the moment of birth.”
Writing in The Fact Checker, The Post’s Glenn Kessler says that these accusations are emblematic of a frequent Republican attack on Democrats who support abortion rights. The line provides a vivid image — that a baby could be aborted literally as a mother is about to give birth. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel this week even coined a new phrase — “due date abortion.”
The latest: Appeals court says Justice Dept. can use Mar-a-Lago documents in criminal probe
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An appeals court sided with the Justice Department in a legal fight over classified documents seized in a court-authorized search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, ruling Wednesday that the FBI may use the documents in its ongoing criminal investigation.
The Post’s Devlin Barrett writes that the decision by a three-judge panel of the appeals court marks a victory, at least temporarily, for the Justice Department in its legal battle with Trump over access to the evidence in a high-stakes investigation to determine if the former president or his advisers mishandled national security secrets, or hid or destroyed government records.
The latest: Jan. 6 committee reaches deal with Ginni Thomas for an interview
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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has reached an agreement with Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to be interviewed by the panel in coming weeks, according to her attorney and another person familiar with the agreement.
The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany and Azi Paybarah have details:
Thomas’s attorney, Mark Paoletta, confirmed the agreement in a statement.
“I can confirm that Ginni Thomas has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the Committee,” Paoletta said. “As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity.”
The panel had contemplated issuing a subpoena to compel her testimony. Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, had pushed lawmakers and top Republican officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, citing baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
You can read the full story here.
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Raiders’ Daniel Carlson Kicking With Confidence https://digitalalabamanews.com/raiders-daniel-carlson-kicking-with-confidence/
Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson has made his past 28 regular-season field-goal attempts, the longest active streak in the NFL, and it has lifted the former Auburn All-American to No. 5 in league history for career kicking accuracy.
The streak includes the longest field goal of his career – a 56-yarder – and he’s connected from 55 yards in both the Raiders’ games this season.
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It’s probably safe to say Carlson is kicking with confidence. But he had to work to get there.
“It definitely took a while,” Carlson said. “High school, I didn’t really know what I was doing. In college, that’s when I started to figure it out. And then when I got in the pros, I got cut Week 2. You got to be kind of like, ‘All right, do I really belong to be here and deserve to be here?’ …
“You got to put in the work and stuff like any other guy at any other position. Even though you can be physically talented, at the same time you got convince yourself that you deserve to be out there with the best in the world. It’s a hard thing to do sometimes for some guys, but you got to just try to work one day at a time preparing the best way that I can so that on Sundays or Mondays or Thursdays, whatever it may be, I can show up and be confident in what I want to do.”
After becoming the SEC’s all-time scoring leader, Carlson entered the NFL as a fifth-round choice in the 2018 draft.
In his second game for the Minnesota Vikings, Carlson missed three field-goal attempts, including two in overtime. The next day, the Vikings waived Carlson. Five weeks later, the Raiders picked up the kicker.
After going 1-for-4 on field-goal attempts in his two games with Minnesota, Carlson is 113-of-126 in 61 games with the Raiders. While Carlson has been with the Raiders, the Vikings kickers have made 88-of-106 field-goal attempts.
RELATED: AUBURN WEEK 2 ROUNDUP: JAMEL DEAN POSTS 2 PICKS FOR BUCCANEERS
Carlson said the confidence needed to do that does not come easy for him.
“It is not, obviously, a physical sport for us,” Carlson said. “It’s a lot different than being an offensive lineman, defensive lineman. And so it is a mental game, where you got to try to figure out what ticks for you and how you can go out with the most confidence. Some guys are naturally more confident than others, especially, I think, at kicker. I’m not one of those guys. I think I got to kind of convince myself through preparation. Over time as you get more and more experience, it gets a little easier to be like, ‘OK, these are the things that worked for me. I can rely on those.’ …
“Your confidence comes from preparation, from practice, from just getting those reps and then going out on game day and going, ‘All right, same thing as I’ve been preparing for the last few months, few years.’ It’s been a little while now, I feel like.”
Carlson’s confidence appears contagious.
“It’s funny because every time I see him, I say, ‘Roll Tide,’” current Raiders and former Alabama running back Josh Jacobs told the Las Vegas Journal-Review. “He’s got a little bragging rights because, unfortunately, he’s one of the three teams that I ever lost to in college, so I let him have that. But I mean I’m just glad he’s on our team now. The dude’s an incredible dude. If you’re ever just kicking with him, hang out with him, he’s one of them guys that’s like a genuine dude.
“And, obviously, he is who he is in the kicking game. We believe in him. I call him Sniper because I feel like he never miss. That’s my dog.”
Las Vegas will be seeking its first victory of the season when it squares off against the Tennessee Titans at noon CDT Sunday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Raiders lost their season-opening game to the Los Angeles Chargers 24-19 on Sept. 11. On Sunday, Las Vegas lost to Arizona 29-23 after the Cardinals scored a touchdown on the final play of the fourth quarter and got the 2-point conversion to send the game into overtime.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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House To Vote On Election Law Overhaul In Response To January 6
House To Vote On Election Law Overhaul In Response To January 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/house-to-vote-on-election-law-overhaul-in-response-to-january-6/
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 12, 2022. The central idea behind House and Senate bills to reform an arcane federal election law is simple: Congress should not decide presidential elections. The bills are a direct response to the Jan. 6 insurrection and former President Trump’s efforts in the weeks beforehand to find a way around the Electoral Count Act, an 1800s-era law that governs how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners, along with the U.S. Constitution. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
The House pushed ahead Wednesday with legislation that would revamp the rules for certifying the results of a presidential election as lawmakers accelerate their response to the January 6, 2021, insurrection and Donald Trump’s failed attempt to remain in power.
The legislation would overhaul an arcane 1800s-era statute known as the Electoral Count Act that governs, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners. The House planned a vote on the bill after afternoon debate.
While that process has long been routine and ceremonial, Trump and a group of his aides and lawyers tried to exploit loopholes in the law in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
The bill would set new parameters around the January 6 joint session of Congress that happens every four years after a presidential election. The day turned violent last year after hundreds of Trump’s supporters interrupted the proceedings, broke into the building, and threatened the lives of then-Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. The rioters echoed Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud and wanted Pence to block Democrat Joe Biden’s victory as he presided over the joint session.
The legislation intends to ensure that future Jan. 6 sessions are “as the constitution envisioned, a ministerial day,” said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who co-sponsored the legislation with House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Both Cheney and Lofgren are also members of the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, another member of the January 6 panel, said during the start of the House debate that the bill would modernize the elections law “to make sure that the will of the people is vindicated at every level.”
The bill, which is similar to legislation moving through the Senate, would clarify in the law that the vice president’s role presiding over the count is only ceremonial and also sets out that each state can only send one certified set of electors. Trump’s allies had unsuccessfully tried to put together alternate slates of illegitimate pro-Trump electors in swing states where Biden won.
The legislation would increase the threshold for individual lawmakers’ objections to any state’s electoral votes, requiring a third of the House and a third of the Senate to object to trigger votes on the results in both chambers. Currently, only one lawmaker in the House and one lawmaker in the Senate have to object. The House bill would set out very narrow grounds for those objections, an attempt to thwart baseless or politically motivated challenges. The legislation also would require courts to get involved if state or local officials want to delay a presidential vote or refuse to certify the results.
The House vote comes as the Senate is moving on a similar track with enough Republican support to virtually ensure passage before the end of the year. After months of talks, House Democrats introduced the legislation on Monday and are holding a quick vote two days later in order to send the bill across the Capitol and start to resolve differences. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation this summer, and a Senate committee is expected to vote on it next week.
While the House bill is more expansive than the Senate version, the two bills cover similar ground, and members in both chambers are optimistic that they can work out the differences. While few House Republicans are expected to vote for the legislation — most are still allied with Trump — supporters are encouraged by the bipartisan effort in the Senate.
“Both sides have an incentive to want a set of clear rules, and this is an antiquated law that no one understands,” said Benjamin Ginsburg, a longtime GOP lawyer who consulted with lawmakers as they wrote the bill. “All parties benefit from clarity.”
House GOP leaders disagree and are encouraging their members to vote against the legislation. They say the involvement of courts could drag out elections and that the bill would take rights away from states.
The bill is an “attempt to federalize our elections,” Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., said on the House floor. He argued that voters are more focused on the economy and other issues than on elections law.
“In my area of Pennsylvania, nobody is talking about this,” Reschenthaler said.
Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, Lofgren’s GOP counterpart on the House Administration Committee, said Tuesday that Democrats are “desperately trying to talk about their favorite topic, and that is former president Donald Trump.”
Democrats said the bill was not only a response to Trump but also a way to prevent objections and mischief from all candidates in the future.
“If you think that this legislation is an attack on President Trump, you simply haven’t read the legislation because there’s nothing in there attacking President Trump,” Raskin said. “This is about reforming the Electoral Count Act, so it works for the American people.”
Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
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Analysis | First House Office Will Hold Union Vote Today
Analysis | First House Office Will Hold Union Vote Today https://digitalalabamanews.com/analysis-first-house-office-will-hold-union-vote-today/
Good morning, Early Birds. This newsletter has the power to declassify information even by thinking about it. Send us your best tips (or just think about sending them to us): earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us.
In today’s edition … The House will vote on a package of public safety bills today … Another day of big legal news for former president Donald Trump … but first …
SCOOP: For the first time in congressional history, a Hill office will vote on forming a union, Tobi Raji reports.
Rep. Andy Levin’s (D-Mich.) Capitol Hill office will hold the vote today and the results will be tallied Monday. The move follows the emergence of a viral Instagram account earlier this year that posted accounts of toxic working conditions in Hill offices and months of organizing by the Congressional Workers Union and its president, Philip Bennett.
If Levin’s staffers do vote to form a union, it will be short-lived. Levin lost his August primary to Rep. Haley Stevens (D) after redistricting led the two to faceoff in the 11th District. But members of the CWU are celebrating the milestone nonetheless.
“As long as there are workers, there’s a need for a union,” Taylor Doggett, the CWU’s vice president of communications, told Tobi. “Rep. Levin will still represent Michigan’s 9th Congressional District until January 3, 2022, and staff will be employed up until that date.”
In a last-minute breakthrough, House to vote on public safety bills
After weeks of tension between moderates and progressives, Democrats have struck an agreement on legislation to provide more support for police departments. The House will vote today on four separate public safety bills.
Some members of leadership and moderate Democrats in competitive races have been pushing for a vote on police aid to show voters they support law enforcement as Republicans make the charge that Democrats are soft on crime a major part of their midterm message.
But that push angered progressives still smarting from Congress’ inability to pass legislation to require police departments to follow new policies intended to make them more accountable following killings of Black Americans including George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
Amid worries the issue was dividing the party ahead of the midterms, progressives, who were not central to the negotiations in the previous months, engaged with their moderate colleagues in recent days.
Ultimately a deal was reached on a bill from Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), called Invest to Protect, that would provide additional funding to police departments with fewer than 125 members. Under the agreement, the new funding can be used toward mental health programs, training, data collection and signing bonuses, but not to directly hire new officers.
“It’s critical for policing — that we have the backs of law enforcement because every day they have ours,” Gottheimer said.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who helped to negotiate the bill alongside Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), said it won’t be an easy vote for progressives.
“It doesn’t take away the call for real accountability of the George Floyd nature,” she said.
Jayapal acknowledges the legislation won’t get the support of all progressives, but leadership is still planning to bring it to the floor today.
The bills have the support of two major police unions, the Fraternal Order of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations.
“While they’re not perfect from our standpoint, that’s how the making of legislation works,” said Jim Pasco, the FOP’s executive director. “We’re going to be supportive of the final product unless there’s some material change.”
Our colleague Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann report: “Democrats will also vote on legislation proposed by Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Val Demings (D-Fla.) [today] that prioritizes sending unarmed first responders into situations involving people experiencing a mental health crisis; provides federal grants for communities practicing violence intervention and prevention; and offers assistance to law enforcement in solving gun crimes and supporting shooting victims.”
Negotiators decided to pull from the package a bipartisan bill proposed by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) that would have doubled funding for a Justice Department grant given to local police stations. Spanberger said accountability measures sought by progressives were difficult to include in her proposal because it is a long-standing program and not a new one that can more easily be molded, like the Gottheimer bill for small police departments.
Ready to commit: House Republicans will convene this morning to run through legislative priorities they hope will motivate voters to elect them to the majority — a package they are calling The Commitment to America. Members are expected to receive a one-page messaging memo that distills the work seven issue-specific task forces have produced ahead of a public rollout Friday outside of Pittsburgh, per Marianna.
The Commitment to America is meant to serve as a set of policies members across all factions of the conference can support and sell to voters. But the rollout has already not gone according to plan: A website listing the House GOP’s policy priorities was briefly launched Wednesday before it was password protected to keep away prying eyes before Friday’s reveal.
Our colleague Azi Paybarah caught some screenshots of what’s on offer:
ECA action: The House passed its version of legislation to overhaul the Electoral Count Act, which was drafted by Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). Nine Republicans voted for bill that seeks to prevent efforts to overturn an election like those undertaken by Donald Trump following his loss in 2020. Eight of them were among the 10 who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection; the ninth, Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.), isn’t running for reelection. The Senate has its own version of the bill and whether Congress can come to a deal on the legislation will have to wait for the “lame duck” session.
Campaign finance: The Senate will take a procedural vote today on the DISCLOSE Act, which seeks to increase transparency in funding political campaigns. The measure by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is not expected to receive the 60 votes necessary to advance.
Permitting pressure: “Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday unveiled the long-awaited text of legislation to speed up the nation’s permitting process for energy infrastructure, including polluting fossil fuel projects and the clean energy projects crucial to President Biden‘s climate goals,” our colleague Maxine Joselow reports. (Subscribe to her ace climate newsletter, the Climate 202.)
The most controversial part of the bill — which Democratic leaders have said they’ll try to pass next week as part of a government funding bill — would “expedite the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would transport natural gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia and is a key priority of Manchin’s.” The bill directs agencies to “take all necessary actions” to issue new permits for the pipeline, which has been delayed by legal setbacks.
But the big question is if there are 60 senators who support it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’d attach the permitting bill to the short-term government funding bill, which must pass by next Friday.
Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) on Wednesday became the latest Democrat to oppose the bill, citing the Mountain Valley Pipeline provisions. “Allowing a corporation that is unhappy about losing a case to strip jurisdiction away from the entire court that has handled the case? Unprecedented,” Kaine told reporters Wednesday evening. “It would open the door for massive abuse and corruption.”
Trump’s terrible week gets worse with two new lawsuits, appeals court rejecting Mar-a-Lago ruling
Trump’s no good, very bad day week: This week is shaping up to be a bad one for former president Donald Trump and those in his orbit. He faces legal scrutiny from all angles regarding his business conduct, finances, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. It all came to a head yesterday and Tuesday with the announcement of two new lawsuits and an appeals court ruling regarding the Mar-a-Lago search.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened:
An appeals court sided with the Justice Department over Trump, greenlighting the use of documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation. “In the ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta found fault with Trump’s rationale that the classified documents in particular might be his property, rather than the government’s,” our colleague Devlin Barrett writes. “The appeals court also disagreed with the rationale used by U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit accusing Trump and three of his children – Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump – of business fraud. “The 222-page civil complaint asks the New York Supreme Court to bar Trump [and his children] from serving as executives at any company in New York, and to bar the Trump Organization from acquiring any commercial real estate or receiving loans from any New York-registered financial institution for five years,” per our colleagues Shayna Jacobs and Jonathan O’Connell.
“It seeks to recover more than $250 million in what James’s office says are ill-gotten gains received through the alleged deceptive practices. While the lawsuit itself is not a criminal prosecution, James said she has referred possible violations of federal law to the Justice Department and the IRS.”
“It seeks to recover more than $250 m...
Air Force Academy Goes 'woke' Dems Shift Focus From Economy For Midterms And More Hot Topics
Air Force Academy Goes 'woke,' Dems Shift Focus From Economy For Midterms And More Hot Topics https://digitalalabamanews.com/air-force-academy-goes-woke-dems-shift-focus-from-economy-for-midterms-and-more-hot-topics/
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Good morning and welcome to Fox News’ morning newsletter, Fox News First. Subscribe now to get Fox News First in your email. And here’s what you need to know to start your day …
WOKE MILITARY – Air Force Academy diversity training tells cadets to use words that ‘include all genders,’ drop ‘mom and dad.’ Continue reading …
NOVEMBER FOCUS – Economy tops list of independent voters’ concerns, but James Carville and other Dems defend another hot topic. Continue reading …
HER PERSONAL ‘VIEW’ – Sunny Hostin’s stunning remarks about Nikki Haley her latest personal attack on conservatives. Continue reading …
‘I HAVE A JOB, A LIFE’ – Man who ran down ‘Republican’ teen makes plea after admitting to killing over politics. Continue reading …
BEHIND THE CURTAIN – After Dobbs, the right to personal privacy no longer exists for anyone. Continue reading …
–
POLITICS
BLUE IN THE FACE: Who’s bankrolling the DeSantis-Martha’s Vineyard flights lawsuit? Continue reading …
‘RIDICULOUS’ – Trump slams New York AG’s case, says she should ‘focus on people who kill people’ as crime spikes. Continue reading …
FACE OFF – Federal judge strikes down federal school mask and vaccine mandate for Head Start program. Continue reading …
‘MASSIVE SCHEME’ – Two former Minneapolis officials charged by DOJ for taking millions from child nutrition program. Continue reading …
MEDIA
CLEAN-UP ON AISLE 46 – Walk-back of Biden pandemic comment latest in long string of White House clarifications. Continue reading …
‘ETERNALLY GRATEFUL’ – Twitter progressives praise NYAG Letitia James for filing civil lawsuit against Trump. Continue reading …
POOR CHOICE – MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow misses once-a-week show, replacement hits seven-year viewership low in key demo. Continue reading …
LEMON PEELED – Ratings-challenged Don Lemon ‘not the answer,’ to CNN’s morning show issues, critics say. Continue reading …
PRIME TIME
JESSE WATTERS – The illegal migrants DeSantis flew to Martha’s Vineyard are suing him. Continue reading …
TUCKER CARLSON – Hospitals are mutilating children, and one day we’ll look back in shame, horror. Continue reading …
SEAN HANNITY – Do we have equal justice under the law? Continue reading …
LAURA INGRAHAM – The American people are facing a long period of decline and despair. Continue reading …
IN OTHER NEWS
‘CAN’T BELIEVE IT’ – Americans coast-to-coast sound off on Biden’s handling of the economy. Continue reading …
‘FORGET ABOUT RICH’ – Samuel Adams founder, billionaire Jim Koch, has advice for aspiring brewers. Continue reading …
DETERIORATING RELATIONS – China lacks incentive to stop cartels from fueling US fentanyl crisis. Continue reading …
MOVE OVER, LEVINE – A look at infamous celebrity infidelity scandals. Continue reading …
FOX WEATHER
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What’s it looking like in your neighborhood? Continue reading…
THE LAST WORD
“Do we have, in America today, equal justice under the law? We have equal application of our laws in this country to our local, state and federal officials. Do they investigate crimes or prosecute people?”
– SEAN HANNITY
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Jason Isbell Shouts Out The Orion HSV CEO Named To UA Board
🌱 Jason Isbell Shouts Out The Orion + HSV CEO Named To UA Board https://digitalalabamanews.com/%f0%9f%8c%b1-jason-isbell-shouts-out-the-orion-hsv-ceo-named-to-ua-board/
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Hello all. Amy Young here with your Thursday edition of the Huntsville Daily, full of all the local news you need to know right now. In today’s issue, you’ll learn about these stories and more:
Jason Isbell shouts out the Orion
Huntsville CEO named to UA Board of Trustees
St. Jude Walk/Run is this weekend at HudsonAlpha
But first, today’s weather:
Mostly sunny and warm. High: 88 Low: 55.
Find out what’s happening in Huntsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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Here are the top stories in Huntsville today:
Grammy Award-winner Jason Isbell gave the Rocket City a great shoutout on Twitter! When asked his favorite venue, Isbell said his favorite new spot is our very own Orion Amphitheater! (City of Huntsville, Alabama – Government)
Fat Tuesday, a shop with off-premise and takeaway frozen cocktails, is on its way to Huntsville! The new store will be at Bridge Street and will be the state’s first location. It is expected to open later this fall. (WAAY)
Jeff Gronberg, a Huntsville CEO and University of Alabama, has been appointed to the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. Gronberg must be confirmed by the Alabama Senate. (AL.com)
The annual Walk/Run for St. Jude is set for this Saturday at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology’s campus. The opening ceremony will start at 7:30 a.m. and the main event will be at 8 a.m. (WAAY)
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Today in Huntsville:
Huntsville Botanical Garden Fall Plant Sale (8:00 AM)
Wacoal Fit for the Cure Event on September 22nd at the Belk in Bridge Street Town Centre (10:00 AM)
LMS vs Meridianville – Football (5:00 PM)
Nunsense, A Musical Comedy – Independent Musical Productions (7:30 PM)
From my notebook:
The city’s first ever CulturA Festival will be Sunday at The Orion dome at Apollo Park. (Details)
Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theater and Academy will team up with Dragon’s Forge Cafe at Lowe Mill for Princess Pancakes this Saturday! The event will be at 9 a.m. (Details)
Alrighty, you’re all caught up for today. I’ll see you around!
— Amy Young
Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Huntsville Daily? Contact me at huntsville@patch.com
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Stock Futures Bounce Slightly A Day After Market Selloff From Fed Rate Hike
Stock Futures Bounce Slightly A Day After Market Selloff From Fed Rate Hike https://digitalalabamanews.com/stock-futures-bounce-slightly-a-day-after-market-selloff-from-fed-rate-hike/
U.S. stock futures slightly higher on Thursday morning following a big decline in the major averages as traders weighed another large rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 83 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures gained about 0.2% apiece.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 522 points, or 1.70%.The S&P 500 shed 1.71%, and the Nasdaq Composite slumped 1.79%. The big drop came in a volatile period after the Fed’s third consecutive 0.75 percentage point rate increase. At one point the Dow was up more than 300 points.
But ultimately stocks closed lower, continuing the recent selloff trend as investors evaluated the Fed’s latest comments. Policymakers pledged to continue raising rates as high as 4.6% in 2023 before pulling back in the fight against inflation, spurring fears on Wall Street that the economy could tip into a recession.
The central bank expects to raise its year-end rate to 4.4% in 2022, continuing aggressive action against rising prices through the remainder of the year.
“I think they should slow down,” DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “Monetary policy has lags that are long and variable, but we’ve been tightening now for a while,” he added, noting that the impact of the tightening could lead to a recession.
On the economic front, the latest data on weekly jobless claims is expected Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Futures back to flat
After a brief gain overnight, stock futures have fallen back to flat for the session as investors continue to digest the Fed’s actions on Wednesday.
Chris Senyek of Wolfe Research believes the Fed’s message is very simple.
“The Fed is going to tighten until inflation comes down significantly — even if it causes a recession!” Senyek wrote to clients Thursday. “Our bearish base case remains intact! While the market is finally coming to grips with the amount of Fed tightening that is likely to occur, we do not believe that a demand-driven recession is anywhere close to being fully priced in.”
-John Melloy
Eli Lilly rises on UBS upgrade
Shares of Eli Lilly rose 1.4% in premarket trading Thursday after UBS upgraded the stock to buy, citing its weight loss drug which could be “the biggest drug ever.”
The rating change comes after mounjaro, or tirzepatide, a key weight loss drug, showed promise in a random study called Surmount-1 and was approved for use in patients with type 2 diabetes. UBS now sees Eli Lilly surging 22% on sales of the drug, which could top $25 billion.
Read more on CNBC Pro.
—Carmen Reinicke
CNBC Pro: This fund manager is beating the market. Here’s what he’s betting against
Stock markets are down but the fund managed by Patrick Armstrong at Plurimi Wealth is continuing to deliver positive returns. The fund manager has a number of short positions to play the market volatility.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
U.S. 2-year Treasury yield inches toward 2007 highs
CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson names the key attribute he likes in stocks
Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson is staying defensive amid the persistent market volatility this year. He names the key attribute he’s looking for in stocks.
Stocks with this attribute have been “rewarded” this year, with the trend likely to persist until the market turns more bullish, according to Wilson.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
CFRA’s Sam Stovall expects a retest of June lows
Investors should expect that markets will retest June lows now that they’ve breached the 3,800 level, according to CFRA’s Sam Stovall.
The chief investment strategist pointed to the latest action from the Federal Reserve, which indicated it will continue an aggressive rate hiking campaign to reach 4.4% by the end of this year.
“The markets are dancing to the Fed Funds Waltz, with the bond market leading the stock market. Since the FOMC has signaled a ‘higher for longer’ interest rate policy, the pace of the dance has picked up, increasing the risk that both may spin out of control,” Stovall wrote in a Wednesday note.
“With the 3,800 level on the S&P 500 having been breached, we now expect a retest of the June 16 closing low of 3666.77,” he added.
— Sarah Min
KB Home shares decline following quarterly report
Shares of KB Home fell 1.2% in extended trading after the homebuilder said in its quarterly report that it expects more challenges ahead.
“Although we experienced a shortfall in deliveries relative to our expectation due to extended build times and ongoing supply chain constraints, which will also impact our 2022 fourth quarter, our results demonstrate our larger scale, excellent portfolio of communities and a healthy balance sheet,” CEO Jeffrey Mezger said in a statement.
KB Home reported earnings of $2.86 per share on revenue of $1.85 billion. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting earnings of $2.67 per share on revenue of $1.87 billion.
— Sarah Min
Stock futures open lower
U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday night following a volatile session in the major averages as traders weighed another large rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by 16 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.19% and 0.31%, respectively.
— Sarah Min
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QAnon Fans Celebrate Trump's Latest Embrace Of The Conspiracy
QAnon Fans Celebrate Trump's Latest Embrace Of The Conspiracy https://digitalalabamanews.com/qanon-fans-celebrate-trumps-latest-embrace-of-the-conspiracy/
(CNN)Supporters of QAnon on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform have celebrated what they see as his renewed embrace of the conspiracy theory over the past week after he shared a meme that was viewed as one of his most brazen nods to QAnon yet.
The meme Trump shared on Truth Social included an illustration of him wearing a “Q” on his lapel and two QAnon slogans — “The storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA” (Where we go one, we go all). A few days later, he held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he delivered some of his speech to music that sounded almost exactly like a song associated with QAnon. As he did that, a group of his supporters in the crowd began pointing in unison toward the sky.
“Once we saw that, we realized we might have a problem,” a Trump aide told CNN. The former President’s team spent hours online after the rally trying to understand what the salute meant and where it might have come from, sources said.
Some thought the crowd pointing one finger (their index finger) toward the sky was in reference to Trump’s “America First” platform, said one Trump aide who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. Another said they believed it referred to “God first,” while others thought it might be an allusion to the QAnon slogan, “where we go one, we go all.”
Even among academics and experts who track QAnon and other disinformation online, the answer to what this all means remains unclear; they had not seen this one-finger salute before.
But the post was welcomed on Truth Social by followers of the conspiracy theory, who believe in the existence of an evil cabal and view Trump as their hero.
“At this point, anyone denying that Q was a legit operation affiliated with the Trump administration is in major denial,” read a post on one QAnon-supporting Truth Social account that has 120,000 followers.
Trump has appeared to associate with QAnon themes in the past. However some aides, who were not authorized to speak publicly, have dismissed concerns about their boss’ behavior, chalking it up to the mindless social media re-posts of a “boomer.”
His team has also continued to use a song at recent rallies after some of his aides became aware it had QAnon connections in early August.
Trump aides believe the former President had re-posted the meme not because it referenced QAnon, but because it was fashioned like a “Game of Thrones” poster, pointing out it resembled a poster Trump had brought to a Cabinet meeting as president.
Mindless or not, some experts say what Trump is doing is dangerous. “What we have is a former President, a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States, legitimizing what is in essence a cult,” Greg Ehrie, a former FBI special agent who now works with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told CNN Tuesday.
The FBI warned last year of the potential for QAnon to stoke violence, and some people who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol were wearing or carrying QAnon paraphernalia.
Trump has previously shared QAnon-adjacent memes — often retweeting conspiracy theorists while president before he was removed from Twitter. Asked about QAnon in 2020, Trump responded, “Well I don’t know much about the movement, other than they like me very much.”
The former President has been known to rapid-fire post to his Truth Social account, often without looking closely at the accounts he’s elevating or the content, according to a person close to Trump. “The QAnon stuff is way over his head,” claimed one Trump adviser describing a generally held view in his orbit.
Another person who spoke to Trump recently told CNN, “I’ve never heard him speak of Q and I can’t imagine he’s an adherent or even knows much about it.” Nevertheless, the person said, Trump’s aides have “nudged him away from that kind of stuff.” Trump’s team has a policy of asking supporters at his rallies to remove QAnon-themed shirts and posters once they are inside the venue.
Still, Trump has refused to outright disavow the movement that the FBI has warned is dangerous.
And while major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had policies in place since 2020 that prohibit explicit QAnon content, the Trump-era conspiracy theory is thriving on Truth Social.
“I think the onus is on him to avoid this kind of crap,” said another Trump ally.
A song with echoes of QAnon
As for the song Trump played at his rally last Saturday night that has been linked to QAnon, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich publicly dismissed concerns about the music as “a pathetic attempt to create controversy and divide America.”
But privately over the weekend Trump’s team wanted to know its origin.
There appears to be two versions online of all but identical songs. One, named after the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA” and available on Spotify, is by an artist named Richard Feelgood. Another, entitled “Mirrors,” is by a reputable composer. Trump’s team says they sourced the song from the latter, using a stock music software.
The song was first used by the Trump team in a walkup video at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas in early August. The video’s score had been lifted from a music service called Storyblocks by an aide looking for “dark” and “epic” tunes, a person familiar with the music choice told CNN. Another source said it was chosen after hours of listening to royalty-free songs for the right fit, adding that the song never went through any sort of vetting process before being used in the video.
Some Trump aides became aware of the QAnon connection in early August, after seeing an article by The Daily Beast that identified the connection to Feelgood’s version.
Still, they kept using it. Trump shared a video to Truth Social where the music accompanied campaign-style footage, and then played it at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month for dramatic emphasis during his final remarks.
While one aide noted that a small group of supporters raised their fingers during that Pennsylvania rally, the team did not think much of it. Trump was enthusiastic about the effect of the music under his speech and the song made its next appearance in Ohio, where the crowd reaction went viral last Saturday.
Read More…
Ukraine Welcomes Home 'heroes' After Prisoner Swap; Russian Mobilization Sparks Anti-War Protests
Ukraine Welcomes Home 'heroes' After Prisoner Swap; Russian Mobilization Sparks Anti-War Protests https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-welcomes-home-heroes-after-prisoner-swap-russian-mobilization-sparks-anti-war-protests/
Anti-war protests have erupted in Russia after President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of the country’s military that will see 300,000 reservists sent to war in Ukraine.
Ten prisoners of war from five countries, including the U.S. and U.K., have been released after being detained in Russian-held areas of Ukraine on Wednesday as part of a wider prisoner exchange between the warring countries in which several hundred Ukrainian soldiers were exchanged for Russian troops.
The prisoner exchange was something of a surprise on a day when tensions between Russia and the West rose even higher after Putin announced the partial mobilization and again blamed the West for the conflict in Ukraine.
Following Putin’s announcement, President Joe Biden called on the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and oppose Russian aggression, condemning the Kremlin’s invasion as an attack on the global body’s founding principles.
UK says Putin’s war call-up likely an admission Russia has exhausted supply of willing volunteers
Britain’s Defense Ministry says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize more troops “is effectively an admission that Russia has exhausted its supply of willing volunteers to fight in Ukraine.”
In its daily intelligence update posted via Twitter, the U.K. Ministry of Defense says it expects the Kremlin “to struggle with the logistical and administrative challenges” of mustering an additional 300,000 personnel for the Ukraine war.
“Putin is accepting considerable political risk in the hope of generating much needed combat power,” the ministry said.
— Sam Meredith
Finland says traffic arriving at Russia border increased overnight
The Finnish Border Guard said traffic at the country’s eastern border with Russia “intensified” overnight, Reuters reported, following President Vladimir Putin’s order to mobilize more troops for the Ukraine war.
“The number has clearly picked up,” Matti Pitkaniitty, the Finnish Border Guard’s head of international affairs, told Reuters. He added that the situation was under control and border guards were ready at nine checkpoints.
Prices of one-way flights out of Russia surged after Putin announced a partial mobilization of the country’s military and images on social media appeared to show long queues at border posts.
— Sam Meredith
‘Our heroes are free’: Ukraine rejoices at release of prisoners
Ukraine’s top officials are hailing the release of several hundred Ukrainian fighters as part of a prisoner swap with Russia that took place on Wednesday.
“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set a clear task: to return our heroes. The result: our heroes are free,” the head of President Zelenskyy’s office Andrii Yermak said on Telegram last night.
Over 200 Ukrainian prisoners were swapped for 55 Russian troops and a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician as well as 10 foreign prisoners of war who had been fighting in Ukraine.
Yermak said that among the Ukrainian prisoners freed there were “soldiers, border guards, policemen, sailors, national guardsmen, territorial defense fighters, customs officers, civilians.”
“Among them are officers, commanders, heroes of Ukraine, defenders of ‘Azovstal’ [a steelworks complex in Mariupol defended by Ukrainian fighters during a long seige] and pregnant military women,” he added.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war on September 21, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
“This is a tremendous success and I am grateful to everyone involved in this operation – everyone who has done this titanic work. I sincerely congratulate our heroes on their return home. We will provide them with all the necessary help – medical, social and any other,” he said.
He added that the 10 foreign fighters were in the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, which helped brokered their release, before they travel home to their respective home countries.
— Holly Ellyatt
Over 1,300 detained in nationwide anti-war protests
More than 1,300 people have been arrested in Russia following nationwide protests over President Vladimir Putin’s decision to mobilize more troops for the war in Ukraine.
Around 1,307 people were detained in 39 cities across the country, according to the independent human rights group OVD-Info.
The largest numbers were arrested in the capital city of Moscow (at least 527) and St. Petersburg (at least 480).
— Sam Meredith
Foreign fighters freed after significant prisoner exchange
Ten prisoners of war from five countries, including the U.S. and U.K., have been released after being detained in Russian-held areas of Ukraine on Wednesday as part of a wider prisoner exchange.
The prisoner swap came after Saudi Arabia brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine, the Saudi government said in a statement. The deal saw 10 prisoners of war — Moroccan, U.S., U.K. and Swedish and Croatian nationals — exchanged as part of a larger prisoner swap between Moscow and Kyiv.
Some of the POWs had been put on “trial” in courts set up by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and had been told they faced the death penalty for fighting in Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged around 200 prisoners of war on Sept. 21, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
As part of a wider prisoner exchange also brokered by Turkey, Russia exchanged 215 Ukrainian soldiers, including those who were holed up in the Azovstal steelworks complex in Mariupol in a long-running siege in the early stages of the conflict, for 55 Russian soldiers and a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and oligarch, Viktor Medvechuk.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel hailed the exchange on Thursday, saying “a total of 215 heroes” were finally coming home after being detained by Russian-backed forces in Ukraine. There have been reports of torture and mistreatment while in captivity although Russia denies these.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged around 200 prisoners of war on September 21, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
“Exchange has just finished. We are bringing our people home. This is definitely a victory for our state, for our entire society. And most importantly – for 215 families who will be able to see their loved ones in safety.
“We remember all our people and try to save every Ukrainian. This is the meaning of Ukraine, our essence, this is what distinguishes us from the enemy. We value every life! And we will definitely do everything to save everyone who is in Russian captivity,” he said.
— Holly Ellyatt
Zelenskyy calls Russia a state sponsor of terrorism
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during an interview with Reuters, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 16, 2022.
Valentyn Ogirenko | Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that global leaders hold Russia accountable for its monthslong assault on his nation.
“Russia should pay for this war,” Zelenskyy said, calling for a special U.N. tribunal to “punish Russia.”
“We must finally recognize Russia as a the state of sponsor of terrorism,” Zelenskyy said at the 77th U.N. General Assembly in New York City.
Zelenskyy’s dramatic remarks to world leaders came on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops for war.
Zelenskyy, who has not left his war-weary nation since Russia’s full-throttle invasion in February, appeared virtually after an introduction by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the 77th U.N. General Assembly.
— Amanda Macias
Partial mobilization is ‘great tragedy’ for Russian people, Ukraine official says
A top Ukrainian official has described Russia’s announcement of a partial mobilization of its military as a “great tragedy” for the Russian people.
The move, announced by President Putin on Wednesday morning, will see around 300,000 military reservists called-up and sent to Ukraine.
Serhiy Nykyforov, spokesperson to the Office of the President of Ukraine, told NBC’s Erin McLaughlin that “300,000 of people who were conscripts just yesterday will be sent to the places where recidivist thugs, mercenaries, and vaunted Kadyrov [Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen Republic] fighters failed. It is clear what will happen to these guys there, whom, as we saw in the first days of the invasion, the army cannot properly train and provide,” he said.
“This is a recognition of the incapacity of the Russian professional army, which has failed in all its tasks. As we can see, the Russian authorities intend to compensate for this with violence and repression against their own people. The sooner it stops, the fewer Russian sons will go to die at the front,” he added.
— Holly Ellyatt
NATO Secretary General says allies will ‘continue to step up support’ for Ukraine as Putin mobilizes more troops for war
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
“The Ukrainian people and forces inspire us all with their courage and determination,” the NATO chief wrote on Twitter.
“As president Putin escalates Russia’s war, it is even more important that NATO allies continue to step up support,” he added, referencing the Kremlin’s recent announcement to mobilize additional troops for the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to deliver a dramatic speech at the U.N. later on Wednesday.
— Amanda Macias
Biden calls for U.N. member states to stand with Ukraine and oppose Russian aggression
U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, September 21, 2022.
Brendan McD...
AP News Summary At 5:26 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-526-a-m-edt/
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy lays out his case against Russia to UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s president has laid out his case against Russia’s invasion at the United Nations and demanded punishment from world leaders. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech was delivered just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilize some reservists for the war effort. Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians had seized, Zelenskyy vowed in a video address that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine. Video addresses by Zelenskyy in an olive green T-shirt have become almost commonplace. But this speech was one of the most keenly anticipated at the U.N. General Assembly, where the war has dominated.
Ukraine’s Mariupol defenders, Putin ally in prisoner swap
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has completed a high-profile prisoner swap with Russia, the culmination of months of efforts to free many of the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in the port of Mariupol during a months-long Russian siege. In exchange, Ukraine gave up an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin it was holding. President Volodymr Zelenskky says his government won freedom from Russian custody for 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens. He says many were soldiers and officers who had faced the death penalty in Russian-occupied territory. Of the total, 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for just one man — pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine several days before Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 but was recaptured in April.
Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The court notes that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records. And it is rejecting the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents marked as classified.
Powell’s stark message: Inflation fight may cause recession
Read More…
AP News Summary At 5:37 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-537-a-m-edt/
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy lays out his case against Russia to UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s president has laid out his case against Russia’s invasion at the United Nations and demanded punishment from world leaders. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech was delivered just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilize some reservists for the war effort. Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians had seized, Zelenskyy vowed in a video address that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine. Video addresses by Zelenskyy in an olive green T-shirt have become almost commonplace. But this speech was one of the most keenly anticipated at the U.N. General Assembly, where the war has dominated.
Ukraine’s Mariupol defenders, Putin ally in prisoner swap
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has completed a high-profile prisoner swap with Russia, the culmination of months of efforts to free many of the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in the port of Mariupol during a months-long Russian siege. In exchange, Ukraine gave up an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin it was holding. President Volodymr Zelenskky says his government won freedom from Russian custody for 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens. He says many were soldiers and officers who had faced the death penalty in Russian-occupied territory. Of the total, 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for just one man — pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine several days before Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 but was recaptured in April.
Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The court notes that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records. And it is rejecting the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents marked as classified.
Powell’s stark message: Inflation fight may cause recession
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession. Speaking at a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged what many economists have been saying for months: That the Fed’s goal of engineering a “soft landing” — in which it would manage to slow growth enough to curb inflation but not so much as to trigger a recession — looks increasingly unlikely. “The chances of a soft landing,” Powell said, “are likely to diminish” as the Fed steadily raises borrowing costs to slow the worst inflation in four decades.
AP PHOTOS: Backbreaking work for kids in Afghan brick kilns
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Aid agencies say the number of children working in Afghanistan is growing ever since the economy collapsed following the Taliban takeover more than a year ago. Nowhere is it clearer than in the brick factories outside of the capital, Kabul. Children as young as four or five labor alongside their parents from early in the morning until late at night, doing backbreaking tasks like hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks. Their families say they have no choice, the work is needed to put food on the table. A recent survey by Save The Children estimated that half of Afghanistan’s families have had to put their children to work.
In Ukraine’s retaken battlefields, soldiers recover bodies
PRUDYANKA, Ukraine (AP) — Only now are Ukrainian soldiers able to retrieve the bodies of dead soldiers from a region near the Russian border that was the scene of fierce fighting for months over the summer. Ukrainian forces retook the area and have pushed Russian troops back across the border in a blistering counteroffensive, making the recovery of the battlefield dead, both Ukrainian and Russian, possible. The area was of strategic importance as its high ground is one of the positions where Russian artillery could easily strike Ukraine’s hard-hit second-largest city of Kharkiv. On Monday, the bodies of seven Ukrainian soldiers were recovered, along with the severed hand of a Russian found among discarded Russian body armor and backpacks.
6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico, 1 dead
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has caused buildings to sway in Mexico’s capital and left at least one person dead. The earthquake struck early Thursday, just three days after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook western and central Mexico, killing two people. The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday’s earthquake, like Monday’s, was centered in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast. Michoacan’s state government said the quake was felt throughout the state, but did not immediately report damage. Mexico City’s mayor said via Twitter there were no immediate reports of damage. Residents were huddled in streets as seismic alarms blared.
Alex Jones set to testify in trial over Sandy Hook hoax lies
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is set to make his first courtroom appearance and begin testifying in a trial in Connecticut over how much in damages he must pay for calling the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax. Jones is expected to take the stand in Waterbury on Thursday, as part of a lawsuit by an FBI agent who responded to the school and the families of eight children and adults who died. A total of 20 first graders and six educators were killed at the Newtown school in 2012. Victims’ relatives have given emotional testimony during the trial’s first six days about being traumatized by people calling the shooting fake.
Constitution stops Charles becoming Britain’s ‘green’ king
LONDON (AP) — Now that he’s monarch, King Charles III — one of Britain’s most prominent environmental voices — will have to be more careful with his words. In line with his role as Britain’s new head of state, he’ll have to remain apolitical, which may be particularly difficult as his accession to the throne coincides with the formation of a new U.K. government that has already pressed ahead with fossil fuel-friendly policies. Many think the King is unlikely to stop talking about the climate completely, although it’s believed the next in line Prince William, who is also an impassioned supporter of the environment, will take up much of his father’s advocacy work.
Fugitive in massive Navy bribery case caught in Venezuela
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in U.S. military history has been arrested in Venezuela. The U.S. Marshals Service says Leonard Glenn Francis was arrested Tuesday as he was about to board a plane in Caracas. Francis was under home arrest in San Diego when he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and escaped on Sept. 4, prompting an international manhunt. Francis was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in 2015 to bribing Navy officers to help his ship servicing company, then overcharging the military at least $35 million. Dozens of Navy officers were convicted for the scheme.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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GOP Hopes Crime Talk Is A Golden Ticket For Midterm Candidates
GOP Hopes ‘Crime Talk’ Is A Golden Ticket For Midterm Candidates https://digitalalabamanews.com/gop-hopes-crime-talk-is-a-golden-ticket-for-midterm-candidates/
On his Fox News show in August, Tucker Carlson concluded a segment with this advice: “If every Republican office-seeker, every Republican candidate in the United States focused on law and order and equality under the law, there would be a red wave” in the November midterm elections.
Since then, writes Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters who tracks Fox News and other right-wing outlets, “Republican strategy appears to have fallen in line with Carlson’s suggestion.” GOP candidates are increasingly using the golden-oldie issue of crime to quite literally scare up votes, making sweeping claims about skyrocketing lawlessness that, outside of the Trump Organization, is not actually occurring.
Gertz cites a September 10 article in the Washington Post, which reported that “GOP officials have been mixing up their advertising spending, with a new focus on issues like crime,” with the word “crime” being used in 29 percent of ads in early September, a big increase from about 12 percent in July. During the same period, references to “gas prices” fell, from one in six to 1 percent.
A recent Politico/Harvard survey found that crime is tied with gas prices and inflation, all at around 60 percent, as the issues most commonly rated “extremely important” by people planning to vote Republican. Gertz says that, since Tucker’s declaration of the royal road to GOP electoral success, crime has followed previous Fox “fixations”—including immigration, “cancel culture,” and “wokeness”—in becoming an issue the network’s hosts focus on to “charge up their viewers and galvanize votes for the GOP.”
Of course, for years now, Carlson and others at Fox News have leapt at every opportunity to portray America under Joe Biden as a dystopia where not just presidents but common criminals break whatever laws they please without consequence, and where cities under Democratic rule are burning hotbeds of horrific crimes. The GOP midterm contenders are eating it up and spitting it out.
On his September 9 show, Carlson had on Blake Masters, the Republican looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona, to discuss why Hispanic voters are purportedly flocking to the right. Masters, who recently burnished his anti-crime credentials by expressing admiration for the Unabomber (“He had a lot to say about the political left, about how they all have inferiority complexes and fundamentally hate anything like goodness, truth, beauty, justice”), offered this analysis:
Hispanic voters, like all commonsensical people, want law and order. They don’t want five million illegal aliens flooding here. But that’s what Joe Biden and Senator Mark Kelly have delivered—a wide open border, five million illegals. And so in our cities, you’ve got gang members attacking police, you’ve got car-jackings, armed robberies, home invasions. I mean, man, the choice that Arizona voters have in November could not be more clear: They can vote for me and get safe streets and a secure border, or, hey, if you really like the crime and chaos, and you want America to look more like El Salvador or Venezuela, Mark Kelly—he’s your guy.
“And he’ll patronize you too,” chimed in Carlson. “They’re masters at patronizing voters, particularly immigrant voters.” (Note: They are not the only Masters when it comes to this skill.)
As Carlson quizzed Masters, the Fox News banner at the bottom of the screen declared: “THE STABBINGS, BEHEADINGS AND KIDNAPPINGS WE NOW SEE IN BIDEN’S AMERICA RESEMBLE THIRD-WORLD VIOLENCE” and “SICK AND GRUESOME CRIMES NOW COMMON UNDER BIDEN.”
Subtlety is in short supply at Fox News.
Carlson, on his September 13 program, urged his audience to “imagine dystopia.” It’s easy if you try:
Dystopia is a world where the police will not protect you. They refuse. And at the same time, you are not allowed to protect yourself. So, who does that leave in charge? Who runs a world like that? Well, young men with guns. They’re in charge—the cruelest and most violent element of any society, the people with the least to lose, the shortest time horizons, the shallow reservoirs of impulse control. People like that have all the power.
You have no power and that means that everything you have is theirs.
Carlson told the story of a 30-year-old Chicago man named Ryan King, who was attacked by three men “in broad daylight.” One brandished a gun and demanded his wallet. King managed to elbow one of the men and run off. A few minutes later, Carlson says, “Chicago police spotted the gunman’s vehicle, but there was nothing they could do about it. Their supervisor ordered them not to pursue it, so the criminals just drove off and, of course, they committed more violent crimes.”
Carlson’s source for this last statement, a crime-focused news outlet called CWB Chicago, reported that a police supervisor “ordered units not to follow the car onto the expressway.” It also explained, as Carlson did not, that this was pursuant to the department policy meant to avoid high-speed chases of the sort that have caused numerous deaths and injuries (including the horrifying death of a mother of six) and forced the city to pay out millions of dollars to crash victims and their families. When Carlson asked King on air how he felt “as a person, as a citizen, as a taxpayer,” to hear that the cops were not allowed to “chase the criminals down,” King thoughtfully declined to comment, saying “I don’t know what the policies are for the Chicago Police Department. But what I do know is they’re doing the best that they can with the resources they have.”
Carlson, in his segment, went on to say there is “no mystery” why this explosion of crime, as evidenced by what happened to Ryan King, is occurring. He laid it out like a rug:
There are many threads, but George Soros is a big one. Soros paid for this to happen. Soros backed a prosecutor called Kim Foxx, who turns Chicago over to the most vicious people who live there. Not the decent, good people in all neighborhoods: the most vicious antisocial people, the ones who truly don’t care about others, who want to kill people for their shoes or their car. The worst people. And they run things now.
This is the tone and tenor of the Fox News/GOP messaging on crime: The streets are awash in blood, people are being beheaded and worse, and this is exactly what the Democrats have set out to accomplish. They want more crime because they love criminals, unlike the GOP, which has firmly planted its flag on the side of law and order—except for that dust-up last year at the Capitol.
Consider how Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has framed the record of his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, on the issue of crime. On Sean Hannity’s September 14 Fox News show, Johnson explained that Barnes and Gov. Tony Evers had teamed up to release 15 percent of the state’s prison population, or 884 people, only 11 percent of whom were non-violent. That meant that 784 violent prisoners were released to prey on the Wisconsin public, including “270 criminals who either committed, mainly committed, or attempted murder” and “44 child rapists.”
Johnson said it was all part of “the Democrat plan . . . the radical left plan, I guess to reduce crime. It is insane. But that, of course, is what the left, left-wing politics is. It’s insane. It’s destructive to our country.” The Fox News banner read: “FROM CLIMATE ALARMISM TO WANTING TO CODDLE CRIMINALS, WISCONSIN’S MANDELA BARNES EMBRACES EXTREMISM.”
The numbers cited by Johnson were compiled by Wisconsin Right Now, a conservative news platform, based on parole data from 2019 through 2021. But the way things are set up in Wisconsin, the lieutenant governor has nothing to do with the parole commission, which is made up of a chair and three commissioners—two of whom were picked or recommended by state Republicans, including one person selected for the role by former governor Scott Walker. Because most violent criminals are eventually released, the numbers Johnson quoted to Hannity simply track the ordinary motions of the parole system.
The First Step Act, passed during the Trump administration with support from Republicans including Ron Johnson, was a more deliberate effort to reduce the nation’s world-leading prison population. With that program, too, it is possible to generate frightening numbers. In fact, Fox News did so, in Carlson’s breathless July 2019 report on how, of the 2,200 inmates released by that point under the act, 496 had committed weapons or explosives-related crimes, 239 were locked up for sex offenses including rape, 106 for armed robbery, and 59 for “aggravated assault or murder.”
Johnson’s support for this bill did not come up in his discussion with Hannity.
Gov. Evers, Barnes by his side, allocated $45 million in COVID-19 relief funds to violence prevention efforts and another $50 million to law enforcement. Barnes, in his campaign, has staked out such nonradical positions as touting prison education programs as a proven way to reduce recidivism and calling for greater investment in crime prevention. And he supports ending the use of cash bail as a condition of pretrial release so that, as he explains it, “dangerous criminals don’t get to buy their way out of jail.”
A new TV ad from the Republican Senate Leadership Fund frames it differently: “Mandela Barnes would eliminate cash bail, setting accused criminals free into the community before trial, even with shootings, robberies, carjackings, violent attacks on our police.”
This hammering away is working. The latest Marquette Poll shows that Johnson has eradicated Barnes’s lead, which poll director Charles Franklin chalks up to the boom in attack ads against Barnes, many of which portray him as soft on crime.
Curiously, U.S. crime rates are actually not surging out of control; overall crime is...
Step Into The Mountains Again With https://digitalalabamanews.com/step-into-the-mountains-again-with/
Welcome to the mountains of Virginia, seen page-by-page and year-by-year through the eyes of Ivy Rowe.
We’re talking about “Fair and Tender Ladies,” Virginia native Lee Smith’s 1988 novel that was crafted into a musical stage production at Montgomery’s Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 1998.
Starting Thursday, “Fair and Tender Ladies” is back on stage in the River Region, this time at the Wetumpka Depot for a run through Oct. 8.
“I hit the jackpot,” said Depot director Kim Mason. “It’s been such a pleasurable experience so far, and I can’t wait for audiences to see it.”
In Smith’s novel, Rowe keeps in touch with the outside world through a series of letters spanning more than 60 years (1912 through the mid-1970s), which draws readers deep into her home deep in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia.
“I was privileged to see this production at ASF years ago and have been looking for the right time to bring it to our stage,” said Depot artistic director Kristy Meanor.
The iconic role of Rowe is being performed by Adrian Bush, a veteran of ASF productions like “Sherlock Holmes,” “Ruby,” and “Macbeth.” Greta Lambert, who played Rowe for ASF’s productions, praised Bush as a talented actor.
“It’s the role of a lifetime. It really is,” Lambert said.
Bush will be joined by castmates Leanna Wallace and Sarah Housley, who have multiple roles.
“They’re just going to be wonderful. I know they’re all fantastic actors,” Lambert said. “I can’t wait to see how this play inspires them.”
The five musicians on stage also step in as characters.
“The script is actually written for the musicians to be like voices in the shadow, voices in (Rowe’s) memory,” Mason said. “In our minds we see this person, and the musician provides their voice.”
Karren Pell, part of the play’s original team of songwriters, has a couple of personal connections to this new production. Her husband, Tim Henderson, is one of the musicians for the Depot.
“He’s playing mandolin, fiddle and guitar, and even has a couple of spoken lines,” said Pell, who has worked closely with the Depot musicians for this show, and gave them stories on how the songs were created. Pell said she feels a little guilty because she “worked the snot out of them.”
Pell is also friends with the “Fair and Tender Ladies” novel author.
“(Smith) was so happy when I called and told her that it was going up again,” Pell said. “She loves Ivy. Ivy is one of her favorite heroines.”
Pell praised the cast’s vocals. “Those three ladies, they are really something,” she said. “Their blend is special.”
Mason said she kept the stage setting sparse, with some moving, multi-purpose furniture.
“The trunk that (Rowe) uses and brings a lot of things out of is used for her desk, and a place to sit,” Mason said.
Performances at the Depot, 300 South Main St., Wetumpka, are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. There’s also a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee on Oct. 2. Tickets are $15 and available online at wetumpkadepot.com or at the door.
When “Fair and Tender Ladies” starts Thursday, it won’t be alone. That’s opening night for four other area theater productions: Pike Road Theatre Company’s “Nunsense,” Prattville’s Way Off Broadway Theatre’s “The Outsider,” Millbrook Community Players’ “Clue,” and the world premiere of the Nora’s Playhouse production of “Ashes & Ink” at The Sanctuary in Montgomery.
“I don’t know why that happens,’ Mason said. “The scheduling is just insane. It happens every year, but this year is particularly rough.”
On Friday, Pell and songwriting partner Tommy Goldsmith will have a half-hour pre-show concert in Wetumpka Depot’s lobby.
“That’s going to be fun, and then we’re going to go in and watch the show,” Pell said.
After Sunday’s performance, Lambert will talk about how she developed Rowe as a character for ASF’s world premier.
ASF and beyond: Creating a stage world for ‘Fair and Tender Ladies’
Smith’s novel was adapted to stage by Eric Schmiedl, and given music by Pell, Goldsmith, and Tom House. Pell said this was their second commission, the first being William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying.” The music for that one came together well, but they couldn’t get the rights to produce it.
“We liked that process so much that we were kind of looking for something else,” Pell said.
Soon, “Fair and Tender Ladies” came looking for her. Nancy Anderson, a friend and literature professor at Auburn Montgomery, gave her the novel. Anderson said she had a feeling about it. That feeling led to Pell, House and Goldsmith writing a series of songs, and then playing them for Smith at Pell’s apartment.
“We took (Smith’s) prose and added our own whatever we had to do to meter and rhyme it to make songs,” said Pell, who described working on the project as a deep and humbling honor.
After playing the songs for Smith, the author gave them permission to work on an official stage adaptation of “Fair and Tender Ladies.”
“The recipe of the music and the words together just creates something that touches you so deeply,” Mason said. “I can’t even explain it. I am drawn to tears.”
“Their music just reaches into your soul,” said Lambert, whose family is from the Appalachian mountains. “It was a great way to plug into myself, really.”
The play adaptation was submitted to ASF’s Southern Writers Project for development, where the overall script and songs were reviewed and tinkered with, and from there very quickly added to ASF’s 1998-99 season.
“It was career changing for all of us, and a big blessing,” Pell said.
Lambert remembers Schmiedl’s early script draft at SWP. “It was about a bunch of people being interviewed about a woman named Ivy Rowe,” she said. “We were all these different reporters. We finished reading the play, and we said, ‘Eric, where is Ivy Rowe? That’s who the play should be about.’”
Schmiedl came back the next day with a script that was very close to the one used in the actual production, Lambert said.
“When we got word that it was going up (on stage), I was so surprised and so happy,” said Pell, who said the play led her to move to Montgomery. “I called Tommy Goldsmith. His comment says it all. Tommy said, ‘We live on.’”
It would premiere in ASF’s octagon theater on Nov. 13, 1998.
“It is by far my favorite role that I have ever played in my whole life,” said Lambert, who said she liked being Rowe even more than roles in Shakespeare’s plays.
One memorable scene in had Lambert as Rowe standing up with her arms outstretched, staring off into the distance.
“That’s the moment when she leaves her husband and her children to go off with the honey man,” Lambert said. “They go off into the mountains, and she can see for miles and miles and miles, mountain after mountain. She’s taking in the world that is beyond her and part of her.”
Surprisingly, Lambert had never sang on stage until this role. “I’m not a singer,” she said.
Lambert said Pell helped her prepare by giving her singing lessons.
“She certainly turned it into a signature role,” Pell said. “She certainly made Ivy come alive.”
Directed by Susan Willis, “Fair and Tender Ladies” was so successful that it was taken on tour through the Southeast during the 1999-2000 season, and returned for a short run at ASF at the end of October 2000.
Lambert remembers the bus ride during the tour. The small cast (3 musicians and 3 actors) had it to themselves, so they had “gobs and gobs” of room. Some of that space got filled with items they picked up along the way.
“We would go to antique stores in every single town we were in,” Lambert said.
The tour also stopped where Smith was living in North Carolina.
“She came to the production, and that was a very magical night,” Lambert said.
It returned to ASF’s schedule for the 2006-’07 season. This time it was on the larger festival stage, though it would get pushed back from June to July 2007 to make room for “Menopause the Musical.”
“Everyone who saw (‘Fair and Tender Ladies’) still remembers it,” Mason said. “It was just something that I believe was so moving, so wonderful, and touched so many people.”
Lambert reprised her role as Rowe, as did the multiple-role actors Kim Ders (Maudy, Beulah and Geneva) and Debra Funkhouser (Silvaney, Joli, and Miss Torrington).
“I think it’s something that became a part of people,” Mason said. “When you see a show that you absolutely love, it stays with you. You want to revisit them. I think this is one of those shows.”
The full “Fair and Tender Ladies” production was revived twice in 2013: As a student production by the Wetumpka High School Theatre Guild (with Blair Caton as Rowe), and by the Red Door Theatre in Union Springs.
In 2009, the “Fair and Tender Ladies” novel was adapted again, this time into a one-woman play “Ivy Rowe” by the Brundidge Historical Society for the “We Piddle Around Theater.” It starred Barbara Bates Smith as Rowe. That production is still ongoing with the same actor, with a performance in June this year at the Virginia Highlands Festival.
Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com.
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Trump Docs Probe: Court Lifts Hold On Mar-A-Lago Records The National Herald
Trump Docs Probe: Court Lifts Hold On Mar-A-Lago Records – The National Herald https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-docs-probe-court-lifts-hold-on-mar-a-lago-records-the-national-herald/
A page from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruling that lifts a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, is photographed Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
WASHINGTON — In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit amounts to an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department, clearing the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. In lifting a hold on a core aspect of the department’s probe, the court removed an obstacle that could have delayed the investigation by weeks.
The appeals court also pointedly noted that Trump had presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records, as he maintained as recently as Wednesday, and rejected the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents with classification markings that were seized by the FBI in its Aug. 8 search of the Palm Beach property.
The government had argued that its investigation had been impeded, and national security concerns swept aside, by an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that temporarily barred investigators from continuing to use the documents in its inquiry. Cannon, a Trump appointee, had said the hold would remain in place pending a separate review by an independent arbiter she had appointed at the Trump team’s request to review the records.
The appeals panel agreed with the Justice Department’s concerns.
“It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,’” they wrote. “Ascertaining that,” they added, “necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.”
An injunction that delayed or prevented the criminal investigation “from using classified materials risks imposing real and significant harm on the United States and the public,” they wrote.
Two of the three judges who issued Wednesday’s ruling — Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher — were nominated to the 11th Circuit by Trump. Judge Robin Rosenbaum was nominated by former President Barack Obama.
Lawyers for Trump did not return an email seeking comment on whether they would appeal the ruling. The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment.
The FBI last month seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during a court-authorized search of the Palm Beach club. It has launched a criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised, though is not clear whether Trump or anyone else will be charged.
Cannon ruled on Sept. 5 that she would name an independent arbiter, or special master, to do an independent review of those records and segregate any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege and to determine whether any of the materials should be returned to Trump.
Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, has been named to the role and held his first meeting on Tuesday with lawyers for both sides.
The Justice Department had argued that a special master review of the classified documents was not necessary. It said Trump had no plausible basis to invoke executive privilege over the documents, nor could the records be covered by attorney-client privilege because they do not involve communications between Trump and his lawyers.
It had also contested Cannon’s order requiring it to provide Dearie and Trump’s lawyers with access to the classified material. The court sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday, saying “courts should order review of such materials in only the most extraordinary circumstances. The record does not allow for the conclusion that this is such a circumstance.”
Trump has repeatedly maintained that he had declassified the material. In a Fox News Channel interview recorded Wednesday before the appeals court ruling, he said, “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying ‘It’s declassified.’”
Though his lawyers have said a president has absolute authority to declassify information, they have notably stopped short of asserting that the records were declassified. The Trump team this week resisted providing Dearie with any information to support the idea that the records might have been declassified, saying the issue could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment.
The Justice Department has said there is no indication that Trump took any steps to declassify the documents and even included a photo in one court filing of some of the seized documents with colored cover sheets indicating their classified status. The appeals court, too, made the same point.
“Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified,” the judges wrote. “In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.”
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Biden Tells The United Nations That Putin's Attempts To 'extinguish' Ukraine Should 'make Your Blood Run Cold' ABC17NEWS
Biden Tells The United Nations That Putin's Attempts To 'extinguish' Ukraine Should 'make Your Blood Run Cold' – ABC17NEWS https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-tells-the-united-nations-that-putins-attempts-to-extinguish-ukraine-should-make-your-blood-run-cold-abc17news/
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
President Joe Biden on Wednesday declared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a violation of the global order, sharpening his rebukes of President Vladimir Putin as the war entered a tense new moment.
Biden’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly came hours after Putin announced an expansion of his war effort, lending the annual address Cold War-style gravity as Biden sought to rally nations behind his effort to isolate and punish Russia.
“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state and Ukrainians’ right to exist as a people,” Biden told the international body. “That should make your blood run cold.”
Speaking inside the soaring General Assembly hall, Biden called the seven-month-old invasion a “brutal, needless war” that amounts to a “shameless violation” of the United Nations charter.
“Putin claims he had to act because Russia was threatened, but no one threatened Russia and no one other than Russia sought conflict,” Biden said in his speech.
Biden returned to the green-marbled United Nations stage Wednesday hours after Russia’s president delivered his provocative speech, setting up a rhetorical showdown between the two leaders on the international stage.
Putin’s speech dramatically illustrated the challenges that lie ahead in Biden’s efforts to sustain Ukraine and punish Moscow. The combined effects of the prolonged conflict and economic uncertainty have created a dark mood among world leaders gathering in New York this week for the annual high-level UN meetings.
Biden had already planned to make the Ukraine war a centerpiece of his yearly UN address, with aides previewing a harsh message for Moscow. But Putin’s announcement that he was ordering a “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens in the Ukraine war and again raising the specter of using nuclear weapons dramatically increased the stakes for Biden’s address.
Biden accused Putin of making “irresponsible nuclear threats” in his speech, and declared “a nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought.”
“Let us speak plainly: A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase the sovereign state from the map,” he said.
Hours earlier, in his 20-minute speech, Putin warned he would use “all the means at our disposal” if he deemed the “territorial integrity” of Russia to be jeopardized. The mobilization means citizens who are in the reserve could be called up, and those with military experience would be subject to conscription, Putin said, adding that the necessary decree had already been signed and took effect on Wednesday.
In response, Biden said Putin was waging a war meant to demolish the Ukrainian nation.
“We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression, period,” he said.
Biden warned that the basis of the United Nations’ charter is “under attack” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he cast as a “shameless” violation of the body’s founding document.
“As we meet today, the UN charter’s very basis of a stable and just rule-based order is under attack by those who wish to tear it down or distort it for their own political advantage,” Biden said, noting that the 1945 charter was negotiated by citizens “united in their commitment to work for peace.”
Putin’s escalation came after stunning Russian setbacks in the war, which has dragged on for more than six months. Biden, who has led efforts to isolate Russia and supply Ukraine with advanced weaponry, had already been planning to underscore those efforts in Wednesday’s speech.
Putin’s national address, which occurred after Biden had arrived in New York late Tuesday, caused White House aides to update some of the language in Biden’s speech, according to an official. But a total rewrite wasn’t necessary because White House officials had anticipated some of what Putin would say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also planned to address the UN later on Wednesday.
After making his debut UN address last year under the cloud of a messy Afghanistan withdrawal and stalled domestic ambitions, Biden’s aides believed he entered his sophomore outing with a stronger hand.
“We believe that the President heads to New York with the wind at his back,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, citing a mostly-united western alliance and recent wins on the domestic front, including a historic investment in fighting climate change.
Questions about US leadership
Even as Biden proclaimed renewed US leadership Wednesday, deeper questions persist over his ability to maintain that position in the years ahead, as fears of a global recession looms and threats to American democracy fester.
Biden has spent ample time underscoring those threats in recent weeks, primarily for a domestic audience but with foreign capitals also listening intently. He has recounted in recent speeches sitting around a table at last year’s Group of 7 summit in Cornwall, England, telling fellow leaders that “America is back.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, Biden has told audiences, asked him: “For how long?”
That question still hangs over Biden’s efforts on the world stage, even a year-and-a-half into his term, as his predecessor continues to wield influence over the Republican Party and prepares to mount another run for the White House. Biden himself said in an interview that aired Sunday that while he intends to run for reelection, a final decision “remains to be seen.”
One of the issues currently at the forefront of global affairs — the pained negotiations to restart the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew — only underscores the effects of pendulum swings in American leadership.
In his speech, Biden reiterated his stance that the US will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon as negotiations to revive a nuclear deal have failed to make significant progress in recent months.
“While the United States is prepared for a mutual return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if Iran steps up to its obligations, the United States is clear: We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden said.
For Biden, the yearly UN speech was another stab at explaining to the world how he has steered the United States back into a position of leadership after the “America First” years of Donald Trump.
He called for expanding the United Nations Security Council, saying countries should refrain from using their veto powers except in rare circumstances.
“The United States supports increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent” Security Council members, Biden said in his speech.
He said constant vetoes from countries on the Council were harming its effectiveness, and said only using vetoes in “rare, extraordinary situations” would ensure the council “remains credible and effective.” Russia has consistently vetoed resolutions at the Security Council that have blocked action on Ukraine and other areas.
In his speech, Biden also announced $2.9 billion in US assistance to help address global food insecurity. The $2.9 billion investment, the White House said in a fact sheet, is aimed at shoring up food supply amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, widespread inflation and other supply chain issues, and builds on $6.9 billion already committed by the US this year.
It includes $2 billion in global humanitarian assistance through USAID, the US Agency for International Development.
Later Wednesday morning, Biden will host a pledging session for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In the evening, Biden and the first lady will host a leaders’ reception at the American Museum of Natural History.
Speech drafted over weeks
Biden and his aides have been drafting the address for several weeks, a period that coincided with Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive taking back some Russian-held territory after months of occupation. The initiative had been coordinated with American officials, including through enhanced information and intelligence sharing, and sustained by weaponry provided by the US and its allies.
US officials have cautioned Ukraine’s current gains don’t necessarily signal a wider change in the outlook of the war, which remains likely to be a prolonged conflict. A day ahead of Biden’s speech, two Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine announced plans for referendums on officially joining Russia, votes the US has previously warned would be “shams.”
One of Biden’s objectives in his speech Wednesday was stressing the importance of maintaining unity among western allies in supporting Ukraine in the uncertain months ahead.
That effort is made more difficult by a looming energy crisis as Russia withholds supplies of natural gas to Europe as winter sets in. Higher costs spurred in part by withering western sanctions on Moscow have led to an economic calamity that is causing political turmoil for many leaders in Biden’s coalition, including himself.
Meeting new British leader
The President meets with one of those leaders, British Prime Minister Liz Truss, later Wednesday. It will be their first formal in-person talks since Truss entered office earlier this month following the decision of her predecessor, Boris Johnson, to step down.
She inherited a deep economic crisis, fueled by high inflation and soaring energy costs, that has led to fears the UK could soon enter a prolonged recession. While few in the Biden administration shed tears at Johnson’s resignation — Biden once described him as the “physical and emotional clone” of Trump — the US and the UK were deeply aligned in their approach to Russia under his leadership.
White House officials expect that cooperation will continue under Truss, eve...
European Markets Slide As Investors Digest More Rate Hikes
European Markets Slide As Investors Digest More Rate Hikes https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-markets-slide-as-investors-digest-more-rate-hikes/
European stocks were over 1% lower shortly after the open Thursday, as investors digested news from the U.S. Federal Reserve and Swiss central bank, as both opted to hike rates.
The Fed implemented a third consecutive 0.75 percentage point rate hike yesterday, with policymakers pledging to continue raising rates as high as 4.6% in 2023 before pulling back in the fight against inflation.
Meanwhile, the Swiss National Bank on Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.5%, a shift that brings an end to an era of negative rates in Europe.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 1.04% at 8:40 a.m. London time.
Technology stocks and travel and leisure led the market downturn, both slumping around 2%, with almost all sectors and major bourses in the red at the start of trading.
U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday night following a volatile session for the major averages stateside while overnight in Asia, markets also traded lower.
In Europe, attention will now turn to the Bank of England, which is also expected to hike rates today.
Earnings come from Manchester United football club and data releases include consumer confidence figures for the euro zone in September.
Market open: Fortum up 4%, Accor down 6%
Shares of Fortum rose again in early trade Thursday after the Finnish company agreed to sell its 56% stake in German utility Uniper to the German government. The state-owned energy company shifted its stake in a nationalization deal.
French hospitality company Accor saw its shares fall 6.3% at market open after JP Morgan cut its rating on the stock from neutral to underweight. The investment bank expressed concerns the group would not be able to return to its previous level of profitability, saying “our concerns have now exceeded the reasons we like it.”
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Credit Suisse plans to split its investment bank into three: The FT
Credit Suisse has plans to split its investment bank into three, according to the Financial Times.
The Swiss lender wants to have a separate “bad bank” exclusively for risky assets as it recovers from several years’ worth of scandals and blunders.
New proposals suggest Credit Suisse will sell some of its profitable units as part of the radical reshuffle, with full plans expected to be announced at the bank’s third-quarter results on Oct. 27, the FT reported.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Oil prices climb after Fed’s rate hikes, demand fears linger
Oil prices climbed following the Fed’s third consecutive rate hike.
Reuters also reported Chinese refiners are expecting the nation to release up to 15 million tonnes worth of oil products export quotas for the rest of the year, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Brent crude futures rose 0.45% to stand at $90.24 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate also gained 0.45% to $83.3 per barrel.
— Lee Ying Shan
Fed hike likely to keep Asian risk assets under pressure, JPMorgan says
Asian risk assets, especially export-oriented companies, will remain under pressure in the short term following the Fed’s rate hike, according to Tai Hui, chief APAC market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
Tai added that a strong U.S. dollar is likely to persist, but tightening monetary policy in most Asian central banks — with the exception of China and Japan — should help limit the extent of Asian currency depreciation.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, strengthened sharply and last stood at 111.697.
— Abigail Ng
CNBC Pro: This fund manager is beating the market. Here’s what he’s betting against
Stock markets are down but the fund managed by Patrick Armstrong at Plurimi Wealth is continuing to deliver positive returns. The fund manager has a number of short positions to play the market volatility.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson names the key attribute he likes in stocks
Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson is staying defensive amid the persistent market volatility this year. He names the key attribute he’s looking for in stocks.
Stocks with this attribute have been “rewarded” this year, with the trend likely to persist until the market turns more bullish, according to Wilson.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Wednesday as investors react to the latest U.S. inflation data.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 47 points lower at 7,341, Germany’s DAX 86 points lower at 13,106, France’s CAC 40 down 28 points and Italy’s FTSE MIB 132 points lower at 22,010, according to data from IG.
Global markets have pulled back following a higher-than-expected U.S. consumer price index report for August which showed prices rose by 0.1% for the month and 8.3% annually in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, defying economist expectations that headline inflation would fall 0.1% month-on-month.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.6% from July and 6.3% from August 2021.
U.K. inflation figures for August are due and euro zone industrial production for July will be published.
— Holly Ellyatt
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AP News Summary At 3:48 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-348-a-m-edt/
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy lays out his case against Russia to UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s president has laid out his case against Russia’s invasion at the United Nations and demanded punishment from world leaders. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech was delivered just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilize some reservists for the war effort. Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians had seized, Zelenskyy vowed in a video address that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine. Video addresses by Zelenskyy in an olive green T-shirt have become almost commonplace. But this speech was one of the most keenly anticipated at the U.N. General Assembly, where the war has dominated.
Ukraine’s Mariupol defenders, Putin ally in prisoner swap
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has completed a high-profile prisoner swap with Russia, the culmination of months of efforts to free many of the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in the port of Mariupol during a months-long Russian siege. In exchange, Ukraine gave up an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin it was holding. President Volodymr Zelenskky says his government won freedom from Russian custody for 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens. He says many were soldiers and officers who had faced the death penalty in Russian-occupied territory. Of the total, 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for just one man — pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine several days before Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 but was recaptured in April.
Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The court notes that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records. And it is rejecting the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents marked as classified.
Powell’s stark message: Inflation fight may cause recession
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession. Speaking at a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged what many economists have been saying for months: That the Fed’s goal of engineering a “soft landing” — in which it would manage to slow growth enough to curb inflation but not so much as to trigger a recession — looks increasingly unlikely. “The chances of a soft landing,” Powell said, “are likely to diminish” as the Fed steadily raises borrowing costs to slow the worst inflation in four decades.
AP PHOTOS: Backbreaking work for kids in Afghan brick kilns
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Aid agencies say the number of children working in Afghanistan is growing ever since the economy collapsed following the Taliban takeover more than a year ago. Nowhere is it clearer than in the brick factories outside of the capital, Kabul. Children as young as four or five labor alongside their parents from early in the morning until late at night, doing backbreaking tasks like hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks. Their families say they have no choice, the work is needed to put food on the table. A recent survey by Save The Children estimated that half of Afghanistan’s families have had to put their children to work.
In Ukraine’s retaken battlefields, soldiers recover bodies
PRUDYANKA, Ukraine (AP) — Only now are Ukrainian soldiers able to retrieve the bodies of dead soldiers from a region near the Russian border that was the scene of fierce fighting for months over the summer. Ukrainian forces retook the area and have pushed Russian troops back across the border in a blistering counteroffensive, making the recovery of the battlefield dead, both Ukrainian and Russian, possible. The area was of strategic importance as its high ground is one of the positions where Russian artillery could easily strike Ukraine’s hard-hit second-largest city of Kharkiv. On Monday, the bodies of seven Ukrainian soldiers were recovered, along with the severed hand of a Russian found among discarded Russian body armor and backpacks.
6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Mexico, 1 dead
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 has caused buildings to sway in Mexico’s capital and left at least one person dead. The earthquake struck early Thursday, just three days after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook western and central Mexico, killing two people. The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday’s earthquake, like Monday’s, was centered in the western state of Michoacan near the Pacific coast. Michoacan’s state government said the quake was felt throughout the state, but did not immediately report damage. Mexico City’s mayor said via Twitter there were no immediate reports of damage. Residents were huddled in streets as seismic alarms blared.
Khmer Rouge tribunal ends work after 16 years, 3 judgments
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday rejected the appeal of a genocide conviction by the communist group’s last surviving leader in what is expected to be the special court’s last session. The historic international court issued its ruling on an appeal by Khieu Samphan, who served as head of state in Cambodia’s 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government. He was convicted in 2018 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced to life in prison. The tribunal spent $337 million and 16 years to convict just him and two other defendants in connection with a reign of terror that caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
Climate Migration: Indian kids find hope in a new language
BENGALURU, India (AP) — A flood in 2019 in an Indian state started eight-year-old Jerifa, her brother Raju, 12, and their parents on a journey that led the family from their Himalayan village to a poor neighborhood in Bengaluru. They are now among the millions of climate migrants in India, forced to move because of disasters made worse by global warming. The two kids are now learning a new language to be able to go to school, and their parents hope that this new life in a new city will help them provide opportunities for the children that they themselves didn’t have.
Fugitive in massive Navy bribery case caught in Venezuela
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Malaysian defense contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in U.S. military history has been arrested in Venezuela. The U.S. Marshals Service says Leonard Glenn Francis was arrested Tuesday as he was about to board a plane in Caracas. Francis was under home arrest in San Diego when he cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and escaped on Sept. 4, prompting an international manhunt. Francis was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in 2015 to bribing Navy officers to help his ship servicing company, then overcharging the military at least $35 million. Dozens of Navy officers were convicted for the scheme.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Russia Frees 215 Ukrainians Held After Mariupol Battle Ukraine Says
Russia Frees 215 Ukrainians Held After Mariupol Battle, Ukraine Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/russia-frees-215-ukrainians-held-after-mariupol-battle-ukraine-says/
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Sept 21 (Reuters) – Russia has released 215 Ukrainians it took prisoner after a protracted battle for the port city of Mariupol earlier this year, including top military leaders, a senior official in Kyiv said on Wednesday.
The freed prisoners include the commander and deputy commander of the Azov battalion that did much of the fighting, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
The move is unexpected, since Russian-backed separatists last month said there would be a trial of Azov personnel, who Moscow describes as Nazis. Ukraine denies the charge.
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In a statement, Yermak said the freed prisoners included Azov commander Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar.
Also at liberty is Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Commanders of defender of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol Denys Prokopenko, Serhii Volynskyi, Sviatoslav Palamar, Denys Shleha, Oleh Homenko together with Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi and Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via video link after prisoners of war (POWs) swapping, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in location given as Turkey, in this handout picture released September 22, 2022. Press service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
The three men had helped lead a dogged weeks-long resistance from the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol’s giant steel works before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces.
Yermak said that in return, Kyiv had freed 55 Russian prisoners as well as Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a banned pro-Russian party who was facing treason charges.
Public broadcaster Suspline said the exchange had happened near the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia said Russia had released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine following mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. read more
Last month, the head of the Russian-backed separatist administration in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk said a trial of captured Azov personnel would take place by the end of the summer. read more
The Azov unit, formed in 2014 as a militia to fight Russian-backed separatists, denies being fascist, and Ukraine says it has been reformed from its radical nationalist origins.
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Reporting by David Ljunggren Editing by Alistair Bell and Rosalba O’Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
David Ljunggren
Thomson Reuters
Covers Canadian political, economic and general news as well as breaking news across North America, previously based in London and Moscow and a winner of Reuters’ Treasury scoop of the year.
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Central Cambria Tops Ridge https://digitalalabamanews.com/central-cambria-tops-ridge/
Cross country
LILLY — The Central Cambria boys and girls both remained unbeaten with 23-38 and 15-50 wins, respectively, over Chestnut Ridge at Lilly Memorial Park in high school cross country on Wednesday.
CC’s Annaliese Neibauer won the girls race with Morgan Brandis finishing second. Ridge’s Calan Bollman won the boys race with CC’s Aiden Lechleitner placing second.
BOYS
1, Bollman, CR, 16:40; 2, Lechleitner, CC, 17:05; 3, Kuntz, CC, 17:50; 4, Myers, CR, 18:22; 5, Wilson, CC, 18:37; 6, George, CC 18:45; 7, Archangelo, CC 20:09; 8, Laughard, BC, 20:10; 9, H. Bradley, CC, 20:30; 10. Ray, CC, 20:43.
GIRLS
1, Niebauer, CC, 20:20; 2, Brandis, CC, 20:22; 3, George, CC, 20:40; 4, Al. Sheehan, CC, 21:01; 5, Ab. Sheehan, CC, 21:05; 6, Long, CC, 21:55; 7, Ruddek, CC, 22:19; 8, Link, CC, 22:28; 9, Carwath, CR, 22:37; 10, Westrick, CC 24:20.
Records: Central Cambria boys (4-0), girls (4-0); Chestnut Ridge boys (1-2), girls (2-2).
Middle school boys: Central Cambria 23, Bishop Carroll 32.
Middle school girls: Bishop Carroll 28, Central Cambria 29; Central Cambria 20, Chestnut Ridge 43.
Corte paces Portage
BLAIRSVILLE — Gabe Corte finished first in 20:59 to help the Portage boys top River Valley, 21-34, West Shamokin, 24-31, and Kiski Prep, 21-34.
In other boys scores, West Shamokin beat Kiski, 23-32, and River Valley, 12-24, and RV beat Kiski, 27-28.
Alex Chobany of Portage won the girls race in 22:56, but the Lady Mustangs fell to River Valley, 24-35, and West Shamokin, 26-32. The River Valley girls nipped West Shamokin, 27-28.
BOYS
1, Corte, P, 20:59; 2, Lucullo, WS, 21:37; 3, Gentile, P, 21:38; 4, Eckenrode, KP, 22:17; 5, Parks, WS, 22:22; 6, Reilly, RV, 23:20; 7, Walker, P, 24:12; 8, Westover, P, 24:24; 9, Houser, WS, 24:43; 10, Moore, WS, 25:53.
GIRLS
1, Chobany, P, 22:56; 2, Schreckengost, WS, 24:19; 3, Kepple, RV, 24:20; 4, Duncan, RV, 25:15; 5, Lucullo, WS, 25:25; 6, Reaugh, RV, 25:37; 7, Cas. Burkett, P, 26:25; 8, Cam. Burkett, P, 27:12; 9, Daymut, WS, 27:51; 10, Olenchick, RV, 28:01
Records: Portage boys (4-5), girls (1-6); Kiski Prep boys (0-4); West Shamokin boys (2-1), girls (1-1); River Valley boys (1-3), girls (2-1).
Junior high boys: Portage went 2-0.
B-A teams go 2-1
MOUNT UNION — The Bellwood-Antis girls topped Mount Union, 15-50, and Southern Huntingdon, 26-31, but fell to Southern Fulton, 28-29. Southern Fulton beat MU, 11-25, and Southern Huntingdon, 26-29.
B-A’s Lexi Lovrich ran a personal-best time of 21:04 to win the girls race.
The Bellwood boys topped Southern Fulton, 28-30, and Southern Huntingdon, 19-39, but fell to Mount Union, 23-33. The Mount Union boys beat Southern Fulton, 27-32 and Southern Huntingdon.
BOYS
1, Fitz, SF, 18:43; 2. Ritz, SF, 18:46; 3. Beatty, MU, 19:14; 4. Fisher, MU, ,19:53; 5, Sensibaugh, BA, 19:56; 6. Erwin, SH, 20:08; 7. Martin, FM, 20:12; 8. Mills, BA, 20:20; 9. Plank, MU, 20:25; 10. Dion, SF, 20:40.
GIRLS
1. Lovrich, BA, 21:04; 2. Black, SF, 24:09; 3. Ashkettle, SF, 24:41; 4. McMath, SH, 24:43; 5. McCallen, FM, 24:49; 6. Grissinger, SH, 25:29; 7. Brady, SF, 25:50; 8. Risbon, SF, 25:52; 9. Wolf, BA, 26:02; 10. Smith, MU, 26:26.
Records: Bellwood-Antis boys (3-2), girls (3-2).
Bedford boys win
BEDFORD — The Bedford boys topped Bishop McCort, 27-28, and Windber, 28-29, while the McCort boys edged Windber, 27-30, in a triangular meet.
Windber’s Joseph McKelvey won the boys race with Bedford’s Joseph Pencil placing third.
The Windber girls downed Bedford, 15-50, and McCort, 15-50. Bedford’s Avrey Weaverling won the girls race in 22:03.00 with Savannah Hershberger of Northern Bedford – which didn’t field a full team – placing second.
BOYS
1, McKelvey, W, 17:46.00; 2, Page, W, 18:25.40; 3, Pencil, B, 19:23.50; 4, Pfiel, BM, 20:16.00; 5, Haberkorn, BM, 20:18.60; 6, Miller, Northern Bedford, 20:25.20; 7, Gleason, BM, 20:48.10; 8, Gresh, B, 20:58.90; 9, Betcher, W, 21:33.20; 10, Swope, B, 21:34.60.
GIRLS
1, Weaverling, B, 22:03.00; 2, Hershberger, Northern Bedford, 23:12.00; 3, C. Bean, W, 23:36.00; 4, Hart, W, 24:26.50; 5, Podrasky, W, 27:51.30; 6, Penatzer, B, 28:03.60; 7, L. Bean, W, 29:32.30; 8, Plunkard, W, 30:19.40; 9, Bennethum, W, 30:29.30.
Records: Bedford boys (3-3), girls (0-4).
Heights goes 1-1
ARMAGH — The Cambria Heights boys beat Penns Manor, 16-47, but fell to United, 21-38. The United boys beat Penns Manor, 15-54. Brock Eckenrode finished second for Heights.
The Heights girls fell to United, 20-39, and Penns Manor, 28-28, on a tie-breaker. The United girls beat PM, 20-41. Savannah Hoover was fourth for the Heights girls.
BOYS
1, Henning, U, 19:32; 2, Eckenrode, CH, 20:22; 3, Beaver, U, 20:48; 4, Fischer, U, 21:41; 5, Hock, CH, 21:43; 6, Pearce, U, 21:53; 7, Ludwig, U, 21:56; 8, Pisarak, U, 23:20; 9, Bender, CH, 23:32; 10, Delattre, CH, 23:32.
GIRLS
1, Gornick, U, 24:33; 2, Marshall, U, 24:40; 3, Orner, PM, 25:19; 4, Hoover, CH, 25:32; 5, Stiles, U, 26:27; 6, Bowman, PM, 26:58; 7, Adams, CH, 27:10; 8, Steiner, U, 27:37; 9, Oleksa, U, 28:33; 10, McMullen, CH, 28:40.
Junior high boys: United 21, Cambria Heights 36; Cambria Heights 9, Penns Manor 12.
Junior high girls: United 24, Cambria Heights 35; Cambria Heights 6, Penns Manor 15.
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Trump Plays Sad Old Hits At Mar-A-Lago As Spies Descend On The Resort
Trump Plays Sad Old Hits At Mar-A-Lago As Spies Descend On The Resort https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-plays-sad-old-hits-at-mar-a-lago-as-spies-descend-on-the-resort/
To the cavalcade of terrors that is each new report from Mar-a-Lago, let us add the nightly dance floor rein of one DJ Donald Trump.
A new report from The Guardian quotes a member of the former president’s private Palm Beach club cum spy magnet, whose eyewitness account of 45’s penchant for playing social director paints a scene somewhere between My Super Sweet Sixteen, the Stanford Prison Experiment and the “It’s a Good Life” episode of The Twilight Zone.
“At about 9.30pm every night, he’s sitting at his table, whether on the patio or inside, and they bring a laptop over and he starts picking songs, and he starts being a DJ for the night,” says the club member. “But it’s sort of funny because he picks like the same 10 songs every night.”
The member described Trump’s shift towards dance commander as a relatively new development, though the likely same ten songs selections rhyme with the regressive drift he brought our politics: Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All,” some pre-gay Elton John, the inevitable Village People “YMCA,” and other songs from mid-to-late-period Studio 54, which the maestro frequented when he was but an heir to a modest real-estate fortune, stacking up bankruptcies like Whitney stacked hits.
“Sometimes he dances to it,” the lucky witness says of “YMCA.” “He will be at his table and he’ll dance while sitting.” Free free to take a moment with that.
Later in the evening, DJ Trump’s set waxes maudlin and then ends with his perennial closer “How Great Thou Art,” a hymn popularized by Elvis Presley and a noted favorite of Trump’s dad, Fred Trump, whose own father changed the family name from Trumpf after emigrating from Bavaria, site of that era’s Mar-a-Lago, sprawling chalet The Berghof.
Fave music of presidents is a matter of record—from Kennedy’s damn Stravinsky to Obama’s oddly sucker-free playlists—but no one generated the chilling accounts of listening habits that emerge from the Trump White House. Such as former press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s recent tell-all which describes a staffer called “The Music Man” (later revealed to be Max Miller) who was assigned to play show tunes to soothe an aggrieved POTUS, including his, favorite “Memory” from Cats.
While the proprietor dances in his seat, Mar-a-Lago draws foreign spies like Aqua Net draws flies, experts say.
“[Trump]’s brought in really questionable people with various skeletons in their closets, financial or personal or political, who have vulnerabilities a foreign intelligence service could exploit,” 34-year CIA clandestine service vet Douglas London told The Guardian. And beyond the chill ambience of the dance floor, as buzzed guests wander to and fro, any number of top-secret government documents might drift in and out with them, the crooning of The Village People echoing through Spanish-Moorish tiles.
“Without any question, the former president, and those in his circle will be very important targets for any foreign intelligence service,” London said. “They will be looking at: how do we get into that circle?”
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Calls To Oust Trump-Appointed World Bank Chief After Vague Answers On Climate Change
Calls To Oust Trump-Appointed World Bank Chief After Vague Answers On Climate Change https://digitalalabamanews.com/calls-to-oust-trump-appointed-world-bank-chief-after-vague-answers-on-climate-change/
David Malpass dodged questions on climate change and the effect of burning fossil fuels
David Malpass, president of the World Bank, was nominated to his five-year term in 2019 by US president Donald Trump. Reuters
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Pressure to oust World Bank president David Malpass is increasing after he dodged questions on climate change and the effects of burning fossil fuels.
The controversy kicked off on Tuesday when former US vice president Al Gore labelled him a climate denier and called for a change of leadership.
Asked about the criticism during the same event in New York, Mr Malpass, installed three years ago by president Donald Trump, avoided questions on the effects of man-made emissions on climate change before saying: “I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.”
Activists and Wall Street were already calling on the World Bank and other multilateral lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to do more to accelerate clean energy ventures and halt funding for fossil fuel projects, because burning oil, gas and coal unleashes heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.
“You don’t need to be a scientist to understand climate science — the facts are clear, and there’s no alternative but to act,” said Sonia Dunlop, who is with E3G, an environmental research group.
“The World Bank is critical to the global fight against climate change.”
Mr Malpass’s comments contrast with a stronger climate stance from President Joe Biden’s administration. The US is the World Bank’s biggest shareholder and most influential voice when it comes to choosing the bank’s leadership.
“We expect the World Bank Group to be a global leader of climate ambition and the mobilisation of significantly more climate finance for developing countries,” the Treasury Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We have — and will continue — to make that expectation clear to World Bank leadership. The World Bank must be a full partner in delivering on this global agenda.”
Quote
We expect the World Bank Group to be a global leader of climate ambition and the mobilisation of significantly more climate finance for developing countries
US Treasury Department
A senior administration official on Wednesday night said reports of Mr Malpass’s climate change stance raised eyebrows in the White House and that the administration was planning to look more closely at the matter.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has labelled climate change an “existential threat” and called on US regulators to address the risk it poses to financial markets.
She has championed the newly enacted climate law signed by Mr Biden last month, saying it will help the US meet its emissions reduction goals. Earlier this year, Ms Yellen called on the World Bank to step up its efforts to fight climate change.
Tensions between the Biden administration and Mr Malpass come down to politics as much as climate science. Mr Malpass, a former Treasury official and World Bank critic, was nominated to his five-year term in 2019 by Mr Trump.
By tradition, the US chooses the head of the World Bank, while Europe selects the head of the IMF, a custom dating to the origins of the twin Bretton Woods institutions.
The World Bank on Tuesday released a statement defending Mr Malpass’s record. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
For Mr Malpass to be dismissed before his term ends in 2024, he would either need to be removed by the board, which has never happened, or he could potentially be forced to step down if his position became untenable.
“Having a climate denier at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful international financial institutions is unconscionable,” said Luisa Abbott Galvao, a senior international policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth.
The group, along with other activists, said they plan to unveil a banner calling for Mr Malpass to be replaced at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington.
“President Biden and other shareholders must push the board to fire him immediately,” she said.
Updated: September 22, 2022, 6:37 AM
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AP News Summary At 2:25 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-225-a-m-edt/
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy lays out his case against Russia to UN
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Ukraine’s president has laid out his case against Russia’s invasion at the United Nations and demanded punishment from world leaders. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech was delivered just hours after Moscow made an extraordinary announcement that it would mobilize some reservists for the war effort. Buoyed by a counteroffensive that has retaken swaths of territory that the Russians had seized, Zelenskyy vowed in a video address that his forces would not stop until they had reclaimed all of Ukraine. Video addresses by Zelenskyy in an olive green T-shirt have become almost commonplace. But this speech was one of the most keenly anticipated at the U.N. General Assembly, where the war has dominated.
Steel plant defenders, Putin ally exchanged in prisoner swap
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has completed a high-profile prisoner swap that culminated months of efforts to free many of the Ukrainian fighters who defended a steel plant in the port of Mariupol during a months-long Russian siege. In exchange, Ukraine gave up an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin it was holding. President Volodymr Zelenskky says his government won freedom from Russian custody for 215 Ukrainian and foreign citizens. He says many were soldiers and officers who had faced the death penalty in Russian-occupied territory. Of the total, 200 Ukrainians were exchanged for just one man — pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk. The 68-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest in Ukraine several days before Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 but was recaptured in April.
Trump docs probe: Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has lifted a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified records seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta clears the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they evaluate whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret government records at Mar-a-Lago. The court notes that Trump presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records. And it is rejecting the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents marked as classified.
Powell’s stark message: Inflation fight may cause recession
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Patricia Lynn Champion Weeks https://digitalalabamanews.com/patricia-lynn-champion-weeks/
RED BAY
Patricia Lynn “Patsy” Champion Weeks, 70, passed away Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at her residence. She was born in Austin, TX to Leon and Zelma Champion. She was a 1970 graduate of Lee High School in Huntsville, AL and she graduated from Auburn University in 1974 with a degree in Home Economics and a minor in Library Science. She worked for five years as a librarian at Waterloo High School, at Redmont Pharmacy and Ronald Thorn State Farm Insurance until her retirement. In retirement she enjoyed spending time with her grandkids and honorary grandkids, Addison and Bennett Grimes and watching and attending Auburn football games. She was a member of First Baptist Church, Red Bay Civitans and Red Bay Lions Club.
Services will be Sunday, September 25, 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church, Red Bay, AL with Bro. Larry Hill and Bro. Bill Harper officiating. Burial will be in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Red Bay, AL. Deaton Funeral Home, Red Bay, AL will be in charge of arrangements.
She is survived by her husband, J.C. Weeks, Jr.; two children, Clay Weeks of Shreveport, LA and Marguerite Edwards (Ronnie) of Trinity, AL; grandchildren, Clarissa Edwards, Damon Weeks, Trenton Edwards, Abby Weeks and Bryant Edwards; one brother, Sam Champion (Cecilia) of Auburn, AL; nieces and nephews, Amanda Jones, Nathan Champion, Bailey Nalls, Charles Ross Weatherford and Katheryn Weatherford and her cousins.
She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Ann Jones.
Pallbearers will be Scott Eubanks, Mike Montgomery, Zach Grimes, Danny Stovall, Chris Brazil and John Williams. Honorary pallbearers will be Damon Weeks, Trenton Edwards and Bryant Edwards.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, www. st.jude.org or The Gideons International, Franklin West Camp, P.O. Box 1203, Red Bay, AL 35582.
Visitation will be Saturday, September 24, 6-9 p.m. at Deaton Funeral Home, Red Bay, AL.
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Trump Accused Of Vast Fraud In Suit By NY Attorney General
Trump Accused Of Vast Fraud In Suit By NY Attorney General https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-accused-of-vast-fraud-in-suit-by-ny-attorney-general/
FILE – Donald Trump, right, sits with his children, from left, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump during a groundbreaking ceremony for the Trump International Hotel on July 23, 2014, in Washington. New York’s attorney general sued former President Donald Trump and his company on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, alleging business fraud involving some of their most prized assets, including properties in Manhattan, Chicago and Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general sued former President Donald Trump and his company for fraud on Wednesday, alleging they padded his net worth by billions of dollars by lying about the value of prized assets including golf courses, hotels and his homes at Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.
Attorney General Letitia James dubbed it: “The art of the steal.”
James’ lawsuit, filed in state court in New York, is the culmination of a three-year civil investigation of Trump and the Trump Organization. Trump’s three eldest children, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, were also named as defendants, along with two longtime company executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney.
The lawsuit strikes at the core of what made Trump famous, taking a blacklight to the image of wealth and opulence he’s embraced throughout his career — first as a real estate developer, then as a reality TV host on “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” and later as president.
James wants Trump and the other defendants to pay at least $250 million, which she said was the approximate worth of the benefits it got through fraudulent practices.
James, a Democrat, announced details of the lawsuit at a news conference on Wednesday. She said her office filed the case — which is civil, not criminal in nature — after rejecting settlement offers made by lawyers for the defendants.
The alleged scheme was intended to burnish Trump’s billionaire image and the value of his properties when doing so gave him an advantage, such as in obtaining favorable loan terms, while playing down the value of assets at other times for tax purposes, James’ office said.
“This investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive banks and the people of the great state of New York,” James said at the news conference. “Claiming you have money that you do not have does not amount to the art of the deal. It’s the art of the steal.”
James said her investigation uncovered potential criminal violations, including falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy and bank fraud. She said her office is referring those findings to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service.
In a statement posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump called the lawsuit “Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General” and called James, who is Black, “a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the crime and murder disasters of the world under her watch!”
Trump lawyer Alina Habba said the lawsuit “is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda,” accusing James of abusing her authority “by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place.”
Habba said the allegations in the lawsuit are “meritless.”
James is seeking to remove the Trumps from businesses engaged in the alleged fraud and wants an independent monitor appointed for no less than five years to oversee the Trump Organization’s compliance, financial reporting, valuations and disclosures to lenders, insurers and tax authorities.
She is seeking to replace the current trustees of Trump’s revocable trust, which controls his business interests, with independent trustees, to bar Trump and the Trump Organization from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions for five years, from obtaining loans from banks in New York for five years and permanently bar Trump and three of his adult children from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State.
She also seeks to permanently bar Weisselberg and McConney from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in New York State.
James’ lawsuit comes amid a swirl of unprecedented legal challenges for a former president, including an FBI investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records and inquiries into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Trump Organization is set to go on trial in October in a criminal case alleging that it schemed to give untaxed perks to senior executives, including its longtime finance chief Weisselberg, who alone took more than $1.7 million in extras.
Weisselberg, 75, pleaded guilty Aug. 18. His plea agreement requires him to testify at the company’s trial before he starts a five-month jail sentence. If convicted, the Trump Organization could face a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been conducting a parallel criminal investigation of the same business practices at the heart of James’ civil lawsuit. That probe lost momentum earlier this year after Bragg raised questions internally about whether a criminal case was viable, but the Democrat has said it has not been abandoned.
At the same time, the FBI is continuing to investigate Trump’s storage of sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and a special grand jury in Georgia is investigating whether Trump and others attempted to influence state election officials.
All of the legal drama is playing out ahead of the November midterm elections, where Republicans are trying to win control of one or both houses of Congress.
James’ office could also seek to ban Trump from being involved in certain types of businesses, as happened in January when a judge barred ex-drug company CEO Martin Shkreli from the pharmaceutical industry for life.
In a previous clash with Trump, James oversaw the closure of his charity, the Trump Foundation, after her predecessor in the attorney general’s office, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit alleging he misused its assets to resolve business disputes and boost his run for the White House. A judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to an array of charities to settle the matter.
James, who campaigned for office as a Trump critic and watchdog, started scrutinizing his business practices in March 2019 after his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump exaggerated his wealth on financial statements provided to Deutsche Bank when he was trying to obtain financing to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Since then, James’ office and Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly sparred over the direction of the investigation and Trump’s unwillingness to comply with subpoenas for his testimony and records. Trump spent months fighting the subpoena that led to his August deposition, his lawyers unable to convince courts that he should be excused from testifying because his answers could be used in Bragg’s criminal probe.
In May, Trump paid $110,000 in fines after he was held in contempt of court for being slow to respond to a subpoena James’ office issued seeking documents and other evidence. The contempt finding was lifted in June after Trump and his lawyers submitted paperwork showing they had made a good faith effort to find relevant documents.
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Trump Docs Probe: Court Lifts Hold On Mar-A-Lago Records
Trump Docs Probe: Court Lifts Hold On Mar-A-Lago Records https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-docs-probe-court-lifts-hold-on-mar-a-lago-records/
A page from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta ruling that lifts a judge’s hold on the Justice Department’s ability to use classified documents seized by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, is photographed Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The ruling clears the way for the department to immediately resume its use of the documents in its investigation. (Jon Elswick/AP)
WASHINGTON — In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation.
The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit amounts to an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department, clearing the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. In lifting a hold on a core aspect of the department’s probe, the court removed an obstacle that could have delayed the investigation by weeks.
The appeals court also pointedly noted that Trump had presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records, as he maintained as recently as Wednesday, and rejected the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents with classification markings that were seized by the FBI in its Aug. 8 search of the Palm Beach property.
The government had argued that its investigation had been impeded, and national security concerns swept aside, by an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that temporarily barred investigators from continuing to use the documents in its inquiry. Cannon, a Trump appointee, had said the hold would remain in place pending a separate review by an independent arbiter she had appointed at the Trump team’s request to review the records.
The appeals panel agreed with the Justice Department’s concerns.
“It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,'” they wrote. “Ascertaining that,” they added, “necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.”
An injunction that delayed or prevented the criminal investigation “from using classified materials risks imposing real and significant harm on the United States and the public,” they wrote.
Two of the three judges who issued Wednesday’s ruling — Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher — were nominated to the 11th Circuit by Trump. Judge Robin Rosenbaum was nominated by former President Barack Obama.
Lawyers for Trump did not return an email seeking comment on whether they would appeal the ruling. The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment.
The FBI last month seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during a court-authorized search of the Palm Beach club. It has launched a criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised, though is not clear whether Trump or anyone else will be charged.
Cannon ruled on Sept. 5 that she would name an independent arbiter, or special master, to do an independent review of those records and segregate any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege and to determine whether any of the materials should be returned to Trump.
Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, has been named to the role and held his first meeting on Tuesday with lawyers for both sides.
The Justice Department had argued that a special master review of the classified documents was not necessary. It said Trump had no plausible basis to invoke executive privilege over the documents, nor could the records be covered by attorney-client privilege because they do not involve communications between Trump and his lawyers.
It had also contested Cannon’s order requiring it to provide Dearie and Trump’s lawyers with access to the classified material. The court sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday, saying “courts should order review of such materials in only the most extraordinary circumstances. The record does not allow for the conclusion that this is such a circumstance.”
Trump has repeatedly maintained that he had declassified the material. In a Fox News Channel interview recorded Wednesday before the appeals court ruling, he said, “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying ‘It’s declassified.'”
Though his lawyers have said a president has absolute authority to declassify information, they have notably stopped short of asserting that the records were declassified. The Trump team this week resisted providing Dearie with any information to support the idea that the records might have been declassified, saying the issue could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment.
The Justice Department has said there is no indication that Trump took any steps to declassify the documents and even included a photo in one court filing of some of the seized documents with colored cover sheets indicating their classified status. The appeals court, too, made the same point.
“Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified,” the judges wrote. “In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.”
Colvin reported from New York.
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Fat Leonard' Fugitive Defense Contractor Convicted In Navy Bribery Case Arrested In Venezuela
‘Fat Leonard,' Fugitive Defense Contractor Convicted In Navy Bribery Case, Arrested In Venezuela https://digitalalabamanews.com/fat-leonard-fugitive-defense-contractor-convicted-in-navy-bribery-case-arrested-in-venezuela/
Leonard Glenn Francis, better known as “Fat Leonard,” a defense contractor who disappeared weeks before he was set to be sentenced for one of the largest bribery scandals in the nation’s military history, was taken into custody Wednesday in Venezuela, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed.
Francis was taken into custody by Venezuelan authorities as he was boarding a plane to another country, Marshals Service spokesperson Omar Castillo said. Carlos Garate Rondon, the Director General of INTERPOL Venezuela, stated Francis flew from Mexico to Ve Cuba, and his final destination was supposed to be Russia.
Francis will be handed over to federal authorities.
In 2018, before his escape, a judge warned Francis was a flight risk. NBC 7’s Dave Summers has the story.
The U.S. government posted a $40,000 reward last Friday for information leading to the arrest of the Malaysian defense contractor.
Francis cut off his ankle monitoring bracelet around 7:35 a.m. Sunday at a San Diego home where he was being held, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Neighbors reported seeing U-Haul trucks coming and going from the home days before he disappeared.
Francis had been allowed to remain in home confinement to receive medical care while he cooperated with the prosecution. With his help, prosecutors secured convictions of 33 of 34 defendants, including more than two dozen Navy officers.
‘Fat Leonard’ Case
Francis pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering prostitution services, luxury hotels, cigars, gourmet meals, and more than $500,000 in bribes to Navy officials and others to help his Singapore-based ship servicing company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia Ltd. or GDMA. Prosecutors said the company overcharged the Navy by at least $35 million for servicing ships, many of which were routed to ports he controlled in the Pacific.
Ten U.S. agencies are searching for Francis. U.S. authorities also issued a red notice, which asks law enforcement worldwide to provisionally arrest someone with the possibility of extradition. Malaysia and Singapore both have extradition agreements with the United States.
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Ohio GOP House Candidate Has Misrepresented Military Service
Ohio GOP House Candidate Has Misrepresented Military Service https://digitalalabamanews.com/ohio-gop-house-candidate-has-misrepresented-military-service/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Campaigning for a northwestern Ohio congressional seat, Republican J.R. Majewski presents himself as an Air Force combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, once describing “tough” conditions including a lack of running water that forced him to go more than 40 days without a shower.
Military documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request tell a different story.
They indicate Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan but instead completed a six-month stint helping to load planes at an air base in Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally that is a safe distance from the fighting.
Majewski’s account of his time in the military is just one aspect of his biography that is suspect. His post-military career has been defined by exaggerations, conspiracy theories, talk of violent action against the U.S. government and occasional financial duress.
Still, thanks to an unflinching allegiance to former President Donald Trump — Majewski once painted a massive Trump mural on his lawn — he also stands a chance of defeating longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a district recently redrawn to favor Republicans.
Majewski is among a cluster of GOP candidates, most running for office for the first time, whose unvarnished life stories and hard-right politics could diminish the chances of a Republican “red wave” on Election Day in November. He is also a vivid representation of a new breed of politicians who reject facts as they try to emulate Trump.
“It bothers me when people trade on their military service to get elected to office when what they are doing is misleading the people they want to vote for them,” Don Christensen, a retired colonel and former chief prosecutor for the Air Force, said of Majewski. “Veterans have done so much for this country and when you claim to have done what your brothers and sisters in arms actually did to build up your reputation, it is a disservice.”
Majewski’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview and, in a lengthy statement issued to the AP, did not directly address questions about his claim of deploying to Afghanistan. A spokeswoman declined to provide additional comment when the AP followed up with additional questions.
“I am proud to have served my country,” Majewski said in the statement. “My accomplishments and record are under attack, meanwhile, career politician Marcy Kaptur has a forty-year record of failure for my Toledo community, which is why I’m running for Congress.”
With no previous political experience, Majewski is perhaps an unlikely person to be the Republican nominee taking on Kaptur, who has represented the Toledo area since 1983. But two state legislators who were also on the ballot in the August GOP primary split the establishment vote. That cleared a path for Majewski, who previously worked in the nuclear power industry and dabbled in politics as a pro-Trump hip-hop performer and promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory. He was also at the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Throughout his campaign Majewski has offered his Air Force service as a valuable credential. The tagline “veteran for Congress” appears on campaign merchandise. He ran a Facebook ad promoting himself as “combat veteran.” And in a campaign video released this year, Majewski marauds through a vacant factory with a rifle while pledging to restore an America that is “independent and strong like the country I fought for.”
More recently, the House Republican campaign committee released a biography that describes Majewski as a veteran whose “squadron was one of the first on the ground in Afghanistan after 9/11.” A campaign ad posted online Tuesday by Majewski supporters flashed the words “Afghanistan War Veteran” across the screen alongside a picture of a younger Majewski in his dress uniform.
A biography posted on his campaign website does not mention Afghanistan, but in an August 2021 tweet criticizing the U.S. withdraw from the country, Majewski said he would “gladly suit up and go back to Afghanistan.”
He’s been far less forthcoming when asked about the specifics of his service.
“I don’t like talking about my military experience,” he said in a 2021 interview on the One American Podcast after volunteering that he served one tour of duty in Afghanistan. “It was a tough time in life. You know, the military wasn’t easy.”
A review of his service records, which the AP obtained from the National Archives through a public records request, as well as an accounting provided by the Air Force, offers a possible explanation for his hesitancy.
Rather than deploying to Afghanistan, as he has claimed, the records state that Majewski was based at Kadena Air Base in Japan for much of his active-duty service. He later deployed for six months to Qatar in May 2002, where he helped load and unload planes while serving as a “passenger operations specialist,” the records show.
While based in Qatar, Majewski would land at other air bases to transfer military passengers, medics, supplies, his campaign said. The campaign did not answer a direct question about whether he was ever in Afghanistan.
Experts argue Majewski’s description of himself as a “combat veteran” is also misleading.
The term can evoke images of soldiers storming a beachhead or finding refuge during a firefight. But under the laws and regulations of the U.S. government, facing live fire has little to do with someone earning the title.
During the Persian Gulf War, then-President George H.W. Bush designated, for the first time, countries used as combat support areas as combat zones despite the low-risk of American service members ever facing hostilities. That helped veterans receive a favorable tax status. Qatar, which is now home to the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, was among the countries that received the designation under Bush’s executive order — a status that remains in effect today.
Regardless, it rankles some when those seeking office offer their status as a combat veteran as a credential to voters without explaining that it does not mean that they came under hostile fire.
“As somebody who was in Qatar, I do not consider myself a combat veteran,” said Christensen, the retired Air Force colonel who now runs Protect Our Defenders, a military watchdog organization. “I think that would be offensive to those who were actually engaged in combat and Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Majewski’s campaign said that he calls himself a combat veteran because the area he deployed to — Qatar — is considered a combat zone.
Majewski also lacks many of the medals that are typically awarded to those who served in Afghanistan.
Though he once said that he went more than 40 days without a shower during his time in the landlocked country, he does not have an Afghanistan campaign medal, which was issued to those who served “30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days” in the country.
He also did not receive a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, which was issued to service members before the creation of the Afghanistan campaign medal if they deployed overseas in “direct service to the War on Terror.”
Matthew Borie, an Air Force veteran who worked in intelligence and reviewed Majewski’s records at AP’s request, said it’s “odd” that Majewski lacks many of the “medals you would expect to see for someone who deployed to Afghanistan.”
There’s also the matter of Majewski’s final rank and reenlistment code when he left active duty after four years of service.
Most leave the service after four years having received several promotions that are generally awarded for time served. Majewski exited at a rank that was one notch above where he started. His enlistment code also indicated that he could not sign up with the Air Force again.
Majewski’s campaign said he received what’s called a nonjudicial punishment in 2001 after getting into a “brawl” in his dormitory, which resulted in a demotion. Nonjudicial punishments are designed to hold service members accountable for bad behavior that does not rise to the level of a court-martial.
Majewski’s resume exaggeration isn’t limited to his military service, reverberating throughout his professional life, as well as a nascent political career that took shape in an online world of conspiracy theories.
Since gaining traction in his campaign for Congress, Majewski has denied that he is a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory while playing down his participation in the Capitol riot.
The baseless and apocalyptic QAnon belief is based on cryptic online postings by the anonymous “Q,” who is purportedly a government insider. It posits that Trump is fighting entrenched enemies in the government and also involves satanism and child sex trafficking.
“Let me be clear, I denounce QAnon. I do not support Q, and I do not subscribe to their conspiracy theories,” Majewski said in his statement to the AP.
But in the past Majewski repeatedly posted QAnon references and memes to social media, wore a QAnon shirt during a TV interview and has described Zak Paine, a QAnon influencer and online personality who goes by the nom de guerre Redpill78, as a “good friend.”
During a February 2021 appearance on a YouTube stream, Majewski stated, “I believe in everything that’s been put out from Q,” while characterizing the false posts as “military-level intelligence, in my opinion.” He also posted, to the right-wing social media platform Parler, a photo of the “Trump 2020” mural he painted on his lawn that was modified to change the zeros into “Q’s,” as first reported by CNN.
Then there’s Majewski’s participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Majewski has said that he raised about $25,000 to help dozens of people attend the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol...
Biden Tells The United Nations That Putin's Attempts To 'extinguish' Ukraine Should 'make Your Blood Run Cold'
Biden Tells The United Nations That Putin's Attempts To 'extinguish' Ukraine Should 'make Your Blood Run Cold' https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-tells-the-united-nations-that-putins-attempts-to-extinguish-ukraine-should-make-your-blood-run-cold/
United Nations (CNN)President Joe Biden on Wednesday declared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a violation of the global order, sharpening his rebukes of President Vladimir Putin as the war entered a tense new moment.
Biden’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly came hours after Putin announced an expansion of his war effort, lending the annual address Cold War-style gravity as Biden sought to rally nations behind his effort to isolate and punish Russia.
“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state and Ukrainians’ right to exist as a people,” Biden told the international body. “That should make your blood run cold.”
Speaking inside the soaring General Assembly hall, Biden called the seven-month-old invasion a “brutal, needless war” that amounts to a “shameless violation” of the United Nations charter.
“Putin claims he had to act because Russia was threatened, but no one threatened Russia and no one other than Russia sought conflict,” Biden said in his speech.
Biden returned to the green-marbled United Nations stage Wednesday hours after Russia’s president delivered his provocative speech, setting up a rhetorical showdown between the two leaders on the international stage.
Putin’s speech dramatically illustrated the challenges that lie ahead in Biden’s efforts to sustain Ukraine and punish Moscow. The combined effects of the prolonged conflict and economic uncertainty have created a dark mood among world leaders gathering in New York this week for the annual high-level UN meetings.
Biden had already planned to make the Ukraine war a centerpiece of his yearly UN address, with aides previewing a harsh message for Moscow. But Putin’s announcement that he was ordering a “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens in the Ukraine war and again raising the specter of using nuclear weapons dramatically increased the stakes for Biden’s address.
Biden accused Putin of making “irresponsible nuclear threats” in his speech, and declared “a nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought.”
“Let us speak plainly: A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase the sovereign state from the map,” he said.
Hours earlier, in his 20-minute speech, Putin warned he would use “all the means at our disposal” if he deemed the “territorial integrity” of Russia to be jeopardized. The mobilization means citizens who are in the reserve could be called up, and those with military experience would be subject to conscription, Putin said, adding that the necessary decree had already been signed and took effect on Wednesday.
In response, Biden said Putin was waging a war meant to demolish the Ukrainian nation.
“We will stand in solidarity against Russia’s aggression, period,” he said.
Biden warned that the basis of the United Nations’ charter is “under attack” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he cast as a “shameless” violation of the body’s founding document.
“As we meet today, the UN charter’s very basis of a stable and just rule-based order is under attack by those who wish to tear it down or distort it for their own political advantage,” Biden said, noting that the 1945 charter was negotiated by citizens “united in their commitment to work for peace.”
Putin’s escalation came after stunning Russian setbacks in the war, which has dragged on for more than six months. Biden, who has led efforts to isolate Russia and supply Ukraine with advanced weaponry, had already been planning to underscore those efforts in Wednesday’s speech.
Putin’s national address, which occurred after Biden had arrived in New York late Tuesday, caused White House aides to update some of the language in Biden’s speech, according to an official. But a total rewrite wasn’t necessary because White House officials had anticipated some of what Putin would say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also planned to address the UN later on Wednesday.
After making his debut UN address last year under the cloud of a messy Afghanistan withdrawal and stalled domestic ambitions, Biden’s aides believed he entered his sophomore outing with a stronger hand.
“We believe that the President heads to New York with the wind at his back,” Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, citing a mostly-united western alliance and recent wins on the domestic front, including a historic investment in fighting climate change.
Questions about US leadership
Even as Biden proclaimed renewed US leadership Wednesday, deeper questions persist over his ability to maintain that position in the years ahead, as fears of a global recession looms and threats to American democracy fester.
Biden has spent ample time underscoring those threats in recent weeks, primarily for a domestic audience but with foreign capitals also listening intently. He has recounted in recent speeches sitting around a table at last year’s Group of 7 summit in Cornwall, England, telling fellow leaders that “America is back.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, Biden has told audiences, asked him: “For how long?”
That question still hangs over Biden’s efforts on the world stage, even a year-and-a-half into his term, as his predecessor continues to wield influence over the Republican Party and prepares to mount another run for the White House. Biden himself said in an interview that aired Sunday that while he intends to run for reelection, a final decision “remains to be seen.”
One of the issues currently at the forefront of global affairs — the pained negotiations to restart the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew — only underscores the effects of pendulum swings in American leadership.
In his speech, Biden reiterated his stance that the US will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon as negotiations to revive a nuclear deal have failed to make significant progress in recent months.
“While the United States is prepared for a mutual return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if Iran steps up to its obligations, the United States is clear: We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden said.
For Biden, the yearly UN speech was another stab at explaining to the world how he has steered the United States back into a position of leadership after the “America First” years of Donald Trump.
He called for expanding the United Nations Security Council, saying countries should refrain from using their veto powers except in rare circumstances.
“The United States supports increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent” Security Council members, Biden said in his speech.
He said constant vetoes from countries on the Council were harming its effectiveness, and said only using vetoes in “rare, extraordinary situations” would ensure the council “remains credible and effective.” Russia has consistently vetoed resolutions at the Security Council that have blocked action on Ukraine and other areas.
In his speech, Biden also announced $2.9 billion in US assistance to help address global food insecurity. The $2.9 billion investment, the White House said in a fact sheet, is aimed at shoring up food supply amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, widespread inflation and other supply chain issues, and builds on $6.9 billion already committed by the US this year.
It includes $2 billion in global humanitarian assistance through USAID, the US Agency for International Development.
Later Wednesday morning, Biden will host a pledging session for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In the evening, Biden and the first lady will host a leaders’ reception at the American Museum of Natural History.
Speech drafted over weeks
Biden and his aides have been drafting the address for several weeks, a period that coincided with Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive taking back some Russian-held territory after months of occupation. The initiative had been coordinated with American officials, including through enhanced information and intelligence sharing, and sustained by weaponry provided by the US and its allies.
US officials have cautioned Ukraine’s current gains don’t necessarily signal a wider change in the outlook of the war, which remains likely to be a prolonged conflict. A day ahead of Biden’s speech, two Russian-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine announced plans for referendums on officially joining Russia, votes the US has previously warned would be “shams.”
One of Biden’s objectives in his speech Wednesday was stressing the importance of maintaining unity among western allies in supporting Ukraine in the uncertain months ahead.
That effort is made more difficult by a looming energy crisis as Russia withholds supplies of natural gas to Europe as winter sets in. Higher costs spurred in part by withering western sanctions on Moscow have led to an economic calamity that is causing political turmoil for many leaders in Biden’s coalition, including himself.
Meeting new British leader
The President meets with one of those leaders, British Prime Minister Liz Truss, later Wednesday. It will be their first formal in-person talks since Truss entered office earlier this month following the decision of her predecessor, Boris Johnson, to step down.
She inherited a deep economic crisis, fueled by high inflation and soaring energy costs, that has led to fears the UK could soon enter a prolonged recession. While few in the Biden administration shed tears at Johnson’s resignation — Biden once described him as the “physical and emotional clone” of Trump — the US and the UK were deeply aligned in their approach to Russia under his leadership.
White House officials expect that cooperation will continue under Truss, even as she comes under pre...
