“New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records.
The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters such as hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf, property valuations and employee compensation.” Read more at AP News
“Meanwhile, Trump responded to a lawsuit aimed at holding him accountable for his role in the January 6 insurrection by claiming he had absolute immunity as president. The suit was brought by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell and focuses on Trump’s incendiary speech on the day of the riot.” Read more at CNN
“Alternate universe | Donald Trump’s allies have built a network of think tanks, fund-raising outfits and professional development organizations to push his populist agenda for years to come. As Bill Allison reports, the aim is to transform the former U.S. president’s unorthodox preferences into a coherent program to challenge the traditional conservative groups that have guided generations of Republicans.” Read more at Bloomberg
“A school principal in Arkansas has apologized for ‘political inaccuracies’ in a yearbook falsely stating that Donald Trump was not impeached and that last year’s racial protests in the US were ‘Black Lives Matter riots.’
Josh Thompson, principal of Bentonville’s Lincoln junior high school, admitted that some of the contents of the yearbook, which also included a photograph of the deadly 6 January insurrection in Washington DC captioned: ‘Trump supporters protest at the Capitol,’ were ‘both biased and political.’” Read more at The Guardian
Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, walks into the West Wing at the White House, Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Washington. Members of the Floyd family were meeting with President Joe Biden. Evan Vucci, AP
“The family of George Floyd met with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and congressional leaders Tuesday to mark one year since Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Attendees included Floyd's daughter Gianna , 7, and her mother, Roxie Washington; Floyd's sister Bridgett; and Floyd's three brothers and nephew.” Read more at USA Today
“KABUL, Afghanistan — United States troops and their NATO allies intend to be out of Afghanistan by early to mid-July, well ahead of President Biden’s Sept. 11 withdrawal deadline, military officials said, in what has turned into an accelerated ending to America’s longest war.
But the race to the exits, which has picked up steam as planeloads of equipment and troops are flown out of the country, leaves the United States grappling with huge unresolved issues that officials had thought they would have more time to figure out.
The Pentagon still has not determined how it will combat terroristthreats like Al Qaeda from afar after American troops leave. Nor have top Defense Department officials secured agreement from allies about repositioning American troops in other nearby countries. And administration officials are still grappling with the thorny question of whether American warplanes — most likely armed Reaper drones — will provide air support to Afghan forces to help prevent the country’s cities from falling to the Taliban.” Read more at New York Times
“ROME (AP) — Police arrested three people Wednesday in the cable car disaster that killed 14 people in northern Italy, saying workers placed a clamp on the emergency brake to deactivate it as a patchwork repair - one that prevented the brake from engaging when the lead cable snapped.
The revelations, obtained during an overnight police interrogation of the suspects, turned the horror of Sunday’s disaster into outrage, given the tragedy appeared to have been an entirely preventable.
Prosecutor Olimpia Bossi hypothesized that the operators of the sightseeing funicular, which had reopened after a wintertime COVID-19 closure, used the jerry-rigged clamp to avoid having to shut the attraction for the more extensive, ‘radical’ repairs that were necessary.
Bossi said it still wasn’t clear why the lead cable broke or whether it was related to the brake problem. But she said that the intentional deactivation of the brake, done several times over recent weeks for a persistent problem, prevented the brake from doing its job when the cable snapped.
After the lead cable broke Sunday, the cabin reeled back down the line until it hit the pylon and pulled off entirely. It crashed to the ground and rolled over down the mountainside until it came to rest against some trees. Fourteen people were killed; the lone survivor, a 5-year-old boy, remains hospitalized.
Carabinieri Lt. Col. Alberto Cicognani said at least one of the three people questioned overnight admitted to what happened. He said the fork-shaped clamp had been placed on the emergency brake to deactivate it because the brake was engaging spontaneously and preventing the funicular from working.
The cable car line reopened April 26 and was bringing sightseers to the top of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore on the first sunny Sunday since then. The jerry-rigged clamp was still in place on the brake Sunday morning, Cicognani said, citing information gleaned from the suspects themselves.” Read more at AP News
“Senate Republicans revived negotiations over President Joe Biden’s sweeping investment plan, preparing a $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that would be funded with COVID-19 relief money as a counteroffer to the White House ahead of a Memorial Day deadline toward a bipartisan deal.
The Republicans said Tuesday they would disclose details of the new offer by Thursday, sounding upbeat after both sides had panned other offers.
At the White House, press secretary Jen Psaki declined to address the new plan but said: ‘We expect this week to be a week of progress.’
Talks over the infrastructure investment are at a crossroads as Biden reaches for a top legislative priority. The White House is assessing whether the president can strike a bipartisan deal with Republicans on his American Jobs Plan or whether he will try to go it alone with Democrats if no progress is made in the days ahead.” Read more at AP News
“The United States’ top health official called Tuesday for a swift follow-up investigation into the coronavirus’s origins amid renewed questions about whether the virus jumped from an animal host into humans in a naturally occurring event or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told an annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization that international experts should be given ‘the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.’
Becerra's remarks, which were prerecorded, signaled that the Biden administration would continue to press the WHO to expand its investigation to determine the virus's origins.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Moderna says its vaccine is effective in adolescents, and it plans to apply for F.D.A. authorization. Half of U.S. adults are now fully vaccinated.” Read more at New York Times
“Even with 1.7 billion COVID-19 vaccines administered, the number of reported coronavirus cases across the globe in 2021 is already more than all of 2020 , a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Through Sunday, the world reported 83.62 million cases this year, up from 83.56 million cases last year. The early months of 2020 reflect the gradual rise and spread of the virus around the world. But since the fall of 2020, the global pace of infections hasn't abated.” Read more at USA Today
“Covid-19 vaccine makers press countries to oppose patent waiver. Drug-industry lobbyists want Germany, Japan and other nations to oppose a proposal to temporarily waive their patents, after the Biden administration threw its support behind the proposal.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Texas lawmakers passed a bill that would allow adults to carry handguns in public without a permit.” Read more at New York Times
“House Republican leaders criticized Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.” Read more at New York Times
“Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — both moderate Democrats — implored Republicans to back the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol riot.” Read more at New York Times
“The Biden Justice Department opposes releasing a Trump-era memo related to the Russia investigation.” Read more at New York Times
“NEW YORK — A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to President Donald Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved.
U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, citing examples of other cases being dismissed following a presidential reprieve, granted Bannon’s application — saying in a seven-page ruling that Trump’s pardon was valid and that ‘dismissal of the Indictment is the proper course.’
Bannon was charged with fraud last year alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with ‘We Build the Wall’ while representing to the organization’s backers that all of the money was being used for construction.” Read more at Washington Post
“At the detention centers and county jails that the Trump administration once filled with immigrants facing deportation, thousands of beds are now empty. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that President Donald Trump lavished with praise have far less to do on the streets of U.S. cities these days.
Under new Biden administration rules curtailing immigration enforcement, ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month, the lowest level on record. The agency’s 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months.
ICE under President Biden is an agency on probation. The new administration has rejected calls from some Democrats to eliminate the agency entirely, but Biden has placed ICE deportation officers on a leash so tight that some say their work is being functionally abolished.” Read more at Washington Post
“The leaders of the Nevada Republican Party are facing an internal revolt after an avowed Proud Boys member said he was invited with friends to attend a state party meeting last month and cast the deciding votes in the censure of a state official who concluded that the 2020 election in the state was not tainted by fraud.
In the past week, the Nevada Senate GOP caucus and the chairmen of the two largest Republican county organizations have called for an audit of an April state party vote to uncover who cast ballots as seated party members and proxies for a resolution against Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R).
The Republican state chairman, Michael McDonald, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, has so far declined to release those details, other Republican officials said.” Read more at Washington Post
“Having ousted four Trump-appointed members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, President Biden announced Tuesday that he will replace them with four people who bring ‘a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints.’
Architect Peter Cook, Howard University professor of architecture Hazel Ruth Edwards, Andrew Mellon Foundation program officer Justin Garrett Moore and architect Billie Tsien will join the seven-member commission, an independent agency responsible for guiding the design of the capital city, including renovations of historic homes and the look and scale of government buildings, museums and memorials.” Read more at Washington Post
“For much of the South, midsummer-like heat will peak Wednesday , bringing the greatest chance to break daily record highs. More than 70 daily heat records may be broken as a high pressure system dominates the eastern half of the country.” Read more at USA Today
“A deal struck by the Trump administration to sell $23 billion of arms, including dozens of F-35 jet fighters, to the United Arab Emirates is being reviewed by the White House amid concerns about the scope of the country's security relationship with China. As the U.S. considers selling F-35s—jets considered the crown jewel of its arsenal—to the Gulf nation, the Biden administration wants assurances that the technology won't be accessed by China. A report last year from the Pentagon identified the U.A.E. as a strategic location where China is likely aiming to set up military facilities. Intelligence officers recently watched as two planes from China's army landed at an airport in the U.A.E. and unloaded crates of undetermined materiel. The U.S. has made clear to the U.A.E. that allowing China to establish a military base there would kill the weapons deal.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Angelina Jolie criticized a judge who is deciding on child custody in her divorce with Brad Pitt, saying in a court filing that the judge refused to allow their children to testify.
Jolie, who has sought to disqualify Judge John Ouderkirk from the divorce case, said in the filing Monday that he declined to hear evidence she says is relevant to the children’s safety and well-being before issuing a tentative ruling. The documents don’t elaborate on what that evidence may be.” Read more at AP News
“Former Sen. JOHN WARNER (R-Va.) died Tuesday evening at 94 of heart failure, with his wife Jeanne and daughter Virginia at his side, according to an email sent out overnight to Warner alumni and family by his longtime chief of staff Susan Magill. The World War II and Korean War veteran served three decades in the Senate after a stint as secretary of the Navy.” Read more at POLITICO
“46 — The number of elected officials, members of political parties and candidates for office in Mexico who were killed between February and April during the run-up to midterm elections, a 44% increase compared with the 2018 elections. As the June 6 vote draws near, gangs are viciously competing for control of certain regions by intimidating or killing politicians.
3,700 — The number of children who took part in a Covid-19 vaccine study from Moderna. None of them had symptomatic cases of the virus, suggesting 100% efficacy in adolescents, and the company plans to ask regulators in June for approval to use the shot for children aged 12 to 17 years.
$22 billion — The loss posted by Exxon Mobil last year, primarily due to the pandemic crushing fuel demand. The loss has given momentum to an activist campaign by investors to push the oil giant's chief executive, Darren Woods, to commit to bringing Exxon to carbon neutrality by 2050. A shareholders’ vote for four board seats today could determine whether the company will continue to double down on pumping oil and gas or be pushed by investors toward a future based on renewable resources.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Hordes of foreign tourists would flock to Tokyo for the Olympics, marveling at a confident Japan that had bounced back from a devastating tsunami to take its place on the world stage.
That was the picture then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe painted when the Japanese capital was picked to host the Games back in 2013.
But just months before the country’s big 2020 comeback party was set to begin, it was postponed by a year over the Covid-19 outbreak. And now there is the question of whether it should be held at all.
The pandemic has laid bare Japan’s shortcomings — not least a failure to move quickly to vaccinate its people against the coronavirus.
Few Japanese want to go ahead with the Olympics, now less than two months away. Business leaders are as hostile as the general public, with Hiroshi Mikitani, billionaire founder of e-commerce company Rakuten Group, comparing it to a ‘suicide mission.’ One of the country’s most influential newspapers, itself an Olympic sponsor, urged Abe’s successor, Yoshihide Suga, to call it off.
The once-popular premier has seen support slump in recent weeks, with polls showing the public doesn’t see the Olympics as compatible with an effective virus response.
That leaves Suga with an almost impossible choice. He can press ahead with a shrunken event, without spectators from overseas or possibly even domestic fans.
Or he could cancel it, wrecking sports careers, triggering a further economic hit that Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi put at more than $16 billion, and risking embarrassment as neighbor and rival China presses ahead with its own plans for the Winter Olympics a few months later.
His dilemma is not an enviable one.” — Isabel Reynolds Read more at Bloomberg
“BRUSSELS — Belarus’s isolation deepened Tuesday as commercial jets avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and officials expressed concern for the welfare of an opposition journalist who was arrested after being pulled off a plane that was diverted to Minsk in what the West called a state-sponsored hijacking.
The dramatic developments put a spotlight on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule and suppression of dissent — but it was not clear what effect more sanctions or other measures would have.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Police forces across the European Union are disproportionately stopping and searching members of various ethnic, religious and other minority groups like LGTBQ people, a report published by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has found. The report is based on a survey of roughly 35,000 people from across the EU, the UK and North Macedonia. Different places reflected different modes of reported racial and ethnic discrimination: South Asians in Greece and Roma people in the Netherlands and Portugal, for instance, were among those most likely to report racial profiling by police. The report has renewed conversations about ethnic profiling and discrimination among Europe’s law enforcement.” Read more at CNN
“Syria’s presidential election takes place today across government-controlled areas of the country as President Bashar Al-Assad is all but assured of a fourth term.
Western countries have already denounced the election. ‘For an election to be credible, all Syrians should be allowed to participate, including internally displaced Syrians, refugees, and members of the diaspora, in a safe and neutral environment,’ the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy said in a joint statement on Monday. ‘Without these elements, this fraudulent election does not represent any progress towards a political settlement.’
Regardless of its credibility, the vote underscores Assad’s resilience, ten years after the Syrian conflict began with the Arab Spring protests of 2011, and 21 years after he took over from his father Hafez. Today, he presides over a broken country, with much of the land east of the Euphrates controlled by Kurdish fighters, with smaller pockets elsewhere in both Turkish and rebel hands.
Economic collapse. Assad, along with the two nominal challengers in today’s vote, Abdullah Salloum Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmad Marie, has vowed to turn around Syria’s economy. The country’s currency has collapsed in recent years, and neighboring Lebanon’s economic crash and the freezes it has placed on Syrian accounts have made matters worse. Syria’s pound traded at 47 to one U.S. dollar before the conflict, the ratio is now 4,000 to one.
The toll taken on Syria’s population has been severe; 13.4 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid, a 20 percent increase on the previous year. Ninety percent of Syrian children are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to UNICEF.
Russian assistance. Assad can largely thank Russia for his survival, and payback seems to be trickling in. Last week, Foreign Policy’s Amy Mackinnon broke the news of a recent offshore oil and gas exploration deal signed between the Syrian government and an affiliate of the shadowy Wagner group, a network of Russian private military contractors active in Syria, Libya, and Sudan. ‘The deal comes as Moscow seeks to entrench its strategic foothold in Syria and, by extension, further expand its reach in the Eastern Mediterranean,’ Mackinnon writes.
With today’s election a foregone conclusion, Assad will soon be leaning on Russia again at the U.N. Security Council, where a decision on whether to continue allowing U.N. aid to cross into Syria via the Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa is due in July. Russia maintains that the crossing violates Syria’s sovereignty, and that all aid should be distributed from areas under Assad’s control. The Trump administration managed a one-year extension when the issue came up last July, and it will likely be on the agenda when Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in June.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Blinken upgrades Palestinian ties. The United States will reopen its Jerusalem consulate—a key diplomatic office serving Palestinian residents of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem—U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Jerusalem on Tuesday, undoing the Trump administration’s decision to shutter the office in 2018 and merge it into the new Embassy that was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Blinken announced a further $40 million in aid to the Palestinians, including $5.5 million in emergency assistance for Gaza.
Speaking alongside Blinken on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his view on U.S. efforts to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA. ‘I can tell you that I hope that the United States will not go back to the old JCPOA because we believe that that deal paves the way for Iran to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons with international legitimacy,’ Netanyahu said. Blinken continues his Middle East tour today with a visits to Egypt and Jordan.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Biden-Putin summit. U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva on June 16, the White House confirmed on Monday. The meeting will take place after Biden attends a G-7 summit in the United Kingdom. ‘The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship,’ White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, adding that there were no preconditions for the meeting.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Dutch climate ruling. A Dutch court will rule today on whether the Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s biggest oil companies, has a legal responsibility to combat climate change. The case was brought by the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth and alleges that Shell is violating human rights by continuing to extract fossil fuels and is thereby working against the goals of the Paris climate accord. Although the ruling will only be legally binding in the Netherlands, the case is being closely watched by environmental campaigners across the world.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Republicans in at least nine states are moving to limit students' exposure to critical race theory, which links racial discrimination to the nation's foundations and legal system, Axios' Russell Contreras reports.
Why it matters: A year after George Floyd's killing, how systemic racism is — or is not — taught in public schools has become a new fault line in the culture wars, with implications for how the next generation of Americans understands U.S. history.
Conservative activists are pressing for less talk about racism and more talk about patriotism.
Civil rights advocates and some educators say banning critical race theory from schools constrains academic freedom, and suppresses the experiences of people of color.
What's next: President Biden will travel to Tulsa next Tuesday to observe the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, the White House said yesterday.
The massacre has become a rallying cry for African Americans seeking reparations from one of the worst acts of racial violence in the nation's history.” Read more at Axios
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