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In pictures: The life of Pope Benedict XVI
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Jill Biden to undergo procedure for skin lesion | CNN Politics
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CNN
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First lady Jill Biden will undergo a procedure next week to remove a lesion that was found during a routine skin cancer screening, her press secretary Vanessa Valdivia told CNN on Wednesday.
“During a routine skin cancer screening, a small lesion was found above the First Lady’s right eye,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memo released by the first lady’s office. “In an abundance of caution, doctors have recommended that it be removed.”
Biden will have the outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery on January 11 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Mohs Surgery is typically an outpatient procedure that cuts away thin layers of skin to look for signs of the most common types of skin cancer as well as other less-common skin cancers. Care is taken to remove cancerous tissue while leaving healthy tissue in place.
The first lady, 71, is the oldest sitting first lady in modern American history, though she exercises several times a week, taking classes at local barre gyms.
The Bidens returned this week from a holiday vacation in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where President Joe Biden had said he would discuss the possibility of running for a second term with his family. Many Democrats close to Biden say they are convinced he will run again, and there appears to be little dissent within his family.
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Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts | CNN
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CNN
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Here is a look at the life of Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil.
Birth date: March 21, 1955
Birth place: Campinas, Brazil
Birth name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro
Father: Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro, dentist
Mother: Olinda Bonturi Bolsonaro
Marriage: Michelle Bolsonaro; Ana Cristina Valle (divorced); Rogéria Bolsonaro (divorced)
Children: with Michelle Bolsonaro: Laura; with Ana Cristina Valle: Jair Renan; with Rogéria Bolsonaro: Flavio, Carlos and Eduardo
Education: Agulhas Negras Military Academy, 1977
Military: Army, Captain
Religion: Roman Catholic
A conservative provocateur, Bolsonaro has a predilection for making inflammatory statements. His rhetorical targets include women and the LGBTQ community. In 2003, he told a congresswoman that she was not worthy of being raped. During a 2011 interview with Playboy magazine, Bolsonaro said he would be incapable of loving a gay son. He has expressed a sense of nostalgia for Brazil’s past as a military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro served seven terms as a congressman in the Chamber of Deputies. While in congress, his priorities included protecting the rights of citizens to own firearms, promoting Christian values and getting tough on crime. In 2017, he said, “A policeman who doesn’t kill isn’t a policeman.”
Bolsonaro changed his party affiliation numerous times, ultimately campaigning for president as a member of the Social Liberal Party.
When Bolsonaro took office, Brazil was suffering through a prolonged period of economic malaise and rising insecurity. His ascent was preceded by a corruption scandal that rocked political and financial institutions. During his inaugural address, Bolsonaro vowed to transform Brazil into a “strong and booming country.”
1986 – Bolsonaro writes an opinion column for the magazine Veja that criticizes the Brazilian Army’s pay system. He is subsequently disciplined for insubordination.
1989-1991 – Councilman for Rio de Janeiro.
1991-2018 – Congressman representing Rio de Janeiro in the Chamber of Deputies.
July 22, 2018 – Bolsonaro announces he is running for president.
August 15, 2018 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former president of Brazil, announces he has submitted the necessary paperwork to register as the Workers’ Party candidate to run against Bolsonaro. Lula da Silva campaigns from prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.
September 1, 2018 – Brazil’s top electoral court bars Lula da Silva from running for reelection while incarcerated. Ultimately, a former mayor of São Paulo named Fernando Haddad steps in as the Workers’ Party candidate.
September 6, 2018 – Bolsonaro is stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally. He spends more than three weeks in the hospital recovering.
October 7, 2018 – Voters cast ballots in the first round of elections. Although Bolsonaro wins more votes than Haddad, he doesn’t surpass the 50% threshold. A runoff is set for later in the month.
October 28, 2018 – Bolsonaro wins the runoff. The final tally shows Bolsonaro with 55.13% and Haddad with 44.87%.
January 1, 2019 – Bolsonaro is sworn into office. On the same day, he issues a series of executive orders. One order could potentially strip away many LGBTQ civil rights protections by eliminating LGBTQ issues from the list of matters handled by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. Another order gives the Agriculture Ministry the authority to designate indigenous lands, paving the way for agricultural development in areas that were previously off limits.
January 15, 2019 – Signs an executive order temporarily eliminating a regulation that limits firearms purchases only to individuals who provide a justification for owning a gun. The regulation gave police discretion to approve or deny gun sales.
January 28, 2019 – Officials say Bolsonaro has undergone successful surgery to remove a colostomy bag he was fitted with after being stabbed four months ago.
February 28, 2019 – Bolsonaro meets with Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaidó in Brasilia. During a joint news conference, Bolsonaro pledges Brazil’s support to help ensure “democracy is re-established in Venezuela.”
May 3, 2019 – A spokesman for Bolsonaro announces that the president has canceled a trip to New York, where he was set to be honored with a Person of the Year award from the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. The trip was scrapped amid a political backlash. The event’s original host venue, the American Museum of Natural History canceled and some corporate sponsors dropped out. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had called Bolsonaro “a dangerous man.”
May 7, 2019 – Bolsonaro signs an executive order relaxing gun control restrictions. The executive order makes it easier for guns to be imported and boosts the amount of ammunition an individual can purchase annually.
July 11, 2019 – During a news conference, Bolsonaro says that he wants his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, to serve as ambassador to the United States. He says that Eduardo is friendly with the children of US President Donald Trump.
August 23, 2019 – Bolsonaro announces a plan to send army troops to fight wildfires sweeping through the Amazon rainforest.
August 26, 2019 – At the G7 summit in France, French President Emmanuel Macron announces a $20 million emergency fund to help Brazil with the fires. Bolsonaro responds that he cannot accept Macron’s “intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of the G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or no man’s land.” The dispute devolves after a Facebook user posts a meme ridiculing the appearance of Macron’s wife on Bolsonaro’s page and the president jokes, “Don’t humiliate the guy…haha.”
September 8, 2019 – Bolsonaro undergoes a hernia operation to treat complications from prior surgeries conducted as he recovered from a stab wound.
December 24, 2019 – Tells the Band TV network that he was hospitalized overnight after falling in the presidential palace December 23. He says he had brief memory loss, but that he has recovered.
April 19, 2020 – Bolsonaro joins a rally in the country’s capital, where protesters called for an end to coronavirus quarantine measures and some urged military intervention to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court. He later defends his participation, saying that he was not calling for military action against the country’s other branches of government.
June 23, 2020 – Bolsonaro is ordered by a federal judge in Brasilia to wear a face mask in public or face a fine. The decision extends to all government employees in the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located.
July 7, 2020 – Bolsonaro announces he has tested positive for Covid-19, following months of downplaying the virus.
March 16, 2021 – A Brazilian court orders Bolsonaro to pay damages to a journalist after he made remarks that questioned her credibility.
April 27, 2021 – Brazil’s Senate launches an inquiry Tuesday into the federal government’s response to Covid-19.
July 14, 2021 – Bolsonaro is admitted to the hospital to investigate the cause of persistent hiccups that are leading to abdominal pains, according to Brazil’s Special Secretariat for Social Communication.
December 3, 2021 – Brazil’s Supreme Court orders an investigation into Bolsonaro’s false claim that people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 may have a higher risk of contracting AIDS. The inquiry is launched in response to a request by the country’s parliamentary commission which has been investigating Bolsonaro’s government’s response to the pandemic.
January 3, 2022 – Bolsonaro is admitted to a hospital with a blockage in his intestine, the latest medical issue linked to his 2018 stabbing.
June 29, 2022 – A Brazilian court rules that Bolsonaro must pay “moral damages” of 35,000 reais (approximately $6,700) to a Brazilian journalist after making remarks with sexual innuendo about her in 2020.
October 2, 2022 – In the presidential election, Bolsonaro finishes with 43.2% versus Lula da Silva’s 48.4%. Either candidate needed to surpass 50% to be elected in the first round of voting, so the two will face each other in a runoff on October 30.
October 30, 2022 – Bolsonaro loses his bid for a second term, after receiving 49.1% of the vote against Lula da Silva, who wins with 50.9%.
November 22, 2022 – Bolsonaro files a petition with Brazil election authorities formally contesting the results of the presidential vote, alleging that some voting machines had malfunctioned and any votes cast through them should be annulled. The petition is rejected the following day.
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Opinion: I understand what Damar Hamlin’s teammates are going through | CNN
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Editor’s Note: Coy Wire is a sports anchor and correspondent for CNN. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.
CNN
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She couldn’t understand why.
She’d just seen his body convulse on the field, then players huddling around him in prayer on bended knee.
“How in the world were we living in a world where a player was tragically paralyzed during a game, and minutes later, the whistles blew, and the game played on as if nothing had happened?”
That’s what my wife asked me in 2007, after she witnessed a tragic scene at a game in which I was playing for the Buffalo Bills. She saw my teammate Kevin Everett fall limp to the turf after a collision during a kickoff resulting in a severe spinal cord injury. She was one of the 70,000+ fans in the stadium who watched on in silence as Kevin fought for his life. An emergency procedure likely saved his life. He never played again.
But our team played on that day.
At the time, I had to tell my wife, who did not grow up with any familiarity with sports or sport culture, “Injuries are part of the game and, when they happen, we players say our prayers, then move on … and play on.”
I reiterate, she couldn’t understand why.
Now that I’m removed from the game, I feel much differently about injuries, and players’ health, than I did when I was a player. Every day, I’m reminded of the brutal nature of the sport I love, feeling the physical pains from my nine seasons in the NFL. I have a titanium plate and four screws in my neck. I had multiple concussions, including one in Buffalo where I had no recollection of what happened until I watched the game during film sessions the next day. I remember vividly how scary injuries can be.
That’s why, as the horrific scene unfolded on Monday night – when Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed to the turf, and as tears came pouring down players’ faces as they prayed around him on bended knees – I started to feel nauseous just like my wife did that day in Buffalo years ago. Mental wounds were reopened as haunting memories came flooding back in.
During my playing days at Stanford University, my teammate and fellow running back, Kerry Carter, collided with University of Washington player Curtis Williams, who ran up to make a tackle. Curtis was paralyzed from the neck down. Players cried, prayed, then played on. 18 months later, two days after his 24th birthday, Curtis died due to complications from the paralysis suffered that day. That collision still haunts my teammate to this day.
In regard to Damar’s injury, Kerry told me: “It’s going to take some time for everyone involved to come to terms with what they just experienced. It’s crazy to look back now and think that we were able to continue playing.”
As players, in the past, we were conditioned to compartmentalize physical and mental pain – our own and others’. We learned not to focus on the negative because it can hinder optimal performance. We were trained to fight on with a “next play” mentality anytime something bad happened. So, playing on, despite tragic injuries, was all we knew.
But something powerful beyond measure happened Monday night during the Bills-Bengals game.
The decision to call off a game in progress is not only unprecedented, it represents a paradigm shift that’s happening within the NFL in regard to player health and safety. No longer, perhaps, are we in the barbaric days of looking at players as disposable, replaceable pieces of meat.
In the past, that Monday night game wouldn’t have been called off. Coaches would’ve said, “alright fellas, buckle up and get back on that field and lock in. Gotta play on.” But that didn’t happen.
We can’t overstate how impactful it was for the head coaches, Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills and Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals, league commissioner Roger Goodell and others to make the decision to end that game. And we can’t yet comprehend the ripple effect that decision may have.
Those coaches were cognizant of and concerned about their players’ mental health. After seeing the teary eyes and traumatized looks on their players’ faces, they determined it wasn’t worth trying to continue that game.
It was a profound decision where the health and wellness of the players were truly prioritized over the outcome of a game or season.
And the rest of the NFL – and everyone involved with the sport of football – was watching. College coaches, high school and youth coaches and parents were watching. Someday we may look back and see that this was the moment where it all changed – where statements about the importance of player safety no longer rang hollow, and it became clear that prioritizing players’ health, both mental and physical, truly is the right thing to do.
Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins told CNN, “I’m truly blessed that we didn’t have to keep playing. Most people treat us athletes as superstars. Some people, like celebrities … but in that moment they treated us like people.”
There are still some people, though, who think that the players should have continued playing. You don’t have to search very long on social media to find that some people care more about their fantasy football team’s performance than the health and well-being of their fellow man. I guess that’s to be expected. That’s the way it’s always been.
But it was absolutely the right call to stop that game.
The players should not have played on. And everyone should understand why.
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Damar Hamlin’s doctors are working to get him breathing without a ventilator after his mid-game cardiac arrest left him in critical condition | CNN
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Cincinnati
CNN
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After suffering a cardiac arrest mid-game on Monday, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin remains sedated on a ventilator as doctors work toward getting him to breathe on his own, his uncle said, while uneasy supporters across the nation await word of his fate.
The 24-year-old player still was in critical condition Tuesday night, his uncle Dorrian Glenn told CNN, after his collapse on the field the prior night halted the Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals, stunning a packed stadium that had only moments earlier been rippling with excitement over the catch and run ahead of Hamlin’s tackle of a Bengals wide receiver.
In just seconds, medical personnel were rushing onto the field to administer CPR and resuscitate Hamlin in front of his teammates, many of whom fell to their knees, sent up a prayer or were openly weeping and embracing one another.
Hamlin would be resuscitated twice that night – once on the field and again when he was hurried into the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was still being treated Tuesday night, his uncle said.
“I’m not a crier, but I’ve never cried so hard in my life. Just to know, like, my nephew basically died on the field and they brought him back to life,” Glenn said.
Hamlin is on a ventilator to relieve some of the strain on his lungs, which have been damaged, according to Glenn. The doctors told Glenn his nephew has also been “flipped over on his stomach” in the hospital to help with the blood on his lungs, he said, adding, “It seems like he’s trending upwards in a positive way.”
The game was suspended with nearly six minutes left in the first quarter and was later officially postponed. It will not be resumed this week, and no decision has been made on whether to continue it at a later date, the NFL said Tuesday.
On-field injuries are not uncommon in the league, which often resumes play even after severe cases. But several current and former players have said Hamlin’s cardiac arrest felt especially disturbing as medical personnel fought to save his life while fans and players looked on.
Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins realized the gravity of his teammate’s condition when Hamlin stayed on the ground as more and more medical staff were called over, he said.
“In that moment, you’re just thinking like, ‘What can I do? What can we do?’ And it just immediately breaks you down into prayer,” Dawkins told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. “Whether you’re a believer or not, only a higher power can really take control of what is next. And our people that help also assisted that higher power.”
Hamlin’s collapse marks the latest in a series of tragic blows for the players and Buffalo community, which in the past few months has endured a racist mass shooting and a historic blizzard that left at least 41 people dead in Erie County, New York. “It has been, you know, just (a) constant beating for Buffalo,” Dawkins said.
A swell of support has surrounded Hamlin and his family as messages of prayers and well wishes have flooded in from star athletes, fans and national leaders. A fundraiser that Hamlin previously had started for his Chasing M’s Foundation toy drive has raised more than $6 million since his hospitalization.
At a prayer service for the player Tuesday night, community members described the heartbreak of watching “one of our own” endure such a crisis.
“All you can do right now is pray for Damar. The man, not the football player, not the Buffalo Bill, but the person. He has to pull through,” the city’s poet laureate Jillian Hanesworth said.
It is still unclear what led to Hamlin’s cardiac arrest – a condition that results from electrical disturbances that cause the heart to suddenly stop beating properly. Death can occur quickly if help isn’t rendered immediately. It is not the same as a heart attack or heart failure.
When the heart is not beating well, fluid can sometimes back up into the lungs and make it hard for medical staff to oxygenate the patient, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained. So, they will flip the person on their stomach into a prone position to make breathing easier.
It sounds like Hamlin is still having a significant amount of cardiac dysfunction and his heart cannot pump enough blood, Gupta said.
One of the treatment options is to decrease the body’s demand for oxygenated blood, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
“So, you want to improve the amount of circulation, but in the interim, you can also decrease the demand by sedating somebody, by keeping them on a breathing machine,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll even use cooling agents, hypothermia it’s called, to basically almost put the body in more of a hibernation-like state so it’s not demanding as much oxygenated blood. That’s part of the reason he would be on a breathing machine as well.”
Hamlin’s family on Tuesday thanked the UC Medical Center staff “who have provided exceptional care to Damar.”
“On behalf of our family, we want to express our sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time. We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words, and donations from fans around the country,” its statement said.
Several star athletes – including tennis player Coco Gauff, the NFL’s JJ Watt and NBA legend LeBron James – have applauded the NFL’s decision to postpone the game and have emphasized the importance of Hamlin’s safe recovery over the game’s outcome
Former NFL player Donté Stallworth said the league’s decision to postpone the game wouldn’t have happened years ago. “Five, 10 years ago, the game probably would have resumed,” he told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday.
“I don’t know if you can make the game any much safer,” he said. “This is a brutal sport. I think people forget that. They look at players more as commodities sometimes, especially with fantasy football.
“Sometimes we forget the human side, that these players are actually human beings and they have families and they have wives and kids,” he added, pointing out that Hamlin’s “mother was there witnessing this with her own eyes.”
Dawkins was relieved and grateful that his team did not have to continue playing, he said.
“The fact that we did not have to go back out there on that field and play just shows that there is care, and that’s all we can ever ask for is that we get treated as people,” he said. “Because most people just treat us as athletes, as superstars, and some people like celebrities, but in that moment they treated us like people.”
Bills players and staff are still processing Monday night’s events, a source within the team told CNN’s Coy Wire on Tuesday.
The continued shock of Hamlin’s hospitalization – on top of the city’s mass shooting in May, deadly December blizzard, having a home game in November moved to Detroit and getting stuck in Chicago during the holidays – has been heavy on everyone associated with the club, the source said.
“Everyone is exhausted,” the source told Wire, adding that the team’s flight back to New York didn’t land until 3:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
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NYC subway shooter pleads guilty to terrorism charges | CNN
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CNN
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The man who opened fire on a crowded New York City subway train last April and wounded 10 people pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to terrorism charges, admitting his intention “was to cause serious bodily injury to the people on the train.”
After initially pleading not guilty last May, Frank James, 63, on Tuesday admitted to 10 counts – one for each gunshot victim – of committing a terrorist attack and other violence against a mass transportation system and vehicle carrying passengers and employees. He also pleaded guilty to one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
James’ plea comes nearly nine months after prosecutors said he put on a gas mask, set off a smoke device and fired a handgun at least 33 times on a crowded N train traveling toward the 36th Street station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood on April 12. Along with the 10 people wounded by gunfire, others were injured by the smoke. In all, 29 people were hospitalized.
“While it was not my intention to cause death, I was aware that a death or deaths could occur as a result of my discharging a firearm in such an enclosed space as a subway car,” James said.
In a statement after the hearing, James’ attorneys said he has accepted responsibility for the shooting “since he turned himself in to law enforcement.”
“A just sentence in this case will carefully balance the harm he caused with his age, his health, and the Bureau of Prisons’ notoriously inadequate medical care,” attorneys Mia Eisner-Grynberg and Amanda David said in their statement.
James is expected to be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors, who have argued James aimed to kill when he fired, are willing to recommend a sentence in the range of 31 to 37 years in prison if James shows enough remorse, per a letter from Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to District Court Judge William Kuntz.
If James “does not clearly demonstrate acceptance of responsibility,” prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 40 years to life, the letter said.
In a statement on Tuesday, Peace said the guilty plea was an “important step toward holding James fully accountable and helping the victims of the defendant’s violence and our great city heal.”
The shooting rattled the city, which was already on edge as commuters started to return to the subway following the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of the wounded, Hourari Benkada, 27, said he was on the N train and sat next to a man with a duffel bag and reflective vest who let off a “smoke bomb.”
“And all you see (is) smoke – black smoke … going off, and then people bum-rushing to the back,” Benkada said. “This pregnant woman was in front of me. I was trying to help her. I didn’t know there were shots at first. I just thought it was a black smoke bomb.
“She said, ‘I’m pregnant with a baby.’ I hugged her. And then the bum-rush continued. I got pushed, and that’s when I got shot in the back of my knee.”
James was arrested a day later in Manhattan’s Lower East Side after calling in a tip on himself. Items left behind at the scene, including a credit card, a set of keys, a construction jacket and a gun – were tied back to James by investigators.
The accused has a lengthy criminal history and had posted rambling videos on a YouTube channel in which he talked about violence and mass shootings, and said he’s thought about killing people who have presumably hurt him.
In one posted just a day before the shootings, James talked about someone who engaged in violence and ended up in jail. He said he could identify but talked about the consequences.
“I’ve been through a lot of s**t, where I can say I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my f**king face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey man, I don’t want to go to no f**king prison.”
In another video posted in February criticizing New York Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to address safety and homelessness in the subway, James spoke about his negative experience with city health workers during a “crisis of mental health back in the ’90s ‘80s and ‘70s.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated James’ age. He is 63.
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Big questions on student loan forgiveness loom in 2023 | CNN Politics
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Washington
CNN
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Student loan borrowers are starting 2023 with a lot of uncertainty.
The fate of President Joe Biden’s major student loan forgiveness program lies with the US Supreme Court, and it could be as late as summer before the justices rule on whether the policy can take effect.
The pandemic-related pause on student loan payments remains in place. But a restart date is up in the air, dependent on when the Supreme Court rules on the forgiveness program.
Meanwhile, significant changes are coming in July to the existing Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that aids government and nonprofit workers. And a new income-driven repayment plan that could lower payments for some federal student loan borrowers is in the works.
The mired rollout of Biden’s forgiveness program has created confusion for borrowers. Here are some of the big questions surrounding student loans this year:
In late February, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases concerning Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, which could deliver up to $20,000 of debt relief for millions of low- and middle-income borrowers.
A decision on whether the program is legal and can move forward is expected by June. Until then, it is on hold and no debt will be discharged under the program.
Biden’s student loan forgiveness program has faced several legal challenges since the president announced the program in August. The Department of Education received about 26 million applications for debt relief by the time a federal district court judge struck down the program on November 10.
Lawyers for the Biden administration say that Congress gave the secretary of education “expansive authority to alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies,” like the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a memo from the Department of Justice.
But litigants argue the Biden administration has overstepped its authority, and other recent Supreme Court decisions have ruled against aggressive executive agency actions. The justices curbed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set certain climate change regulations last year, for example, as well as limited the federal government’s power to implement a pandemic-related eviction moratorium in 2021 and mandate Covid-19 vaccinations in 2022.
For the third consecutive time, federal student loan borrowers begin a new year without having to make payments on their loans thanks to a pandemic-related pause.
Payments were set to resume in January, but the Biden administration extended the pause after its student loan forgiveness program was halted by federal courts. Officials had told borrowers debt relief would be granted before payments restarted.
The payment pause will now last until 60 days after litigation over Biden’s student loan forgiveness program is resolved. If the program has not been implemented and the litigation has not been resolved by June 30, payments will resume 60 days after that.
Borrower balances have effectively been frozen since March 2020, with no payments required on most federal student loans. During this time, interest has stopped adding up and collections on defaulted debt have also been on hold.
For some borrowers, the pause on payments delivers an even bigger benefit than Biden’s forgiveness program ever could.
The yearslong pause cost the government $155 billion through the end of 2022, according to an estimate from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program allows certain government and nonprofit employees to seek federal student loan forgiveness after making 10 years of qualifying payments – but it has been plagued with implementation problems for years.
A yearlong waiver that expanded eligibility for the PSLF program expired on October 31, but some of those temporary changes will be made permanent starting in July.
Under the new rules, borrowers will be able to receive credit toward PSLF on payments that are made late, in installments or in a lump sum. Prior rules only counted a payment as eligible if it was made in full within 15 days of its due date.
Also, time spent in certain periods of deferment or forbearance will count toward PSLF. These periods include deferments for cancer treatment, military service, economic hardship and time served in AmeriCorps and the National Guard.
Starting in July, borrowers will receive some credit for past payments when they consolidate older loans into federal Direct Loans in order to qualify for the program. Borrowers previously lost all progress toward forgiveness when they consolidated. After July, they will receive a weighted average of existing qualifying payments toward PSLF.
The new rules will also simplify the criteria to meet the requirement that a borrower be a full-time employee in a public sector job. The new standard will consider full-time employment at 30 hours a week. In particular, the change will help adjunct faculty at public colleges qualify for the program.
The Biden administration has proposed a new income-driven repayment plan that is intended to make payments more manageable for borrowers, though it’s unclear when it could take effect.
Several income-driven repayment plans already exist for federal student loan borrowers, but the new proposal could offer more favorable terms.
The new rule is expected to cap payments at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income, down from 10% that is offered in most current income-driven plans, as well as reduce the amount of income that is considered discretionary. It would also forgive remaining balances after 10 years of repayment, instead of 20 or 25 years, as well as cover the borrower’s unpaid monthly interest.
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World’s largest iPhone factory bounces back from Covid disruption that hurt Apple | CNN Business
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Hong Kong
CNN
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Production at the world’s biggest iPhone factory, disrupted since October by China’s Covid-19 restrictions and worker protests, is now running at nearly full capacity, according to a Chinese state media report.
The sprawling campus in central China, owned by Apple
(AAPL) supplier Foxconn, was running at 90% of planned production capacity at the end of December, the Henan Daily newspaper reported Tuesday. It cited an interview with Wang Xue, deputy general manager of the facility, which is also known as iPhone city.“At the moment, the order books look good, and the orders will peak from now until a few months after Chinese New Year,” he was quoted as saying. The Lunar New Year will begin on January 22.
Foxconn hasn’t yet responded to CNN’s request for comment about the report.
The company said last month it was working on restoring production, which had been badly affected by supply disruptions caused by Covid restrictions. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives estimated in November that the disruptions in Zhengzhou had been costing Apple roughly $1 billion a week in lost iPhone sales.
According to a UBS report in November, the wait time for the latest 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max in the United States touched 34 days just before the Christmas holidays because of supply chain constraints in China. The UBS analyst called the wait time “extreme.”
The Henan Daily separately quoted an executive responsible for Foxconn’s logistics as saying that, in the first two days of January, the volume of inbound and outbound shipments had reached the highest level in a year.
The report of a nearly full resumption of production comes one month after China abruptly ended three years of pandemic controls, setting off a huge wave of Covid infections.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, a letter from Foxconn founder Terry Gou played a major role in persuading Chinese leaders to accelerate plans to dismantle the country’s Covid-19 policies. Gou was quoted as warning that strict Covid controls would threaten China’s central position in global supply chains.
Gou’s office told CNN that it “denies the report and its contents.”
Wang was quoted by the Henan Daily as saying iPhone City currently had about 200,000 workers on site. The employees were each eligible for a maximum of 13,000 yuan ($1,883) per month in bonuses, he said, without specifying their base salaries.
The troubles for Foxconn started in October when workers left the campus, located in the central Chinese province of Henan, because of concerns about Covid-related working conditions and shortages of food. Short on staff, bonuses were offered to workers to return.
But violent protests broke out in November when the newly-hired staff said management reneged on their promises. Workers clashed with security officers, before the company eventually offered them cash to quit and leave the site.
Analysts said the production woes at iPhone City would speed up the pace of Apple’s supply chain diversification away from China.
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3 dead and 2 hurt after a scaffolding collapse in Charlotte | CNN
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Three people were killed, and two others injured after a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Charlotte, North Carolina, Monday, according to tweets from Charlotte Fire Rescue.
“Currently Charlotte Fire is securing the area,” in the 700 block of East Morehead Street said the agency. “A family reunification area has been established,” said the tweet.
The two injured people were transported to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center “with minor injuries,” a spokesperson for Mecklenburg County Emergency Medical Services Agency said.
It’s unclear what led to the accident at this time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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France offers free condoms to young people and free emergency contraception to all women | CNN
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Free condoms are now available to young people under the age of 26 at French pharmacies as part of what French President Emmanuel Macron has called “a small revolution in preventative healthcare.”
The new health strategy, which aims to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among young people in France, came into place on New Year’s Day and was announced by Macron in December. It was initially aimed at those aged 18-25, but was later extended to minors.
Emergency contraception will also be available for free to all women without a prescription as of January 1, according to a tweet from government spokesperson Olivier Veran on Monday.
Since January 1, 2022, French women under the age of 26 already had access to free contraception. This included consultations with doctors or midwives and medical procedures associated with their chosen contraceptive.
The latest measures come as health authorities estimate that the rate of STDs in France increased by about 30% in 2020 and 2021, Reuters news agency reported.
“It’s a small revolution in preventative healthcare. It’s essential so that our young people protect themselves during sexual intercourse,” Macron said in December.
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Xi Jinping estimates China’s 2022 GDP grew at least 4.4%. But Covid misery looms | CNN Business
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China’s economy grew at least 4.4% in 2022, according to leader Xi Jinping, a figure much stronger than many economists had expected. But the current Covid wave may hobble growth in the months ahead.
China’s annual GDP is expected to have exceeded 120 trillion yuan ($17.4 trillion) last year, Xi said in a televised New Year’s Eve speech on Saturday. That implies growth of more than 4.4%, which is a surprisingly robust figure.
Economists had generally expected growth to slump to a rate between 2.7% and 3.3% for 2022. The government had maintained a much higher annual growth target of around 5.5%.
“China’s economy is resilient and has good potential and vitality. Its long-term fundamentals remain unchanged,” Xi said. “As long as we are confident and seek progress steadily, we will be able to achieve our goals.”
In his remarks, Xi made a rare admission of the “tough challenges” experienced by many during three years of pandemic controls. Many online commentators noted that his tone appeared softer and less self congratulatory than his New Year’s addresses over the past two years.
In 2020, Xi devoted much time to praising China’s economic achievements, highlighting that it was the first major global economy to achieve positive growth. Last year, he emphasized the country had developed rapidly and that he had won praise from his counterparts for China’s fight against Covid.
However, in 2022, China’s economy was hit by widespread Covid lockdowns and a historic property downturn. Its growth is likely to be at or below global growth for the first time in 40 years, according to Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Chinese policymakers have vowed to seek a turnaround in 2023. They’re betting that the end of zero-Covid and a series of property support measures will revive domestic consumption and bolster growth.
But an explosion of Covid infections, triggered by the abrupt easing of pandemic restrictions in early December, is clouding the outlook. The country is battling its biggest-ever Covid outbreak.
Last week, Beijing announced it will end quarantine requirements for international arrivals from January 8, marking a major step toward reopening its borders.
The sudden end to the restrictions caught many in the country off guard and put enormous strain on the healthcare system.
The rapid spread of infections has kept many people indoors and emptied shops and restaurants. Factories have been forced to shut down or cut production because workers were getting sick.
Key data released Saturday showed factory activity in the country contracted in December by the fastest pace in nearly three years. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slumped to 47 last month from 48 in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
It was the biggest drop since February 2020 and also marked the third straight month of contraction for the index. A reading below 50 indicates that activity is shrinking.
The non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in the services sector, plunged to 41.6 last month from 46.7 in November. It also marked the lowest level in nearly three years.
“For the next couple of months, it would be tough for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative,” said Georgieva in an interview aired by CBS News on Sunday. “The impact on the region would be negative. The impact on global growth would be negative.”
Analysts are also expecting the economy to face a bumpy start in 2023 — with a likely contraction in the first quarter, as surging Covid infections dampen consumer spending and disrupt factory activity.
However, some forecast the economy will rebound after March, as people learn to live with Covid. Many investment banks now forecast China’s 2023 growth to top 5%.
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Four dead and several injured after two helicopters collide on Australia’s Gold Coast | CNN
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A midair collision between two helicopters in Australia has left four people dead and three others in critical condition, authorities said Monday.
The collision happened around 2 p.m. local time near the popular tourist strip of Main Beach on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane.
“Those two aircraft, when collided, crash landed on the sand bank just out from Sea World Resort,” Queensland Police spokesman Gary Worrell, a regional duty officer for the southeastern region, told reporters.
He added it had been difficult for emergency services to access the sand bank, located not far from the coast.
Thirteen people were on the two helicopters, according to Jayney Shearman, from the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS). Of those, four people died, three suffered serious injuries and six had minor injuries, including cuts from shattered glass.
All the injured had been taken to hospital, she said.
Photos from the site show debris lying on a strip of sand, with personnel gathered on land and numerous vessels in the surrounding waters.
Angus Mitchell, Chief Commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said in a statement that an investigation had been launched into the collision.
Investigators from the ATSB’s offices in Brisbane and Canberra will be deployed to the scene to gather evidence, examine the wreckage and map the site, as well as interview witnesses and involved parties, Mitchell added.
He asked people who witnessed the collision or saw the helicopters in flight to contact investigators. A preliminary report will come in the next six to eight weeks, with a final report after the investigation is complete, the statement said.
Police say Sea World Drive has been closed to traffic and urged motorists and pedestrians to avoid the area.
Sea World Drive is the main access point for the marine park that’s popular with tourists on the heart of the Gold Coast. It’s peak tourist season in the region right now, with schools closed for the long summer break.
CNN has reached out to Sea World for comment.
This is a developing story.
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2 dead and 4 others injured in New Year’s Day shooting in Florida | CNN
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Two people died and four others were injured in a shooting in Ocala, Florida, early Sunday, authorities said.
Gunfire broke out around 4:30 a.m. near the 1600 block of Southwest 5th Street, in an area where a crowd of about 100 people were gathered, police said in a news release.
Davonta Harris, 30, and Abdul Hakeem Van Croskey, 24, were identified by the police as the two people killed. Four other victims, whose names were not released, were in stable condition.
“Detectives are investigating the crime and are working diligently to determine the facts behind the fatal shooting and are actively working on leads,” Ocala police said.
“The tragic event has left many devastated and mourning. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this terrible act,” police said.
Ocala is about 75 miles northwest of Orlando.
A few hours earlier, a New Year’s Eve shooting left a 24-year-old dead and nine others injured in Mobile, Alabama, police said. The shooting happened just blocks from where people had gathered for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration.
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Opinion: A New Year’s resolution we all need to embrace | CNN
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Editor’s Note: Sophia A. Nelson is a journalist and author of the book “Be the One You Need: 21 Life Lessons I Learned Taking Care of Everyone but Me.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
CNN
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It’s the start of another year, and we are still working our way through a once-in-a-generation, life-changing pandemic almost three years after it began. We’ve all been affected by Covid-19’s scourge of sickness, hospitalization, death, loneliness, isolation, work dislocation and family disruption. Perhaps, like me, you even got sick with the coronavirus and are living with its long-term effects.
When Covid-19 hit, workers in teaching, nursing, hospitality and retail — occupations where women predominate — bore a fair part of the burden associated with the disease. And no group felt this more acutely than Black and brown women.
Women struggle to balance self-care against filling the needs of their families. But for Black women, juggling those competing needs often comes against a backdrop of intergenerational trauma and suppression of their emotions.
In the Black community, women have perfected obsessive selflessness to an art form. We end up exhausted, emotionally drained — and in many cases, unhealthy — because we are conditioned to serve the needs of others and display superhuman strength — to our own detriment. I have lost friends, sorority sisters and mentors to hypertension-induced strokes, heart attacks, diabetes complications and plain old exhaustion from a lack of meaningful self-care.
The effects of environmental stress on Black women are severe. One study found that by the time a Black woman reaches her 50s, the toll of stress on her body has resulted in an additional seven years of biological aging compared with White women. Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer, heart disease and diabetes, too.
Northwestern University clinical psychologist Inger Burnett-Zeigler addressed the downside of viewing the strong Black woman as a “cultural icon” in her book, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women.”
“Some Black women do not have the necessary tools to cope with their feelings in a healthy way and, as a result, may engage in unhealthy coping strategies such as eating unhealthy foods, drinking alcohol, using illicit drugs, being sedentary or a workaholic. While these behaviors may offer a Band-aid to the problem, they are not a long-term solution,” she said in an interview discussing the work that was published last year.
In short, for Black and brown women, focusing on self-care is a matter of survival. But some of us needed the additional wake-up call that came from confronting the pandemic.
My own Covid-19 journey started in February 2020 when I came down with an early case before we had testing or vaccines. I contracted the disease while speaking at a conference in Louisiana. I was sick for a week with a high fever, respiratory distress and other complications.
I got a second, milder case in August 2021 after being vaccinated and boosted. I was lucky enough not to have to be hospitalized during either episode, but I still suffer the effects of long Covid-19, including some heart valve damage and residual issues with my right lung. Living with these infirmities means prioritizing the vital self-care I might otherwise have ignored.
By self-care, I don’t mean going to the beach or taking a vacation. That is respite.
The kind of self-care I want to see Black women practice is the kind that liberates the soul. The kind that allows us to be our authentic selves. The kind that frees us to wear our hair how we want, to speak our truths, to seek healthier romantic partners and build better friends. And it’s the kind of self-care that lasts a lifetime.
The good news is that despite the heaviness of our times, we see examples of prominent Black women saying enough is enough — it’s time to put our wellness first. Women such as Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, tennis star Naomi Osaka and actress Taraji P. Henson have spoken openly about the importance of their mental health to their overall well-being.
As a Black woman now in her 50s, it took me years to learn that although my family and friends matter, I matter most of all. I’ve learned that I have a right to joy, to peace and to self-care, too. I wrote about those hard-knock lessons in my fourth book, “Be the One You Need.”
My hope was that by sharing just a few of my own life experiences, I can help educate and inspire a new generation of Black girls and women to embrace lives filled with self-care, hope, joy, physical and emotional wellness.
But even if you’re neither Black nor a woman, these lessons can benefit you as well. Start by asking yourself three important questions: What do I want? What do I need? How am I really feeling? Your inner voice will provide the answers. Trust that you will find the courage to follow through on the wisdom you already possess.
Here are three more things to bear in mind as you focus on your emotional wellness this new year:
1. Self-care is a life strategy for success. It’s about setting healthy boundaries and ensuring that those boundaries are respected by others. It requires that you change you first and that you accept you can never change others.
2. Prioritize your mental and emotional health above all else. You’re no good to anyone if you’re not good to yourself. Your mental and emotional well-being is one of the many “health verticals” you must tend to, just as you might regularly monitor your weight, heart health or blood pressure.
3. “No” is a complete sentence. This one has really saved me a lot of heartache, unspoken resentment and time. I no longer do the things I do not want to do, to please others. I reserve my energy for only those things and people that are worth my energy.
Women in general, and Black women specifically, often find it hard to say no. But it’s what you sometimes must do, even when your kids have endless requests, your boss has demands, and friends who have supported you in the past are in a crisis. And the reason for centering your own needs is implied in the subtitle of my book “Life Lessons I Learned Taking Care of Everyone but Me.” It’s simply not sustainable.
Generations of Black women have watched our mothers, grandmothers and aunts do, give, run, lift, build up, sacrifice, protect and offer up themselves to anyone and everyone in need. This new year, we all have an opportunity to do better for ourselves.
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Modest Mouse drummer Jeremiah Green dead at 45 | CNN
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Just days after his cancer diagnosis was publicly announced, Jeremiah Green – the drummer for the rock band Modest Mouse – has died, according to statements from his mother and bandmates.
He was 45 years old.
“It is with a very heavy heart that the Green and Namatame families announce the passing of their husband, father, son and brother, Jeremiah Green,” his mother Carol Namatame posted on Facebook.
“Jeremiah, drummer and founding member of the Issaquah based band Modest Mouse, lost his courageous battle with cancer on December 31. He went peacefully in his sleep,” the post read.
“Jeremiah was a light to so many. At this time the family is requesting privacy. More information will be forthcoming including a Celebration of Life for friends and fans in the coming months. Jeremiah’s loved ones would like to thank everyone for their continued well wishes and support.”
Modest Mouse announced Green’s passing in an Instagram post Saturday.
“Today we lost our dear friend Jeremiah. He laid down to rest and simply faded out,” the post read. “I’d like to say a bunch of pretty words right now, but it just isn’t the time. These will come later, and from many people.”
Modest Mouse, famous for the song “Float On,” was formed in the 1990s and released its debut album in 1996.
Modest Mouse has released eight albums, including “The Golden Casket” in 2021.
Last week, band frontman Isaac Brock announced Green had been recently diagnosed with cancer but did not specify what kind of cancer.
Radio DJ Marco Collins tweeted last week that Green had pulled out of a tour because he had stage 4 cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
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1 killed, at least 9 others injured in New Year’s Eve shooting in Alabama | CNN
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One person was killed and nine others were injured in a shooting in Mobile, Alabama, Saturday night, just blocks from where people had gathered for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration, according to CNN affiliate WPMI.
Police got a call about shots fired at 11:15 p.m. in the 200 block of Dauphin Street, Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine told WPMI.
Officers arrived to find one person dead and several others injured, Prine told the station.
The chief said the surviving victims were all transported to local hospitals, but no information was available on the extent of their injuries.
No arrests have been made and it’s unclear what motivated the shooting, which happened as crowds were in the downtown area for the MoonPie Over Mobile event.
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Myths and facts about treating a hangover | CNN
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Are you celebrating the first day of 2023 with a hangover?
If so, you might be looking for a method to ease your misery. There are certainly a lot of so-called hangover cures, some dating back centuries.
“The ancient Greeks believed that eating cabbage could cure a hangover, and the Romans thought that a meal of fried canaries would do the trick,” said Dr. John Brick, former chief of research at the Center of Alcohol Studies, Education and Training Division at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who authored “The Doctor’s Hangover Handbook.”
“Today, some Germans believe that a hearty breakfast of red meat and bananas cures hangovers. You might find some French drinking strong coffee with salt, or some Chinese drinking spinach tea,” he said. “Some of the more unusual hangover cures are used by some people in Puerto Rico, who rub half a lemon under their drinking arm.”
In truth, the only cure for a hangover is time, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
“A person must wait for the body to finish clearing the toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism, to rehydrate, to heal irritated tissue, and to restore immune and brain activity to normal,” according to the institute. That recovery process can take up to 24 hours.
Are there things you can do to ease your transition? Possibly, experts say, but many common hangover “cures” may make your hangover worse. Here’s how to separate fact from fiction.
Having another drink, or the “hair of the dog that bit you,” is a well-known cure for a hangover, right? Not really, experts say.
The reason some people believe it works is because once the calming effects of alcohol pass, the brain on a hangover is overstimulated. (It’s also the reason you wake up in the middle of the night once your body has metabolized alcohol.)
“You’ve got this hyperexcitability in the brain after the alcohol is gone,” said Dr. Robert Swift, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.
“If you look at the brain of somebody with a hangover, even though the person might feel tired, their brain is actually overexcited,” he said.
Consuming more alcohol normalizes the brain again, “because you’re adding a sedative to your excited brain,” Swift said. “You feel better until the alcohol goes away and the cycle repeats in a way.”
The answer is yes, depending on hangover symptoms, Brick said. If you’re a coffee drinker, skipping your morning cup of joe may lead to caffeine withdrawal on top of your hangover.
But coffee can irritate the stomach lining, which is already inflamed by alcohol, Brick said. So if you are queasy and nauseous, coffee may only make matters worse.
“If you have a hangover, have a quarter of a cup of coffee,” Brick suggested. “See if you feel better — it takes about 20 minutes for the caffeine to start to have some noticeable effect.
“If coffee doesn’t make you feel better, don’t drink anymore. Obviously, that’s not the cure for your hangover.”
Forget eating a greasy breakfast in the wee hours after a night of drinking — you’re adding insult to injury, Swift said: “Greasy food is harder to digest, so it’s probably good to avoid it.”
Eating greasy food also doesn’t make much sense. The alcohol we drink, called ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is the byproduct of fermenting carbohydrates and starches, usually some sort of grain, grape or berry. While it may create some tasty beverages, ethanol is also a solvent, Brick said.
“It cuts through grease in your stomach much the same way it cleans grease off oily car parts,” he said.
Instead, experts suggest using food to prevent hangovers, by eating before you have that first drink.
“Eating food loaded with protein and carbohydrates can significantly slow down the absorption of alcohol,” Brick said. “The slower the alcohol gets to your brain, the less rapid the ‘shock’ to your brain.”
Alcohol dehydrates, so a headache and other hangover symptoms may be partly due to constricted blood vessels and a loss of electrolytes, essential minerals such as sodium, calcium and potassium that your body needs.
If you’ve vomited, you’ve lost even more electrolytes, and all of this can lead to fatigue, confusion, irregular heart rate, digestive problems and more.
Replacing lost fluids with water or a type of sports drink with extra electrolytes can help boost recovery from a hangover, Swift said.
Taking over-the-counter pain meds can be dangerous, especially if you take too many while intoxicated, experts say. Taking an acetaminophen, such as Tylenol, can further damage your overtaxed liver, while aspirin and ibuprofen can irritate your stomach lining.
“You should never, never take alcohol with acetaminophen or Tylenol,” Swift said. “You can actually cause liver damage from an overdose of Tylenol.”
But aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen are “theoretically” OK, he added.
“Even though they tend to be anti-inflammatory in the body, they can cause inflammation in the stomach,” Swift said. “Don’t take them on an empty stomach; always take anti-inflammatories with food.”
While most alcohol is handled by the liver, a small amount leaves the body unchanged through sweat, urine and breathing.
Get up, do some light stretching and walking, and drink plenty of water to encourage urination, Brick said.
“Before you go to sleep and when you wake up, drink as much water as you comfortably can handle,” he said. You can also take a multivitamin “before you hit the shower in the morning (to) replenish lost vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.”
If you would rather have something warm and soothing, Brick suggested broth or other homemade soups.
“These will also help to replace lost salts, including potassium and other substances,” he said, “but will not make you sober up faster or improve impairment due to intoxication or hangover.”
Store shelves are packed with so-called hangover cures. Unfortunately, there’s no proof they work. In 2020, researchers published what they called the “world’s largest randomised double-blind placebo-controlled” trial of supplements containing vitamins, minerals, plant extracts and antioxidants and found no real improvement in hangover symptoms.
Even if one solution works, it likely won’t fix all your symptoms, experts say.
“The effects of alcohol and alcoholic beverages are so complicated, so complex,” Swift said, “that any solution might address one or two of the symptoms but won’t address them all.”
What does work for a hangover? Time. It will take time for your body to release all the toxins causing your misery, experts say. And the only way to prevent a hangover is to abstain.
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Roberts calls for judicial security in year-end report while avoiding mention of ethics reform or abortion draft leak | CNN Politics
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Chief Justice John Roberts urged continued vigilance for the safety of judges and justices in an annual report published Saturday, after a tumultuous year at the US Supreme Court.
“A judicial system cannot and should not live in fear,” Roberts wrote.
While drawing attention to judicial security, however, the chief justice bypassed other controversies, including calls for new ethics rules directed at the justices, and an update on an investigation launched eight months ago into the unprecedented leak of a draft abortion opinion last spring that unleashed nationwide protests.
Avoiding direct mention of any specific controversy, Roberts praised judges who face controversial issues “quietly, diligently and faithfully,” and urged continued congressional funding devoted to security.
Roberts said that while there is “no obligation in our free country” to agree with decisions, judges must always be protected.
“The law requires every judge to swear an oath to perform his or her work without fear or favor, but we must support judges by ensuring their safety,” he wrote.
Besides his duties on the high court, Roberts presides over the Judicial Conference, a body responsible for making policy regarding the administration of the courts, and he releases a report each New Year’s Eve on the state of the judiciary.
Some critics of the court were hoping that Roberts would use his annual report to concretely address other concerns that arose over the last several months.
The report comes as public opinion of the court has reached an all-time low. The justices, who are on their winter recess, took on blockbuster cases this fall concerning the issues of voting rights and affirmative action. In the second half of the term, they will discuss issues such as immigration and President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
Roberts made no direct mention, for instance, of the status of an ongoing investigation into the leak last May of the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
The disclosure – and the eventual opinion released the following month – triggered protests across the country, including some staged outside of the justices’ homes. In June, a man was arrested near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and later charged with attempted murder of a Supreme Court justice. According to court documents, the man, Nicholas Roske, told investigators that he was upset over the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe.
In addition, the court building was surrounded by 8-foot security fences that were only brought down ahead of the new term at the end of August.
In May, Roberts launched an investigation into the leak, but has not provided any public updates.
Roberts did not bring up ethics reform in the year-end report, but others had hoped he would use it to address the ongoing calls for a more formal code of ethics directed at the justices.
“There is no doubt that judicial security is paramount,” said Gabe Roth, the executive director of a group called Fix the Court, which is dedicated to more transparency in federal courts. Roth said he thought Roberts should have done more this year to shore up the public’s faith in the ethics of the court.
“As things stand now, there is no formal code of conduct for the Supreme Court and justices themselves get to decide how they conduct themselves both on and off the bench without any formal guiding principles,” Roth said.
Back in 2011, Roberts dedicated his year-end report to the issue of ethics, addressing such criticism.
“All Members of the Court do in fact consult the Code of Conduct in assessing their ethical obligations,” Roberts at the time. He noted that the justices can consult a “wide variety” of other authorities to resolve specific ethical issues including advice from the court’s legal office.
Federal law also demands a judge should disqualify himself if his “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
Roth said that this year the court’s integrity has been tested in ways it rarely has in the past, between the leaked opinion and the activities brought to light concerning Virginia “Ginni” Thomas – a long-time conservative activist and the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas.
In March, the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol had in its possession more than two dozen text messages between Ginni Thomas and former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The text messages, reviewed by CNN, show Thomas pleading with Meadows to continue the fight to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Roth and others say that Justice Thomas should have recused himself – including from a January case in which the high court cleared the way for the release of presidential records from the Trump White House to the committee. Thomas was the sole dissenter.
“Federal law says that recusal is required when a justice’s impartiality could be reasonably questioned, and that was clearly the case here,” Roth said.
Ginni Thomas ultimately voluntarily testified before the committee, but she was not mentioned in the panel’s final report released last week.
Thomas told the committee that she regretted the “tone and content” of the messages she was sending to Meadows, according to witness transcripts the panel released on Friday, and that her husband only found out about the messages in March 2022.
Thomas said she could “guarantee” that her husband never spoke to her about pending cases in the court because it was an “ironclad” rule in the house, according to the transcript. Additionally, she said that Justice Thomas is “uninterested in politics.”
Ginni Thomas’ lawyer, Mark Paoletta, released a statement last week saying she was “happy to meet” with the committee to “clear up misconceptions” but that the committee had “no legitimate reason to interview her.”
He called her post-election activities after Trump lost in 2020 “minimal.”
“Mrs. Thomas had significant concerns about potential fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election, and her minimal activity was focused on ensuring that reports of fraud and irregularities were investigated,” Paoletta said.
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3 children were killed and 4 other people injured in Buffalo house fire | CNN
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Three children are dead following a Saturday morning fire in Buffalo, New York, that also left three other children, including a baby, and their grandmother hospitalized.
The fire was reported in the 200 block of Darmouth Ave. around 7:30 a.m., Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said during a press conference Saturday.
Three girls aged 7, 8, and 10, died as a result of the fire, according to Renaldo.
Two other children, one girl and one boy, were taken to Children’s Hospital and are currently in critical condition, he said. A seven-month-old girl was also taken to the same hospital and is currently in stable condition.
A 63-year-old grandmother was taken to Erie County Medical Center and is currently in critical condition.
The children were being raised by their grandparents. The grandfather wasn’t home at the time of the fire, according to Renaldo.
“It’s been a very challenging year at the fire department. There’s been a number of fatalities. A number of high-profile fires. Obviously, we had the mass shooting at Topps on 5/14 and we’re coming off the challenge of a worldwide pandemic as well,” Renaldo said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. No firefighters were injured in the incident.
Buffalo is still recovering from a deadly and historic blizzard that barreled through last weekend, burying the city in nearly 52 inches of snow and killing at least 39 people. Most of the victims were found dead either outside or in their homes, while others died in their cars, as the result of delayed emergency medical service, and while removing snow or from cardiac arrest, officials have said.
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Biden remembers Pope Benedict XVI as ‘renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church’ | CNN Politics
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President Joe Biden mourned the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, saying in a statement Saturday that the late pontiff “will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith.”
Benedict died Saturday at the age of 95 in a Vatican monastery, according to a statement from the Vatican. He was the first pope in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, doing so in 2013.
Biden, the second Catholic to serve as president of the United States, reflected on his meeting with Benedict at the Vatican in 2011, recalling the late pontiff’s “generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation.”
“As he remarked during his 2008 visit to the White House, ‘the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity.’ May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all,” Biden said Saturday.
Benedict’s funeral will be held on Thursday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Vatican statement said. The funeral will be led by Pope Francis.
Benedict was a polarizing figure, hailed by conservatives who admired his erudite writings and careful theology. But he faced criticism, particularly in the postmodern West, for his staunch insistence on fidelity to church doctrine and his willingness to silence dissent. He also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Catholic Church during his years as a senior cleric.
Benedict met with three sitting US presidents – in addition to future President Biden – during his time as leader of the Catholic Church.
“It was like going back to theology class,” Biden told America, a Jesuit publication, in 2015 of his meeting with Benedict. “And by the way, he wasn’t judgmental. He was open. I came away enlivened from the discussion.”
Benedict met with his first sitting president in 2007 when George W. Bush traveled to the Vatican. Benedict made his only papal visit to the United States the following year. Bush took the rare step of meeting the pope when his plane arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, DC, and he later welcomed Benedict to the White House with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn where thousands gathered and sang “Happy Birthday” to the pope, who turned 81 that day.
Later that year, Bush visited Benedict at the Vatican, where the two men strolled through the Vatican Gardens and met privately for roughly 30 minutes.
In 2009, President Barack Obama met with Benedict for 30 minutes at the Vatican. Officials at the time said their meeting included discussions on addressing poverty and the Middle East, as well as issues such as abortion and stem cell research.
Abortion also appeared to be a topic of discussion during Biden’s meeting with Benedict. In his 2015 interview with America, Biden said the two men spoke about Catholic doctrine and the then-vice president’s view that he should not impose his own beliefs on other people, including on issues such as abortion.
Benedict talked about Biden’s abortion stance after he became president in 2021.
“It’s true, he’s Catholic and observant. And personally, he is against abortion,” Benedict said in an interview with The Tablet, a Catholic publication. “But as president, he tends to present himself in continuity with the line of the Democratic Party … and on gender policy, we still don’t really understand what his position is.”
Biden also spoke of Benedict at a White House event this summer, calling him a “great theologian, a very conservative theologian.” The president shared that Benedict had asked him for advice when they met.
“‘Well, one piece of advice,’ I said, ‘I’d go easy on the nuns. They’re more popular than you are,’” Biden recounted to laughter.
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