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Tag: domestic-international news

  • Ratko Mladic Fast Facts | CNN

    Ratko Mladic Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Ratko Mladic, former leader of the Bosnian Serb army, sentenced to life in prison for genocide and other war crimes.

    Birth date: March 12, 1942

    Birth place: Kalnovik, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)

    Birth name: Ratko Mladic

    Father: Nedja Mladic

    Mother: Stana Mladic

    Marriage: Bosiljka Mladic

    Children: Darko and Ana

    1965 – Graduates from a military academy and joins the Communist Party.

    1992 – As a commander in the Bosnian Serb army, Mladic leads the siege of Sarajevo.

    July 1995 – Mladic spearheads an attack on the town of Srebrenica. Approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys are killed.

    1995 – Mladic is indicted by the UN-established International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes and atrocities.

    July 1996 – An international warrant is issued for his arrest.

    1996-2001 – He takes refuge in Belgrade with the protection of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

    2001 – Mladic goes into hiding after Milosevic is arrested.

    October 12, 2007 – Serbian officials offer one million euros for information leading to the capture of Mladic.

    May 26, 2011 – Mladic is arrested in Serbia.

    July 4, 2011 – Mladic refuses to enter a plea so the presiding judge enters not guilty pleas to all counts against him.

    May 16, 2012 – Mladic’s trial begins. He’s charged with two counts of genocide, nine crimes against humanity and war crimes.

    January 28, 2014 – He refuses to testify at the genocide trial of former Bosian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic and denounces the ICTY court as “satanic.”

    October 23, 2014 – The ICTY announces that the court will hear details about a mass grave investigators believe has ties to Mladic.

    December 7, 2016 – During closing arguments, prosecutors recommend a life sentence for Mladic.

    December 15, 2016 – Mladic’s trial is adjourned. Three UN judges begin deliberating on his fate. The process could take up to a year.

    November 22, 2017 – Mladic is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

    March 22, 2018 – Appeals his conviction and sentence.

    August 25-26, 2020 – Mladic’s appeal hearing takes place.

    June 8, 2021 – A UN court upholds Mladic’s conviction and life sentence.

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  • Robert Levinson Fast Facts | CNN

    Robert Levinson Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran in 2007.

    Birth date: March 10, 1948

    Birth place: Flushing, New York

    Birth name: Robert Alan Levinson

    Father: Name unavailable publicly

    Mother: Name unavailable publicly

    Marriage: Christine (Gorman) Levinson

    Children: Douglas, Samantha, David, Daniel, Sarah, Stephanie and Susan

    Education: City College of New York, B.A., 1970

    During his career at the FBI, Levinson specialized in investigating organized crime in Russia.

    His family said Levinson suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.

    1970s – Levinson is hired by the FBI after six years with the Drug Enforcement Agency.

    1998 – Levinson retires from the FBI.

    1998-2007 – Levinson works as a private investigator.

    2006 – Levinson is hired as a contractor by Tim Sampson, head of the Illicit Finance Group within the Office of Transnational Issues at the CIA, to write reports for the agency. The contract is for approximately $85,000. Three CIA employees, including Sampson, later lose their jobs for overstepping their authority as analysts and withholding information about Levinson after he disappeared.

    March 8-9, 2007 – According to State Department officials, Levinson travels to Kish Island in Iran and checks into a hotel. Reportedly, Levinson is in the Middle East to investigate cigarette smuggling on behalf of a client. During the visit, he meets with American fugitive Dawud Salahuddin, who is the last person to acknowledge seeing him on March 9.

    June 1, 2007 – US President George W. Bush says he is “disturbed” by Iran’s refusal to provide any information on Levinson. “I call on Iran’s leaders to tell us what they know about his whereabouts.”

    December 2007 – Levinson’s wife, Christine Levinson, meets with government officials in Iran, but does not learn anything about her husband’s disappearance.

    2008 – The CIA pays the Levinson family more than $2 million to head off a lawsuit, according to family attorney David McGee.

    March 3, 2011 – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that evidence is growing that Levinson is alive and being held somewhere in southwest Asia.

    December 2011 – The Levinson family publicly releases a “proof of life” video they received in November 2010. In the video, Levinson says, “I have been treated well, but I need the help of the United States government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for three-and-a-half years. And please help me get home. Thirty-three years of service to the United States deserves something. Please help me.”

    March 6, 2012 – The FBI offers a $1 million reward for information leading to his safe return.

    September 2012 – Christine Levinson attempts to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the UN General Assembly in New York. He does not meet with her but tells CNN, “They told me (Levinson) was in Iran, and of course the question came up in my mind, what was an American intelligence officer doing in Iran…an individual is lost, how are we supposed to find him among 7 billion people spread across the globe? What we can do is assist, help and cooperate, which we have been doing, and we are doing… as a humanitarian gesture and action.”

    January 2013 – The Levinson family releases a series of photographs they received in April 2011. In the photos, a bearded, shackled Levinson, wearing an orange jumpsuit, holds signs written in broken English.

    September 27, 2013 – US President Barack Obama speaks by phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. One of the topics discussed is Levinson.

    December 12, 2013 – The Associated Press and The Washington Post report that Levinson was working for the CIA when he disappeared in 2007, possibly investigating corruption among Iranian officials. The AP says it first learned of Levinson’s CIA ties in 2010 but delayed publishing the information at the government’s request. The next day the New York Times reports it has known of Levinson’s CIA work since 2007 but also delayed publishing the information to avoid jeopardizing his safety.

    December 13, 2013 – White House Spokesman Jay Carney says Levinson “was not a US government employee when he went missing in Iran.”

    December 2013 – Salahuddin, the last person to acknowledge seeing Levinson, tells the Christian Science Monitor that both he and Levinson were detained by Iranian police on March 9, 2007.

    January 21, 2014 – In an interview with CNN, Levinson’s family discloses that they have known for some time that he was working for the CIA. They accuse the US government of failing to do enough to find Levinson.

    March 9, 2015 – The FBI increases the reward for information on Levinson to $5 million.

    February 11, 2016 – The Senate passes a resolution recognizing that Levinson is the longest held US civilian in US history and urges Iran to “act on its promises to assist in the case of Robert Levinson.”

    March 21, 2017 – Levinson’s family files a lawsuit against Iran with the US District Court in Washington, DC. The complaint states that the family is filing suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act “for injuries suffered by each of them as a result of Iran’s unlawful acts of hostage taking, torture and other torts.”

    November 4, 2019 – The Department of State Rewards for Justice Program announces a reward of up to $20 million for information leading to the safe return of Levinson, in addition to the FBI’s previously announced reward of $5 million.

    March 9, 2020 – On the 13th anniversary of Levinson’s abduction, the FBI renews its “repeated calls to Iran to uphold its prior commitments to cooperate and to share information which could lead to Bob’s return.”

    March 25, 2020 – The family of Levinson announces that they believe he is dead. “We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” they said in a statement.

    October 1, 2020 – A US court orders the government of Iran to pay more than $1.4 billion to Levinson’s family for compensatory and punitive damages.

    December 14, 2020 – Senior US government officials say they have identified and sanctioned two senior Iranian intelligence officials who were involved in the abduction and “probable death” of Levinson.

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  • Spain Train Bombings Fast Facts | CNN

    Spain Train Bombings Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Spain, which killed 193 people and injured more than 1,800. The bombings are the deadliest terrorist attack in Spain’s history.

    On March 11, 2004, 10 bombs in backpacks and other small bags exploded on four commuter trains. One bomb did not explode and was defused. The police did controlled explosions of three other bombs.

    ETA, a Basque group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, and al Qaeda were the original suspects cited by the Spanish government.

    Through anonymous phone calls to Basque media outlets, ETA vehemently denied involvement.

    Islamic militants who were based in Spain but inspired by al Qaeda were designated later as the prime suspects.

    March 11, 2004 – Coordinated attacks including 10 bombs on four commuter trains at three different stations kill 191 people and wound more than 1,800.

    March 13, 2004 – An al Qaeda claim of responsibility is made via video tape by a man speaking in Arabic with a Moroccan accent.

    March 13, 2004 – Five people are arrested in connection to the case 60 hours after the bombings. Three of those arrested are Moroccans, and two are Indian. Prepaid phone cards and a cell phone from backpacks found at the bombing site link the five to the investigation.

    March 14, 2004 – The Spanish Interior Ministry releases the names of five people detained in connection with the attacks. The men are identified as Jamal Zougam, Mohamed Bekkali, Mohamed Cahoui, Vinay Kohly and Sureh Komar.

    March 18, 2004 – Spanish authorities arrest four North Africans in connection with the bombings. The radio report says three were arrested in the Madrid suburb of Alcala de Henares and the other North African was arrested in northern Spain. They are: Abderrahim Zbakh, Farid Oulad Ali and Mohamed El Hadi Chedadi, whose brother, Said Chedadi, was indicted last September by a Spanish judge for links to al Qaeda.
    – The fourth suspect is not identified but is described as being of Arab descent.
    – The fifth suspect is a Spanish citizen who goes by the name of Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras. He is arrested in northern Spain.

    March 19, 2004 – Spain’s National Court charges five suspects in connection with the bombings and remands them into custody after an all-night court session. The Court also releases Ali Amrous, an Algerian man held in connection with the Madrid terror attacks and suspected of being an al Qaeda member.

    March 22, 2004 – Spanish state radio reports four new arrests in the Madrid bombings.

    March 24, 2004 – A Spanish judge charges two more suspects, Naima Oulad and Rafa Zouhier, in the train bombings, bringing the total number of people charged in the attacks to 11.

    March 25, 2004 – A Spanish judge charges a Moroccan man, Faisal Alluch, with collaborating with a terrorist group in connection with the train bombings, boosting the number to 12 suspects who have been charged in the case.

    March 30, 2004 – Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes names a Moroccan terrorist group, Moroccan Islamist Combat Group (GICM), as the principal focus in the investigation.

    March 30, 2004 – Moroccan Fouad El Morabit, who had been released without charges, is rearrested. Court sources also confirm the latest arrest in the case, a man identified as Otman el Gnaout.

    March 30, 2004 – Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian man, is charged in the bombings. Hamid Ahmidan of Morocco is charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and a count of drug possession. Three other men are released.

    March 31, 2004 – A Spanish National Court judge issues international arrest warrants for six more suspects as the investigation focuses on the GICM. The Interior Ministry says five of the men sought are Moroccans. They include two brothers and a man who is related to other Moroccans previously arrested. The sixth man sought is Tunisian.

    March 31, 2004 – Arraignments begin for two men, Antonio Toro Castro of Spain and Mustafa Ahmidam from Morocco.

    April 2, 2004 – A bomb found under high-speed rail tracks between Madrid and Seville appears to be made of the same explosives used in the March 11 attacks.

    April 2, 2004 – A Spanish judge releases without charges two Syrian men who had been detained in connection with the March 11 Madrid train bombings. He also frees a Moroccan man but orders him to report daily to police until further notice.

    April 3, 2004 – Seven suspected terrorists kill themselves and a policeman when they set off an explosion in a suburb of Madrid as police attempt to enter a building. The suspects are presumed to be involved in the train bombings. Fingerprints at the scene later result in more arrests, including Saswan Sabagh.

    April 3, 2004 – Spanish authorities arrest two more people but the identities of the two are not released.

    April 7, 2004 – A National Court judge charges two more Moroccan suspects, Abdelilah El Fuad and Rachid Adli, in the March 11 Madrid train bombings.

    April 12, 2004 – Spanish police arrest three more suspects. One of the three was identified as Morabit, who has now been detained three times. The other two are not identified.

    May 6, 2004 – Brandon Mayfield, an American attorney, is taken into custody by the FBI in connection with the attacks. His fingerprints were found on a bag containing detonators of the kind used in the attacks, in close proximity to the blast site. The Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said the plastic bag was found inside a stolen van left near the Alcala train station, from which the three bombed trains departed. US sources are calling him a material witness, not formally charging him with a crime as of yet, and state that he is a follower of Islam.

    November 2004 – Spanish lawmakers launch an inquiry into the train bombings.

    January 2005 – Spain’s interior minister says Spanish officials have made 66 arrests in the train bombing investigation.

    April 11, 2006 – Twenty-nine people are indicted in a Spanish court in connection with the bombings. Five men are charged with planning and carrying out the plot, and a sixth is named as a “necessary collaborator.” The rest are charged with supporting roles.

    February 15, 2007 – Start date of trial for 29 defendants. Seven defendants are considered prime suspects, and they each could face sentences of about 38,000 years in prison for mass murder, if convicted.

    March 11, 2007 – For the third anniversary of the bombing, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia dedicate a memorial for the victims at the Atocha station. It is a glass cylinder which opens into a meditation chamber.

    June 4, 2007 – One of the 29 defendants in the Madrid train bombings trial, Brahim Moussaten, has been cleared of all charges and is now a free man, a court spokeswoman tells CNN.

    October 31, 2007 – Verdicts are read for the remaining 28 defendants. Three men are found guilty of the most serious charges and sentenced to thousands of years in prison. However, under Spanish law, they will serve only 40 years. Eighteen defendants are found guilty of lesser charges. Seven defendants are acquitted, including alleged mastermind Rabei Osman.

    July 17, 2008 – Four defendants, Basel Ghalyoun, Mouhannad Almallah Dabas, Abdelilah el-Fadual al-Akil and Raúl González, have their convictions overturned. The acquittal of Osman is also upheld.

    December 18, 2008 – A criminal court in Morocco convicts Abdelilah Ahriz of belonging to a terrorist group involved in the train bombings and sentences him to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors originally requested that Ahriz be given a life sentence, saying DNA sampling proved his involvement in preparing the train bombings.

    May 12, 2009 – Ten of the 14 suspected Islamic militants accused of assisting the three suspects are acquitted by Spain’s anti-terrorism court. The ruling gives the remaining four sentences between two and nine years for falsifying documents or being part of a terrorist group.

    January 13, 2010 – A Spanish court convicts five men accused of Islamic terrorist activities, including aiding fugitives from the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and planning other attacks. Their sentences, on charges of collaborating or belonging to an Islamic terrorist group, range from five to nine years in prison.

    February 2011 – Spain’s Supreme Court overturns the lower court’s conviction of the five men convicted in January 2010 for Islamic terrorist activities that included aiding fugitives from the Madrid train bombings and planning other attacks.

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  • Rick Perry Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Rick Perry Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Here is a look at the life of former US Secretary of Energy and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.

    Birth date: March 4, 1950

    Birth place: Paint Creek, Texas

    Birth name: James Richard Perry

    Father: Joseph Ray Perry, a farmer

    Mother: Amelia (Holt) Perry

    Marriage: Anita (Thigpen) Perry (November 6, 1982-present)

    Children: Sydney and Griffin

    Education: Texas A&M University, B.S., 1972

    Military Service: US Air Force, 1972-1977, Captain

    Religion: Methodist

    Is an Eagle Scout.

    Met his wife, Anita, in elementary school.

    Has devoted years to supporting psychedelic-assisted therapies.

    Is the longest-serving governor in Texas history.

    1972-1977 – Serves in the US Air Force flying transport planes.

    1977 – Returns to Texas to live and work on his father’s farm.

    1978 – Forms JR Perry Farms with his father.

    1985-1991 – Member of the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from the 64th District.

    1989 – Switches to the Republican Party.

    1991-1999 – Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

    1999-2000 – Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

    December 21, 2000 – Perry is sworn in as governor after George W. Bush resigns to become president of the United States.

    November 5, 2002 – Perry is elected to a four-year term.

    November 7, 2006 – Is reelected governor.

    2008 – Perry’s book “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For” is published.

    November 2, 2010 – Perry is elected for a third term in office.

    August 13, 2011 – Declares his candidacy for president during a speech in South Carolina.

    January 19, 2012 – Suspends his presidential campaign and endorses Newt Gingrich.

    July 8, 2013 – Announces that he will not run for reelection as Texas governor in 2014.

    August 15, 2014 – A grand jury indicts Perry on charges of coercion of a public servant and abuse of his official capacity. He allegedly threatened to veto funding for a statewide public integrity unit run by Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg unless she resigned following her arrest on a drunk driving charge. She stayed in office, and he later vetoed the funding.

    August 19, 2014 – Perry voluntarily appears at the Travis County Court house to be booked and fingerprinted and to have his mug shot taken. He pleads not guilty to charges of coercion of a public servant and abuse of official capacity. The next day he makes the first of six campaign style stops across New Hampshire.

    November 18, 2014 – A state district judge in Texas denies a defense motion to have two felony charges dismissed against Perry.

    January 15, 2015 – Delivers his farewell address as governor.

    June 4, 2015 – Announces he is running for president at a rally in Addison, Texas.

    July 24, 2015 – A Texas appeals court dismisses one of two criminal charges against Perry. The court agrees with the argument from Perry’s legal team that a Texas law concerning “coercion of a public servant” violates Perry’s First Amendment freedom of speech rights. The court is allowing a charge related to abuse of power to move forward.

    September 11, 2015 – Suspends his campaign for the presidency.

    January 25, 2016 – Perry endorses Ted Cruz.

    February 24, 2016 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals drops charges against Perry alleging he abused his power while in office.

    August 30, 2016 – Perry is revealed as one of the members of the upcoming 23rd season of reality television dance competition “Dancing with the Stars” on ABC.

    September 27, 2016 – Is eliminated from “Dancing With The Stars.”

    November 22, 2016 – Returns to “Dancing With The Stars” for the season finale. Perry dances with Vanilla Ice during a live performance of “Ice Ice Baby.”

    December 13, 2016 – President-elect Donald Trump announces he has selected Perry to be his nominee for energy secretary.

    January 19, 2017 – Perry says that he regrets recommending the elimination of the Department of Energy during a presidential debate in 2012.

    March 2, 2017 – Perry is confirmed as energy secretary with a 62-37 vote in the Senate.

    July 26, 2017 – Perry’s office acknowledges that he was the target of a prank call on July 19. During the 20-minute call from Russian pranksters, real names Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksey Stolyarov, respectively, one pretends to be Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

    February 5, 2019 – Is named the designated survivor for Trump’s second State of the Union address. As the one member of the Cabinet remaining outside the House chamber during the speech in case disaster strikes, Perry will remain in an undisclosed location.

    October 10, 2019 – House Democrats issue a subpoena to Perry for documents related to the Trump administration’s contacts with Ukraine as part of the ongoing House impeachment inquiry.

    October 17, 2019 – Perry says he plans to resign in a video posted to YouTube.

    November 20, 2019 – Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testifies that he, along with special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker and Perry, worked with Giuliani on Ukraine at the “express direction” of Trump and against their better judgment. Sondland also tells lawmakers that he had discussed the investigation in a July 19 email sent to several top US officials, including Perry. In response, the Department of Energy releases a statement denying Sondland’s claims, saying he “misrepresented both Secretary Perry’s interaction with Rudy Giuliani and direction the Secretary received from President Trump.”

    December 1, 2019 – Perry resigns as US Secretary of Energy.

    January 1, 2020 – Perry is appointed as a director of the general partner that controls Energy Transfer LP, a pipeline company.

    February 17, 2021 – In a blog post on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s website, Perry is quoted as saying “partly rhetorically,” that “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business.” Millions of Texans lost power as the state experienced a massive failure brought on by a historic freeze and a power grid that – unlike the other 47 contiguous states – is separated from the rest of the country and is not under federal regulatory oversight, which prevents Texas from being able to borrow power from other states.

    December 17, 2021 – January 6 House committee investigators believe that a November 4 text pushing “strategy” to undermine the presidential election came from Perry, three sources familiar with the investigation tell CNN. First presented on the House floor December 14, the text was included in about 6,000 documents turned over to the committee by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Perry denies being the author.

    Moments from Rick Perry’s career

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  • Oil Spills Fast Facts | CNN

    Oil Spills Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at oil spill disasters. Spill estimates vary by source.

    1. January 1991 – During the Gulf War, Iraqi forces intentionally release 252-336 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf.

    2. April 20, 2010 – An explosion occurs on board the BP-contracted Transocean Ltd. Deepwater Horizon oil rig, releasing approximately 168 million gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

    3. June 3, 1979 – Ixtoc 1, an exploratory well, blows out, spilling 140 million gallons of oil into the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico.

    4. March 2, 1992 – A Fergana Valley oil well in Uzbekistan blows out, spilling 88 million gallons of oil.

    5. February 1983 – An oil well in the Nowruz Oil Field in Iran begins spilling oil. One month later, an Iraqi air attack increases the amount of oil spilled to approximately 80 million gallons of oil.

    6. August 6, 1983 – The Castillo de Bellver, a Spanish tanker, catches fire near Cape Town, South Africa, spilling more than 78 million gallons of oil.

    7. March 16, 1978 – The Amoco Cadiz tanker runs aground near Portsall, France, spilling more than 68 million gallons of oil.

    8. November 10, 1988 – The tanker Odyssey breaks apart during a storm, spilling 43.1 million gallons of oil northeast of Newfoundland, Canada.

    9. July 19, 1979 – The Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain tankers collide near Trinidad and Tobago. The Atlantic Empress spills 42.7 million gallons of oil. On August 2, the Atlantic Empress spills an additional 41.5 million gallons near Barbados while being towed away.

    10. August 1, 1980 – Production Well D-103 blows out, spilling 42 million gallons of oil southeast of Tripoli, Libya.

    Union Oil Company
    January 28, 1969 – Inadequate casing leads to the blowout of a Union Oil well 3,500 feet deep about five miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. About three million gallons of oil gush from the leak until it can be sealed 11 days later, covering 800 square miles of ocean and 35 miles of coastline and killing thousands of birds, fish and other wildlife.

    The disaster is largely considered to be one of the main impetuses behind the environmental movement and stricter government regulation, including President Richard Nixon’s signing of the National Environmental Policy Act, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. It also inspired Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to found the first Earth Day.

    Exxon Valdez
    March 24, 1989 – The Exxon Valdez runs aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil.

    March 22, 1990 – Captain Joseph Hazelwood is acquitted of all but one misdemeanor, negligent discharge of oil. Hazelwood is later sentenced to 1,000 hours of cleaning around Prince William Sound and is fined $50,000.

    July 25, 1990 – At an administrative hearing, the Coast Guard dismisses charges of misconduct and intoxication against Captain Joseph Hazelwood, but suspends his captain’s license.

    October 8, 1991 – A federal judge approves a settlement in which Exxon and its shipping subsidiary will pay $900 million in civil payments and $125 million in fines and restitution. Exxon says it has already spent more than $2 billion on cleanup.

    September 16, 1994 – A federal jury orders Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to fishermen, businesses and property owners affected by the oil spill.

    November 7, 2001 – The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rules that the $5 billion award for punitive damages is excessive and must be cut.

    December 6, 2002 – US District Judge H. Russel Holland reduces the award to $4 billion.

    December 22, 2006 – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reduces the award to $2.5 billion.

    June 25, 2008 – The US Supreme Court cuts the $2.5 billion punitive damages award to $507.5 million.

    June 15, 2009 – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals orders Exxon to pay $470 million in interest on the $507.5 million award.

    BP Gulf Oil Spill
    April 20, 2010 – An explosion occurs aboard BP-contracted Transocean Ltd Deepwater Horizon oil rig stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the 126 workers aboard the oil rig, 11 are killed.

    April 22, 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks. An oil slick appears in the water. It is not known if the leak is from the rig or from the underwater well to which it was connected.

    April 24, 2010 – The US Coast Guard reports that the underwater well is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons of oil a day.

    April 28, 2010 – The Coast Guard increases its spill estimate to 210,000 gallons of oil a day.

    May 2, 2010 – President Barack Obama tours oil spill affected areas and surveys efforts to contain the spill.

    May 4, 2010 – The edges of the oil slick reach the Louisiana shore.

    May 26, 2010 – BP starts a procedure known as “top kill,” which attempts to pump enough mud down into the well to eliminate the upward pressure from the oil and clear the way for a cement cap to be put into place. The attempt fails.

    June 16, 2010 – BP agrees to create a $20 billion fund to help victims affected by the oil spill.

    July 5, 2010 – Authorities report that tar balls linked to the oil spill have reached the shores of Texas.

    July 10, 2010 – BP removes an old containment cap from the well so a new one can be installed. While the cap is removed, oil flows freely. The new cap is finished being installed on July 12.

    July 15, 2010 – According to BP, oil has stopped flowing into the Gulf.

    August 3, 2010 – BP begins the operation “static kill” to permanently seal the oil well.

    August 5, 2010 – BP finishes the “static kill” procedure. Retired Adm. Thad Allen says this will “virtually assure us there’s no chance of oil leaking into the environment.”

    January 11, 2011 – The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling releases their full report stating that the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig launched the worst oil spill in US history, 168 million gallons (or about 4 million barrels).

    September 14, 2011 – The final federal report is issued on the Gulf oil spill. It names BP, Transocean and Halliburton as sharing responsibility for the deadly explosion that resulted in the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

    January 26, 2012 – A federal judge in New Orleans rules that Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, is not liable for compensatory damages sought by third parties.

    January 31, 2012 – A federal judge in New Orleans rules that Halliburton is not liable for some of the compensatory damages sought by third parties.

    March 2, 2012 – BP announces it has reached a settlement with attorneys representing thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the 2010 oil spill.

    April 18, 2012 – Court documents are filed revealing the March 2, 2010 settlement BP reached with attorneys representing thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the oil spill. A federal judge must give preliminary approval of the pact, which BP estimates will total about $7.8 billion.

    April 24, 2012 – The first criminal charges are filed in connection with the oil spill. Kurt Mix, a former engineer for BP, is charged with destroying 200-plus text messages about the oil spill, including one concluding that the undersea gusher was far worse than reported at the time.

    November 15, 2012 – Attorney General Eric Holder announces that BP will plead guilty to manslaughter charges related to the rig explosion and will pay $4.5 billion in government penalties. Separate from the corporate manslaughter charges, a federal grand jury returns an indictment charging the two highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon on the day of the explosion with 23 criminal counts.

    November 28, 2012 – The US government issues a temporary ban barring BP from bidding on new federal contracts. The ban is lifted on March 13, 2014.

    December 21, 2012 – US District Judge Carl Barbier signs off on the settlement between BP and businesses and individuals affected by the oil spill.

    January 3, 2013 – The Justice Department announces that Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act and pay $1.4 billion in fines.

    February 25, 2013 – The trial to determine how much BP owes in civil damages under the Clean Water Act begins. The first phase of the trial will focus on the cause of the blowout.

    September 19, 2013 – In federal court in New Orleans, Halliburton pleads guilty to destroying test results that investigators had sought as evidence. The company is given the maximum fine of $200,000 on the charge.

    September 30, 2013 – The second phase of the civil trial over the oil spill begins. This part focuses on how much oil was spilled and if BP was negligent because of its lack of preparedness.

    December 18, 2013 – Kurt Mix, a former engineer for BP, is acquitted on one of two charges of obstruction of justice for deleting text messages about the oil spill.

    September 4, 2014 – A federal judge in Louisiana finds that BP was “grossly negligent” in the run-up to the 2010 disaster, which could quadruple the penalties it would have to pay under the Clean Water Act to more than $18 billion. Judge Carl Barbier of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana also apportions blame for the spill, with “reckless” BP getting two thirds of it. He says the other two main defendants in the more than 3,000 lawsuits filed in the spill’s wake, Transocean and Halliburton, were found to be “negligent.”

    January 15, 2015 – After weighing multiple estimates, the court determines that 4.0 million barrels of oil were released from the reservoir. 810,000 barrels of oil were collected without contacting “ambient sea water” during the spill response, making BP responsible for a maximum of 3.19 million barrels.

    January 20-February 2, 2015 – The final phase of the trial to determine BP’s fines takes place. The ruling is expected in a few months.

    July 2, 2015 – An $18.7 billion settlement is announced between BP and five Gulf states.

    September 28, 2015 – In a Louisiana federal court, the city of Mobile, Alabama, files an amended complaint for punitive damages against Transocean Ltd., Triton Asset Leasing, and Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., stating that “Mobile, its government, businesses, residents, properties, eco-systems and tourists/tourism have suffered and continue to suffer injury, damage and/or losses as a result of the oil spill disaster.” As of April 20, 2015, Mobile estimated the losses had exceeded $31,240,000.

    October 5, 2015 – BP agrees to pay more than $20 billion to settle claims related to the spill. It is the largest settlement with a single entity in the history of the Justice Department.

    November 6, 2015 – The remaining obstruction of justice charge against Kurt Mix is dismissed as he agrees to plead guilty to the lesser charge of “intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer,” relating to deletion of a text message, a misdemeanor. He receives six months’ probation and must complete 60 hours of community service.

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  • Justin Bieber Fast Facts | CNN

    Justin Bieber Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Grammy Award-winning singer Justin Bieber.

    Birth date: March 1, 1994

    Birth place: London, Ontario, Canada

    Birth name: Justin Drew Bieber

    Father: Jeremy Bieber

    Mother: Patricia Mallette

    Marriage: Hailey Baldwin (2018-present)

    Pattie Mallette was a teenage single mother who worked low paying jobs to support the family before her son became a star.

    Taught himself to play guitar and piano as a child.

    Fans of Bieber refer to themselves as “Beliebers” and describe themselves as having “Bieber Fever.”

    Nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, and winner of two.

    2007-2008 – Bieber’s mother begins posting videos of her son performing on YouTube. Record executive Scooter Braun sees the videos and flies Bieber and his mother to Atlanta and signs the teen to a contract.

    2008 – Auditions for singer Usher and is signed to a contract on Island/Def Jam records.

    May 2009 – Releases his first single, “One Time,” which goes platinum in the United States and Canada.

    November 2009 – The seven-song EP “My World” is released, going platinum in the US.

    November 2009 – Bieber’s appearance at Roosevelt Field Mall in New York must be canceled due to an out-of-control crowd of teen girls.

    March 2010 – His first full-length album “My World 2.0” is released and debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It sells approximately five million copies.

    April 2010 – Performs on “Saturday Night Live.”

    April 2010 – Police in Australia cancel a Bieber appearance after several girls are injured in the unruly crowd.

    February 2011 – A 3D concert film, “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” is released.

    November 2011 – Mariah Yeater, 20, files a lawsuit seeking child support, and a paternity test from Bieber. She alleges that she and the now 17-year-old Bieber had sex at a concert the previous year, and she now has a three-month-old son. The case is dropped a few weeks later.

    November 2011 – Bieber’s second studio album, “Under the Mistletoe,” is released. It sells approximately two million copies.

    June 2012 – His third studio album, “Believe,” is released and sells an estimated 2.7 million copies.

    July 2012 – Involved in a high-speed chase with paparazzi in California.

    March 4, 2013 – Bieber reportedly shows up two hours late to a concert in London, angering fans.

    March 8, 2013 – Briefly hospitalized in London after feeling “light of breath.”

    March 2013 – Bieber’s capuchin monkey, Mally, is confiscated by German customs officials. It is later taken in by a zoo in northern Germany.

    July 2013 – A video is leaked showing Bieber allegedly urinating in a mop bucket and defacing a photo of former US President Bill Clinton. Bieber later apologizes to Clinton.

    September 2013 – Bieber is widely mocked when photos are released showing his bodyguards carrying him up the Great Wall of China.

    December 24, 2013 – Bieber announces on Twitter that he is retiring but later backtracks on the statement.

    December 25, 2013 – His new movie, “Believe,” opens in theaters.

    January 14, 2014 – Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies execute a search warrant at Bieber’s home in Calabasas, in connection with an alleged egging of his neighbor’s home.

    January 23, 2014 – Bieber is arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and drag racing in Miami Beach, Florida.

    January 29, 2014 – Bieber is charged with assault in Toronto for allegedly assaulting a limo driver on December 30. On the same day, Bieber’s attorney enters a written plea of not guilty on behalf of his client for charges he faces in Miami. He has been charged with DUI, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license.

    May 12, 2014 – Los Angeles Police Department robbery detectives begin investigating a report of an alleged robbery “between an individual and Mr. Bieber near the batting cages” on Los Angeles’ west side.

    July 9, 2014 – Bieber accepts a plea deal to settle a misdemeanor vandalism charge for egging his neighbor’s home in January. He must serve two years’ probation, pay $80,900 restitution for damages, and stay at least 100 yards way from the victim’s family.

    August 13, 2014 – Pleads guilty to careless driving and resisting arrest, without violence, in his Miami DUI case. The plea agreement includes a charitable donation and an anger management course.

    September 2, 2014 – Bieber is arrested on assault and dangerous driving charges stemming from an alleged fight after his ATV collides with a mini-van in Ontario, Canada. He is released on “a promise to appear” and is ordered to answer the charges at a later hearing in Stratford, Ontario.

    September 8, 2014 – It is announced that the charge that Bieber assaulted his limo driver in Toronto in December has been dropped.

    June 4, 2015 – Bieber is found guilty of assault and careless driving in Stratford, Ontario.

    September 10, 2015 – The Guinness Book of World Records representative presents Bieber with a plaque for becoming the youngest male artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

    February 15, 2016 – Wins the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for “Where Are Ü Now,” shared with Skrillex and Diplo.

    July 18, 2017 – The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture releases a statement banning Bieber from performing in the Chinese capital. “His series of misbehaviors while living abroad and during his performances in China has caused public resentment,” reads the statement.

    November 22, 2018 – After months of speculation that the pair had quietly married, the singer confirms his nuptials to model Hailey Baldwin on Instagram.

    March 25, 2019 – In an Instagram post, Bieber announces that he’s taking time away from music to focus on his mental health.

    December 24, 2019 – In a video posted on his YouTube page, Bieber announces a new album, a new single, a 50-city tour and a docuseries.

    January 8, 2020 – Bieber reveals that he has been diagnosed with Lyme disease.

    January 27, 2020 – “Justin Bieber: Seasons,” a 10-part YouTube docuseries debuts.

    June 25, 2020 – Bieber files a $20 million defamation lawsuit against two women who accused him of sexual assault.

    October 13, 2020 – Bieber launches a collection of shoes with comfort footwear brand Crocs, the Crocs X Justin Bieber with drew shoe.

    March 14, 2021 – Wins the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “10,000 Hours,” with Dan + Shay.

    June 10, 2022 – Bieber announces he is taking a break from performing because he has Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which has left him unable to move half of his face and unable to take the stage.

    January 24, 2023 – Hipgnosis, the music rights investment company, announces its purchase of the rights to Bieber’s publishing and artist royalties from his song catalog, a deal valued at $200 million.

    In July 2017 <a href=police said the singer struck a paparazzo with his truck while trying to drive away from an event in Beverly Hills. Video from the incident appeared to show Bieber attempting to aid the man he hit. No citations were issued. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1080″ width=”1920″/>
    Bieber was <a href=accused of allegedly punching a fan in Barcelona in November 2016. Video of the incident appeared to show the singer’s hand making contact with the young man’s face which was bloodied after the fan leaned into Bieber’s vehicle. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1837″ width=”2448″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Bieber was found guilty in June 2015 of assault and careless driving, according to an Ontario court clerk. The charges stemmed from an August incident in which Bieber was arrested after his ATV collided with a minivan.
    In January 2014, Bieber was charged with driving under the influence in Miami, a case he settled in August <a href=by pleading guilty to careless driving and resisting arrest. And he is on probation for a vandalism conviction that resulted from egging a neighbor’s home. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”720″ width=”1280″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Summer 2014 was anything but relaxing for Bieber. In June, <a href=the pop star was plagued by the emergence of videos of himself as a young teen using racially offensive language. Then, in July, his neighbors complained to police that his house parties were inordinately noisy. Add the ATV accident in Ontario in August, and to round out his summer, there was a rumor that Bieber had gotten into an altercation with actor Orlando Bloom.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”3000″ width=”2286″ loading=’lazy’/>
    If there was a bright spot in the summer of 2014, it came in June when <a href=Bieber was cleared in an attempted robbery case. A woman had accused the singer in May of trying to steal her cellphone, but the Los Angeles city attorney decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the singer.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2198″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    In April, Bieber's antics prompted an online petition to have him deported from the country. The petition was hosted on the White House's website and received more than 273,000 signatures. Video of <a href=Bieber being a hostile witness during a deposition the month before likely didn’t help sway the petitioners’ perception of him as “dangerous and reckless.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1125″ width=”2000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers <a href=searched Bieber’s private airplane — thought to be the one pictured — January 31, 2014, at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Officers said they detected an odor of what seemed like marijuana after the plane landed, law enforcement sources told CNN. Drug-sniffing dogs were used to search the plane, according to one of the sources, but no sign of drugs were detected and no illegal substances were found. The investigation was closed in July. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2699″ width=”4096″ loading=’lazy’/>
    <a href=Bieber turned himself in at a Toronto police station on January 29, 2014, facing an assault charge stemming from an encounter with a limousine driver in December. But the charge was dropped in September after prosecutors decided there was “no reasonable prospect” of convicting Bieber of striking his limo driver on the back of his head, said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario attorney general’s office.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2217″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    On January 23, 2014, <a href=Bieber was arrested on suspicion of DUI and drag racing, according to police in Miami Beach, Florida. Bieber, seen here with model Chantel Jeffries the night before his arrest, eventually pleaded guilty of careless driving and resisting arrest. He also made a $50,000 donation to a youth charity as part of the plea deal.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2400″ width=”3600″ loading=’lazy’/>
    On January 14, 2014, authorities swarmed Bieber's mansion in Calabasas, California, in connection with an investigation into a report of an egg-throwing incident at a neighbor's house. As part of <a href=a plea deal, Bieber was sentenced to two years’ probation. He was also ordered to complete 12 weekly anger management sessions, work five days of community labor and pay $80,900 in restitution to his former neighbor.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1125″ width=”2000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Right before 2014 kicked off, Bieber threatened to retire after a spate of bad publicity, including being accused of everything from <a href=speeding to spitting. The news made Beliebers very sad.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2000″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    While on tour in early November 2013, Bieber yet again made headlines, this time with some sex-related scandal. The <a href=New York Post’s Page Six alleged that Bieber had been spotted exiting a brothel while in Brazil. Then, a YouTube video sparked gossip that he’d done something less than innocent with the young woman featured in the clip. Bieber’s camp has had no response on the chatter. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”900″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Was he saving his energy for his fans or just courting more controversy? In October 2013, the day after a concert in Beijing, Bieber was snapped letting his bodyguards <a href=carry him up the stairs at the Great Wall of China.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”581″ width=”599″ loading=’lazy’/>
    A leaked video in July 2013 <a href=seemed to show Bieber relieving himself in a janitor’s mop bucket and then spraying a photo of Bill Clinton with what appeared to be a cleaner fluid while saying “F*** Bill Clinton.” Bieber later apologized to the former president, but personalities like Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali had a field day.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”4110″ width=”2377″ loading=’lazy’/>
    In June 2013, another chapter was added to Bieber's history book of driving drama. The singer was <a href=reportedly involved in a Los Angeles accident involving a pedestrian.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”3078″ width=”3168″ loading=’lazy’/>
    As Bieber accepted the Milestone Award at the Billboard Music Awards in May 2013, the magazine reported. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2409″ width=”3375″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Earlier in May 2013, a fan rushed Bieber on stage and <a href=attempted to grab him during a concert in the United Arab Emirates. Also that month, a safe in a stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, was raided after a Bieber performance. ” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”720″ width=”1280″ loading=’lazy’/>
    In April 2013, Bieber visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam -- <a href=and was promptly criticized for saying that he hoped the teen, who died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, would have been a “Belieber.” Visitors to the Anne Frank Facebook page had plenty to say. “Glad he went, but, the last sentence is VERY self serving. he missed the lessons of Anne totally,” wrote one observer.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”900″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Bieber lost his pet monkey, Mally, when the capuchin <a href=was taken by custom officials in Germany at the end of March 2013. Mally is shown here in the quarantine station at the Munich-Riem animal shelter in Munich.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2727″ width=”4096″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Unfortunately for Bieber, his 19th birthday in March 2013 was kind of a downer. After being snubbed by the Grammys, Bieber headed for London to celebrate his big day. But it ended up being what he tweeted was his <a href=“worst birthday.” Not only was he ragged on by actress Olivia Wilde for going shirtless in the city, he also had a bit of beef with a “weak a** club.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”900″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Bieber <a href=ticked off his fans in March 2013 after he showed up a reported two hours late to a concert at London’s O2 Arena. He disputed that in a tweet, however, saying he was only 40 minutes behind schedule.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2799″ width=”4200″ loading=’lazy’/>
    Bieber later wound up sick in a London hospital. Being a lusted-after star, it's not surprising that he tried to show how
    Bieber and photographers, we've learned by now, don't mix. As he exited the hospital at the end of his turbulent week, the singer got into a shouting match with a paparazzo in London, <a href=telling the photographer that he’d “f*** him up.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2000″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’/>
    After he was <a href=ragged on by Wilde for going topless in London, Bieber strolled through a Polish airport terminal sans shirt on March 25, 2013.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1101″ width=”1440″ loading=’lazy’/>
    At the end of January 2013, a Twitpic appearing to show the singer touching a female fan's chest went viral. <a href=Both the “Belieber” and Bieber’s rep denied he was touching her breast.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”900″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
    In January 2013, Bieber was photographed holding what <a href=TMZ identified as marijuana. He poked fun of the incident when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in February. “I also heard he got busted for smoking weed and he’s really sorry about it and that people make mistakes and that he’s never going to do it again,” Bieber said while playing a character during a skit with Vanessa Bayer.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”720″ width=”1280″/>
    On New Year's Day in 2013, a photographer <a href=was killed crossing the street after taking pictures of Bieber’s Ferrari. Bieber, who wasn’t present at the scene, said in a statement: “While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1735″ width=”3000″/>

    Justin Bieber’s troubled timeline

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  • February 16, 2024 Israel-Hamas war | CNN

    February 16, 2024 Israel-Hamas war | CNN

    This satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows Egypt building a miles-wide buffer zone, and border wall, along its border with Gaza.

    Maxar Technologies

    Egypt is building a miles-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with Gaza, new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies shows. 

    The images, taken in the last five days, show a significant section of Egyptian territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed. 

    When the buffer zone — which stretches from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — is completed, it will engulf the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex.

    At the actual border, multiple cranes were seen laying sections of wall.

    Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that bulldozers arrived on site on February 3, and that the initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6. 

    There has been a significant uptick in excavation in the last five days. 

    Videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show construction of the border wall, which they said would be 5 meters (16 feet) high. 

    The organization, which describes itself as a non-governmental human rights group, said two local contractors told them the border wall was commissioned by the Egyptian armed forces. CNN has reached out to the Egyptian government for comment.

    The construction comes as fears that the already horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza will worsen, causing thousands of deaths and a mass exodus of Palestinians over Egypt’s border. 

    All eyes are on Rafah, situated along the new buffer zone, where over a million Palestinian refugees are taking shelter in a massive tent city. 

    Despite international pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained that the Israeli forces will enter Rafah. Many fear that military action in the refugee tent city could spark an exodus, but also result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. 

    Netanyahu continues to rail against Egypt for not closing the Philadelphi Corridor — the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza and the strip’s only non-Israeli controlled border. Netanyahu has said that Israel would not consider the war over until it was closed.

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  • Ibrahim al-Jaafari Fast Facts | CNN

    Ibrahim al-Jaafari Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, former prime minister of Iraq.

    Birth date: 1947

    Birth place: Karbala, Iraq

    Marriage: Married, name unavailable publicly

    Children: Five

    Education: Mosul University, M.D., 1974

    Religion: Shiite Muslim

    1968 – Joins the Islamic Dawa Party. Al Dawa (formally the Hizb al-Dawa al-Islamiyya or the Islamic Call Party), is a Shia Islamist party with close connections with Iran’s clerical regime.

    1980 – Flees Iraq for Iran in order to escape Saddam Hussein’s crack-down on members of the Dawa Party.

    1990-2003 – Leader of the London branch of the Dawa Party.

    2003 – Returns to Iraq following the fall of Hussein.

    August 2003 – Becomes a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and serves as the Council’s first rotating chairman.

    2004-2005 – One of two vice presidents in Iraq’s interim government.

    April 7, 2005 – Iraq’s new president, Jalal Talabani, nominates Jaafari as prime minister.

    May 3, 2005 – Sworn in as Iraq’s interim prime minister.

    April 20, 2006 – Under pressure from the United States, Jaafari steps down and agrees to withdraw his nomination for a second term.

    May 2006 – Is replaced as prime minister by Nuri al-Maliki.

    June 2008 – Is expelled from the Dawa Party after forming a new political party, the National Reform Movement.

    August 2009 – Shiite political leaders announce the formation of the Iraqi National Alliance. Jaafari is a member of the coalition.

    September 2014 – Becomes foreign minister of Iraq.

    October 25, 2018 – Steps down as foreign minister.

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  • Airplane bounces along Heathrow runway during Storm Gerrit | CNN

    Airplane bounces along Heathrow runway during Storm Gerrit | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.



    CNN
     — 

    It’s been a stormy tail end to Christmas for the UK and Ireland, as the countries were hit by Storm Gerrit coming in from the Atlantic on Wednesday, bringing gale force winds and flooding in its wake.

    It caused havoc for aviation, with flights being canceled across the countries. Air traffic restrictions saw major delays at Heathrow, with flight cancellations across the UK, including Manchester and Glasgow. The UK’s flag carrier British Airways canceled 13 flights because of the weather. In Ireland, Dublin Airport remained unscathed, though Cork saw four diversions, to Dublin and Shannon.

    Planes that managed to take off faced an equally difficult fate: trying to land in the storm.

    One American Airlines flight was caught on camera during a particularly bumpy landing at Heathrow on December 27.

    The Boeing 777, coming in from Los Angeles, was seen wobbling from side to side as it came down, toppling briefly towards the left, before appearing to bounce or “bunny hop” on the runway before sticking to terra firma and slowing down.

    The “insane” landing was filmed by Big Jet TV owner Jerry Dyer, who regularly sets up livestreams at airports around the world to watch flights coming in, and has a particular soft spot for stormy weather.

    Dyer told CNN in 2022 that he’s drawn to the “battle” between man and nature during a storm at an airport.

    “Whenever there’s windy conditions, stormy conditions, I’m always up at Heathrow,” he said at the time.

    “It’s a lot more exciting to watch than aircraft just landing down and touching down and all that kind of stuff. It’s the battle, isn’t it? It’s the forces of nature against an alloy tub with wings on it that we built and we have to control it down onto the ground in Mother Nature’s winds.

    “It’s a fantastic thing to watch.”

    His livestream of Storm Eunice in 2022, in which planes battled to land at Heathrow despite 122 mile-per-hour winds battering the UK, captivated the entire country.

    There were more than 200 severe wind gust reports across Britain and Ireland on Wednesday, with a possible tornado sighting in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. A level 2 of 3 threat for a severe storm remained for far southeastern Ireland and west-central UK until early Thursday morning, according to the European Storm Forecast Experiment (ESTOFEX).

    Streaming the AA flight, Dyer’s famously enthusiastic commentary noted the air “vortex” around the wings as it came in, before lamenting “oh stop it, stop that” as the plane bounced down the runway.

    “How he did not go around I just have no idea,” he commented.

    Despite the conditions, flight AA134, which had departed LA on December 26, touched down just one minute late – at 11.41 a.m. on December 27, according to flight tracker FlightRadar.

    It then took off again around two hours later, making its way to Dallas, where it landed early. Luckily with a different crew.

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  • King Juan Carlos I Fast Facts | CNN

    King Juan Carlos I Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of the former King of Spain.

    Birth date: January 5, 1938

    Birth place: Rome, Italy

    Birth name: Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria de Borbon y Borbon

    Father: Don Juan de Borbon y Battenburg, Count of Barcelona, third son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain

    Mother: Dona Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans, Princess of the Two Sicilies and Countess of Barcelona

    Marriage: Princess Sofia of Greece (May 14, 1962-present)

    Children: Infanta Elena of Spain, Elena Maria, Isabel, Dominica de Silos de Borbon y Grecia, Duchess of Lugo, December 1963; Infanta Cristina of Asturias, Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad de Borbón y Grecia, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, June 1965; Prince of the Asturias, Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso y de la Santísima Trinidad y de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia, January 1968

    Education: Marianist, Fribourg, Switzerland; Instituto San Isidro, Madrid, Spain; Navy Orphans’ College, Spain; Saragossa Military Academy, Saragossa, Spain; Naval College, Marin, Spain; Spanish Air Academy, San Javier, Spain; University of Madrid, Spain

    Military: Spanish Army, Spanish Navy, Spanish Air Force

    The Spanish Royal Family pays income taxes by constitutional provision and lives in a converted hunting lodge, Zarzuela Palace, by choice.

    The Palacio Real, the Royal Palace, in Madrid is used for formal events such as visits from heads of state.

    First visited the United States in 1958, during training as a naval midshipman aboard the Juan Sebastian Elcano.

    Great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria, distant cousin to both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

    Both King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are descendants of Queen Victoria.

    Distant relative of fifteenth century’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

    1947 – Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s Law of Succession declares the Spanish royal family will be restored to power upon his death.

    1948 – Makes first trip to Spain, after Franco and Don Juan de Borbon agree to a Spanish education for the heir apparent.

    1960 – Completes military training and becomes the first Spanish officer to hold the rank of lieutenant in all three branches of the military.

    August 1962 – During his honeymoon, visits the United States and meets US President John F. Kennedy.

    1969 – Invested as crown prince and designated as Franco’s successor.

    November 22, 1975 – Crowned Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, two days after the death of Franco and restores the Spanish monarchy after a 44-year interregnum.

    June 1-4, 1976 – First reigning Spanish monarch to visit the United States. He meets with US President Gerald Ford.

    1977 – Enacts political reforms that lead to the first democratic election since 1936.

    1978 – Adoption of a new constitution gives the monarchy more than a titular or ceremonial role in the government.

    February 1981 – An attempted coup is blocked when forces loyal to the King refuse to join the rebellion.

    2000 – Celebrates his 25th anniversary on the throne.

    March 11, 2004 – Addresses the nation and visits the wounded after 10 bombs go off on four commuter trains during rush hour in Madrid.

    November 10, 2007 – Tells Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, “Why don’t you shut up?” (¿Por qué no te callas?), during the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile.

    May 8, 2010 – Has a growth removed from his right lung, which turns out to be benign.

    August 8, 2010 – With Queen Sofia, hosts US First Lady Michelle Obama and her youngest daughter, Sasha, at the summer palace on Mallorca Island.

    April 14, 2012 – Undergoes hip replacement surgery after falling during a trip to Botswana. He is readmitted later in the month to “reduce a dislocation” of the hip. He undergoes another surgery for his hip in November 2012.

    July 2012 – Is dropped as honorary president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Spain after his April elephant hunting trip in Botswana is widely criticized. “Although not illegal, the hunting was widely viewed as incompatible with the King’s position at the head of WWF-Spain,” the group said in a statement. He had held the honorary post since 1968.

    March 3, 2013 – Is hospitalized for surgery on herniated discs. While he is recovering, a small fire breaks out at the hospital but he is not affected.

    September 2013 – Undergoes a third hip surgery in Madrid to replace the infected joint..

    June 2, 2014 – Announces that he is abdicating in favor of his son Prince Felipe.

    June 18, 2014 – Formally abdicates.

    January 14, 2015 – A 12 judge panel rules Juan Carlos must face a paternity lawsuit – by a Belgian woman alleging that he’s her father – before the nation’s Supreme Court. Ingrid Sartiau, from Brussels, alleges that her mother and Juan Carlos had a relationship in late 1965, and she was born, as a result, in August 1966. At that time, Juan Carlos was married but still a prince.

    March 11, 2015 – Spain’s Supreme Court dismisses the paternity suit against Juan Carlos.

    November 29, 2016 – Attends the memorial service for former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

    June 2, 2019 – Officially retires from public life.

    June 8, 2020 – Spain’s Supreme Court announces an investigation into Juan Carlos for possible crimes involving an alleged 2008 transfer of $100 million from the Saudi king for a high-speed rail project in Saudi Arabia. Switzerland is also investigating the contract.

    August 3, 2020 – Leaves Spain amid scrutiny of alleged financial dealings. In a letter to his son, King Felipe VI, Juan Carlos writes that he made the decision to leave “in the face of the public repercussion that certain past events of my private life are generating.”

    December 2021 – Swiss prosecutors drop charges against Juan Carlos regarding the Saudi rail project.

    March 2022 – Spanish prosecutors close their investigations into Juan Carlos and file no charges.

    May 19, 2022 – A resident of the United Arab Emirates since his self-imposed exile, Juan Carlos travels to Spain for the first time since fleeing nearly two years prior.

    October 6, 2023 – London’s High Court throws out a lawsuit brought by his former lover Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein accusing Juan Carlos of coordinating a campaign of harassment and surveillance against her. Juan Carlos has denied the allegations.

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  • Mahmoud Abbas Fast Facts | CNN

    Mahmoud Abbas Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Birth date: 1935

    Birth place: Safed, Palestine

    Marriage: Amina Abbas

    Children: Three sons Mazen (died in 2002), Yasser and Tareq

    Education: Damascus University, B.A.; Oriental College (in Moscow), Ph.D.

    His family left the British Mandate area Safed, Palestine, to live in Syria as refugees in 1948.

    Abbas laid floor tiles and taught elementary school before earning a law degree.

    Played an integral role in the forging of the Declaration of Principles, the historic Oslo Accords signed in 1993 by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel.

    Was the primary force behind the Palestine National Council’s decision to work with Israeli peace groups.

    He is also known as Abu Mazen. (Abu is a slang term to describe the head of a family or father of children.)

    1959 – Founding member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), which became the largest political group of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

    1964 – Fatah joins the PLO.

    1967 – Is appointed to Fatah’s Central Committee.

    1968 – Joins the Palestinian National Council (PNC).

    1980 – Is elected to the PLO’s Executive Committee.

    September 1993 – Accompanies Arafat to the White House to sign the Oslo Accords, or the Declaration of Principles.

    1995 – Signs the Interim Peace Agreement with Israel.

    March 19, 2003 – Accepts the position of prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

    June 3, 2003 – Meets with US President George W. Bush and the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, in Egypt, regarding peace efforts.

    September 6, 2003 – Resigns as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

    November 11, 2004 – Becomes the chairman of the PLO after Arafat’s death.

    January 9, 2005 – Declares victory in Palestinian presidential elections.

    May 26, 2005 – Meets with Bush; the first meeting with the Palestinian Authority in the White House since peace talks broke down in 2000. Bush pledges to give the Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid.

    May 31, 2005 – Undergoes a successful, minor heart procedure in a hospital in Amman, Jordan.

    February 21, 2006 – Asks Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to assemble a government. Haniya is sworn in in March.

    June 14, 2007 – Dissolves the government and dismisses Haniya as prime minister. Haniya rejects this and remains the de facto leader in the Gaza Strip.

    June 15, 2007 – Appoints economist Salam Fayyad as the new prime minister of an emergency Palestinian Cabinet.

    November 27, 2007 – Attends the Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference, the first formal peace conference sponsored by the US since 2000. Top diplomats and representatives from dozens of countries and organizations also attend, hoping to restart stalled Middle East peace negotiations.

    April 24, 2008 – Meets with Bush at the White House.

    January 2009 – Extends his term in office until 2010, citing a clause in the constitution.

    December 16, 2009 – The PLO’s Central Council votes to extend Abbas’s term as president indefinitely.

    May 4, 2011 – Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal formally adopt a reconciliation agreement during a ceremony in Egypt.

    September 16, 2011 – Abbas announces during a speech in Ramallah that he will pursue a full United Nations membership bid for Palestine.

    September 23, 2011 – Abbas submits a statehood application letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

    January 3, 2013 – Abbas issues a decree renaming the organization the “State of Palestine.”

    December 31, 2014 – One day after the UN Security Council rejects a resolution calling for Palestinian statehood by 2017, and for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Abbas applies to join the International Criminal Court. This sets the stage for the Palestinian Authority to possibly pursue war crime complaints against Israel.

    September 30, 2015 – Addresses the UN General Assembly before the historic raising of the Palestinian flag at the United Nations, saying the Palestinian Authority is no longer bound by the Oslo Accords.

    September 8, 2016 – Once-secret Soviet documents, obtained by CNN from the Mitrokhin Archive at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, claim that Abbas, who completed graduate work in Moscow in 1982, was a KGB agent while he was a member of the PLO in Damascus. Palestinian leaders decry the report as a “smear campaign.”

    September 30, 2016 – Attends the funeral of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres and shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    October 6, 2016 – Is hospitalized to have his heart tested.

    May 3, 2017 – Meets with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

    December 10, 2017 – Abbas cancels a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

    January 14, 2018 – Abbas calls on the PLO to “revise all the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel because Israel has brought these agreements to a dead end,” and accuses Israel of ending the Oslo agreement. This criticism comes six weeks after Trump announces recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    April 30, 2018 – Abbas speaks at the opening of the Palestinian National Council remarking that the Holocaust was driven not by antisemitism, but by the financial activities of European Jews. He apologizes a few days later.

    May 28, 2018 – Is released from the hospital after being treated for pneumonia.

    January 28, 2020 – Abbas rejects Trump’s Middle East “Peace to Prosperity” plan, unveiled alongside Netanyahu at the White House, saying at a news conference from Ramallah in the West Bank that “Jerusalem is not for sale. All our rights are not for sale or for compromise. Your deal is a conspiracy and it will not work.” Abbas, having cut diplomatic contact with the US in December 2017, did not attend the unveiling and had not been briefed in the plan.

    April 29, 2021 – Abbas announces the postponement of planned parliamentary elections, saying Israel has failed to confirm it will allow voting in East Jerusalem.

    August 16, 2022 – At a news conference in Berlin, Abbas says Israel has caused “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians, triggering outrage from world leaders and a social media storm.

    November 5, 2023 – Abbas meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah amid escalating settler violence in the West Bank following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

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  • Dilma Rousseff Fast Facts | CNN

    Dilma Rousseff Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

    Birth date: December 14, 1947

    Birth place: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Birth name: Dilma Vana Rousseff

    Father: Pedro Rousseff, construction entrepreneur

    Mother: Dilma Jane (da Silva) Rousseff, teacher

    Marriages: Carlos Araujo (1973-2000, divorced); Claudio Galeno Linhares (1968-early 1970s, divorced)

    Children: with Carlos Araujo: Paula, 1976

    Education: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, B.A. Economics, 1977

    Prior to running for president, she had never run for an elected office.

    Joined the resistance movement against the military dictatorship and was jailed and allegedly tortured in the early 1970s.

    Rousseff democratized Brazil’s electricity sector through the “Luz Para Todos” (Light for All) program, which made electricity widely available, even in rural areas.

    1986 – Finance secretary for the city of Porto Alegre.

    2003 – Is named minister of mines and energy by President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.

    2003-2010 – Serves as chair of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company.

    June 2005-March 2010 – Lula da Silva’s chief of staff.

    April 2009 – Is diagnosed with stage one lymphoma and begins treatment. By September, she is declared cancer free.

    October 31, 2010 – Wins a run-off election to become Brazil’s first female president.

    September 21, 2011 – Becomes the first female leader to kick off the annual United Nations General Assembly debates.

    2011 – Allegations of corruption are the basis of her dismissal of six cabinet ministers in her first year in office. Between June and December, her chief of staff, ministers of tourism, agriculture, transportation, sports and labor along with 20 transportation employees resign as a result of the scandal.

    September 17, 2013 – The United States and Brazil jointly agree to postpone Rousseff’s state visit to Washington next month due to controversy over reports the US government was spying on her communications.

    September 24, 2013 – In a speech before the UN General Assembly, Rousseff speaks about allegations that the US National Security Agency spied on her. “Tampering in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and, as such, it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations.”

    2014 – Executives at Petrobras are accused of illegally “diverting” billions from the company’s accounts for their personal use or to pay off officials. Rousseff served as chair of Petrobras during many of the years when the alleged corruption took place. She denies any knowledge of the corruption.

    October 26, 2014 – Is reelected president.

    December 2, 2015 – A bid to impeach Rousseff is launched by the speaker of the country’s lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha. Rousseff has been accused of hiding a budgetary deficit to win reelection in 2014, and opponents blame her for the worst recession in decades.

    April 17, 2016 – A total of 367 lawmakers in the Brazilian parliament’s lower house vote to impeach Rousseff, comfortably more than the two-thirds majority required by law. The impeachment motion will next go to the country’s Senate.

    May 12, 2016 – The Brazilian Senate votes 55-22 to begin an impeachment trial against Rousseff. Rousseff will step down for 180 days and Vice President Michel Temer will serve as interim president while the trial takes place.

    August 4, 2016 – After a final report concludes that reasons exist to proceed with formally removing Rousseff, the Brazilian Senate impeachment commission votes in favor of trying the suspended president in front of the full senate chamber.

    August 25, 2016 – Rousseff’s impeachment trial begins.

    August 31, 2016 – Brazil’s Senate votes 61-20 in favor of removing Rousseff from office.

    September 5, 2017 – Corruption charges are filed against Rousseff, her predecessor Lula da Silva, and six Workers’ Party members. They are accused of running a criminal organization, to divert funds from state-owned oil firm Petrobras. The charges are related to Operation Car Wash, a lengthy money laundering investigation conducted by the Brazilian government. Lula da Silva, Rousseff, and the Workers’ party deny the allegations.

    October 7, 2018 – Rousseff only receives 15% of the vote for senator in the general election.

    March 24, 2023 – The New Development Bank announces its board of governors elected Rousseff as its new president.

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  • 7 countries, 7 traditional Christmas feasts | CNN

    7 countries, 7 traditional Christmas feasts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Christmas is celebrated in many ways in many corners of the globe, and the cuisine that marks the holiday is as diverse as the people feasting on it.

    Christmas and Advent food traditions are comforting at a time when many people have had a challenging year. And Christmas dishes are particularly special in many households.

    The typical Christmas meal may be different by destination, but the idea of indulging in a feast, be it on the day itself or the night before, isn’t.

    Here’s a look at how locals celebrate Christmas through cuisine in seven countries. We asked hospitality experts about these traditions, and they shared their perspective on what’s typical for them as well as their families and friends.

    The French enjoy their lavish holiday meal on December 24, says Francois Payard, the renowned pastry chef who grew up in Nice.

    Locals sit down for dinner around 8 p.m., he says, and savor a first course of seafood. That usually means a lobster thermidor – a baked dish of the cooked crustacean mixed with mustard, egg yolks and brandy – or a shrimp scampi.

    Then it’s on to a large capon – a male chicken that’s renowned for its tenderness – and a medley of sides including mashed potatoes and chestnuts sauteed with butter and topped with sage. “Chestnuts are a fixture in any Christmas meal for us,” says Payard.

    Dessert, the grand finale, is a yule log, or bûche de Noël – the French version of a Christmas cake. Often two are served – one chocolate, the other chestnut. To drink, it’s the finest wine you can get your hands on, usually red from Burgundy that’s not too full-bodied for the capon.

    On Christmas Day, the French savor a hearty brunch that may include creamy scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and toast. The meal finishes with assorted cheeses such as Brie, Gruyere and Munster, Payard says.

    Tortellini in brodo is part of many an Italian Christmas Eve spread.

    Similar to France, Italians celebrate Christmas with their biggest spread on the eve of the big day. Luca Finardi, the general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Milan, says that locals usually attend midnight Mass and enjoy a sumptuous meal before heading to church.

    Smoked salmon with buttered crostini or a smoked salted cod is the precursor to the main meal. Italians from coastal areas such as the Amalfi Coast may start with a crudo such as sea bass with herbs and sea salt, says Finardi.

    Next up is tortellini in brodo – stuffed pasta bathed in a hot broth of chicken and Parmesan cheese – the latter of which must come from the namesake region in Italy.

    For the main meal, northern Italians tend to have stuffed turkey while those from seaside areas may tuck into a large baked sea bass surrounded by roasted potatoes and vegetables.

    “The must no matter where you’re from is panettone – a typical sweet bread,” says Finardi. “The secret is to warm it up for just a few minutes.” Spumante, a sparkling wine, is the drink of choice.

    As for the famous Italian Christmas meal of the feast of the seven fishes, Finardi says it’s limited mainly to the Campania region, which includes the Amalfi Coast and Naples.

    Christmas Day is more about connecting with family and less about food, Finardi says. “We eat leftovers and recover from the day before.”

    Christmas pudding, sometimes flaming with brandy, finishes the traditional English Christmas feast.

    England

    The Brits don’t typically indulge in their big holiday meal on Christmas Eve. “The 24th is for cooking with our families and going to the local pub for a pint,” says Nicola Butler, the owner of the London-based luxury travel company NoteWorthy.

    The real festivities start on Christmas morning with a glass of champagne and a breakfast of smoked salmon and mince pieces, she says. Later that day, after the Queen’s annual Christmas speech is aired, it’s time for dinner.

    That means a turkey or roast beef and a host of sides such as roasted parsnips and carrots, buttered peas and Brussels sprouts. Some families include Yorkshire pudding, a savory baked good of flour, eggs and milk made with meat drippings.

    Dessert is Christmas pudding, which is actually a dark and dense cake made with dried fruits, spices and usually a splash of brandy. “We have lots of wine to go along with the food,” says Butler.

    Christmas honey cookies are part of a typical Greek holiday spread.

    Maria Loi, the celebrity Greek chef, says that the country’s holiday celebrations begin on Christmas Eve around 7 p.m.

    “Families sit around the fireplace and eat a special wheat bread that we make only at Christmas,” she says. “Some households also eat pork sausages. It’s the only [occasion] Greeks eat pork because the meat is not common in our cuisine.”

    After attending an early morning holy communion on Christmas Day, Greeks go home for an all-day eating fest, says Loi.

    Homemade honey cookies with walnuts or almonds come first followed by chicken soup with orzo. A few hours later, it’s on to either a roast chicken stuffed with chestnuts or variations of grilled or braised pork dishes. Sides such as sauteed wild greens, finely shredded romaine with scallions and feta cheese and roasted lemon potatoes accompany the entrée.

    Dessert is light and could be baked apples with honey and walnuts or Greek yogurt topped with honey. To drink, Loi says Greeks favor red wine.

    Posole is a traditional way to start a Mexican Christmas meal.

    Mexicans get the Christmas festivities going on December 24, according to Pablo Carmona and Josh Kremer, co-founders of Paradero Hotels.

    “Families start by breaking a piñata that’s filled with all sorts of locally made candies in chili and tamarind flavors,” says Kremer. Dinner follows usually somewhere between 7 and 10 p.m.

    The meal starts with posole – a stew with big corn kernels and pork or beef that’s accompanied by as many as 20 condiments such as parsley, cilantro, chiles and assorted cheeses.

    In a nod to the American influence in Mexico, the entrée – at least for Carmona and Kremer – is a turkey with all the trimmings such as mashed potatoes and green beans.

    The sweet finish is often a creamy flan plus strawberries and cream. But the meal isn’t complete without tequilas and mezcals to go along with the food.

    On the 25th, many Mexicans heat up the leftovers from the night before. “We’re tired so we don’t want to bother to cook,” says Carmona.

    Homemade tamales are a staple in Costa Rica.

    Many Costa Ricans celebrate Christmas with a middle-of-the-night extravaganza, says Leo Ghitis, owner of Nayara Hotels, in the country’s northern highlands. “We go to midnight Mass and come home and have a huge meal at 2 a.m.,” he says.

    Homemade tamales, filled with either chicken or pork or vegetables and cheese, kick off the spread. Then it’s on to arroz con pollo, Costa Rica’s national rice dish that’s made with green beans, peas, carrots, saffron, cilantro and a chopped up whole chicken.

    The third course is an assortment of grilled proteins. Costa Ricans who live along the coast have seafood such as marlin, tuna, mahi mahi, shrimp and lobster while inlanders tuck into beef, pork and chicken. Sides are the same for both: rice with black beans, boiled palm fruit with sour cream and a hearts of palm salad with avocado.

    Dessert is typically a coconut flan and arroz con leche – rice with milk, sugar and cinnamon.

    “We top off the meal with lots of rum punch and eggnog and don’t finish until 4 or 5 a.m.,” says Ghitis.

    Christmas Day itself is about finishing leftovers and hitting the streets for outdoor parties, he says.

    Peas and rice grace many holiday plates in the Bahamas.

    Christmas Day is the big food celebration for Bahamians, says Vonya Ifill, the director of talent and culture at Rosewood Baha Mar.

    Locals have a big dinner that includes turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, peas and rice made with coconut milk and potato salad.

    “We have this feast in the evening and then at midnight go off and celebrate Boxing Day with a Junkanoo Festival,” she says. “After dancing and parading around all evening and into the early morning hours, we end the festivities with a boiled fish or fish stew.”

    The seafood, she says, is always accompanied by potato bread or Johnny Cake, a cornmeal flatbread.

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  • Omar al-Bashir Fast Facts | CNN

    Omar al-Bashir Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Sudan’s former leader, Omar al-Bashir.

    Birth date: January 1, 1944

    Birth place: Hosh Bannaga, Sudan

    Birth name: Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir

    Father: Name unavailable publicly

    Mother: Name unavailable publicly

    Marriages: Fatima Khalid; Widad Babiker Omer

    Education: Sudan Military Academy, 1966

    Military service: Sudanese Armed Forces

    Religion: Islam

    1960 – Joins the Sudanese Armed Forces.

    1966 – Graduates from the Sudan Military Academy.

    1973 – Serves with Egyptian forces during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

    1973-1987 – Holds various military posts.

    1989-1993 – Serves as Sudan’s defense minister.

    June 30, 1989 – Leads a coup against Sudan’s Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Establishes and proclaims himself chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Dissolves the government, political parties and trade unions.

    April 1990 – Survives a coup attempt. Orders the execution of over 30 army and police officers implicated in the coup attempt.

    October 16, 1993 – Becomes president of Sudan when the Revolutionary Command Council is dissolved and Sudan is restored to civilian rule.

    March 1996 – Is reelected president with more than 75% of the vote.

    December 1999 – Dissolves the Parliament after National Congress Party chairman Hassan al-Turabi proposes laws limiting the president’s powers.

    December 2000 – Is reelected president with over 85% of the vote.

    February 2003 – Rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan rise up against the Sudanese government.

    2004 – Is criticized for not cracking down on the Janjaweed militia, a pro-government militia accused of murdering and raping people in Darfur.

    September 2007 – After meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Bashir agrees to peace talks with rebels. Peace talks begin in October, but are postponed indefinitely after most of the major players fail to attend.

    July 14, 2008 – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) files charges against Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

    March 4, 2009 – The ICC issues an arrest warrant for Bashir.

    April 26, 2010 – Sudan’s National Election Commission certifies Bashir as the winner of recent presidential elections with 68% of the vote.

    July 12, 2010 – The ICC issues a second arrest warrant for Bashir. Combined, the warrant lists 10 counts against Bashir.

    December 12, 2014 – The ICC suspends its case against Bashir due to lack of support from the UN Security Council.

    March 9, 2015 – The ICC asks the UN Security Council to take steps to force Sudan to extradite Bashir.

    April 27, 2015 – Sudan’s Election Commission announces Bashir has been reelected president with more than 94% of the vote. Many major opposition groups boycott the election.

    June 15, 2015 – Bashir leaves South Africa just as a South African High Court decides to order his arrest. The human rights group that had petitioned the court to order Bashir’s arrest, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, says in a statement it is disappointed that the government allowed the Sudanese president to leave before the ruling.

    November 23, 2017 – Agence France Presse and other media outlets report that during a trip to Russia, Bashir asks Putin to protect Sudan from the United States, saying he wants closer military ties with Russia.

    December 16, 2018 – Bashir visits Syria. This marks the first time an Arab League leader has visited Syria since war began there in 2011.

    February 22, 2019 – Declares a year-long state of emergency in response to months of protests nationwide and calls for his resignation.

    March 1, 2019 – Steps down as chairman of the National Congress Party.

    April 11, 2019 – After three decades of rule, Bashir is arrested and is forced from power in a military coup. Bashir’s government is dissolved, and a military council assumes control for two years to oversee a transition of power, according to a televised statement by Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf.

    May 13, 2019 – Sudan’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has instructed expedited charges be brought against Bashir in the killing of protestors, according to a statement released to CNN.

    August 19, 2019 – Bashir appears in a Khartoum court for the first day of his corruption trial. He has heightened security following a failed attempt by his supporters to break him out of prison.

    December 14, 2019 – Bashir is sentenced to two years in a correctional facility after being found guilty of corruption and illegitimate possession of foreign currency.

    February 11, 2020 – A member of Sudan’s ruling sovereign council announces that all Sudanese wanted by the ICC will be handed over, including Bashir.

    July 21, 2020 – Bashir’s trial over his role in the 1989 coup d’etat that propelled him to power begins in Khartoum. He faces a maximum sentence of death.

    August 11, 2021 – In a statement given to CNN, Sudan’s Cabinet of Ministers announce the government will hand Bashir over to the ICC along with other officials wanted over the Darfur conflict.

    April 26, 2023 – Unconfirmed reports claim Bashir is among the prisoners released from Kober prison. However, the media office of Sudan’s Police and sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that Bashir was transferred to Alia Specialized Hospital a year ago due to health problems.

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  • Ted Cruz Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Ted Cruz Fast Facts | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Ted Cruz, Republican senator from Texas and former 2016 presidential candidate.

    Birth date: December 22, 1970

    Birth place: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Birth name: Rafael Edward Cruz

    Father: Rafael Cruz, pastor

    Mother: Eleanor Darragh, computer programmer

    Marriage: Heidi (Nelson) Cruz (2001-present)

    Children: Caroline and Catherine

    Education: Princeton University, B.A. in Public Policy, 1992; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1995

    Religion: Southern Baptist

    His father, Rafael Cruz, left Cuba as a teenager in 1957 amid the nation’s revolution. During the Cuban revolution, Rafael Cruz sided with Fidel Castro against dictator Fulgencio Batista, but later became a critic of Castro.

    While at Harvard Law School, Cruz was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and founder of the Harvard Latino Law Review.

    First Hispanic US Senator from Texas.

    Was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States until he renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014.

    1996-1997 – Clerks for US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

    1997-1999 – Attorney with the Washington, DC-based law firm Cooper, Carvin & Rosenthal.

    1999-2000 – Domestic policy adviser during George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign.

    2001 – Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice.

    2001-2003 – Director of the Office of Policy Planning, with the Federal Trade Commission.

    2003-2008 – Solicitor General of Texas. He is the first Hispanic to hold the position. He is also the longest serving solicitor general in Texas’ history.

    2004-2009 – Adjunct law professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

    2008-2012 – Attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Houston.

    May 29, 2012 – Wins enough votes in the Texas GOP senatorial primary to force a runoff.

    July 31, 2012 – Defeats Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the runoff election for the Republican Senate nomination, by a vote of 57% to 43%.

    November 6, 2012 – Elected US senator from Texas by defeating Democrat Paul Sadler, 56% to 41%.

    November 14, 2012 – Named vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

    January 3, 2013 – Sworn in as the 34th US senator from Texas.

    September 24, 2013 – Reads Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” as a bedtime story for his children during a 21-hour speech aimed at derailing President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

    June 2014 – His spokeswoman confirms that Cruz has renounced his Canadian citizenship, and is no longer a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.

    March 23, 2015 – Cruz announces his candidacy for president in a 30-second video message posted on Twitter shortly after midnight. Later in the day he announces he is running for president during a speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

    July 15, 2015 – A New York Times spokesperson confirms that Cruz’s memoir will appear on the New York Times’ bestseller list, a week after the newspaper rejected it as a bestseller because sales were allegedly inflated by “bulk purchases.” Cruz’s book “A Time for Truth” was published on June 30.

    April 27, 2016 – Cruz formally names Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate – a last-ditch move to regain momentum after being mathematically eliminated from winning the GOP presidential nomination outright.

    May 3, 2016 – Cruz announces he is suspending his presidential bid after losing the Indiana primary.

    May 10, 2016 – Ending speculation about whether he would take a break from Congress to prep for another presidential run in 2020, Cruz announces that he will campaign to keep his Senate seat in 2018.

    September 23, 2016 – Cruz endorses Donald Trump for the presidency, surprising many after a contentious primary filled with nasty personal attacks and Cruz’s dramatic snub of Trump at the Republican National Convention, where he pointedly refused to endorse the nominee.

    November 6, 2018 – Cruz defeats Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke 50.9% to 48.3% in the race for Senate in Texas, holding off the progressive online fundraising sensation.

    March 15, 2019 – A watchdog group discloses that Cruz’s campaign has been fined $35,000 by the Federal Election Commission for failing to accurately report more than $1 million in loans that helped underwrite his first Senate bid in 2012.

    July 13, 2020 – China announces sanctions against US officials, including Cruz, in retaliation for measures revealed on July 9 by the US Treasury Department over Beijing’s alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

    January 6, 2021 – Cruz objects to Arizona’s Electoral College results during the joint session of Congress.

    February 17, 2021 – Cruz travels to Cancun, Mexico, for vacation as a winter disaster in his home state leaves millions without power or water. He later says the trip “was obviously a mistake” and that “in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it.”

    September 30, 2021 – The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case concerning Cruz’s 2018 campaign and consider regulations that limit money that committees can raise after the election to reimburse loans made before the election. On May 16, 2022, the Supreme Court rules in favor of Cruz. The court says that a federal cap on candidates using political contributions after an election to recoup personal loans made to their campaign is unconstitutional.

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  • Puerto Rico Fast Facts | CNN

    Puerto Rico Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a self-governing US territory located in the Caribbean.

    (from the CIA World Factbook)

    Area: 9,104 sq km

    Population: 3,057,311 (2023 est.)

    Capital: San Juan

    The people of Puerto Rico are US citizens. They vote in US presidential primaries, but not in presidential elections.

    First named San Juan Bautista by Christopher Columbus.

    The governor is elected by popular vote with no term limits.

    Jenniffer González has been the resident commissioner since January 3, 2017. The commissioner serves in the US House of Representatives, but has no vote, except in committees. Gonzalez is the first woman to hold this position.

    It is made up of 78 municipalities.

    Over 40% of the population lives in poverty, according to the Census Bureau.

    Puerto Ricans have voted in six referendums on the issue of statehood, in 1967, 1993, 1998, 2012, 2017 and 2020. The 2012 referendum was the first time the popular vote swung in statehood’s favor. Since these votes were nonbinding, no action had to be taken, and none was. Ultimately, however, Congress must pass a law admitting them to the union.

    In addition to becoming a state, options for Puerto Rico’s future status include remaining a commonwealth, entering “free association” or becoming an independent nation. “Free association” is an official affiliation with the United States where Puerto Rico would still receive military assistance and funding.

    1493-1898 – Puerto Rico is a Spanish colony.

    July 25, 1898 – During the Spanish-American War, the United States invades Puerto Rico.

    December 10, 1898 – With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States. The island is named “Porto Rico” in the treaty.

    April 12, 1900 – President William McKinley signs the Foraker Act into law. It designates the island an “unorganized territory,” and allows for one delegate from Puerto Rico to the US House of Representatives with no voting power.

    March 2, 1917 – President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones Act into law, granting the people of Puerto Rico US citizenship.

    May 1932 – Legislation changes the name of the island back to Puerto Rico.

    November 1948 – The first popularly elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, is voted into office.

    July 3, 1950 – President Harry S. Truman signs Public Law 600, giving Puerto Ricans the right to draft their own constitution.

    October 1950 – In protest of Public Law 600, Puerto Rican nationalists lead armed uprisings in several Puerto Rican towns.

    November 1, 1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attempt to shoot their way into Blair House, where President Truman is living while the White House is being renovated. Torresola is killed by police; Collazo is arrested and sent to prison.

    June 4, 1951 – In a plebiscite vote, more than three-quarters of Puerto Rican voters approve Public Law 600.

    February 1952 – Delegates elected to a constitutional convention approve a draft of the constitution.

    March 3, 1952 – Puerto Ricans vote in favor of the constitution.

    July 25, 1952 – Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth as the constitution is put in place. This is also the anniversary of the United States invasion of Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.

    March 1, 1954 – Five members of the House of Representatives are shot on the House floor; Alvin Bentley, (R-MI), Ben Jensen (R-IA), Clifford Davis (D-TN), George Fallon (D-MD) and Kenneth Roberts (D-AL). Four Puerto Rican nationalists, Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero and Irving Flores Rodriguez, are arrested and sent to prison. President Jimmy Carter grants Cordero clemency in 1977 and commutes all four of their sentences in 1979.

    July 23, 1967 – Commonwealth status is upheld via a status plebiscite.

    1970 – The resident commissioner gains the right to vote in committee via an amendment to the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970.

    September 18, 1989 – Hurricane Hugo hits the island as a Category 4 hurricane causing more than $1 billion in property damages.

    November 14, 1993 – Commonwealth status is upheld via a plebiscite.

    September 21, 1998 – Hurricane Georges hits the island causing an estimated $1.75 billion in damage.

    August 6, 2009 – Sonia Sotomayor, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is confirmed by the US Senate (68-31). She becomes the third woman and the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

    November 6, 2012 – Puerto Ricans vote for statehood via a status plebiscite. The results are deemed inconclusive.

    August 3, 2015 – Puerto Rico defaults on its monthly debt for the first time in its history, paying only $628,000 toward a $58 million debt.

    December 31, 2015 – The first case of the Zika virus is reported on the island.

    January 4, 2016 – Puerto Rico defaults on its debt for the second time.

    May 2, 2016 – Puerto Rico defaults on a $422 million debt payment.

    June 30, 2016 – President Barack Obama signs the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), a bill that establishes a seven-member board to oversee the commonwealth’s finances. The following day Puerto Rico defaults on its debt payment.

    January 4, 2017 – The Puerto Rico Admission Act is introduced to Congress by Rep. Gonzalez.

    May 3, 2017 – Puerto Rico files for bankruptcy. It is the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history.

    June 5, 2017 – Puerto Rico declares its Zika epidemic is over. The Puerto Rico Department of Health has reported more than 40,000 confirmed cases of the Zika virus since the outbreak began in 2016.

    June 11, 2017 – Puerto Ricans vote for statehood via a status plebiscite. Over 97% of the votes are in favor of statehood, but only 23% of eligible voters participate.

    September 20, 2017 – Hurricane Maria makes landfall near Yabucoa in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane. It is the strongest storm to hit the island in 85 years. The energy grid is heavily damaged, with an island-wide power outage.

    September 22, 2017 – The National Weather Service recommends the evacuation of about 70,000 people living near the Guajataca River in northwest Puerto Rico because a dam is in danger of failing.

    October 3, 2017 – President Donald Trump visits. The trip comes after mounting frustration with the federal response to the storm. Many residents remain without power and continue to struggle to get access to food and fuel nearly two weeks after the storm hit.

    December 18, 2017 – Gov. Ricardo Rosselló orders a review of deaths related to Hurricane Maria as the number could be much higher than the officially reported number. The announcement from the island’s governor follows investigations from CNN and other news outlets that called into question the official death toll of 64.

    January 22, 2018 – Rosselló announces that the commonwealth will begin privatizing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

    January 30, 2018 – More than four months after Maria battered Puerto Rico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency tells CNN it is halting new shipments of food and water to the island. Distribution of its stockpiled 46 million liters of water and four million meals and snacks will continue. The agency believes that amount is sufficient until normalcy returns.

    February 11, 2018 – An explosion and fire at a power substation causes a blackout in parts of northern Puerto Rico, according to authorities.

    May 29, 2018 – According to an academic report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, an estimated 4,645 people died in Hurricane Maria and its aftermath in Puerto Rico. The article’s authors call Puerto Rico’s official death toll of 64 a “substantial underestimate.”

    August 8, 2018 – Puerto Rican officials say the death toll from Maria may be far higher than their official estimate of 64. In a report to Congress, the commonwealth’s government says documents show that 1,427 more deaths occurred in the four months after Hurricane Maria than “normal,” compared with deaths that occurred the previous four years. The 1,427 figure also appears in a report published July 9.

    August 28, 2018 – The Puerto Rican government raises its official death toll from Maria to 2,975 after a report on storm fatalities is published by researchers at George Washington University. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, a critic of the Trump administration, says local and federal government failed to provide needed aid. She says the botched recovery effort led to preventable deaths.

    August 29, 2018 – Trump says the federal government’s response to the disaster was “fantastic.” He says problems with the island’s aging infrastructure created challenges for rescue workers.

    September 4, 2018 – The US Government Accountability Office releases a report revealing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was so overwhelmed with other storms by the time Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico that more than half of the workers it was deploying to disasters were known to be unqualified for the jobs they were doing in the field.

    September 13, 2018 – In a tweet, Trump denies that nearly 3,000 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. He expresses skepticism about the death toll, suggesting that individuals who died of other causes were included in the hurricane count.

    July 9, 2019 – Excerpts of profanity-laden, homophobic and misogynistic messages between Rosselló and members of his inner circle are published by local media.

    July 10, 2019 – Six people, including Puerto Rico’s former education secretary and a former health insurance official, are indicted on corruption charges. The conspiracy allegedly involved directing millions of dollars in government contracts to politically-connected contractors.

    July 11, 2019 – A series of protests begin in response to the leaked messages and the indictment, with calls for Rosselló to resign.

    July 13, 2019 – The Center for Investigative Journalism publishes hundreds of leaked messages from Rosselló and other officials. Rosselló and members of his inner circle ridicule numerous politicians, members of the media and celebrities.

    July 24, 2019 – Rosselló announces he will resign on August 2.

    August 7, 2019 – Puerto Rico’s Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez Garced is sworn in as the third governor Puerto Rico has had in less than a week. Earlier in the day, the August 2nd swearing-in of Rosselló’s handpicked successor, attorney Pedro Pierluisi, is thrown out by the Supreme Court, on grounds he has not been confirmed by both chambers of the legislature.

    September 27, 2019 – The federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico’s finances releases a plan that would cut the island’s debt by more than 60% and rescue it from bankruptcy. The plan targets bonds and other debt held by the government and will now go before a federal judge. The percentage of Puerto Rico’s taxpayer funds spent on debt payments will fall to less than 9%, compared to almost 30% before the restructuring.

    December 28, 2019 – A sequence of earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or higher begin hitting Puerto Rico, including a 6.4 magnitude quake on January 7 that killed at least one man, destroyed homes and left most of the island without power.

    February 4, 2020 – A magnitude 5 earthquake strikes Puerto Rico. It is the 11th earthquake of at least that size in the past 30 days, according to the US Geological Survey.

    November 3, 2020 – Puerto Ricans vote in favor of statehood, and Pierluisi is elected governor.

    January 2, 2021 – Pierluisi is sworn in.

    April 21, 2022 – The Supreme Court rules that Congress can exclude residents of Puerto Rico from some federal disability benefits available to those who live in the 50 states.

    August 4, 2022 – Vázquez is arrested in San Juan on bribery charges connected to the financing of her 2020 campaign.

    September 18, 2022 – Hurricane Fiona makes landfall along the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, near Punta Tocon, with winds of 85 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane causes catastrophic flooding, amid a complete power outage. Two people are killed.

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  • Nawaz Sharif Fast Facts | CNN

    Nawaz Sharif Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

    Birth date: December 25, 1949

    Birth place: Lahore, Pakistan

    Birth name: Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif

    Father: Muhammad Sharif

    Mother: Shamim Akhtar

    Marriage: Kulsoom Sharif (until September 11, 2018, her death)

    Children: two sons and two daughters

    Education: Government College Lahore; Punjab University Law College, Law degree, Lahore, Pakistan

    Although elected prime minister on three separate occasions, and is Pakistan’s longest-serving prime minister, he never completed a full term.

    1977 – Opens Ittefaq Industries, a family business involved in the steel, sugar and textile industries.

    1981 – Is appointed Pakistan’s finance minister.

    1985 – Becomes chief minister of Punjab province.

    October 1990 – Is elected as Pakistan’s prime minister.

    November 6, 1990 – Is sworn in as prime minister.

    April 18, 1993 – Sharif’s government is dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan after charges of corruption and mismanagement are raised. Sharif’s family-owned business grew tremendously during his tenure in office, causing suspicion of corruption.

    May 26, 1993 – Pakistan’s Supreme Court orders the reinstatement of Sharif, calling his dismissal unconstitutional and the charges false. Sharif and Khan both later resign.

    February 3, 1997 – Is reelected as prime minister.

    February 17, 1997 – Is sworn in as prime minister.

    October 12, 1999 – Army General Pervez Musharraf overthrows Sharif in a bloodless coup.

    January 2000 – Sharif goes on trial for charges of hijacking/terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

    April 6, 2000 – Is convicted of plane hijacking/terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment. He is charged with hijacking because he attempted to prevent a plane Musharraf was flying in from landing at any airport in Pakistan, when the plane was low on fuel. Sharif knew of Musharraf’s coup intentions.

    July 22, 2000 – Is convicted of corruption and sentenced to an additional 14 years in prison while already serving a life sentence. His failure to declare assets and pay taxes led to the conviction.

    December 2000 – Is released from prison by a deal brokered by the Saudi royal family.

    December 2000-August 2007- In exile in Saudi Arabia.

    October 29, 2004 – His father dies and Sharif seeks a brief return to Pakistan to attend the funeral, after serving only four of his 10-year exile in Saudi Arabia. The request is denied.

    August 23, 2007 – Pakistan’s Supreme Court lifts the exile imposed on Sharif. He served only seven of his 10-year exile.

    September 10, 2007 – Attempts to return to Pakistan but is deported just hours after his arrival.

    November 25, 2007 – Sharif returns to Pakistan from exile in Saudi Arabia, flying into the city of Lahore.

    February 18, 2008 – In parliamentary elections, Sharif’s party Pakistan Muslim League-N wins 67 seats, placing second to the party of the late Benazir Bhutto, the PPP.

    February 20, 2008 – The PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-N announce that they will form a coalition government.

    August 25, 2008 – At a press conference, Sharif announces his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, is splitting from the coalition government it formed with the PPP, following disagreements over the reinstatement of judges Musharraf dismissed.

    May 26, 2009 – The Supreme Court of Pakistan rules that Sharif is eligible to run in elections and hold public office. In February 2009, the court had ruled that Sharif was ineligible for office because he had a criminal conviction. He is still ineligible to run for prime minister due to term limits.

    July 17, 2009 – Pakistan’s Supreme Court clears Sharif of hijacking charges, paving the way for him to legally run for office.

    April 19, 2010 – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari voluntarily signs the 18th Amendment to the constitution, significantly diminishing his powers. Among the sweeping changes is a measure removing the two-term limit for prime ministers, allowing Sharif to vie for a third term.

    June 5, 2013 – Is elected prime minister of Pakistan.

    August 30, 2014 – Sharif announces in a statement that he will not resign. He has vowed to remain on the job despite violent demonstrations. The protesters have accused him of rigging last year’s elections that allowed his party to take power.

    December 16, 2014 – Sharif lifts the 2008 moratorium on the death penalty after the Taliban attack a school, killing 145 people, most of them children. He also announces “that the distinction between good and bad Taliban will not be continued at any level.”

    November 1, 2016 – The Supreme Court announces that a commission will investigate Sharif’s finances after leaked documents showed that his children owned shell companies in the British Virgin Islands. The documents were released as part of the Panama Papers, a trove of secret financial forms associated with a Panamanian law firm.

    November 30, 2016 – In violation of diplomatic protocol, Sharif’s office releases a statement quoting his recent conversation with US President-elect Donald Trump.

    April 20, 2017 – A panel of judges orders a new probe of Sharif’s finances, calling on the prime minister and his family to testify.

    July 28, 2017 – Sharif resigns shortly after Pakistan’s Supreme Court rules that he has been dishonest to Parliament and to the judicial system and is no longer fit for office.

    July 6, 2018 – Sharif is sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined £8 million ($10.5 million) relating to corruption charges over his family’s purchase of properties in London. His daughter Maryam, seen as his heir apparent, receives a seven-year sentence and a £2 million ($2.6 million) fine. Captain Muhammad Safdar Awan, her husband, receives a one-year sentence. They are barred from engaging in politics for 10 years.

    July 13, 2018 – Sharif and his daughter Maryam are arrested and held in Islamabad after they fly back from the United Kingdom to face prison sentences. Before the landing, Sharif tells supporters his return is a “sacrifice for the future generations of the country and for its political stability.”

    September 19, 2018 – The Islamabad High Court suspends a corruption sentence against Sharif and his daughter Maryam. The two are ordered to pay bail of $5,000 each. Sharif is released after serving less than three months of a 10-year sentence.

    December 24, 2018 – Sharif is found guilty of fresh corruption charges relating to the purchase of Al-Azizia Steel Mills where prosecutors alleged that the Sharif family misappropriated government funds to buy the mills. An accountability court in Islamabad sentences him to seven years in prison and fines him $25 million. Sharif is immediately arrested and taken into custody by courtroom officials.

    October 2019 – Sharif is released on bail due to health issues.

    November 19, 2019 – Sharif flies to London for medical treatment.

    December 2020 – The Islamabad High Court declares Sharif a proclaimed offender for his continued absence from the court.

    April 11, 2022 – Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif, is was sworn in as Prime Minister.

    October 21, 2023 – Sharif returns to Pakistan after nearly four years in self-exile after an Islamabad court granted him protective bail, meaning he cannot be arrested before appearing in court.

    December 12, 2023 – A Pakistan court overturns Sharif’s 2018 conviction for graft. As a result he may be able to run in national elections in February 2024.

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  • Alexey Navalny Fast Facts | CNN

    Alexey Navalny Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at Russian opposition leader, Kremlin critic and activist Alexey Navalny.

    Birth date: June 4, 1976

    Birth place: Butyn, Soviet Union

    Birth name: Alexey Anatolyevich Navalny (sometimes spelled Alexei, Aleksei)

    Father: Anatoly Navalny, former military officer and basket-weaving factory owner

    Mother: Lyudmila Navalnaya, basket-weaving factory owner

    Marriage: Yulia (Abrosimova) Navalnaya (2000-present)

    Children: Daria and Zakhar

    Education: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, commercial law, 1998; attended State Finance Academy, 1999-2001

    Has been a prominent organizer of street protests and has exposed corruption in Russian government and business via social media, including his LiveJournal blog and RosPil website.

    Says that he stands by previous anti-immigration comments considered xenophobic, including deporting Georgians from Russia. Has apologized for the use of derogatory terms.

    Is barred from running for political office because of a 2013 conviction. Russian law forbids convicted criminals running for political office.

    How Alexey Navalny became the face of opposition in Putin’s Russia (2021)

    2000 – Joins Yabloko, the Russian United Democratic Party.

    2006 – Participates in the Russian March, a nationalist event.

    2007 – Is expelled from Yabloko because of his nationalistic leanings.

    2007 – Launches the National Russian Liberation Movement, (known as NAROD, the Russian word for “people”).

    2009 – Policy adviser to the governor of the Kirov region.

    November 2010 – Blows the whistle on a $4 billion embezzlement scheme at the state-run oil pipeline operator, Transneft, by posting leaked documents on his blog.

    December 2010 – Kirov-area open an investigation against him involving a state-owned lumber deal when he was an adviser to the governor.

    December 5, 2011 – Takes part in protests following Vladimir Putin’s December 4 election win. Is arrested but is released after 15 days.

    2011 – Founds the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). The organization investigates corruption in the Russian government and posts supporting documentation.

    December 24, 2011 – Speaks before tens of thousands of pro-reform demonstrators prior to the March 2012 presidential election.

    March 6, 2012 – Is arrested along with other protesters after Putin wins a third term as president on March 4, with just under 65% of the vote. Critics question the results amid complaints of voter fraud.

    March 20, 2013 – Is indicted, along with entrepreneur Petr Ofitserov, for misappropriating $500,000 in a state-owned lumber deal when he was an adviser to the Kirov region’s governor.

    July 18, 2013 – A court in the city of Kirov finds Navalny and Ofitserov guilty of embezzlement. They are sentenced to five and four years in prison respectively. Detained overnight, they are released July 19 pending an appeal. The verdict is followed by public protests.

    2013 – Runs unsuccessfully for mayor of Moscow. Comes in second with 27% of the vote.

    October 16, 2013 – The five-year prison sentence received July 2013 is reduced to a suspended sentence on appeal.

    October 2013 – In a statement from the Russian federal Investigative Committee, Navalny and his brother Oleg Navalny are accused of defrauding the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher’s Russian subsidiary.

    February 28, 2014-January 2015 – Under house arrest.

    December 30, 2014 – Is found guilty of fraud in the November 2013 case. Receives a suspended sentence of three and a half years. His brother receives a sentence of three and a half years in prison.

    February 23, 2016 – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rules that Navalny and Ofitserov were deprived of the right to a fair trial in their 2013 conviction. They are awarded 8,000 Euros for damages, plus additional awards for costs and expenses.

    April 27, 2017 – Navalny is splashed in the face with an antiseptic green dye. The attack causes vision damage in one eye.

    January 22, 2018 – A Moscow court orders the closure of FBK, which funds Navalny’s activities.

    July 29, 2019 – Suffers an “acute allergic reaction” while serving a 30-day sentence in police custody. His July 24 arrest follows a call for demonstrations after the disqualification of opposition candidates for Russian municipal elections. Doctors do not find any signs of poisoning after doing an analysis, Russian News Agency TASS reports.

    Poisoning and time in Germany

    August 20, 2020 – Feels sick during a return flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of TomskIn and falls into a coma from suspected poisoning, according to spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh. “We assume that Alexey was poisoned with something mixed into [his] tea,” Yarmysh tweets. German NGO The Cinema for Peace Foundation says it is sending a medical plane to Russia in an attempt to evacuate him.

    August 21, 2020 – Russian doctors give Navalny’s team permission to move him. He is scheduled for a medical evacuation to travel to a German clinic, according to spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh.

    August 22, 2020 – Arrives at the Charité Hospital in Berlin in Germany where an “extensive medical diagnosis” is made.

    September 2, 2020 – In a statement, the German government reports that Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. Novichok was used in a March 2018 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal, in the English cathedral city of Salisbury.

    September 7, 2020 – According to a statement released by Charité Hospital, Navalny is out of a medically induced coma.

    September 23, 2020 – Is discharged from the hospital, according to a statement released by the Charité Hospital.

    December 14, 2020 – Reporting from CNN and investigative group Bellingcat reveals that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) formed an elite team specializing in nerve agents and trailed Navalny for years. Phone and travel records suggest the unit followed Navalny to at least 17 cities since 2017.

    December 17, 2020 – At his annual press conference, Putin claims that if Russian special services had wanted to kill Navalny, “they would’ve probably finished it…but in this case, his wife asked me, and I immediately gave the order to let him out of the country to be treated in Germany… This is a trick to attack the leaders [in Russia].” The CNN-Bellingcat investigation is a form of “information warfare” facilitated by foreign special services, he says.

    December 21, 2020 – CNN reports that Konstantin Kudryavtsev, an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia’s FSB, revealed during a debriefing details about how Navalny was poisoned, but didn’t realize he was speaking to Navalny himself.

    December 28, 2020 – The Russia Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) accuses Navalny of violating the terms of his probation by failing to show up for scheduled inspections while in Germany and requests that a court replace his suspended sentence with an actual prison term.

    December 29, 2020 – Russia’s main investigative body launches a criminal case against Navalny on charges of fraud related to his alleged mishandling of $5 million in donations to FBK and other organizations.

    Return to Russia and trial

    January 2021 – Russian prison authorities officially request to replace Navalny’s 2014 suspended sentence with a real jail term. The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service says that by staying in Germany, Navalny is violating the terms of his suspended sentence in the so-called Yves Rocher case, which Navalny believes is politically motivated.

    January 13, 2021 – Announces on social media that he will return to Russia from Germany on January 17.

    January 17, 2021 – Navalny is detained moments after arriving in Moscow following months of treatment in Germany after being poisoned in August 2020. The next day, he is ordered to remain in custody for 30 days during a surprise hearing.

    February 2, 2021 – A Moscow court sentences Navalny to prison for more than two and a half years for violating probation terms from 2014 while he was in Germany. The sentence takes into account the 11 months Navalny spent under house arrest. His lawyer says he will appeal the verdict. The sentence prompts protests across the country.

    February 20, 2021 – Navalny’s appeal is partially rejected. The judge shortens his sentence by a month and a half, noting the time he spent under house arrest, from December 2014 to February 2015. In a separate hearing at Babushkinsky District Court, he is convicted of defaming World War II veteran Ignat Artemenko, 94, in social media comments made June 2020. Navalny criticized a video broadcast by state TV channel RT, in which prominent figures expressed support for controversial changes to the Russian constitution. The penalty for defamation, a fine, was changed to include potential jail time in December 2020.

    February 24, 2021 – According to Reuters, Navalny is stripped of his “prisoner of conscience” status by Amnesty International. The decision was made due to numerous complaints about Navalny’s past xenophobic comments received by the organization.

    March 3, 2021 – Navalny’s lawyer Vadim Kobzev tells CNN that Navalny is being held in detention center-3 in Kolchugino in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. Navalny will be held temporarily before being moved to a penal colony.

    March 31, 2021 – Navalny, who is imprisoned in penal colony No. 2 in Pokrov, says he is going on a hunger strike to protest against prison officials’ refusal to grant him access to proper medical care.

    April 23, 2021 – Navalny announces that he is ending his hunger strike after receiving medical attention.

    April 26, 2021 – Moscow’s chief prosecutor freezes Navalny’s political movement by suspending activities at his offices across the country.

    April 29, 2021 – Navalny’s network of regional offices for his political movement will be “officially disbanded,” chief of staff Leonid Volkov announces. Volkov says the regional offices will “continue to work as independent social and political movements, but we will not finance them anymore, we will not set tasks for them, but we know that they by themselves will do a great job.”

    October 20, 2021 – Navalny is awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

    March 22, 2022 – Navalny is sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security jail, according to Tass, after being convicted on fraud charges by the Lefortovo court in Moscow over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

    June 14, 2022 – Navalny is relocated to a maximum-security prison in Melekhovo in the Vladimir Region, according to Russia’s state media outlet TASS citing Sergey Yazhan, chairman of the regional public oversight commission.

    April 26, 2023 – In comments posted on Twitter, Navalny says he has been accused of committing “terrorist attacks” and the new case will be heard by a military court.

    August 4, 2023 – Is sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges, Russian media report. Navalny is already serving sentences totaling 11-and-a-half years in a maximum security facility on fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up.

    December 11, 2023 – Lawyers for Navalny say they have lost contact with the jailed Russian opposition leader and his whereabouts are unknown.

    A general view shows the penal colony N2, where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been transferred to serve a two-and-a-half year prison term for violating parole, in the town of Pokrov on March 1, 2021.

    The rough conditions inside prison camp where Navalny is being held

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  • American woman accused of conspiring to kill her husband released on bail in the Bahamas | CNN

    American woman accused of conspiring to kill her husband released on bail in the Bahamas | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Lindsay Shiver of Thomasville, Georgia, pleaded not guilty on Friday, Dec. 8, to killing her estranged husband in a Bahamian court during her formal arraignment.



    CNN
     — 

    American Lindsay Shiver, accused of conspiring to kill her husband with two co-defendants in the Bahamas, was granted bail of $100,000 by a Bahamian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday.

    She will be outfitted with an electronic monitoring device and must comply with an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. As Shiver walked into court wearing ripped jeans and a T-shirt, spectators yelled questions but it did not appear she replied to anyone.

    Shiver must report to the Cable Beach Police Station in Nassau three times per week. She must also not come within 100 feet of her husband, as part of her bail conditions.

    When Bahamian Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson finished laying out the conditions of Shiver’s bail, Shiver responded with a soft “OK.” After Shiver picks up her electronic monitoring device, she will be allowed to go to her new residence without returning to jail, her attorney Ian Cargill told CNN on Wednesday.

    Shiver’s alleged co-conspirators, Terrance Adrian Bethel, 28, and Farron Newbold Jr., 29, had previously been released on $20,000 bail, Cargill told CNN on Friday.

    Shiver, 36, of Thomasville, Georgia, is accused of unsuccessfully conspiring with the two Bahamas natives to kill her husband, Robert Shiver, on July 16 while on the Abaco Islands, months after the couple filed for divorce.

    Police in the Bahamas successfully foiled the plot by acting on information found on a phone recovered during a separate criminal inquiry into a recent break-in at a local business, a Bahamian police source told CNN.

    The defendants were arraigned last month, according to court documents. They were not required to enter pleas at that hearing.

    Lindsay and Robert Shiver had filed for divorce in April, court records indicate.

    Robert Shiver filed for divorce on April 5, and Lindsay Shiver filed for divorce the following day, according to the complaint listed on the Thomas County, Georgia, Clerk of Courts website.

    Robert Shiver lists Lindsay’s “adulterous conduct” as a reason for divorce, saying the marriage is irrevocably broken, according to the filings viewed by CNN. The filing from Lindsay Shiver says she has “incurred debt beyond her means to pay,” and asks that her husband be made to pay.

    Robert Shiver is an insurance executive and former Auburn University football player, court records and his company’s website show. Lindsay Shiver also attended Auburn University, according to social media posts.

    Lindsay Shiver’s next court appearance is slated for October 5.

    CNN has reached out to attorneys representing each of them in the divorce case.

    Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of Bahamian Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson.

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  • Hamid Karzai Fast Facts | CNN

    Hamid Karzai Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan.

    Birth date: December 24, 1957

    Birth place: Kandahar, Afghanistan

    Father: Abdul Ahad Karzai, politician

    Mother: Mother’s name unavailable publicly

    Marriage: Zinat Quraishi Karzai (1999-present)

    Children: daughter’s name unavailable publicly, 2016; Howsi, 2014; Malalai, 2012; Mirwais, 2007

    Education: Himachal University, India, master’s degree in Political Science

    A member of the Popalzai clan, part of the larger Pashtun tribe.

    Karzai was educated in India and is fluent in several languages, including English, Pashto, Dari and Urdu.

    His grandfather, Khair Mohammad Khan, served as deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament.

    His father held high level posts in the government of King Mohammed Zahir Shah.

    1979 – After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Karzai and his father flee to Pakistan.

    1992-1993 – After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan, Karzai serves as deputy foreign minister in the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

    Mid-1990s – Briefly aligns himself with the Taliban.

    1996 – Declines an invitation to become Taliban ambassador to the United Nations.

    1999 – Karzai’s father is murdered in Quetta, Pakistan, allegedly by the Taliban.

    October 2001 – Slips into Afghanistan from Pakistan, to incite an uprising against the Taliban.

    November 2001 – Is rescued by US forces during a skirmish with Taliban fighters.

    December 2001 – Karzai is chosen as interim leader of Afghanistan.

    December 5, 2001 – Is slightly injured by an errant US bomb.

    December 22, 2001 – Is inaugurated as interim president in Kabul.

    January 2002 – Visits the United States and the United Nations. Is an honored guest at US President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address.

    June 13, 2002 – At the Loya Jirga, Karzai is named president of Afghanistan for a two-year term.

    September 5, 2002 – Survives an assassination attempt in his hometown of Kandahar.

    November 3, 2004 – Is officially elected president of Afghanistan.

    December 7, 2004 – Is inaugurated president of Afghanistan.

    September 18, 2005 – First open parliamentary elections in 30 years.

    April 27, 2008 – Narrowly escapes an assassination attempt at a military parade in Kabul.

    March 29, 2009 – After the date of the presidential election is moved to August 2009, the Afghan Supreme Court rules that Karzai will remain in office for three months after his official term ends in May.

    August 20, 2009 – Afghanistan holds its second presidential election. Karzai wins by a landslide amid widespread allegations of low voter turnout, intimidation and fraud.

    October 31, 2009 – A run-off election is canceled when Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah drops out, leaving Karzai as the only candidate and winner by default.

    November 19, 2009 – Karzai is sworn in for a second term as president of Afghanistan.

    May 12, 2010 – Meets with US President Barack Obama at the White House.

    July 20, 2010 – Announces he would like to see Afghan security forces take the lead on military operations in Afghanistan by 2014.

    January 26, 2011 – Inaugurates the National Assembly, ending a political standoff between Karzai and the parliament. The inauguration comes four months after a nationwide election that critics said was marked by extensive fraud.

    September 29, 2014 – Steps down as president.

    June 2015 – Travels to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    February 5, 2019 – Travels to Moscow for a two-day conference to meet with members of the Taliban and other key Afghan figures to set the stage for peace negotiations.

    December 2, 2021 – Following the Taliban takeover in August, in a BBC interview, Karzai calls the Taliban “brothers” and urges Afghans who have left Afghanistan to return. Karzai also urges the United States to return to help the Afghan people. Karzai says he has held conversations concerning when Afghan women and girls would return to school and work.

    December 3, 2022 – Leaves Afghanistan for the first time since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Karzai reportedly faced travel restrictions. He is expected to visit the United Arab Emirates then Germany.

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