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Tag: the americas

  • North Carolina voter ID law had racially discriminatory intent, state Supreme Court says | CNN Politics

    North Carolina voter ID law had racially discriminatory intent, state Supreme Court says | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling that struck down the state’s 2018 voter ID law, agreeing with the lower court that it had been passed with the intent of targeting Black voters who were unlikely to vote for Republicans.

    “We hold that the three-judge panel’s findings of fact are supported by competent evidence showing that the statute was motivated by a racially discriminatory purpose,” the Democratic-majority court said, adding that the lower court also correctly applied the relevant precedent.

    The state Supreme Court’s three Republican members dissented from the ruling Friday.

    The law, known as SB 824, was passed in 2018 after Republicans lost their supermajority in the legislature but before the new legislature took over. The law was put on hold under a preliminary injunction, after North Carolina’s Court of Appeals said in 2020 that voter ID provisions could negatively impact Black voters. A three-judge state court panel then permanently blocked the law in September 2021.

    Republicans will regain control of the North Carolina Supreme Court in the coming weeks, after the party flipped two seats on the court in last month’s midterm elections.

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  • Heavy snow to bombard millions in Northeast this weekend as South recovers from deadly tornadoes | CNN

    Heavy snow to bombard millions in Northeast this weekend as South recovers from deadly tornadoes | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The monstrous storm that walloped much of the US this week has now brought nor’easter conditions as it moves across New York and New England ahead of the weekend.

    After many in the South were left grappling with power outages and smashed homes and businesses from a spate of tornadoes earlier this week, officials and forecasters across several Northeastern states are warning of heavy snow, which could pile up to a foot Friday.

    In response to the massive storm system, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned residents of the hazardous road conditions the storm is threatening to bring as millions across in the Northeast are under winter weather alerts Friday.

    “We urge everyone in the impacted regions to avoid unnecessary travel tonight and tomorrow,” Hochul said in a Thursday statement. “Work from home if possible, stay off the roads, and make sure you and your loved ones remain vigilant.”

    In neighboring Pennsylvania, state transportation officials implored drivers to avoid unnecessary travel due to the low visibility caused by wind and heavy snow.

    “Heavy snowfall rates of 1-2 inches/hour are likely across interior New York and central New England with storm totals reaching 1 to 2 feet by Saturday across portions of the Adirondacks, Mohawk Valley, and the Green and White Mountains,” the Weather Prediction Center said Friday in its forecast discussion. “Dangerous travel conditions and scattered power outages are expected.”

    Parts of eastern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine can also see between 18 and 24 inches of snow accumulate in local areas, according to the weather service. Already, parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York have seen snow, with one area in New York getting 14 inches. Several area in Vermont has more than a foot.

    The unrelenting storm system has cut a dangerous cross-country path since the beginning of the week, bringing varying combinations of severe weather to different parts of the United States.

    Tornadoes in the South killed three people in Louisiana while also flattening many homes and other structures. Blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest brought piles of snow and fierce winds that tore down power lines, leaving tens of thousands in the dark in freezing temperatures the week before Christmas.

    Dozens of tornadoes were reported across Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma since Tuesday.

    States from the Rockies to the Upper Midwest – including Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin – saw more than a foot of snow this week.

    And in parts of the mid-Atlantic, the storm brought a quarter inch of ice Thursday morning to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia and Maryland, and about a tenth of an inch had built up in parts of Virginia.

    A man clears a driveway with a snowblower on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, in Duluth, Minnesota.

    More than 5.2 million people across portions of Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire are under winter storm warnings Friday.

    Wet snow is expected to bombard the region, making travel miserable this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

    “Heavy snow to impact portions of the Interior Northeast through Saturday,” the weather service said.

    Snow totals between 6 and 12 inches are forecast from central Pennsylvania north into interior upstate New York, with up to 2 feet at areas with higher elevations, through Saturday.

    Major cities, including New York and Boston, can expect 1 to 2 inches of heavy rain from the nor’easter into the weekend before the storm system pulls away from the region Sunday.

    Some communities along the coasts of New Jersey, New York and Virginia, are under flood alerts, though major flooding is not expected.

    The storm inflicted a slew of tornadoes in the South and blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest and as of Friday afternoon had left about 48,000 homes and businesses in the dark across Minnesota, Wisconsin and West Virginia as of Friday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us.

    A tornado caused widespread damage in Union Parish, Louisiana.

    Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Nikolus Little, were killed Tuesday when a tornado struck Caddo Parish and destroyed their home, officials said.

    Their bodies were found far from where their house once stood, officials said. Autopsies have been ordered for both, the county coroner said.

    A 56-year-old woman died after a tornado hit her home in St. Charles Parish, the Louisiana Department of Health said Wednesday.

    Another tornado in northern Louisiana traveled through the town of Farmerville was rated an EF-3, with 140 mph winds, according to the National Weather Service. At least 20 people were injured, and the tornado demolished parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, Farmerville Police Detective Cade Nolan said.

    The tornado, which moved through Union Parish on Tuesday evening, was 500 yards across at its widest point and was on the ground for more than 9 miles.

    Mississippi officials said Friday four people were hurt, and 75 homes were damaged across the state. The hardest hit counties appeared to be Clarke, Sharkey, and Madison, with a combined 54 homes damaged, according to a preliminary assessment, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.

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  • The Grinch comes for retailers | CNN Business

    The Grinch comes for retailers | CNN Business

    A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Weaker-than-expected retail sales in November pummeled market sentiment on Thursday and raised the odds that the Federal Reserve’s inflation-fighting interest rate hikes would push the economy into recession.

    What’s happening: US retail sales, which measure the total amount of money that stores make from selling goods to customers, fell 0.6% in November, the weakest performance in nearly a year. The drop concerned economists who had expected monthly sales to shrink by just 0.1%. It’s also a sharp reversal from October’s sales increase of 1.3%.

    That’s a bad sign for the economy. Just last month Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told CNN that the continued strength of the US consumer is nearly single-handedly staving off recession. Consumer spending is a major driver of the economy, and the last two months of the year can account for about 20% of total retail sales — even more for some retailers, according to National Retail Federation data.

    Market mania: The weak report means that spending faltered just as the holiday season started, a critical time for retailers to ramp up profits and get rid of excess inventory. Investors weren’t too happy about that.

    Shares of Costco

    (COST)     closed Thursday 4.1% lower, Target

    (CBDY)     fell by 3.2%, Macy’s

    (M)     dropped 3.5% and Abercrombie & Fitch

    (ANF)     was down 6.2%.

    The entire sector took a blow — the VanEck Retail ETF, with Amazon

    (AMZN)    , Home Depot

    (HD)     and Walmart

    (WMT)    as its top three holdings, fell by 2.2%. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF, which follows all S&P retail stocks, was down 2.9%.

    Weak sales are likely to continue, say analysts, and if they do, then retailers’ bottom lines and fourth-quarter earnings will suffer.

    “The headwinds of the past year are catching up to consumers and forcing them to be more conservative in their holiday shopping this winter,” warned Morgan Stanley economist Ellen Zentner in a note.

    The Fed factor: November’s report could indicate that consumers are feeling the double-punch of sky-high inflation and painful interest rate hikes from the central bank. This retail sales data adds to recessionary concerns, as it suggests that consumers may be becoming more cautious with their spending.

    “Households are increasingly relying on their savings to sustain their spending, and many families are resorting to credit to offset the burden of high prices. These trends are unsustainable, and the current credit splurge is a true risk, especially for families at the lower end of the income spectrum,” said Gregory Daco and Lydia Boussour, economists at EY Parthenon.

    While American bank accounts are still fairly robust, they’re beginning to dwindle. In the third quarter of 2022, credit card balances jumped 15% year over year. That’s the largest annual jump since the New York Fed began keeping track of the data in 2004.

    “Against this backdrop, we expect consumers will rein in their spending further in coming months,” said Daco and Boussour. “Real consumer spending should see modest growth in the final quarter of the year, but we expect it will barely grow in 2023.”

    Bottom line: If Bank of America’s Moynihan was right, the US economy is in trouble.

    US mortgage rates came in lower once again this week, marking the fifth consecutive drop in a row.

    The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.31% in the week ending December 15, down from 6.33% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago, the 30-year fixed rate was 3.12%, reports my colleague Anna Bahney.

    That’s a sharp reversal from the upward trend in rates we’ve seen for most of 2022. Those increases were spurred by the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented campaign of harsh interest rate hikes to tame soaring inflation. But mortgage rates have tumbled in the last several weeks, following data that showed inflation may have finally reached its peak.

    The Fed announced on Wednesday that it will continue to raise interest rates — albeit by a smaller amount than it has been.

    “Mortgage rates continued their downward trajectory this week, as softer inflation data and a modest shift in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy reverberated through the economy,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

    “The good news for the housing market is that recent declines in rates have led to a stabilization in purchase demand,” he added. “The bad news is that demand remains very weak in the face of affordability hurdles that are still quite high.”

    American regulators have been granted unprecedented access to the full audits of Chinese companies like Alibaba

    (BABA)     and JD.com

    (JD)     after threatening to kick the tech giants off US stock exchanges if they did not receive the data.

    The announcement marks a major breakthrough in a yearslong standoff over how Chinese companies listed on Wall Street should be regulated. It will come as a huge relief for these firms and investors who have invested billions of dollars in them, reports my colleague Laura He.

    “For the first time in history, we are able to perform full and thorough inspections and investigations to root out potential problems and hold firms accountable to fix them,” Erica Williams, chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said in a statement Thursday, adding that such access was “historic and unprecedented.”

    More than 100 Chinese companies had been identified by the US securities regulator as facing delisting in 2024 if they did not hand over the audits of their financial statements.

    On Friday, China’s securities regulator said it’s looking forward to working with US officials to continue promoting future audit supervision of companies listed in the United States.

    There are more than 260 Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges, with a combined market capitalization of more than $770 billion, according to recent calculations posted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

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  • Delisting risks for China tech stocks averted as US gets ‘historic’ access to audit data | CNN Business

    Delisting risks for China tech stocks averted as US gets ‘historic’ access to audit data | CNN Business


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    US regulators have gained full access to the audits of Chinese companies for the first time, reducing the threat that tech giants such as Alibaba

    (BABA)     and JD.com

    (JD)     could be kicked off US stock exchanges.

    The announcement marks a major breakthrough in a yearslong standoff over how Chinese companies listed on Wall Street should be regulated. It will come as a huge relief for these firms and investors who have invested billions of dollars in them.

    “For the first time in history, we are able to perform full and thorough inspections and investigations to root out potential problems and hold firms accountable to fix them,” Erica Williams, chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), said in a statement Thursday, adding that such access was “historic and unprecedented.”

    More than 100 Chinese companies — including Alibaba, JD.com, and Baidu — had been identified by the US securities regulator as facing delisting in 2024 if they did not hand over the audits of their financial statements.

    On Friday, China’s securities regulator said it’s looking forward to working with US officials to continue promoting future audit supervision of companies listed in the United States.

    “We have always advocated solving issues of audit supervision on cross-border listings through regulatory cooperation mechanisms,” the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement.

    There are more than 260 Chinese companies listed on US stock exchanges, with a combined market capitalization of more than $770 billion, according to recent calculations posted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

    But investors often face a lack of transparency when it comes to Chinese stocks. US regulators have been long demanding access to the books of these companies, but Beijing had resisted such scrutiny, citing national security concerns.

    The United States had increased pressure by passing a law in December 2020 requiring Chinese companies listed in the US to open their books to audit watchdogs. If they failed to comply with the requirements for three straight years, they would be delisted.

    In August, China finally agreed to let US officials inspect the audit work of these firms.

    In Friday’s statement, the PCAOB said it had inspected the audits of eight Chinese companies completed by KPMG Huazhen LLP in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. The board will finalize the inspection reports and make them public as early as next year.

    “This is the beginning of our work to inspect and investigate firms in China, not the end,” Williams said in the statement.

    She added that the watchdog is continuing to demand complete access in mainland China and Hong Kong moving forward.

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  • California regulators approve plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 | CNN

    California regulators approve plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    California’s air regulators approved an aggressive plan Thursday for the state to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 – in line with legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year.

    The plan, approved by the California Air Resources Board, looks to move one of the largest economies in the world to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels.

    Known as the Scoping Plan, the actions and policies aim to slash fossil fuel usage to less than a tenth of current consumption by decreasing demand for liquid petroleum by 94% by 2045, mainly driven by a move away from gas-powered vehicles.

    The board also says the plan will cut air pollution by 71% and gas emissions by 85% to below 1990 levels. Both goals are consistent with targets laid out in Governor Gavin Newsom’s $54.1 billion climate commitment intended to protect residents from wildfires, extreme heat and drought while moving away from big oil.

    The plan will create four million jobs and save Californians some $200 billion in health costs for pollution-related illnesses by 2045, the board said, providing a path for California to meet its climate targets.

    “California is leading the world’s most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution – we’re cutting pollution, turning the page on fossil fuels and creating millions of new jobs,” said Newsom in a press release after the plan was approved.

    After a public comment session, board members acknowledged that this plan is a roadmap to cutting greenhouse gases, and that not all of what is laid out may come to fruition.

    One focus of the plan is a move to zero-emission transportation, including both personal vehicles and mass transit. While fossil fuels used in homes are also targeted, the state said gas-powered vehicles and other transportation are currently the largest source of carbon emissions.

    In August, the board approved a rule requiring all passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.

    Beginning in 2026, all new residential buildings will be required to install electric appliances and in 2029, the requirements will begin extending to commercial buildings, according to the plan. For existing residential buildings, all appliance sales are required to be electric by 2035. Ten years later, all commercial buildings in the state will have to follow suit, the plan said.

    While the board called the plan “achievable” some critics say the plan relies too much on what some of the board members acknowledged is an unproven method of carbon capture and sequestration instead of relying on natural and working lands to also house some of that carbon.

    “This plan is failing the people of California and our planet – first by endorsing carbon capture, a faulty climate scheme promoted by the fossil fuel industry,” said Chirag Bhakta, the California state director for Food & Water Watch, in a statement to CNN.

    “Carbon capture is a completely unproven and unworkable technology that only serves to provide cover for oil and gas drillers to continue business as usual,” Bhakta said.

    The scoping plan also targets wildfires which are not only responsible for the destruction of forests, buildings and property, but also emit copious amounts of carbon dioxide.

    In recent years, human-driven climate change has spurred massive blazes. The board pointing out that of the 20 largest wildfires in California, nine happened in 2020 and 2021.

    The plan sets a goal of treating one million acres a year by 2025 through actions like prescribed burns and increased forest management. Currently, about 100,000 acres are treated a year.

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  • ‘This is a war’: Californians seek affordable housing alternatives | CNN Business

    ‘This is a war’: Californians seek affordable housing alternatives | CNN Business


    Los Angeles
    CNN
     — 

    At 26, Ixchel Hernandez has become the defender and protector of her family’s modest apartment. In the two decades they’ve lived in their Los Angeles home, the family of four has successfully fought against multiple attempts aimed at pricing and, ultimately, forcing them out.

    “We are human beings with the right to live in our home, and that’s just frankly what every person… in every home and [in] every building should know … they have the right to have their own space, to have their home,” Hernandez said.

    But, across the country, affordable housing is becoming increasingly rare to find. The lack of housing inventory coupled with inflation and zoning inequalities have priced out most families, especially those who start with little-to-no capital of their own.

    Ixchel’s parents moved to the United States from Mexico in hopes of giving her and her brother opportunities and a safe environment. Her father, Jose Hernandez, never wanted to give the family’s various landlords a reason to evict them over the years, and he dreamed of owning his own home one day.

    “Thank God we never failed to pay our rent,” he said. But in order to keep up with rising rents, both parents worked and even opened up their home to another family for a brief time. Ixchel remembers six people crammed into their one-bedroom apartment.

    “It shouldn’t have to be that way where you’re kind of fighting for space or you’re going to have to move so far out of LA to be able to have a home,” she said.

    To purchase a house in more than 75% of the nation’s most populous cities, an average family needs to spend at least 30% of their annual income on housing. In cities like Miami, New York and Los Angeles, that number surges to more than 80% of an average family’s annual income.

    Home ownership for the Hernandez family, and so many others, has felt like a fading American dream. That is until they discovered a Civil Rights era approach that helps promote home ownership, particularly among minority groups, who are disproportionately impacted by the affordable housing crisis. It’s called a Community Land Trust, or CLT.

    The Hernandez family at their home.

    “We’re operated by residents who actually live in our building… [as well as] folks from the communities that we’re serving,” said Kasey Ventura of the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust. “My interest in this work, outside of just preserving housing and affordable housing, is preserving culture in a community.”

    A CLT is essentially a nonprofit organization that buys the land on which a building sits, thereby allowing a community’s residents to collectively manage it. Some residents eventually choose to form a co-op with their neighbors and take ownership of their buildings, renting the land.

    The Hernandez family and their neighbors embraced the concept. This year they joined the Beverly-Vermont CLT, one of at least five in Los Angeles and more than 200 nationwide. The process requires neighbors to meet regularly over several months before ultimately unanimously agreeing on various terms so as to finalize the trust. Ixchel now sits on the board of her building’s management; it’s in the final stages of ownership transfer to the co-op.

    “What’s important is that we’re now owners!” said Ixchel’s mother, Guadalupe Santiago. “But it’s also important to remember it was not easy,” her father cautioned.

    “It may not seem like a lot to a lot of folks that have money or come from money,” Ixchel said. “[But] we are just as much trying to build that generational wealth.”

    According to 2019 figures, the United States was roughly 3.8 million homes short of what was needed to house families. That is more than double the number from a decade earlier. California has the largest housing deficit of any other state, requiring an estimated million more homes to meet housing demands.

    “We don’t necessarily view housing as a need that everybody should have. And that’s key… in this work,” said Kasey Ventura, who helps run the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust in Los Angeles.

    While CLTs are a solution, Ventura admits there are — and should be — other affordable housing options to adequately address the crisis.

    In Southern California, there is growing demand for construction and rental of ADUs, or Accessory Dwelling Units. Also called “carriage homes,” the converted garages or newly built smaller structures sit adjacent to existing homes and are on the same property. The mostly studio or one-bedroom apartments provide a more affordable option to many who prefer to live or work in areas that might otherwise be too expensive.

    Others have advocated for utilizing unoccupied homes. There are dozens of vacant houses, in some cases, sitting just a few blocks from several homeless encampments lining many Los Angeles sidewalks. However, efforts to transform them into affordable housing in some neighborhoods have proven controversial among existing homeowners.

    Another route undertaken by some companies is Employer-Assisted Housing. Although they have only finished a portion of what they initially pledged, in recent years corporations like Google, Meta and Apple have promised to spend billions of dollars on some 40,000 new homes in California. The initiative began in order to combat soaring home prices in the Bay Area, while also recruiting and retaining talent who needed more affordable housing options, along with a shorter commute to the office.

    “Just to be able to be like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna wake up, take a walk down the street and come to work.’ I mean that’s awesome!” said Matthew Johnson, an employee of Factory_OS in Vallejo, California, which already plans to provide workforce housing options to its workers in the coming years. However, unlike other companies, Factory_OS employees will build their own homes.

    In a space once used to build US Navy submarines during World War II, Larry Pace now operates Factory_OS outside San Francisco. He co-founded the company with Rick Holliday to address the worsening housing shortage.

    Matthew Johnson working at Factory_OS.

    “That we’ve repurposed a building that was once for instruments of war, [so as] to [now] create affordable and supportive housing…. I don’t know how much cooler that can be,” said Pace.

    Factory_OS puts homebuilding onto an assembly line and produces fully finished modular units within two weeks. From insulation and drywall to flooring, fixtures and paint, all of it is prefabricated within the confines of the factory before it’s trucked to a site for assembly.

    “We’ve created an IKEA for the manufacturing of homes,” said Pace. “Then we put the pieces together.”

    When hoisted by a crane and stacked like sophisticated Legos, the modular units combine to make entire apartment buildings. Pace maintains there are massive cost-savings and huge efficiencies in moving homebuilding into a factory setting compared with on-site construction.

    “We’re building houses for the people who need them, for the people who have been struggling to be able to support their families or pay rent or pay bills,” said Johnson, as he placed support beams for a roof of one of the units.

    The 38-year-old Factory_OS employee and father of five was once homeless, and he said he often thinks about the families who will one day live under the roof he’s assembling. w

    “Every morning I wake up, I’m grateful… that I come home from work and there are my kids waiting for me,” said Johnson.

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  • Sources: As DPS investigation of Uvalde response nears end, two officials face increased scrutiny | CNN

    Sources: As DPS investigation of Uvalde response nears end, two officials face increased scrutiny | CNN


    Austin, Texas
    CNN
     — 

    Texas Department of Public Safety investigators looking into the botched response at Robb Elementary School have become increasingly troubled by the actions of two officials – former Uvalde schools police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo and former Uvalde Police Lt. Mariano Pargas – according to law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

    The officials told CNN that this assessment comes after investigators reviewed hours of police body camera footage and interviewed hundreds of law enforcement personnel and witnesses.

    The DPS investigation is nearly complete and expected to be in the hands of Uvalde County’s district attorney any day, DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw told CNN Thursday. The district attorney, who will ultimately decide on any charges against law enforcement, has been meeting with victims’ families to update them on the investigation and autopsy results.

    Arredondo was fired as school police chief in August following criticism of his actions during the massacre on May 24, in which law enforcement waited more than an hour before entering the adjoining classrooms where the gunman was holed up. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the attack.

    Arredondo is seen on body-worn cameras giving orders and receiving information during the response, but he has said he did not see himself as the incident commander.

    CNN confronts Chief Pete Arredondo. See the interaction

    Pargas, who was acting city police chief that day, was placed on leave in July when videos from body-worn cameras raised questions about whether he had taken any action to assume command. CNN’s reporting demonstrated Pargas was aware students were alive and needed rescue during the shooting but failed to organize help. Pargas ultimately resigned.

    CNN has reached out to both Pargas and Arredondo this week to address questions about their roles and has not received responses.

    On Monday, Pargas, who is also a county commissioner, told a reporter at the commission meeting: “All I can say is a lot of the stuff that’s been put out there, that is not the way it happened.” When pressed by CNN for specifics, he would not explain what he meant.

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  • Biden says he’ll travel to Africa soon as he announces billions in new commitments | CNN Politics

    Biden says he’ll travel to Africa soon as he announces billions in new commitments | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden hailed cooperation with Africa and said he looked forward to visiting the continent soon as he endeavors to expand ties in a region where China and Russia have been making inroads.

    Speaking at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, Biden announced billions of dollars in new commitments on financing and bolstering democracy, and affirmed he supported a permanent seat for the African Union at the Group of 20.

    He sought to dissuade the impression his promises could be short-lived, naming a top diplomat to ensure the summit’s commitments are executed. And he said a host of Cabinet officials – along with his wife – would also soon visit Africa to demonstrate American interest there.

    “I’m eager to visit your continent,” Biden said to the nearly 50 leaders attending the conference. “Some of you invited me to your countries. I said, ‘Be careful what you wish for because I may show up.’”

    “I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in your home countries,” he said.

    Biden is hosting this week’s summit hoping to build more robust ties with African nations, stressing US desire to work together instead of simply sending aid and assistance.

    “The United States is all in on Africa and all in with Africa,” Biden said Thursday. He said “African voices, African leadership, African innovation” were all necessary to addressing a host of global challenges.

    “Africa belongs at the table in every room, in every room where global challenges are being discussed and every institution where discussions are taking place,” he said, noting his support for a seat for Africa both at the G20 and the United Nations Security Council.

    “It’s been a long time in coming but it’s gonna come,” he said.

    It’s not the first time African leaders have heard a similar message from an American president. President Barack Obama held his own US-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014, complete with gala dinner under a tent on the White House South Lawn. He promised then to take action to help build more prosperity and security in Africa.

    But his predecessor former President Donald Trump largely ignored Africa, never visiting the continent and even rudely disparaging certain African nations in a 2018 meeting as “shithole countries.”

    Meanwhile, other nations have made inroads on the continent. China has worked to grow trade relations with African nations and has developed major infrastructure projects there. Russia has expanded its military influence, including through mercenaries like the Wagner Group.

    Biden avoided specific mention of those countries in his remarks, but he alluded to China’s creeping influence in Africa when discussing new US efforts at providing financing to “build sustainable and inclusive economies” with saddling nations with “back breaking debt payments.”

    He said he was working alongside Congress to announce a total of $55 billion for investment in Africa in areas as diverse as rural development and collaboration in outer space.

    He said the US would remain focused on leading with values, including support for democracy, respect for the rule of law, commitment to human rights, and emphasizing responsible government.

    Earlier this week, Biden met with leaders from several countries holding elections in 2023 to emphasize the importance of free and fair voting.

    “We see over and over again that our greatest power is our people,” he said Thursday, announcing $75 million to strengthen transparent government, voter registration and constitutional reform.

    He said Ambassador Johnnie Carson, a former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, would lead efforts to “make sure we translate our commitments on paper to progress.”

    And he said he was looking forward to going to Africa himself. Biden hasn’t visited Sub-Saharan Africa since taking office.

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  • ‘It’s being left in the dark,’ mother of murdered Idaho student says of police investigation | CNN

    ‘It’s being left in the dark,’ mother of murdered Idaho student says of police investigation | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The mother of one of the four college students killed near the University of Idaho last month expressed frustration over police communications on the status of the investigation into the murders.

    “It’s sleepless nights. It’s feeling sick to your stomach. It’s just being left in the dark,” Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, said in an interview aired on NBC’s TODAY show Thursday.

    Goncalves recounted the day she learned something had happened to her daughter.

    “We’re running around for hours just not knowing what was going on, what happened,” she explained. “… We found out by people calling us. And the sheriff showed up about three hours later.”

    She also described learning about the police interest in a white Hyundai sedan seen in the area around the time of the murders not from investigators but from reading about it in a news release sent to her by someone else.

    Authorities are sorting through tens of thousands of registered vehicles that fit the criteria of one spotted near the residence the night of the attacks, the Moscow Police Department said in a news release Thursday.

    “So far, we have a list of approximately 22,000 registered white Hyundai Elantras that fit into our criteria that we’re sorting through,” Chief James Fry said in a video update. “We are confident that the occupant or occupants of that vehicle have information that’s critical to this investigation.”

    Goncalves said her family learned graphic details of their daughter’s autopsy when a woman from the coroner’s office called and asked her 17-year-old daughter if she wanted to know the findings.

    “She asked, are you sure you want to know this? And my daughter, thinking that she did for whatever reason, said yes. And she proceeded to tell her.”

    The Latah County Coroner’s Office was not immediately available for comment.

    The killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21-year-old Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and Kernodle’s boyfriend, 20-year-old Ethan Chapin in the early morning hours of November 13 shook the small college town of Moscow, Idaho, which had not recorded a murder since 2015.

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  • Tornadoes leave a trail of destruction in Louisiana and the Southeast, killing at least 3, collapsing homes and knocking out power | CNN

    Tornadoes leave a trail of destruction in Louisiana and the Southeast, killing at least 3, collapsing homes and knocking out power | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A severe weather system cutting through the South has left a trail of destruction in Louisiana, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others as violent tornadoes touched down, collapsing homes, turning debris into projectiles and knocking out power.

    The deaths attributed to storm-related events include a 56-year-old woman who died after a tornado hit her home in the Killona area in St. Charles Parish, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

    Additionally, a boy and his mother were found dead after a tornado destroyed their home Tuesday in the northwestern Louisiana community of Keithville, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The mother and son’s bodies were found hours apart, far from where their house once stood, officials said.

    Multiple communities throughout Louisiana reported destruction, with roofs ripped off, homes splintered, debris littering roadways and cars flipper over. As ferocious winds downed power lines, more than 50,000 customers were left without power in across Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. That number was down to less than 15,000 early Thursday.

    There were at least 49 tornado reports across Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. More tornado reports are likely to come in as surveyors continue to check for damage.

    And the threat isn’t over yet. More than 15 million people could see severe weather Thursday in parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as the severe weather shifts the east, according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford.

    More than 1.5 million people were under tornado watches in southeastern Alabama, northern Florida and southern Georgia until 9 a.m. Thursday. Strong tornadoes are still likely as well as quarter sized hail and powerful wind gusts up to 70 mph.

    The massive storm that brought the destruction to Louisiana and across the Southeast is part of a massive system that has also brought blizzard conditions in northern parts of the central US.

    For Thursday, the storms are expected to weaken slightly, but there is a risk for severe weather for much of Florida, coastal Georgia and coastal Carolinas. Cities like Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston could see damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes, Shackelford said.

    In Louisiana, the damage has been widespread, affecting multiple communities, prompting Gov. John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency.

    As many as 5,000 structures were likely damaged when a tornado struck the city of Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, Mayor Belinda Constant said.

    Farther north, at least 20 people were injured in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville when a tornado struck Tuesday night, demolishing parts of an apartment complex and a mobile home park, Farmerville police Detective Cade Nolan said.

    Patsy Andrews was home with her children in Farmerville when she heard “rushing wind like a train” outside, she told CNN affiliate KNOE-TV.

    Her son told her not to open the door when she went to investigate, but it was too late.

    “All of a sudden that wind was so heavy, it broke my back door,” Andrews said. “The lights went off and all we could hear was glass popping everywhere.”

    She said she and her daughter hit the floor, crawling into a hallway as glass shattered around them and water leaked through the roof. They ended up taking shelter in their bathroom.

    “We just got in the tub and we hugged each other. We just kept praying and I just kept calling on Jesus,” Andrews said. Her family survived the storm but were left with damage to their home.

    In the Algiers area of New Orleans, four residents were taken to area hospitals as the storm battered the area on the west bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told CNN. At least one house collapsed in the area and other residences and businesses have been impacted, Arnold added.

    Officials in St. Bernard Parish also reported “major damage” in Arabi, where a tornado touched down, they said, leaving much of the area without power.

    Crews in Arabi will be conducting search and rescue efforts throughout the night, St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann said. Ten people have been rescued due to severe weather, but no serious injuries or deaths have been reported, Pohlmann added.

    Cindy DeLucca Hernandez thought she could beat the storm while driving home after picking up her 16-year-old son from school. But on the journey, she found herself facing a tornado.

    “It was extremely scary, I’ve never ever been through anything like that,” Hernandez said.

    Video she shared with CNN shows her waiting at red light as a tornado blew through Arabi, kicking up debris and taking out power lines.

    “We started seeing debris and we got hit a couple of times by it and that’s when I put the car in reverse,” she said. Hernandez and her son made it home safe.

    Jefferson Parish Councilman Scott Walker said he saw at least a mile-long path of debris.

    “Power lines down, homes severely damaged, rooftops ripped off,” he said in a video shared online describing the scene. “It is an extensive damage scene and a long path of destruction here on the west bank.”

    Two schools in Jefferson Parish suffered storm damage and were expected to stay closed Thursday.

    Iberia Medical Center “sustained a significant amount of damage,” police Capt. Leland Laseter said on Facebook. CNN has sought comment from the medical center.

    The New Iberia Police Department reported on Facebook that two tornadoes touched down in the city, with several homes damaged and reports of people trapped in the Southport Subdivision.

    Storm damage in Blue Ridge, Texas, on December 13, 2022.

    The storm also left damage behind in Texas and Oklahoma as it moved through the south earlier this week, spawning tornadoes.

    In Texas, at least seven people were injured Tuesday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area – including at least five hurt around the city of Grapevine. Two tornado reports were made in Grapevine, where police said a mall and other businesses were damaged.

    An EF2 tornado struck Wise County near the communities of Paradise and Decatur, damaging homes and businesses, officials said. Video showed homes splintered, with roofs ripped off in Decatur.

    In Wayne, Oklahoma, an EF2 tornado damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said. No injuries were reported but homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, video from CNN affiliate KOCO shows.

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  • 2 police officers shot and killed in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi | CNN

    2 police officers shot and killed in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Two police officers were shot and killed early Wednesday morning in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, officials said.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves identified the slain officers as Branden Estorffe and Steven Robin, according to a tweet from his verified account.

    “I am heartboken by this terrible loss of two brave law enforcement officers. I am praying for their family, friends, their fellow officers, and the entire Bay St. Louis community,” Reeves wrote. “Mississippians will never forget the sacrifice of these heroes.”

    The two officers received a call for service at a Motel 6 on Highway 90, according to a news release from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. The officers encountered a woman who shot both officers before turning the gun on herself.

    One officer died on the scene, and the second officer was taken to the hospital but later died.

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  • Jury deliberations begin in murder trial of former Texas police officer who killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home | CNN

    Jury deliberations begin in murder trial of former Texas police officer who killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Texas jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of a former Fort Worth police officer accused of murder in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home.

    The deliberations got underway after closing arguments in which the state portrayed Aaron Dean as a power-hungry former cop whose preconceived notions about the neighborhood where Jefferson lived tainted his conduct the night of the shooting.

    The defense countered that Dean fired his weapon in self-defense while fearing for his life in what attorneys said was a tragic accident but not a criminal act.

    The case went to the jury more than three years after Dean and his partner responded to Jefferson’s house around 2:25 a.m. on October 12, 2019, in response to a neighbor calling a nonemergency police line to report that her doors were open.

    Dean, who is White, resigned days afterward and was arrested and charged in the killing of Jefferson, who is Black. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge which carries a possible sentence of five to 99 years.

    Jurors also can consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

    Prosecutors maintained there is no evidence Dean saw a gun in Jefferson’s hand before firing.

    “If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?” Tarrant County Prosecutor Ashlea Deener told jurors in closing. “When you think about your house, you think about safety. It’s where you go to retreat, to get away from the world.”

    Dean, the prosecutor said, had a “tremendous amount of power” when he put on his uniform.

    “When you put on that badge and you put on that uniform you say you’re going to serve and protect us all. That means her too,” Deener said of Jefferson.

    “And the Fort Worth Police Department – those officers that do serve and protect us, that don’t have those preconceived notions, that did a thorough investigation in this case – are ashamed that they ever called somebody like him a brother in blue,” she added, referring to the former officer.

    Defense attorney Bob Gill told jurors Dean feared for his life as he peered through the bedroom window that night.

    “The state cannot prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that this was not self-defense,” Gill said. “It’s tragic, but is not an offense under the state of Texas.”

    Defense attorney Bob Gill gives his closing argument.

    Holding his hands in the air to show the size of the gun Dean claimed he saw through the bedroom window, Gill told the jury: “What is immediately more necessary than having a handgun stuck in your face? And you have heard from several people, starting with Aaron, that that handgun was this big when he saw it.”

    Gill added, “If you believe that Aaron was legitimately defending a third person, and reasonably defending a third person, or if you had a reasonable doubt about whether he was doing such, then you are to acquit Aaron. And you don’t have to agree that it was self-defense or defense of a third person. You just have to decide in your mind that he reasonably believed he was doing one of those two things.”

    Dean testified Monday that he fired at Jefferson because she pointed a gun at him.

    “As I started to get that second phrase out, ‘Show me your hands,’ I saw a silhouette,” the former officer said. “I was looking right down the barrel of a gun, and when I saw the barrel of that gun pointed at me, I fired a single shot from my duty weapon.”

    Dean said he had his weapon out because he believed the home was in the midst of being robbed. He fired at her through the window “because we’re taught to meet deadly force with deadly force. We’re not taught that we have to wait,” he said.

    In cross-examination, however, Dean admitted many of his actions that night were “bad police work,” including firing without seeing her hands or what was behind her, failing to tell his partner he saw a gun and rushing into the home without fully ensuring it was safe.

    “You’ve got another fellow officer from the Fort Worth Police Department entering a home which you have determined to be a burglary in progress with a possible armed assailant, and you didn’t think to tell your partner, ‘Hey there’s a gun inside?’” prosecutor R. Dale Smith asked.

    “No,” Dean said.

    Body cam footage released by the Fort Worth Police department. Must Mention the video is heavily edited and released by police when using.

    Woman shot and killed by police officer in her own home

    “You didn’t think to tell her, ‘Hey I saw somebody with a gun?’” Smith asked.

    “No,” he said.

    Dean’s testimony is pivotal in the trial, which also featured body-camera footage of the shooting and testimony from the primary witnesses, Dean’s police partner Carol Darch and Jefferson’s 11-year-old nephew.

    On the stand, Dean described the silhouette he saw as being “bent over” facing the window with upper arm movement.

    He grew emotional as he spoke about the moments after he shot Jefferson.

    “I observed the person that we now know is Ms. Jefferson. I heard her scream and saw her fall like this,” Dean said, gesturing in a downward motion. “And I knew that I’d shot that person.”

    He said after firing the shot he tried opening the window to render aid but couldn’t get it open, so they ran around to the front door and entered the home. He and Darch went into the bedroom and saw a child there.

    “I’m thinking, who brings a kid to a burglary? What is going on?” Dean said.

    The prosecution’s first witness was Zion Carr, who was 8 years old and in the bedroom with his “Aunt Tay” when she was shot.

    Now 11, the boy testified they had accidentally burned hamburgers earlier in the night, so they opened the doors to air the smoke out of the house.

    He and his aunt were up late playing video games when Jefferson heard a noise outside, and she then went to her purse to get her gun, he testified. He did not see her raise her firearm toward the window, he testified.

    Zion said he did not hear or see anything outside the window, but he saw his aunt fall to the ground and start crying.

    “I was thinking, ‘Is it a dream?’” he testified. “She was crying and just shaking.”

    Prosecutors also called to the stand Dean’s police partner, Darch, who testified she was with Dean when they went to investigate the home.

    She said she believed the home was being burglarized because two doors were open, lights were on inside, cabinets were wide open and things were strewn about the living room and kitchen area.

    She had her back to the window when Dean began to yell out commands for Jefferson to put her hands up, she testified. Darch said she started to turn around, heard a gunshot, then looked over Dean’s shoulder and could see a face in the window with eyes “as big as saucers.”

    She testified she did not see Jefferson holding a gun and didn’t recall Dean ever saying Jefferson had a gun.

    An attorney for Jefferson’s family said she was trying to protect her nephew from what they both thought was a prowler. She had moved into her ailing mother’s Fort Worth home a few months earlier to take care of her, family attorney S. Lee Merritt said at the time. She also took care of her nephews.

    Jefferson graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2014 with a degree in biology and worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales, according to her family’s attorney.

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  • Biden administration warns of potential influx of migrants immediately after Title 42 ends | CNN Politics

    Biden administration warns of potential influx of migrants immediately after Title 42 ends | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The end of a Trump-era border policy next week will “likely increase migration flows immediately,” and migrants who are in encampments along Mexico’s northern border may attempt to cross into the United States, according to a Homeland Security intelligence memo reviewed by CNN.

    Administration officials have been bracing for an influx of migrants when a public health authority, known as Title 42, ends next week. A federal judge last month blocked the use of the authority, which since the start of the coronavirus pandemic has allowed officials to turn away migrants encountered at the US-Mexico border.

    The strain a surge of migrants will pose to already overwhelmed resources came into sharp focus this week in El Paso, Texas. The city is now grappling with over 2,000 migrants arriving daily, according to city officials.

    The intelligence memo, from the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, underscores the concern within the administration over an increase in arrivals after Title 42 ends amid mass migration across the Western hemisphere and the role human smuggling organizations play in moving people. It’s been distributed within the administration and stakeholders.

    “Human smuggling organizations will likely adjust their methods to successfully cross migrants into the United States and will employ social media and encrypted messages to fuel misinformation regarding US enforcement, judging from US government reporting,” the memo, dated December 12, reads.

    The memo focuses on Venezuelan migrants who earlier this fall contributed to a rise in border encounters. Approximately 7 million Venezuelans have fled their country. In September, Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans accounted for almost half of encounters along the US southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas underscored the whole of government approach in a statement, noting that mass movement of people around the globe has posed a uniquely difficult challenge.

    “Despite our efforts, our outdated immigration system is under strain; that is true at the federal level, as well as for state, local, NGO, and community partners. In the absence of congressional action to reform the immigration and asylum systems, a significant increase in migrant encounters will strain our system even further,” he said in a statement.

    In October, the administration rolled out a humanitarian parole program geared toward Venezuelans to encourage them to apply for entry into the United States instead of crossing unlawfully. Officials have since attributed a drop in crossings of Venezuelan migrants to that program. Those who did not apply were returned to Mexico under Title 42.

    The administration, meanwhile, is considering expanding the parole program to nationalities, including Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans, according to two Homeland Security officials, to try to stem the flow of migration from those countries.

    But the calculus of migrants may change when Title 42 lifts, the memo says.

    “With Title 42 ending, Venezuelan migrants who previously considered returning to Venezuela or remaining in third countries to apply for legal pathways to enter the United States will likely recalculate their decision and transit north to the US Southwest border,” the memo says, noting that transit countries like Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama are already under strain.

    The memo states that while migrants continue to travel, numbers are “unlikely to rebound over the next month to early October numbers if migrants believe they will be returned to Mexico.”

    CNN previously reported that DHS is preparing for multiple scenarios, including projections of between 9,000 to 14,000 migrants a day, more than double the current number of people crossing.

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  • Iran expelled from UN commission on women | CNN

    Iran expelled from UN commission on women | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    United Nations member states have removed Iran from a key UN women’s rights group just months after it joined. The unusual reversal comes as Iran is rattled by an ongoing protest movement sparked by the death of a young woman in the custody of the country’s so-called “morality police”

    Twenty-nine members of the UN’s Economic and Social Council voted Wednesday in favor of a resolution proposed by the United States to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.”

    Eight member states voted against the resolution, and 16 abstained.

    Addressing the council on Wednesday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that “women and activists have appealed to us, the United Nations, for support.”

    “They made their request to us loud and clear: remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women.”

    “The reason why is straightforward. The Commission is the premier UN body for promoting gender equality and empowering women. It cannot do its important work if it is being undermined from within. Iran’s membership at this moment is an ugly stain on the Commission’s credibility,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

    Iran condemned the US resolution, calling it an “illegal request” and said it weakens the rule of law in the United Nations.

    Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeed Irvani, said the resolution to remove Iran was built on “baseless claims and fabricated arguments using fake narratives,” according to state news agency IRNA on Wednesday.

    Iran had only just begun its four-year term on the 45-member Commission on the Status of Women – which was created to advocate for gender equality globally – after being elected to the body in April.

    In recent months, the country has been gripped by mass protests sparked by the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained in Tehran by a police unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as wearing the compulsory headscarf.

    Iran’s demonstrations, often led by women, have since coalesced around a range of grievances with the regime. Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on demonstrators, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.

    Another representative from Iran’s delegation to the UN responded to the vote, saying, “My delegation condemns any politicization of women’s rights and rejects all accusations made in particular by the US and certain EU members.”

    She also described Iran’s “efforts to promote and protect women’s rights” driven by the country’s “rich culture and well-established constitution.”

    Iran is “a progressive society that takes into consideration the needs and listens to the voices of its women and girls eagerly and strives toward a better future for and with its women and girls,” she said.

    A UN report released in March 2021 described Iranian women and girls as treated like “second class citizens.” The report cited widespread child marriage involving girls between the ages of 10 and 14, weak protections against domestic violence, and lack of legal autonomy for women, among other issues.

    “Blatant discrimination exists in Iranian law and practice that must change. In several areas of their lives, including in marriage, divorce, employment, and culture, Iranian women are either restricted or need permission from their husbands or paternal guardians, depriving them of their autonomy and human dignity. These constructs are completely unacceptable and must be reformed now,” said the report’s author Javaid Rehman at the time.

    Following months of protests, Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said in early December that the country’s parliament and judiciary were reviewing the law that requires women to wear a hijab in public, according to pro-reform outlet Entekhab.

    But there is no evidence of what, if any, changes could be forthcoming to the law, which came into effect after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

    Reacting to news of Iran’s removal from the body, Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch said it was a “welcome step,” but remained a “far cry” from true accountability.

    In a statement to CNN, Charbonneau added, “What’s needed is urgent coordinated pressure on Iran to end its campaign of violence, credible prosecutions of individuals who are directly responsible for these appalling violations of human rights, and an end to the severe discrimination against women.”

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  • Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend reaches $2 million settlement with City of Louisville | CNN

    Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend reaches $2 million settlement with City of Louisville | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, has reached a $2 million dollar settlement with the City of Louisville, resolving lawsuits Walker filed in response to “the unlawful police raid that led to Ms. Taylor’s death,” a news release from Walker’s legal team says.

    Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police Department officers on March 13, 2020, as they executed a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation in the early morning hours.

    Just before 1 a.m., officers battered down the door of Taylor’s apartment. The officers said they announced their presence before entering.

    Walker later said he and Taylor yelled to ask who was at the door, but they did not get a response. Believing police to be intruders, Walker grabbed a gun he legally owned and fired a shot when the officers broke through the door, CNN previously reported.

    Walker was accused of shooting Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg and was charged at first with attempted murder of a police officer and first-degree assault, but prosecutors later decided to drop the charges.

    Walker filed a lawsuit in state court in September 2020, followed by a federal civil rights lawsuit in March 2021. Both lawsuits named as defendants the Louisville Metro Government and some of the individual officers involved in obtaining a “materially false” search warrant and Taylor’s fatal shooting.

    The settlement resolves both lawsuits, the news release says.

    “While this tragedy will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life, he is pleased that this chapter of his life is completed. He will live with the effects of being put in harm’s way due to a falsified warrant, to being a victim of a hailstorm of gunfire and to suffering the unimaginable and horrific death of Breonna Taylor,” Steve Romines, one of the attorneys representing Walker, said in the release.

    The statement does not indicate whether the agreement included an admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.

    CNN has reached out to the city for comment but has not yet received a response.

    About six months after Taylor was killed, the city paid a historic $12 million settlement to her family to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. At the time, Mayor Greg Fischer said the agreement did not include an admission of wrongdoing.

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  • Danish bank pleads guilty to multi-billion dollar fraud scheme on U.S. Banks | CNN Business

    Danish bank pleads guilty to multi-billion dollar fraud scheme on U.S. Banks | CNN Business



    CNN
     — 

    Federal prosecutors announced a plea deal and $2 billion forfeiture Tuesday with Danske Bank, one of Denmark’s largest banks, for illegally allowing foreign actors to funnel money through their branch in Estonia in order to gain unlawful access to the US financial system.

    The guilty plea marks the end of a years-long investigation into the company after accusations that it funneled billions of dollars in illicit payments from high-risk clients, including in Russia, into countries including the United States.

    Danske Bank agreed forfeit over $2 billion as part of the plea agreement, according to the Justice Department, which required the bank to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

    In addition to the criminal guilty plea, the SEC announced a separate settlement with Danske Bank over the allegations of money laundering in which the bank agreed to pay approximately $413 million.

    The Justice Department said that it will credit the bank approximately $850 million to settle other claims with SEC and the Danish authorities.

    “Today’s guilty plea by Danske Bank and two-billion-dollar penalty demonstrate that the Department of Justice will fiercely guard the integrity of the U.S. financial system from tainted foreign money – Russian or otherwise,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement Tuesday. “Whether you are a U.S. or foreign bank, if you use the U.S. financial system, you must comply with our laws… Failure to do so may well be a one-way ticket to a multi-billion-dollar guilty plea.”

    The bank, according to the Justice Department, was aware of billions of dollars being funneled over an eight-year period through an Estonia branch into accounts in the United States and elsewhere without the proper anti-money laundering information about each account. The Estonia branch of the bank processed around $160 billion during that time period, prosecutors say.

    The bank promised customers they could move money through an Estonia branch with little to no oversight, prosecutors allege. Bank employees in Estonia conspired with their customers, the department alleged, and helped “to shield the true nature of their transactions, including by using shell companies that obscured actual ownership of the funds.”

    Though Danske Bank was aware the branch had potentially broken the law and was not meeting the standards of the company’s anti-money laundering program, executives overlooked the transactions and lied about information regarding Danske Bank Estonia’s customers and their risk profile.

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  • Storms with possible tornadoes rake Oklahoma and Texas — injuring at least 7 — as blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains | CNN

    Storms with possible tornadoes rake Oklahoma and Texas — injuring at least 7 — as blizzard conditions mount in the northern Plains | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Severe storms including suspected tornadoes have carved paths of destruction in Oklahoma and the Dallas-Fort Worth area Tuesday and injured at least seven people – part of a larger storm system that threatens more damage in the South and blizzard conditions in states farther north.

    The giant winter storm system is pushing through the central US after walloping the West. About 21 million people from Texas to Mississippi are under threat of severe storms Tuesday, including tornadoes. And about 14 million people – largely in the north-central US – are under winter-weather warnings or advisories Tuesday, with blowing snow and power outages a key concern.

    A tornado watch is in effect for parts of Arkansas, southeastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas until 5 p.m. CT.

    Damage on Tuesday includes:

    • Grapevine, Texas: At least one tornado was reported in this city just outside Dallas Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service said, and storms left at least five people there injured, Grapevine police said. Details about the injuries weren’t immediately available.

    Businesses including a Grapevine mall, a Sam’s Club and a Walmart were damaged, police said. A gas station was destroyed, and drivers on one road were forced to share a single lane because downed trees and other debris blocked parts of the thoroughfare, motorist Claudio Ropain David told CNN.

    • Elsewhere outside Dallas: At least two people were injured, and homes and businesses were damaged, as severe weather hit east of Paradise and south of Decatur in Wise County on Tuesday morning, northwest of Fort Worth, county officials said.

    One person was hurt when wind overturned their vehicle, and the other – also in a vehicle – was hurt by flying debris, the Wise County emergency management office said. One was taken to a hospital, the office said without elaborating.

    High winds also damaged homes and trees near Callisburg north of Dallas, blew over tractor-trailers near the towns of Millsap and Weatherford; and damaged barns near the town of Jacksboro, the National Weather Service said.

    • Wayne, Oklahoma: A suspected tornado in that town knocked out power and damaged homes, outbuildings and barns early Tuesday, officials said, adding no injuries were reported. Homes were flattened or had roofs torn off, and trees were snapped like twigs, video from CNN affiliate KOCO showed.

    More severe storms capable of tornadoes, as well as hail and damaging winds are expected Tuesday and Wednesday in the Gulf Coast region as the complex snow-or-rain system sweeps through the central US from north to south.

    A home sits in shambles Tuesday in Wayne, Oklahoma, after a tornado reportedly struck.

    Across the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest, heavy, blowing snow and/or freezing rain into Thursday could snarl travel and threaten power outages.

    Blizzard warnings – forecasting at least three hours of sustained winds or frequent gusts at 35 mph or greater during considerable snowfall and poor visibility – extended Tuesday from parts of Montana and Wyoming into northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska and South Dakota.

    Blizzard conditions were being reported in the morning and early afternoon near the Colorado-Kansas state line. Visibility along Interstate 70 in that area was down to 100 feet, a Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman said on Twitter.

    Snowfall through Wednesday morning generally could be 10 to 18 inches in the central and northern Plains and Upper Midwest. Some areas inside the blizzard warning zones – particularly western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming and northwestern Nebraska – could get as many as 24 inches of snow, with winds strong enough to knock down tree limbs and cause power outages, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    In Sidney, Nebraska, winds whipped Tuesday morning at 53 mph, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said, “and then you add in the snow, visibility is a quarter mile.”

    Interstates in South Dakota could become impassable amid the blizzard conditions, resulting in roadway closures across the state, the South Dakota Department of Transportation warned Monday.

    Ice storm warnings were issued for parts of eastern South Dakota, southwestern Minnesota and western Iowa. Up to two-tenths of an inch of ice could accumulate in some of these areas, forecasters said.

    Wintry precipitation “will begin to spread eastward over the Upper Great Lakes late Tuesday and Wednesday and into the Northeast late Wednesday as the storm system continues eastward,” the prediction center said.

    Freezing rain and sleet, meanwhile, will be possible through Wednesday in the Upper Midwest.

    Meanwhile, the southern end of the storm threatens to bring more tornadoes.

    An alert for enhanced risk of severe weather – level 3 of 5 – was issued Tuesday for eastern Texas and the lower Mississippi River Valley, with the main threats including powerful tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Lafayette, Louisiana, are part of the threatened area, as is Jackson, Mississippi.

    “My main concern with the tornadoes is going to be after dark,” Myers said Tuesday. “We have very short days this time of year, so 5 or 6 o’clock, it’s going to be dark out there. Spotters aren’t as accurate when it is dark. Tornado warnings are a little bit slow; if you’re sleeping, you may not get them. So, that’s the real danger with this storm.”

    A zone of slight risk – level 2 of 5 – encircled that area, stretching from eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma to southern Arkansas and much of the rest of Louisiana, including New Orleans, and central Mississippi.

    Tuesday also brings a slight risk of excessive rainfall in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, with 2 to 4 inches of rain and flash flooding possible, the Weather Prediction Center said.

    On Wednesday, the threat for severe weather is largely focused on the Gulf Coast, with tornadoes and damaging winds possible over parts of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, southwest Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.

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  • China challenges US chip curbs at WTO, citing ‘trade protectionism’ | CNN Business

    China challenges US chip curbs at WTO, citing ‘trade protectionism’ | CNN Business


    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China has challenged a move by the United States to block sales of advanced computer chips and chip-making equipment to Chinese companies by launching a trade dispute at the World Trade Organization, calling the measures “trade protectionism.”

    The country’s commerce ministry filed a formal complaint against the United States with the WTO on Monday, according to a statement. The two countries are both members of the trade body, which has a mechanism for resolving disputes.

    “China’s filing of a lawsuit at the WTO is to resolve China’s concerns through legal means and is a necessary way to defend its legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry said.

    On October 7, the Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of export controls that ban Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license. The rules also restrict the ability of US citizens or green card holders to support the “development or production” of chips at certain manufacturing facilities in China.

    The commerce ministry blasted the US move as threatening global supply chain stability and called it “a typical practice of trade protectionism.” The complaint is the first action China has taken at the global trade body against the US chip sanctions.

    US officials say the export controls were intended to protect national security interests.

    Analysts widely consider the measures to be a major threat to China’s tech ambitions, as the global semiconductor industry is heavily dependent on the United States and countries aligned with it for chip design, the tools that make them, and fabrication. It also comes as the United States is looking to bolster its domestic chip manufacturing abilities, after chip shortages earlier in the pandemic highlighted the country’s dependence on imports from abroad.

    Washington has also pressured its security partners to comply with chip-related curbs on China. Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said on Monday that Washington had spoken with its partners including Japan and the Netherlands to tighten chip-related exports to China, according to Reuters.

    Beijing has tried to push back against the sanctions. Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with leaders from South Korea and the Netherlands, both key to the global chip-making supply chain, at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. He called for both countries to boost cooperation in high-tech manufacturing and avoid “the politicization of economic and trade issues.”

    Chips are a growing source of tension between the United States and China. In recent years, Washington has turned up the pressure on China’s tech sector by limiting access to cutting-edge chip components and machinery.

    Before the October sanctions, the US government had already banned sales of certain tech products to specific Chinese companies, such as Huawei. It also ordered top chipmakers Nvidia and AMD to halt their shipments to China.

    To secure its own chip supplies, Beijing has stepped up efforts to boost domestic semiconductor production in recent years.

    In November 2018, just months after Washington hit Chinese telecoms giant ZTE Corp with an export ban, the Chinese government set up an industry alliance of companies and research institutes as part of efforts to design advanced chips. The group’s focus is on developing Risc-V, an open-source chip design architecture that has increasingly become a rival to Softbank

    (SFTBF)    ’s Arm, the current global leader. Members of the consortium include the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Alibaba

    (BABA)    , Tencent

    (TCEHY)    , and Baidu

    (BIDU)    .

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  • State documents appear to indicate Uvalde Sheriff Nolasco has not completed active shooter training | CNN

    State documents appear to indicate Uvalde Sheriff Nolasco has not completed active shooter training | CNN


    Uvalde, Texas
    CNN
     — 

    Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco does not appear to have completed an active shooter training course, according to documents CNN obtained Monday from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, the regulatory agency for peace officers in Texas.

    The information comes on the heels of a contentious Uvalde County Commission meeting, during which Richard Carter, an attorney with expertise in police actions, presented the results of an independent review – which the county hired him to conduct – of the Sheriff’s Office policies at the time of the Robb Elementary School massacre.

    According to Carter, the sheriff’s office did not have an active shooter policy on May 24, when a teenaged gunman with a semi-automatic rifle stormed the school and killed 19 students and two teachers.

    Active shooter training is not required by county or state rules for people who aren’t school-based law enforcement officers. And an active shooter response policy is not required by Texas law of law enforcement agencies, according to the report.

    County commissioners met behind closed doors for more than 90 minutes to review the report and meet with victims’ family members. Community members called for Nolasco’s ouster at the meeting following CNN’s reporting last week about his failure to mount a response at the school and his failure to share critical information about the shooter.

    Nolasco was one of the senior law enforcement officials on the scene of the massacre.

    After the meeting, Carter also appeared to indicate Nolasco hadn’t received active shooter training.

    “He has not taken the course that his officers – all but three of his officers – have. He plans on doing that in the immediate future,” Carter said. “What I understood was, he wanted to make sure that all of his people that might go out were trained,” before he received his own training.

    In an email to CNN that included Nolasco’s records, law enforcement commission spokesperson Gretchen Grigsby said that “active shooter training is only required for school-based law enforcement officers as part of a one-time certification,” but she expected the topic would be a subject of discussion during the next legislative session.

    CNN has reached out to Nolasco about the contents of the report but has not received a response.

    CNN has also reached back out to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to clarify the contents of Nolasco’s training history, and has not received a response.

    The conclusion of Carter’s review comes after months of reporting by CNN about the law enforcement response to the shooting, including that Nolasco had vital information about the shooter that was not shared as the incident unfolded. It was just the latest revelation of senior law enforcement officers not taking command or following protocol to stop an active shooter and get swift treatment to victims.

    Carter’s inquiry, which was conducted over about two months, dealt strictly with the sheriff’s office’s policies, he said Monday.

    The office has since adopted an active shooter policy, Carter said during the public portion of Monday’s meeting.

    But at the time of the shooting – the worst at a K-12 school in the US in nearly a decade – its handbook only defined “active shooter,” Carter said. And while there were “portions that dealt with critical incidences and how officers would respond,” it did not constitute an active shooter policy, he added.

    Whether the sheriff’s office had an active shooter policy, however, is “no excuse for what happened” the day of the shooting, one community member said in a public comment portion of the meeting Monday.

    “Our officers in Uvalde County, including the city, school, and county, don’t live under a rock,” Diana Olvedo-Karau said. “Active shooter incidents happen across our nation all too often… so to step back and give the impression that because there was no policy there’s no accountability, is unacceptable, inexcusable, and shameful.”

    Carter did not examine the actions of the agency’s personnel on the scene of the shooting, he said, which, along with the broader law enforcement response, have been highly scrutinized.

    The grandmother of shooting victim Amerie Jo Garza said she was in “total shock” the Sheriff’s Office didn’t have an active shooter policy in place.

    “I could not believe that with all the mass shootings that have taken place, just in Texas alone, that there was no policy in place. It was a total shock,” Berlinda Irene Arreola said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.

    Arreola said it was difficult seeing Mariano Pargas, acting Uvalde police chief on the day of the shooting, at the meeting.

    “It was very hard, and It was very sad,” she said of Pargas, who has since resigned but is still a county commissioner.

    Arreola said that she believes he had plenty of time to take control of the incident but that “instead he ran in the other direction.”

    “So, seeing him for the first time was very, very hurtful,” she said.

    Arreola said the upcoming holidays are going to be a difficult time for her family without Amerie.

    “My son and my daughter-in-law just can’t keep it together to be able to enjoy the holidays. So it’s going to be different, definitely different this year and very sad. Very sad,” she said.

    In the months since the shooting, criticism of law enforcement’s response has focused on its failure to follow the main tenets of post-Columbine policies to immediately take down an active shooter. Instead, acting on the early and erroneous assessment that the gunman was barricaded, as opposed to an active shooter with his victims surrounding him inside two adjoining classrooms, police waited 77 minutes before confronting him.

    Much of the initial criticism focused on Uvalde School Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who had said he never considered himself in charge the day of the shooting. He was ultimately fired in August.

    In the months since the shooting, however, it’s become clear the failures that day went far beyond the scope of the small school police force. According to a preliminary report by a Texas House of Representatives investigative committee, 376 officers from local, state and federal agencies were on the scene of the massacre.

    Pargas, who remains an elected county commissioner, resigned from the police department after CNN reported he knew children needed rescuing and did not organize help.

    Separately, a Texas Ranger and a state police captain are under review for their actions or inaction the day of the shooting, and a state police sergeant was terminated. Another officer who quit the state police force and took a job with the Uvalde school district was also fired after CNN reported she was under investigation for her actions during the shooting.

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  • Kyrsten Sinema’s potential 2024 run creates anxiety in Senate Democratic ranks | CNN Politics

    Kyrsten Sinema’s potential 2024 run creates anxiety in Senate Democratic ranks | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s surprise decision to become an independent has Democratic leaders struggling to answer a basic question: How should they deal with her if she runs for reelection in Arizona?

    In interviews with top party leaders and rank-and-file members on Monday, Democrats were sidestepping the sensitive question and handling the politically fraught situation delicately, knowing that a misstep could backfire and have serious ramifications for their party.

    “When they call me for advice, I’ll give it in confidence,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told CNN when asked if party leaders should stay out of the race.

    Durbin added: “I plan to stay out of Arizona politics.”

    If Sinema runs for a second term but party leaders put their muscle behind a Democratic candidate instead, the electorate could splinter in the purple state and help Republicans win back a critical seat. Plus, backing a Democrat in the race could risk alienating Sinema whose decision to continue to align with her former party on her committee assignments essentially solidifies their 51-49 majority.

    But if they get behind Sinema or stay neutral in the race, as they’ve done with other independents who caucus with them, they would infuriate progressives eager to knock off the moderate Sinema over her refusal to gut the Senate filibuster and approve many of their priorities over the last two years.

    And no matter how they handle the mercurial senator, they could be left with a messy, three-way race in 2024 at a time when they will be battling to defend 23 seats compared to 11 for the GOP – all of which has caused anxiety in the Democratic ranks.

    For now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his top deputies said they are in a wait-and-see mode, planning to see how the field forms and whether Sinema will indeed run as an independent in the 2024 cycle. Then, they said, they will begin to make some critical decisions.

    “When she says she’s gonna run, you come back to me,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state and a member of her party’s leadership, told reporters.

    But already, the field appears to be taking shape.

    Rep. Ruben Gallego, a member of the Arizona House delegation, told CNN that “We’re already putting the team together,” and he’d make a decision about a run sometime next year. He said he would soon reach out to Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee – and he dismissed the possibility that Sinema could win as a third-party candidate or that a Republican could pull off a victory in a three-way race. He contended that a Sinema candidacy “assures a Democrat wins.”

    “They could do what they want,” Gallego said when asked about party leaders’ decision on how to handle the race. “But it’s going be a waste of money to try to prop up a third-party candidate because it’s just not going to happen. Not in Arizona.”

    But Gallego could have a challenge in the primary – potentially from Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton, who won reelection in his swing district in the fall.

    Stanton told CNN on Monday he is “taking a serious look” at the race.

    “My focus until recently has been winning my 2022 frontline reelection,” Stanton said. “Sen. Sinema’s recent decision to leave the Democratic Party has no bearing on my thinking.”

    But it’s a decision that has Republicans and Democrats alike weighing what comes next.

    Sen. Gary Peters, the current chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, plans to step aside from that post in the 2024 cycle, and no new senator has announced plans to take that position as of yet.

    “At this moment, I’m really happy to say that’s the job of the next DSCC chair to make that determination,” the Michigan Democrat said when asked how the party committee should handle an independent run, given that it typically backs Democratic incumbents.

    Sinema, who has a sizable war chest with nearly $8 million in cash, has not tipped her hand about whether she will run again, though many suspect she left the party in order to spare herself a grueling primary fight in 2024.

    “I’m just not worried about folks who may not like this approach,” Sinema told CNN on Thursday. “What I am worried about is continuing to do what’s right for my state. And there are folks who certainly don’t like my approach, we hear about it a lot. But the proof is in the pudding.”

    On Monday, Sinema made a brief appearance on the Senate floor, casting a vote for a Biden judicial nominee before she headed out and ignored reporters’ questions.

    But in the halls of the Capitol, the two sides were assessing how her move could scramble the 2024 map.

    “It’s going to be a competitive state in 2024,” said Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who will chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the coming cycle.

    Republicans are hopeful that the progressive push to oust Sinema will only bolster their chances to take the seat.

    Indeed, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, attacked Sinema as a “corporate Democrat” who “helped sabotage” the Biden agenda.

    On Monday, he wouldn’t say if he believes Democratic leaders should try to knock her off in 2024.

    “I think that decision rests with the people of Arizona,” Sanders said Monday.

    A like-minded liberal, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, also punted on the question.

    “I am just not focused on that,” Warren said. “I am focused on what we need to do in the next two weeks. That’s my responsibility.”

    For the last two years, Sinema has been a complicated and polarizing figure for Democrats. The newly independent senator has helped clinch victories for the Biden administration on a major infrastructure package, prescription drug pricing, same-sex marriage legislation and the first gun violence law in a generation. But she also rebuffed Democratic efforts to raise tax rates on corporations and individuals – and she, along with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, stood their ground against Democratic efforts to gut the filibuster and pass a voting rights bill, saying the 60-vote threshold is essential to preserving the rights of the minority to shape legislation.

    Like Sinema, party leaders are now watching Manchin closely as he weighs whether to run in 2024. On Monday, he would not ruling out joining Sinema and spurning his Democratic Party label and becoming an independent.

    “I’ll look at all of these things,” Manchin told CNN. “I’ve always looked at all those things, but I have no intention of doing anything right now. Whether I do something later, I can’t tell you what the future is going to bring.”

    In private meetings, Schumer has been careful not to criticize Sinema, according to senators who have spoken to him. In the White House and Schumer statements Friday, both praised Sinema’s record in the Senate and made clear they’d continue to work with her. It’s a message several senior Democrats also echoed on Monday.

    Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, a member of party leadership, said she and Sinema have worked together on mental health provisions central to the gun legislation, among other issues.

    And when asked if she will get behind Sinema, Stabenow wouldn’t say.

    “That’s something that that you know I’m sure will be talked about down the road.”

    “That’s a call for somebody else,” Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, added when asked about the party backing Sinema in 2024.

    Even Sen. Mark Kelly, the newly reelected Arizona Democrat, steered clear of the sensitive topic on Monday.

    “I worked very closely with Sen. Sinema – two years now to get stuff done,” Kelly said. “The DSCC, and what that they do over there, is outside my area of expertise.”

    Kelly would not say he would support her if she ran.

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