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Tag: US & Canada

  • Ex-Trump lawyer settles lawsuit for $1.7m in alleged unpaid fees

    Ex-Trump lawyer settles lawsuit for $1.7m in alleged unpaid fees

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    Former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen has settled a lawsuit with the namesake company of his former employer, ex-United States President Donald Trump, over an alleged $1.7m in unpaid legal fees.

    Lawyers for Cohen and the Trump Organization announced on Friday that they had agreed on settlement terms in a video hearing with Manhattan Judge Joel Cohen.

    Their decision comes three days before Cohen’s lawsuit, filed in 2019, was slated to go to trial in state court. Details of the agreement were not made public, but Michael Cohen said on Friday that the dispute “has been resolved in a manner satisfactory to all parties”.

    The settlement concludes a civil lawsuit for Trump’s company as the former president, who is seeking the White House again in 2024, faces mounting legal woes, including criminal charges at the federal and state levels.

    Cohen’s lawsuit over his legal bills, however, stood to give the former Trump ally a spotlight for his vocal criticisms of the ex-president. The trial was also expected to feature testimony from the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, as early as next week.

    Cohen is set to play a central role next year, in March 2024, when the elder Trump faces state criminal charges for allegedly falsifying business records in a hush-money case involving an adult film star.

    But the Trump legal team is expected to attack Cohen’s credibility in that case, citing the conflicts the former lawyer has had with the ex-president.

    Disputed legal fees

    Cohen claimed in his lawsuit that the Trump Organization had promised to pay his legal expenses and did so for a time, footing more than $1.7m in fees.

    But, Cohen said, the company reneged after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in investigations related to Trump’s business dealings in Russia, as well as the hush money allegations.

    Cohen’s lawyers stopped representing him after the company stopped paying. His lawsuit said that harmed his ability to respond to the federal investigations.

    In court papers, the Trump Organization disputed that it made certain promises and said it satisfied any obligations it did have.

    The company also argued that Cohen’s involvement in the federal investigations was not an outgrowth of his former job but rather a personal decision to try to reduce his own criminal legal exposure as an indictment loomed.

    While the former president would not have been a witness in the trial, Donald Trump Jr, who is a leader in the family business, was expected to testify.

    Cohen under scrutiny

    Like Trump, Cohen has faced legal jeopardy in recent years, stemming from his time as part of the ex-president’s inner circle.

    In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including violations of campaign finance laws through excessive political contributions. The former lawyer had previously testified that Trump ordered him to make payments to two women, including adult film star Stormy Daniels, to allegedly buy their silence.

    He also admitted to lying to Congress and banks to obtain financing, as well as tax evasion, concealing $4m in personal income.

    He was sentenced to three years in prison, although he served nearly two-thirds of it at home, as he was released after the COVID-19 outbreak overwhelmed US prisons.

    The former president has regularly questioned Cohen’s credibility to undermine the allegations against him, often referring to his former lawyer as a “jailbird” and a “serial liar”.

    Trump has also sued Cohen, accusing him of violating a company confidentiality agreement, breaching ethical standards for lawyers and maliciously “spreading falsehoods” about Trump.

    Ongoing legal troubles for Trump

    While Friday’s settlement resolves the suit over Cohen’s legal expenses, a trial is set for October in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s business fraud lawsuit against Trump’s company and the former president himself.

    Trump also faces a March trial date in the New York hush-money indictment, in which Cohen is set to serve as a key witness. His indictment last April made him the first president, current or former, to face criminal charges.

    In addition, Trump became the first president in June to face federal criminal charges in a case surrounding his handling of classified documents after his departure from office. On Friday, a judge in Florida set a trial date in that case for May 2024.

    He also disclosed this week that the justice department had told him he was a target of another federal investigation into efforts to unravel his loss in the 2020 presidential election – a notification that could signal forthcoming charges.

    Trump also faces a probe in Georgia for attempting to interfere with the state’s 2020 election result. A court on Monday rejected his lawyers’ petition to block the investigation.

    And the former president continues to face a civil defamation lawsuit from writer E Jean Carroll, who claimed he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.

    In May, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll in a separate civil suit, awarding her $5m.

    He has denied wrongdoing in all the cases, claiming that he is being targeted politically. Criminal charges do not prevent Trump from running for president or serving a second term in the White House.

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  • Kerry hopes climate cooperation can redefine US-China ties

    Kerry hopes climate cooperation can redefine US-China ties

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    John Kerry tells Wang Yi that China and US could use climate cooperation to redefine their troubled diplomatic relationship.

    John Kerry, the United States’s envoy on climate, has held talks with China’s top diplomat in Beijing, calling for cooperation to tackle global warming and to redefine the troubled diplomatic relations between the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters.

    Kerry told Wang Yi on Tuesday that climate talks could provide a new start for US-China ties, which have been mired in disputes over issues including trade, technology and the self-governed island of Taiwan.

    “Our hope is that this can be the beginning of a new definition of cooperation and capacity to resolve differences between us,” Kerry told Wang in the meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

    “We are very hopeful that this can be the beginning not just of a conversation between you and me and us on the climate track but that we can begin to change the broader relationship,” he said.

    Kerry is the third senior US official in recent weeks to travel to China for meetings with their counterparts there, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

    China broke off some mid- and high-level contacts with the administration of US President Joe Biden last year, including over climate issues, to show its anger with then-House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August. Beijing considers the democratically-governed island part of its territory.

    Other problems have rocked relations since then, including the transit across the US of what Biden administration officials said was a Chinese spy balloon.

    Kerry told Wang that Biden was “very committed to stability within this relationship, but also to achieve efforts together that can make a significant difference to the world”.

    “From experience, if we work at it we can find the path again in ways that resolve these challenges,” Kerry said. “The world is really looking to us for that leadership, particularly on the climate issue.”

    For his part, Wang described Kerry as “my old friend”, saying they have “worked together to solve a series of problems between both sides”.

    He praised Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenzhua, for their “hard work” during the 12 hours of talks they held in a Beijing Hotel on  Monday.

    US officials have declined to comment on the Kerry-Xie discussions. Beijing said after the talks that “climate change is a common challenge faced by all mankind”.

    China would “exchange views with the United States on issues related to climate change, and work together to meet challenges and improve the wellbeing of current and future generations”, foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

    As the leading emitter of the greenhouse gases driving climate change, China has pledged to ensure its carbon emissions peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The Biden administration aims to decarbonise the US economy by 2050.

    While Kerry has sought to ring-fence climate issues from wider diplomatic disputes, China has said that cooperation on global warming could not be separated from broader concerns.

    In a commentary published on Sunday, the Xinhua state news agency said recent US-China official interactions are a “good sign for preventing further miscalculations, and steering bilateral relations back on track”. But it added that Beijing was seeking more concessions on the political side – something the US has said it will not provide.

    “It is especially true for the White House to bear in mind that seeking to compartmentalize cooperation with – or competition and suppression against – China in bilateral ties is simply unrealistic in practice and unacceptable for Beijing,” Xinhua said.

    “For China-US cooperation to be healthy and sustainable, bilateral ties must be treated as a whole,” it said.

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  • China vs US: Competing interests, conflicting narratives

    China vs US: Competing interests, conflicting narratives

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    China and the US say they want to improve communications, but mutual
    suspicion runs deep. Plus, Kenya’s TV evangelists and their hold over viewers.

    The United States-China relationship is a complex one. Beneath the diplomatic niceties lies deep mutual suspicion – two governments fully engaged in a bigger battle of narratives.

    Contributors:
    Jiayang Fan – staff writer, The New Yorker
    Brian Hioe – editor, New Bloom Magazine
    James Palmer – deputy editor, Foreign Policy

    On our radar:

    In the United Kingdom, the BBC is in a state of turmoil after a Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid alleged sexual misconduct involving one of the broadcaster’s most famous faces. Producer Flo Phillips reports on the saga that has seduced the British media.

    Kenya’s deadly televangelist

    The politics of prayer: Producer Nicholas Muihead travels to Kenya to ask how the authorities there plan to regulate the power of televangelism and prevent another “Shakahola Massacre”.

    Contributors:
    Ezra Chiloba – director general, Communications Authority of Kenya
    Reuben Kigake – broadcast journalist and musician
    Lee Scharnick-Udemans – senior researcher, Desmond Tutu Centre
    Rodgers Shibutse – victim’s son
    Joseph Yeri – journalist

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  • US to send F-16 fighter jets to Gulf amid Iran shipping tensions

    US to send F-16 fighter jets to Gulf amid Iran shipping tensions

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    US defence official said Washington is considering options amid growing aggression by Russian planes in skies over Syria.

    The United States is deploying additional fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures, a senior US defence official said, according to a news report.

    Speaking to Pentagon reporters on Friday, the official said the US will send F-16 fighter jets to the Gulf region this weekend to augment the A-10 attack aircraft that have been patrolling there for more than a week.

    Washington’s increase in military assets in the region comes after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strait last week, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.

    The defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of US military operations in the region, said the F-16s will give air cover to the ships moving through the waterway and increase the US military’s visibility in the area, as a deterrent to Iran, AP reported.

    The US Navy said that in two recent instances, Iranian naval vessels backed off when the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on the scene.

    The defence official also told reporters the US is considering a number of military options to address increasing Russian aggression in the skies over Syria. The official declined to detail the options but said the US will not cede any territory and will continue to fly in the western part of Syria as part of operations against ISIL (ISIS) fighters.

    Russian military activity in Syria, which has increased in frequency and aggression towards US forces since March, stems from growing cooperation and coordination between Moscow, Tehran and the Syrian government to try to pressure the US to leave Syria, the official said.

    The most recent incident was on Friday morning when a Russian aircraft flew repeatedly over the al-Tanf garrison in eastern Syria, where US forces are training Syrian allies and monitoring ISIL activity.

    The official said the Russian An-30 aircraft was collecting intelligence on the base. The US did not have fighter aircraft in the area and took no direct action against the Russian flight, the official said.

    There are about 900 US forces in the country, and others move in and out to conduct missions targeting ISIL.

    In this image from a video released by the US Air Force, a Russian SU-35 flies near a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone on July 5, 2023, over Syria. The US says Russian fighter jets have flown dangerously close to several of their drone aircraft over Syria, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive action [File: US Air Force via AP]

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  • ‘Grave threat’: US, Japan, S Korea slam missile test by N Korea

    ‘Grave threat’: US, Japan, S Korea slam missile test by N Korea

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    US says commitment to security of South Korea and Japan is backed by ‘full range of capabilities, including nuclear’.

    The United States, South Korea and Japan have jointly condemned the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by North Korea, pledging to work with the international community to tighten sanctions against Pyongyang.

    In a joint statement on Friday, the three allies said they would push to block North Korea’s “illicit revenue generation through overseas workers and malicious cyber activities” that they said the country uses to fund its weapons programmes.

    “The United States reiterated that its commitments to defend the ROK [South Korea] and Japan are ironclad and backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear,” the statement said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

    Earlier on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia.

    North Korea – formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) – fired the ICBM on Wednesday, and it landed in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

    It was the first such launch in three months, following heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

    Two days earlier, North Korea slammed a US plan to deploy nuclear submarines near the Korean Peninsula, warning that the move could “incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict in practice”.

    On Thursday, North Korea’s United Nations ambassador, Kim Song, told the UN Security Council that the ICBM launch aimed “to deter dangerous military moves of hostile forces and safeguard the security” of the country.

    In Friday’s statement, the US, South Korea and Japan denounced the North Korean launch as dangerous.

    “This constitutes a clear, flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and poses a grave threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond,” the three countries said.

    “The DPRK’s launch of this ICBM threatened the safety of civil aviation and maritime traffic in the region.”

    North Korea has been escalating its missile testing over the past two years.

    Former US President Donald Trump engaged in direct talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un during his tenure, but high-level meetings between the two countries came to a halt under the current US president, Joe Biden.

    After the first meeting between Trump and Kim in 2018, the nations said in a joint statement that North Korea was committed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”.

    But the pledge was never followed by efforts to end the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

    North Korea carried out its first nuclear weapon test in 2006 in violation of an international ban on such testing. Since then, the UN Security Council has unanimously passed numerous resolutions that imposed sanctions on the country over its nuclear programme.

    Last year, Russia and China vetoed a Security Council proposal to impose more penalties on North Korea, arguing that sanctions have not been effective in curbing the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

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  • US firefighters raise concerns over looming pay cut

    US firefighters raise concerns over looming pay cut

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    With wildfire season under way in the United States, the federal government is facing a potential exodus of wildland firefighters over a major pay cut that could go into effect in a few months.

    Funding in President Joe Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law gave a temporary pay boost to thousands of firefighters on the climate front lines – but the money is set to run out in the coming months, which could push many to quit, experts warned.

    “I honestly think at least a third could go within a matter of months,” said Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees union.

    “It would be really devastating for the country.”

    The US Forest Service (USFS) has about 10,775 wildland firefighters – 95 percent of its goal of 11,300 for 2023 – and the Department of the Interior, which manages federal and tribal lands, has more than 5,400 such personnel, the latest official data showed.

    While total figures are difficult to pin down, the federal government is estimated to be the largest employer of career wildland firefighters in the US.

    Any reduction, though, would compound a growing labour and climate crisis as tenured firefighters depart federal agencies for other jobs and climate change fuels hotter, drier conditions that increase the risk of out-of-control blazes.

    Firefighters ‘still fed up’

    Rachel Granberg, a wildland firefighter based in Washington state with eight years of experience, has already seen multiple colleagues leave their jobs in the past year or so.

    “Even with the infrastructure money, they were still fed up – and one of the guys had been fighting fires for 19 years,” said the 37-year-old, whose statements reflected her own opinions and not those of her agency.

    Although wildland firefighters welcomed the temporary pay rise, many have been labouring for years for salaries that they say do not adequately reflect the rigors of their work.

    Biden took steps in 2021 to raise the minimum wage for federal wildland firefighters to $15 per hour after criticising the $13 per hour rate some had been making as “ridiculously low”.

    The infrastructure law also included $600m for benefits for federal wildland firefighters, including temporary pay rises of up to $20,000 per year, or 50 percent of their base salary – whichever was lower.

    However, federal officials estimated that those funds could run out by the end of September – when this federal budget year closes – or mid-October.

    Jaelith Hall-Rivera, a deputy chief at the USFS, said the so-called “pay cliff”, coupled with budget cuts like those proposed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, would be “pretty catastrophic” for the fire workforce.

    “If we’re not able to get a change in pay status for our firefighters, … we’re [going to] see many of them go to higher-paying jobs where they can make a living wage,” she told senators at a recent hearing.

    “We are hearing from our firefighting union that we could lose 30 to 50 percent of our firefighting workforce in the Forest Service. That would be devastating.”

    Hall-Rivera testified at the same time Washington, DC, was dealing with poor air quality – a byproduct of record wildfires that have ravaged Canada this year.

    A USFS spokesperson said the agriculture department, which the forest agency is part of, is committed to working with Congress to pass a permanent pay solution.

    “Federal wildland firefighters must be offered competitive salaries and the pay and improved working conditions they so deserve,” the spokesperson said.

    Lenkart said federal wildland firefighters are leaving not only for state and local fire service jobs, which can offer better pay and working conditions, but for other sectors, including construction and even fast food.

    “Some are going to work, literally, at In-N-Out Burger because they can make 20 bucks an hour,” he said.

    Cause for optimism?

    Even with the pay cuts looming, some groups who recently met with congressional staff on Capitol Hill said they had the impression that lawmakers would be able to find a solution – but warned that the consequences of inaction would be dire.

    In a bid to avert the cuts, a handful of senators introduced a federal bill this week that would increase firefighters’ base pay and provide additional pay and leave for firefighters responding to large wildfires.

    “These brave men and women are our first line of defense against disaster, and they’ve earned the right to be fairly compensated for the dangerous work they do – including for adequate recovery time after a tough fire,” Senator Jon Tester of Montana, one of those supporting the bill, said in a statement.

    Still, members of Congress typically spend much of the summer away from Washington, DC, leaving them scant time to strike a deal and get legislation enacted before the new budget year starts in October.

    Absent action from Capitol Hill, “we’re going to continue … to see the best and brightest walk out the door,” said Luke Mayfield, president of the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.

    Brian Gold, a wildland firefighter in Colorado, said the pinch is really being felt at mid-level field leadership and lamented a significant brain and talent drain.

    Some issues can be solved by increasing base pay, he said.

    “But what’s really required is a holistic approach to the workforce problem, which is really burning out your labour force by requiring them to work massive amounts of overtime and be away from home for massive periods of time,” Gold added.

    Working more, earning less

    A recent study from the University of Washington and the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station highlighted stark disparities in pay and benefits between federal wildland firefighters and state-level firefighters in four western states.

    Federal compensation was on average 40.5 percent lower than that of state agencies – even though federal wildland firefighters spend an average of 12 more days per season on more complex fires, according to the research, which analysed Washington state, Oregon, California and Colorado.

    “Federal firefighters are generally working more, earning less and [are] continuously exposed to hazard[s] and levels of responsibility that are just not commensurate with what they’re getting paid relative to some of these other agencies,” said Evan Pierce, co-author of the report.

    Similar to the new legislation, Biden’s 2024 budget proposal calls for extra firefighter benefits such as a permanent base-pay increase and “premium pay” to better compensate responders for the time they spend on fires. But these would have to win approval from Congress.

    And even the 2024 proposed compensation package represents a gap of up to $8,184 in average salary between federal wildland firefighters and the leading state agency, the recent report found.

    The USFS is aware that federal wages have not kept pace with state, local and private firefighting groups in some parts of the country, the agency’s spokesperson said.

    Mayfield left the federal government several years ago after 18 years with the USFS “for an opportunity to have a livable and plannable income”, he said.

    By the end of his USFS service, Mayfield said he had been dealing with issues linked to depression and suicidal thoughts and recalled that in conversations with more than half a dozen peers and mentors, almost everybody told him to go.

    “One of my former superintendents, his quote to me was: ‘Leave, Luke. Do you want to be me?’” Mayfield said. “And my other buddy was like: ‘We spend all our time worrying about retirement. Nobody’s worried about living. Get out.’”

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  • Russia warns of response as NATO returns to Cold War ‘schemes’

    Russia warns of response as NATO returns to Cold War ‘schemes’

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    Russia said the latest NATO summit demonstrates that the Western military alliance has returned to “Cold War schemes”, and Moscow was ready to respond to such threats by “all means” necessary.

    Russia’s comments came as United States President Joe Biden said at the end of the NATO summit on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “craven lust for land and power” and had badly misjudged the resolve of the military bloc to support Ukraine. 

    “When Putin, and his craven lust for land and power, unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, he was betting NATO would break apart … But he thought wrong,” Biden said at the end of the two-day summit in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

    “NATO is stronger, more energised and yes, more united than ever in its history. Indeed, more vital to our shared future,” he said.

    The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement late on Wednesday that the outcome of the NATO meeting would be “carefully analysed” for the threats posed to Russia’s security.

    “Taking into account the challenges and threats to Russia’s security and interests that have been identified, we will respond in a timely and appropriate manner, using all means and methods at our disposal,” the ministry said in the statement.

    Western powers were determined to divide “the world into democracies and autocracies”, the ministry said, adding that “the crosshairs of this policy of searching for enemies is aimed at Russia”.

    The ministry also said that NATO was continually lowering the threshold for the use of force while escalating political and military tensions by supplying Ukraine with more powerful and sophisticated weaponry.

    “Taking the course of escalation, they issued a new batch of promises to supply the Kyiv regime with more and more modern and long-range weapons in order to prolong the conflict as long as possible – to exhaustion,” the ministry said.

    Russia would respond by strengthening “the country’s military organisation and defence system”.

    The NATO summit, which opened with news that Turkey would approve Sweden’s membership of the military alliance after months of objections, ended on Wednesday with the US and its allies giving Ukraine new security assurances for its defence against Russia.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the summit, was offered long-term security promises, but he was not given a concrete timeline for NATO membership, which he had lobbied for strenuously.

    NATO’s courting of Ukraine will likely further anger Putin who has partly portrayed his invasion of Ukraine as a response to NATO’s eastward expansion and to prevent the possibility of Ukraine joining the Western military alliance and the stationing of NATO forces at Russia’s borders.

    Washington, DC-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, (ISW) said on Wednesday that the NATO summit “demonstrated the degree to which the 2022 Russian invasion has set back the goals for which the Kremlin claims it launched the war” on Ukraine.

    “The aim of preventing NATO expansion and, indeed, rolling back earlier rounds of NATO expansion and pushing NATO back from Russia’s borders was one of the Kremlin’s stated demands before the invasion. The Kremlin has repeated this aim continually throughout the war,” the ISW said.

    The summit represents a “defeat” for “Russia’s pre-war aims”, it added.

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov became on Wednesday the second senior Russian figure in as many days to warn of a military escalation owing to Western support for Ukraine. Lavrov said that the West was creating a nuclear threat to Russia by planning to supply Ukraine with US-made F-16 fighter jets.

    “The USA and its NATO satellites are creating the risk of a direct military confrontation with Russia and this can have catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian internet portal Lenta.ru.

    F-16 fighter jets can potentially carry nuclear weapons, Lavrov said.

    “The very fact of the appearance of such systems in the Ukrainian armed forces we will consider as a nuclear threat from the West,” he said.

    Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warned on Tuesday that assistance for Ukraine from NATO members brought the threat of a third global conflict closer.

    The training of Ukrainian pilots in the operation of  F-16 fighter jets is to begin in Romania in August, officials said on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Kyiv’s military allies have yet to agree on the actual provision of the advanced warplanes to Ukraine.

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  • ‘Like a jailhouse’: Afghans languish in US detention centres

    ‘Like a jailhouse’: Afghans languish in US detention centres

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    The immigration detention centre was packed. There were more than 100 people in a single room meant to accommodate less than 20.

    A, an Afghan man who asked that his name be withheld, had come to the United States with his wife to seek safety. But as they experienced their first few days on US soil, a different reality sank in: one in which their future was all but certain.

    “We thought our problems had been solved, that we had escaped the risk of prison and torture in Afghanistan,” he said. “We didn’t know that this was what awaited us in the United States.”

    A has spent the last six months in that detention centre, stuck in a limbo that awaits many Afghan asylum seekers arriving at the US-Mexico border after the Taliban takeover of their country.

    With limited options for legal immigration, thousands of Afghans like A have resorted to desperate measures, embarking on dangerous trips to enter the country irregularly. And like A, many have found themselves swept up in the US immigration detention system, faced with possible expulsion.

    “Nobody would take these risks unless they had to,” Laila Ayub, a lawyer with the US-based Afghan and immigrant rights group Project ANAR, told Al Jazeera. “It is 100-percent related to the fact that there are no accessible pathways to the US.”

    A dangerous trek

    A and his wife have strong ties to the US. Both worked with the US-backed government in Afghanistan in areas like security and human rights.

    But that history made them and others a target for potential reprisals under the Taliban, which swept into Kabul in August 2021, after the US withdrawal.

    Previously, the US had toppled the Taliban government when it invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and it continued to fight the group during its two-decade occupation.

    When the Taliban returned to power, A and his wife felt vulnerable. They sold their possessions and left, with the US-Mexico border as their destination.

    The journey, however, took them across thousands of miles and more than a dozen countries. First arriving in South America, they joined the train of migrants and asylum seekers travelling north through Central America, a dangerous trek across tangled rainforests and steep mountains.

    “When we were walking through the jungle I never felt tired, because I was hopeful that our situation would improve when we reached the United States,” A said in a phone call with Al Jazeera.

    But the hazards went beyond the physical terrain. Criminal groups and abusive authorities along the way often prey on migrants and asylum seekers, who face high rates of theft and sexual assault.

    A says he was robbed on the trip, losing his passport as well as his money and electronic devices.

    Restricted pathways

    Stories like A’s have become increasingly common, as Afghans are stuck between perilous conditions in their home country and a restrictive path to refuge in the United States.

    “Every family we come across expresses concerns about their loved ones back home and are seeking lawful pathways to find a way to the US,” said Zuhal Bahaduri, who works with resettled Afghan families in California with the group 5ive Pillars.

    “But with the US’s broken immigration system and closed border policies towards their own allies, it draws a lot of concern. They are in limbo here and in Afghanistan.”

    Initially, when the US-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed in August 2021, nearly 90,000 Afghans were brought to the US through a mechanism known as humanitarian parole in an effort called Operation Allies Welcome.

    But Afghans who were not able to secure passage out of the country during the messy US withdrawal have largely been shut out.

    Of more than 66,000 Afghans who have sought humanitarian parole since July 2021, fewer than 8,000 had their applications processed, according to an investigation last year from the news outlet Reveal. The success rate was even narrower, with only 123 applications granted.

    Other programmes such as the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), set up for Afghans who worked with the US, are backlogged. Wait times can last years, and more than 62,000 completed applications were pending as of January.

    Critics say these pathways are too modest to address the needs of the Afghan people, many of whom face heightened dangers because of their association with the US. The US occupation, they add, contributed to decades of violence and instability in Afghanistan.

    “It is deeply frustrating to see the United States walk away from its moral obligations to provide these folks refuge,” the US-based diaspora group Afghans for a Better Tomorrow told Al Jazeera in a statement, “when it’s responsible for the harm it caused in Afghanistan.”

    Hundreds of Afghans gather near the Kabul airport during the US withdrawal in August 2021 [File: Shekib Rahmani/AP Photo]

    ‘Treated like criminals’

    When A and his wife finally arrived at the US-Mexico border in December, they were not prepared for the experience of being held in US detention centres.

    “The floors were concrete and the room was packed. We couldn’t sleep for days,” said A. “There was no room to stand, and the guards cursed at us.”

    A credits his stay with worsening his respiratory issues and high blood pressure. He recalled the humiliation he felt being shackled for three days as he was transferred from one facility to another.

    “The Americans worked with us. We thought they respected us,” he said. “Now this is the situation I’m in.”

    Another Afghan man, who also spoke with Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity and will be referred to as Akbar, echoed that feeling of disillusionment.

    Akbar said his family spent years working with the assistance agency USAID on construction projects in Afghanistan, some of which came under attack by the Taliban. Now, one of his brothers is being held in an immigration detention centre, which Akbar likened to a “jailhouse”.

    “My brother tried to work with the US to improve his country, and now he’s being held in jail,” Akbar told Al Jazeera over a phone call.

    He explained his brother’s wife and children were released by immigration authorities, who dropped them off in the streets of an unfamiliar city with no money or information.

    They are now staying in a shelter in New York City, where Akbar said that they are racked with anxiety as they navigate life in a new country without their husband and father.

    A pair of hands holds a two pictures of the same man, side by side: one where he is wearing a military beret and jacket, another where he is wearing an orange uniform.
    Sami-ullah Safi holds a picture of his brother, Abdul Wasi Safi, an Afghan intelligence officer who worked with the US military and was placed in detention after trying to cross the US-Mexico border [File: David J Phillip/AP Photo]

    Akbar himself passed through a detention centre, but he was released with his wife and children after about nine days.

    “We thought we were coming to a humane society,” he added. “But we have been treated like criminals and animals.”

    The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from Al Jazeera regarding the continued detention of A and Akbar’s brother.

    A’s wife, however, was released shortly after her initial detention. Their separation weighs heavily on A’s mind.

    “The responsibility of her happiness is on me,” he said. “I brought her here, and now I can’t even look after her health.”

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  • White House says Biden uses CPAP machine for sleep apnea

    White House says Biden uses CPAP machine for sleep apnea

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    Biden, one of about 30 million people in the US who have the sleeping disorder, uses a CPAP machine to improve sleep quality.

    The White House has announced that United States President Joe Biden uses a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, to deal with sleep apnea.

    The disclosure comes as reporters noted indents on Biden’s face on Wednesday as he prepared to fly to Chicago, Illinois, for a major speech on his economic policy.

    Faced with questions about the facial marks — which indicated the president had been wearing a mask of some kind — White House officials said that Biden had recently begun using a CPAP machine to improve his sleep quality.

    “Since 2008, the president has disclosed his history with sleep apnea in thorough medical reports. He used a CPAP machine last night, which is common for people with that history,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said.

    The incident, however, could contribute to concerns about Biden’s age. At 80 years old, he is the oldest president in US history, and if he successfully seeks reelection in 2024, he would be 86 by the time his second term ends.

    Critics have said that such concerns are overblown and that Biden’s health remains solid, although surveys show voters have consistently expressed concerns about his age.

    An NBC poll in April found that about 70 percent of voters say Biden should not run for a second term in 2024, with 48 percent citing his age as a major factor.

    Biden’s Republican rivals have also seized on his age as a campaign issue.

    Former President Donald Trump — who is only a few years younger at age 77 — has nicknamed Biden “Sleepy Joe”. And former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has said it is not “likely” Biden “would make it until 86 years old”.

    Both Haley and Trump are hopefuls in the 2024 presidential race.

    Sleep apnea is a common disorder characterised by short breathing interruptions during rest and can result in fatigue, high blood pressure and heart problems.

    Approximately 30 million people in the US have the condition, and 8 million use CPAP machines, which deliver a continuous stream of air into a mask worn while sleeping.

    In February, Biden’s doctor said he was “fit for duty” following a physical examination. The doctor’s report did not mention sleep apnea but said that Biden had dealt with sinus congestion for “most of his life”, with improvements made after a series of nasal surgeries.

    Still, Biden’s gaffes and slip-ups often stir questions about his health in the media.

    On Wednesday morning, Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “losing the war in Iraq”, though he meant to say “Ukraine”, a soundbite that once again sparked questions about his age and mental acuity.

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  • What will Trump’s legal troubles mean for 2024 elections?

    What will Trump’s legal troubles mean for 2024 elections?

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    US media obtains audio recording of former president Donald Trump discussing classified documents.

    Media outlets in the United States have obtained a two-minute audio recording in which former US President Donald Trump appears to acknowledge keeping classified documents after leaving office.

    The recording was reportedly made in July of 2021 and the documents apparently refer to sensitive information about a possible attack on Iran.

    Trump is facing 37 federal charges for his handling of classified documents. He has pleaded not guilty.

    So just how damaging is this recording, and will it affect next year’s presidential race?

    Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

    Guests:

    John Malcolm – former US federal prosecutor

    Scott Lucas – professor at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin

    Bruce Fein – former US associate deputy attorney general

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  • Remains discovered in US match missing British actor Julian Sands

    Remains discovered in US match missing British actor Julian Sands

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    Sands, famous for his role in the film A Room with a View, went missing in January after hiking during a winter storm.

    Authorities in the United States have confirmed that British actor Julian Sands is dead after skeletal remains were discovered in the mountains outside of Los Angeles, where he went missing months ago.

    The county sheriff’s department confirmed that the San Bernardino Coroner had positively identified his remains, which were spotted by hikers on Saturday. Sands, an avid outdoorsman, was first declared missing on January 13 after he left for a hike by himself in the snowy mountains of southern California.

    “We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” his family said in a recent statement.

    Sands was born and raised in England. Though his career spanned 40 years and more than 150 performances, the British actor was best known for his role in the 1985 Oscar-winning film A Room with a View.

    He also appeared in movies such as Oxford Blues, Leaving Las Vegas and The Killing Fields.

    Actor Julian Sands poses at a film festival in Venice, Italy, in September 2019 [File: Dejan Jankovic/AP Photo]

    Sands set out for his final hike at a time when California was experiencing unusually severe winter storms, as part of a series of high-moisture bands called “atmospheric rivers” that dumped heavy rain and snow on the state.

    It is not yet clear exactly how the 65-year-old Sands died, but advisories in January cautioned that heavy snow had created treacherous conditions in the Baldy Bowl Wilderness Preserve of the San Gabriel Mountains, where he was hiking.

    An initial search party was called off due to avalanche risks and poor trail conditions. Other search efforts, some of which included drones and helicopters, also faced problems due to fierce weather.

    According to the sheriff’s department, the last mobile phone signal from Sands was picked up on January 15.

    In a 2020 interview with The Guardian, the actor, a passionate climber and hiker, said he was happiest when he was “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning”.

    Jodie Foster, a grin on her face and her Oscar in hand, sits with Julian Sands during the Governor's Ball at the Shrine Auditorium on March 29, 1989. Sands has his arm around her.
    Jodie Foster, a grin on her face and her Oscar in hand, sits with Julian Sands during the Governor’s Ball at the Shrine Auditorium on March 29, 1989 [File: Lennox Mclendon/AP Photo]

    Like many avid outdoorsmen, he also acknowledged that such proximity to the thrills of the natural world came with risks. In the 1990s, Sands said he had almost died on a climbing expedition in the Andes mountain range.

    Sands recalled that he and three others were “in a very bad way” as they found themselves trapped by a storm at an altitude of more than 6,096 metres (20,000 feet).

    “Some guys close to us perished,” he said. “We were lucky.”

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  • US Senate report highlights Capitol riot intelligence ‘failures’

    US Senate report highlights Capitol riot intelligence ‘failures’

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    FBI downplayed threats of violence by Trump supporters ahead of January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, report says.

    Washington, DC – United States intelligence agencies “received numerous early warnings” ahead of the 2021 attack on the Capitol but failed to accurately assess the threat, a new Senate report has said.

    Democratic staff on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released the findings on Tuesday, saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) downplayed the possibility of violence from supporters of former President Donald Trump.

    Thousands of those supporters ultimately stormed and ransacked the Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

    “In the lead-up to January 6, social media and other publicly accessible forums were inundated with open threats and violent rhetoric,” the report said.

    “In advance of the attack, multiple news agencies, research organizations, and individuals publicly reported on and tried to warn about the large amount of communications about plans for violence.”

    The report also criticised the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) for its response ahead of January 6.

    Tuesday’s report, commissioned by the Senate committee’s Democratic Chair Gary Peters, was titled “Planned in Plain Sight: A Review of the Intelligence Failures in Advance of January 6th, 2021”.

    “My report shows there was a shocking failure of imagination from these intelligence agencies to take these threats seriously,” Peters said in a statement. He added that the intelligence shortcomings “contributed to the failures to prevent and respond to the horrific attack that unfolded at the Capitol”.

    The report said the FBI received a tip in December 2020 about plans by the far-right group Proud Boys to “literally kill people” in Washington, DC, and subsequently became aware of multiple online posts calling for violence.

    “While FBI was receiving these and other increasingly concerning reports, internal emails obtained by the Committee demonstrate that the Bureau continued to downplay the overall threat, repeatedly noting that FBI ‘identified no credible or verified threat’,” the report read.

    It added that the FBI focused on potential violence between Trump supporters and counter-protesters “at the expense of focusing more attention and reporting on the growing threat to the Capitol itself”.

    A federal jury found four leaders of the Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy last month, based on their actions before and during the Capitol attack. Hundreds of others have been arrested and charged in relation to the riot.

    Tuesday’s report called on the FBI and DHS to “conduct full internal reviews of their actions” and “improve their processes for assessing and sharing intelligence”, including open-source information on social media.

    The Senate investigation suggested the intelligence community may have been incredulous about the domestic threat to national security before January 6.

    “FBI and I&A intelligence collectors, analysts, and leaders failed to sound the alarm about January 6 in part because they could not conceive that the US Capitol Building would be overrun by rioters,” it said.

    “This reflects the intelligence community’s struggle to adapt to the new reality that the primary threat to homeland security (as identified by these same agencies) is now domestic terrorism driven largely by antigovernment and white supremacist ideologies.”

    The Capitol attack was spurred, in part, by claims Trump had made about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, a false allegation he continues to make.

    Trump had called for a protest in Washington, DC, weeks before the riot. “Big protest in DC on January 6th,” he wrote on Twitter at that time. “Be there, will be wild!”

    Late in 2022, a congressional panel that investigated the events of January 6 also highlighted shortcomings by law enforcement agencies, including their failure to take tips and online posts about violence seriously.

    The committee recommended criminal charges against Trump over his role in the riot.

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  • Canada launches first-ever national climate adaptation strategy

    Canada launches first-ever national climate adaptation strategy

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    Canada has launched its first-ever national strategy to help communities adapt to increasingly severe weather caused by climate change.

    Increased flooding, wildfires and melting permafrost are among the issues the government will seek to address under the strategy, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault explained in a press conference on Tuesday.

    “We see more severe climate impact with each passing year, with each passing season – like this year’s rash of spring wildfires in BC [British Colombia], Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories,” Guilbeault said.

    His comments come as Canada contends with its worst-ever wildfire season on record.

    As of Tuesday, 7.8 million hectares (19 million acres) of land have burned this season, with the hottest months of the year still ahead. The fires have resulted in poor air quality in densely-populated areas across North America, with Montreal recording the worst air quality in the world on Sunday.

    The fires, Guilbeault said, have not only been more intense but were also occurring “earlier in the year and in almost every province and territory at the same time”.

    “This extreme weather is unprecedented,” he said.

    The newly-announced strategy will run parallel to efforts to lower greenhouse emissions that exacerbate climate change. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service reported on Tuesday that the recent wildfires have already released nearly 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide — greater than Canada’s total emissions for any year on record.

    The blazes are the latest natural disasters in Canada believed to be exacerbated by climate change.

    Last year’s Hurricane Fiona battered Canada’s Atlantic provinces, becoming the most intense cyclone on record to strike the country. And in 2021, a so-called “atmospheric river” of rain triggered record-breaking floods in British Columbia. Earlier that year in the same province, a heat dome — a weather system that traps hot air — caused hundreds of deaths.

    Meanwhile, thawing permafrost, which covers half of Canada, regularly “threatens homes, roads and important cultural sites as well as marine and coastal environments” and disproportionately affects Indigenous groups, according to the Canadian government.

    By 2030, average annual losses from climate-change-related disasters are forecast to reach 15.4 billion Canadian dollars ($11.69bn), according to the federal government.

    The Canadian Climate Institute also estimates that climate effects will slow Canada’s economic growth by 23.7 billion Canadian dollars ($18bn) annually by 2025, equal to 50 percent of projected gross domestic product growth.

    “We need to address the real and significant costs of climate change that are already baked into our future,” Jonathan Wilkinson, the minister of natural resources, said at Tuesday’s news conference. “These costs are being held by Canadians and they will only increase as we move forward.”

    The federal government outlined a series of goals, including improving health outcomes, protecting nature and biodiversity and building more resilient infrastructure. Since 2015, the Canadian government has pledged more than 10 billion Canadian dollars ($7.6bn) in “adaptation investment and disaster assistance”, Guilbeault said.

    That included 2 billion Canadian dollars ($1.5bn) in funding commitments since 2022, some of which was earmarked for flood mapping and access to flood insurance.

    The broad plan released on Tuesday would be refined based on the specific needs of communities across the country, Guilbeault said.

    “How we adapt depends on where we are in the country. So the actions we take will often be at the local and regional levels,” the minister added.

    “While this is the first national adaptation strategy, many communities, governments, businesses, nations have already developed their own adaptation plan to prepare for the risks that a changing climate will bring. I commend your leadership and your foresight.”

    In a statement, Keith Stewart, a climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said recent events have made Canada’s need to adapt to climate change “brutally clear”.

    “The more that all levels of government work together to fully implement this strategy,” he said, “the more lives and livelihoods that will be saved.”

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  • US court narrows scope of Trump civil suit, dismisses Ivanka

    US court narrows scope of Trump civil suit, dismisses Ivanka

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    New York Court limits transactions that state Attorney General can sue over based on statute of limitations.

    A New York appeals court has limited the scope of a civil lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump and his family of “staggering” fraud.

    On Tuesday, the court said that New York Attorney General Letitia James must exclude from her suit transactions that took place before July 13, 2014, or February 6, 2016, depending on the defendant. The court also dismissed claims against Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

    The Appellate Division in Manhattan said James has the power to sue over “repeated or persistent fraud or illegality”, but that the allegations against Ivanka were too old and should have been dismissed.

    James first filed the lawsuit against Trump in September, accusing the Trump Organization of “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation”. The suit seeks $250m in damages and proposes to bar the Trumps from running businesses in New York.

    “Trump variously unlawfully inflated and deflated his net worth by billions to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes,” James said at the time. “In short, he lied to gain massive financial benefits for himself.”

    The suit initially named Trump’s daughter Ivanka and two of his sons, Donald Jr and Eric.

    Trump testified in the case in April. On the day of his deposition, he wrote in a social media post on Truth Social that he had done nothing wrong and denounced James’s “persecution” of him. He also said the suit would be an opportunity to show that he had built a “great, profitable, and valuable company”.

    Trump’s lawyer Christopher Kise also accused James of trying to “interject” herself into private business affairs during oral arguments earlier this month.

    Trump had previously met James’s lawyers in August for a deposition but largely refused to answer any questions beyond a handful of procedural matters. The trial is expected to begin in October before the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

    Tuesday’s decision to narrow the civil suit came as the former president continued to face a long list of legal issues, from federal charges that he mishandled classified documents to state charges of falsifying business records.

    A panel in Georgia is also investigating Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election by asking officials in the key swing state to “find” him enough votes to reverse his loss.

    And Trump also faces a continuing civil defamation lawsuit from the writer E Jean Carroll. A grand jury previously found in favour of Carroll in a separate suit, determining that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

    Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race, has dismissed his numerous legal woes as a plot orchestrated by his rivals to derail his candidacy.

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  • Casting menstruation as a taboo is dangerous

    Casting menstruation as a taboo is dangerous

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    Late last month, we marked Menstrual Hygiene Awareness Day, an important date around the world for advocates like myself who have spent years working to improve menstrual equity.

    In India, where I have worked for the last 15 years, I have learned how essential it is for the lives and livelihoods of women and girls to have access not only to high-quality period products, but also to education about this basic biological function. It really can be a matter of life and death when they are not adequately equipped to manage their periods with knowledge and resources.

    In India, 70 percent of all reproductive issues are caused by poor menstrual hygiene; one in 10 girls below the age of 21 cannot afford sanitary products and resort to unhygienic substitutes; and 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to improper or lack of menstrual hygiene facilities.

    While challenges remain, we, at the Desai Foundation, are happy to see that efforts by our organisation and others are bearing fruit. India has witnessed at least some progress in this area over the last decade.

    By contrast, in the US, we are quickly losing ground with lawmakers across the country passing more and more laws blocking access to free period products or menstrual education in schools.

    On March 23, the state legislature in Idaho blocked a bill that would provide free menstrual products to public school students, calling it “liberal” and “woke”.

    “Why are our schools obsessed with the private parts of our children?” quipped State Representative Heather Scott, who voted against the bill. The not-so-subtle implication – that acknowledging periods sexualises young people – has become a running theme in legislative debates that should not involve menstruation in the first place. Basic biology is not political and it should not be controversial.

    Like much of the political discourse surrounding periods, Scott wrongly and irresponsibly equates sexual maturation, or puberty, with adult sexuality. But getting your period is not sexual. It is biological.

    As Charis Chambers, a doctor trained in paediatric and adolescent gynaecology, also known as The Period Doctor, says, “Adults don’t go through puberty – children do.” For roughly half of the population, menarche is a defining part of that process.

    Still, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed legislation that would restrict conversations about periods in schools. Also known as the “Don’t Say Period” bill, it was created to limit access to sex education for public school students younger than sixth grade.

    Taking effect on July 1, this legislation would prevent students who get their periods at, say, nine years old, which is not uncommon given that the average age of a first period is 12, from learning and/or asking questions about menstruation. They won’t be able to go to the school nurse and ask what is happening to them. 

    The thing is, we need to talk about menstruation more, not less. We need to normalise conversations surrounding periods and prioritise menstrual equity as an essential and attainable goal.

    The concept of “menstrual equity” is often misunderstood. Yet, all it means is that anyone with a uterus should have equal and comprehensive access to menstrual hygiene products and have the right to education about reproductive health. These efforts reduce the stigma surrounding menstruation and remove barriers to care that hold back entire nations.

    While we may not have the same cultural prejudices in the US that exist in India, the proliferation of misinformation – or no information at all – about basic biological functions are equally dangerous in both places. Serious, long-term, health problems like endometriosis, PCOS, and malnutrition, as just a few examples, can result if people are uncomfortable asking questions about irregularities in their cycles, excess bleeding, pain or more.

    If young people are taught that their periods are taboo, rather than normal in every way and an important gauge of their overall health, then they will not know how or will be ashamed to seek help for often debilitating conditions affecting their entire lives.

    Knowledge is power, information is protection, and laws that deny children information about their bodies put them at serious risk, no matter where they live. We need to invest in menstrual health awareness and education for everyone and normalise the conversation surrounding periods and menstrual health.

    It is not about sex or politics. It is about saving lives.

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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  • ‘Negligence, misconduct’ led to Epstein jail suicide: Watchdog

    ‘Negligence, misconduct’ led to Epstein jail suicide: Watchdog

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    DOJ inspector general releases report on death of well-connected financier as he awaited sex trafficking charges.

    A “combination of negligence and misconduct” allowed US financier Jeffrey Epstein to die by suicide in a federal jail as he awaited sex trafficking charges, according to a watchdog report.

    The scathing report, released by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Tuesday, detailed a laundry list of institutional and individual failings that allowed Epstein to take his own life.

    The suicide death abruptly halted Epstein’s upcoming trial, in which he was accused of luring dozens of girls, some as young as 14, to his homes in New York and Florida and coercing them into sex acts. His death also made less likely any revelations related to allegations that some members of his well-connected social circle were in on the abuse.

    “The combination of negligence, misconduct, and outright job performance failures documented in this report all contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates in BOP’s [The Federal Bureau of Prisons] custody was provided with the opportunity to take his own life,” the report said.

    Horowitz identified 13 BOP employees he said committed “misconduct and dereliction of their duties” leading up to Epstein’s death. Their actions, he said, allowed Epstein to be alone and unmonitored in his solitary cell inside Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center from 10:40pm (02:40 GMT) on August 9, 2019, until he was discovered the next day at 6:30am (10:30 GMT) hanging from what appeared to be linen or a piece of clothing.

    Beyond two jail guards who had already been charged for falsifying records to make it appear as though they had conducted routine checks on Epstein, the report identified at least two other unnamed employees who may have committed criminal conduct by falsely certifying inmate counts and rounds. Prosecutors declined to file charges against the newly identified employees in the report.

    Charges against the original duo of guards were later dropped after both entered into deferred prosecution agreements and successfully completed mandatory community service.

    The report said the federal jail further failed to assign Epstein a new cellmate. The report also said that Epstein was left in his cell with too many bed linens, which are a security issue and were used in his suicide.

    Other operational flaws included failing to properly upgrade the Metropolitan Correction Center’s camera surveillance system and understaffing its facilities.

    Still, the report reiterated the findings of other investigations that there was no indication of foul play. The findings further rebut conspiracy theories that Epstein was murdered to prevent him from implicating others.

    In response to the report, BOP director Colette Peters said the findings “reflect a failure to follow BOP’s longstanding policies”. She added that the BOP concurred with a list of recommended reforms, which “will be applied to the broader BOP correctional landscape”.

    Epstein’s arrest in New York came years after he was charged in Florida in a controversial 2008 deal that saw him plead guilty to lesser Florida state charges to avoid federal charges. He served only 13 months for unlawfully paying a teenage girl for sex. He was allowed to leave the facility during the day for parts of his sentence, prompting allegations of preferential treatment.

    Dozens of women have said they were lured into Epstein’s orbit as teenagers and forced to perform massages and sex acts. Many have pursued lawsuits against Epstein, his associates and associated entities.

    On Monday, A US judge approved a $290m settlement between JPMorgan Chase and Epstein’s alleged victims. They accused the bank of missing red flags as they maintained a relationship with the financier despite the sex abuse charges.

    His former girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was later charged with helping Epstein abuse young girls.

    She was convicted in December 2021 on five charges, including sex trafficking a minor, for recruiting and grooming four girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein.

    In January 2022, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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  • State courts can review election laws, top US court rules

    State courts can review election laws, top US court rules

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    Supreme Court rejects bid to grant state lawmakers unchecked powers over organising federal elections in their states.

    The United States Supreme Court declined to give politicians at the state level more power over federal elections by limiting the ability of state courts to review their actions, handing a defeat to Republican lawmakers in North Carolina.

    The decision upheld a 2022 ruling by North Carolina’s top court that had struck down a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan under state law.

    In a six-three vote on Tuesday, the justices rejected the broadest view of a theory that could have transformed elections for US Congress and president.

    The “independent legislature theory” now favoured by many conservatives, would remove any role of state courts and state constitutions in regulating presidential and congressional elections.

    While the US Constitution’s Elections Clause grants broad powers for state lawmakers to organise federal elections, the top court asserted that state courts have the authority to review election laws and ensure that they comply with the state’s constitution.

    “State courts retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislatures act under the power conferred upon them by the Elections Clause,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling.

    The high court did, however, suggest there could be limits on state court efforts to regulate elections for Congress and president.

    The practical effect of the decision is minimal in that the North Carolina Supreme Court, under a new Republican majority, already has undone its redistricting ruling.

    Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have dismissed the case because of the intervening North Carolina court action.

    There is still a pending redistricting case from Ohio, if the justices want to say more about the issue before next year’s general elections.

    The North Carolina case attracted outsized attention because four conservative justices had suggested that the Supreme Court should rein in state courts in their oversight of elections for president and Congress.

    Opponents of the “independent legislature theory” had argued that the effects of a robust ruling for North Carolina Republicans could be much broader than just redistricting.

    Potentially at stake were more than 170 state constitutional provisions, more than 650 state laws delegating authority to make election policies to state and local officials, and thousands of regulations down to the location of polling places, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

    The administration of President Joe Biden applauded Tuesday’s ruling, with spokesperson Olivia Dalton calling it a “critical” victory for voting rights and dismissing the “independent legislature theory” as “extreme”.

    The justices had heard arguments in December in an appeal by the state’s Republican leaders in the legislature. Their efforts to draw congressional districts heavily in their favour were blocked by a Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court because the GOP map violated the state constitution.

    A court-drawn map produced seven seats for each party in last year’s midterm elections in highly competitive North Carolina.

    The US House has 435 seats allocated to states in proportion to the size of their respective populations.

    State legislatures draw congressional districts every 10 years to reflect demographic changes as documented by the US Census. Lawmakers often produce maps favouring their own political parties, a phenomenon known as gerrymandering that critics have said harms democracy.

    The question for the Supreme Court in the North Carolina case was whether the US Constitution’s provision giving state legislatures the power to make the rules about the “times, places and manner” of congressional elections cuts state courts out of the process.

    Leading Republican lawmakers in North Carolina told the Supreme Court that the Constitution’s “carefully drawn lines place the regulation of federal elections in the hands of state legislatures, Congress and no one else”.

    In North Carolina, a new round of redistricting is expected to go forward and produce a map with more Republican districts.

    Tuesday’s ruling is the third major elections-related decision by the Supreme Court this month. On Monday, justices unfroze a challenge to an electoral map in Louisiana that advocates had argued diluted the power of Black voters.

    That decision followed an earlier ruling in which the justices sided with Black voters in Alabama who similarly claimed discrimination in violation of the civil rights-era Voting Rights Act.

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  • Trump valet’s arraignment delayed again in secret documents case

    Trump valet’s arraignment delayed again in secret documents case

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    Waltine Nauta allegedly helped Trump hide documents taken from White House but was not arraigned with former president.

    The arraignment of former President Donald Trump’s valet Waltine “Walt” Nauta, who is accused of helping his former boss hide classified documents from federal investigators, has again been delayed.

    Nauta’s lawyer briefly appeared in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, telling the judge Nauta had not yet found Florida legal counsel to represent him in the case. His next appearance was set for July 6.

    Nauta faces six counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements, and withholding and concealing documents. He had been in the same courtroom during Trump’s arraignment on June 13, but the proceedings against him were delayed for the same reasons given on Tuesday.

    The Navy veteran had served as Trump’s valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Florida. He has since regularly been seen at the former president’s side, including when Trump stopped at the Versailles Cuban restaurant to greet supporters after his arraignment.

    In a 49-page indictment, federal prosecutors laid out how Trump allegedly stored boxes containing sensitive documents haphazardly around Mar-a-Lago, including in bathrooms, ballrooms and a storage room near a pool.

    At times, Trump allegedly told people in his orbit he possessed documents he knew to still be classified.

    “The unauthorised disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment said.

    As federal investigators ratcheted up their investigation, Trump is accused of trying to hide the documents in his possession, even from his own lawyer.

    The former president enlisted Nauta to help hide the boxes, according to prosecutors. They also alleged that during a voluntary interview, Nauta lied to federal agents about not knowing about the boxes being moved.

    As the indictment was unsealed, Trump came to Nauta’s defence, calling him “strong, brave and a great patriot” and alleging prosecutors were “trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about Trump”, he said.

    Since Trump’s arraignment, Nauta and Trump have been allowed to be in contact, but they have been barred from discussing the facts of the case except through their attorneys.

    Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who last year ruled for the former president in a civil lawsuit filed over the seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago resort, last week scheduled Trump’s trial to begin on August 14.

    Prosecutors with US Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday asked Cannon to delay the trial until December 11.

    Cannon on Monday also set a July 14 hearing tied to how classified information in the case will be handled. Legal experts have said the complexities surrounding the use of highly classified documents as evidence are likely to delay the proceedings.

    Meanwhile, US media released audio on Monday of a 2021 meeting in which Trump appeared to have acknowledged he was in possession of classified documents related to Iran.

    “See, as president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t, you know,” Trump said at one point in the recording. “But this is classic. Isn’t that interesting? It’s so cool.”

    Trump and his allies have offered various defences in terms of keeping the documents but have broadly maintained the president cooperated with investigators and did nothing wrong.

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  • Solitary confinement is still widespread in US prisons and jails

    Solitary confinement is still widespread in US prisons and jails

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    When Kwaneta Harris entered solitary confinement in 2015, she knew it would be much harder to keep in touch with her family. She was permitted one five-minute phone call every 90 days.

    “I can’t even speak with my oldest daughter because she doesn’t live with my mom who basically has to give me a super quick rundown of everything,” she told Al Jazeera in a recent interview at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas.

    “I’m already isolated from my community, the prison sentence should be the punishment; I shouldn’t be forced to watch people descend into madness back here.”

    A recent report by Unlock The Box and Solitary Watch revealed that Kwaneta is one of more than 120,000 people in solitary confinement on any given night in the United States. The figure far eclipses previous estimates because it includes data about inmates in both jails and prisons.

    Jails are shorter-term facilities for people awaiting trial, whereas prisons hold people convicted of a crime – sometimes for long periods of time.

    The cells for solitary confinement are about the size of a parking space, with enough room to walk a few paces, and barriers preventing contact with other human beings.

    Kwaneta Harris has been in solitary confinement since 2015 [Singeli Agnew/Al Jazeera] (Restricted Use)

    “The widespread use of solitary confinement in our prisons and jails is a humanitarian crisis,” said Jean Casella, director of Solitary Watch, an organisation dedicated to raising awareness about the practice.

    “As the United Nations has confirmed, it’s torture taking place on US soil. Now, we finally have a comprehensive count of how many people are in solitary confinement.”

    It is not just the total number of prisoners subjected to extreme isolation, it is also the length of time people are held there.

    “I think it’s really important to point out how extreme the United States is,” said Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

    “In European countries, it’s considered a violation of human rights for someone to be locked up for more than 15 days in solitary confinement, and we’re locking up people here for 20 or 30 years,” Deitch told Al Jazeera.

    The psychological effect of solitary confinement is well established, but the practice is still widespread in the US. Spending just one week in isolation (PDF) actually causes changes in electrical activity in the brain, according to a study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a US research organisation.

    “There’s something about being isolated in a room with oneself and not having anything productive or meaningful to do that causes an exacerbation of every form of mental illness,” said Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who has interviewed more than 500 prisoners in solitary confinement.

    Interactive_Solitary confinement US_June27
    [Al Jazeera]

    “People who have a psychotic condition like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, what they will have is an exaggeration of the symptoms they were already feeling,” Kupers told Al Jazeera.

    Texas is one of the leaders in the nation when it comes to isolating prisoners. The agency that runs the prison system does not use the term solitary confinement – it refers to the practice as “administrative segregation” or “restrictive housing”.

    “If you’ve never worked a max unit, you just don’t know that there are guys in there that are really dangerous,” said retired Warden Randy Treon in an interview with Al Jazeera. “I’ve had staff members murdered, staff members assaulted, there are really dangerous people in the penitentiary and you’ve got to house them somewhere.”

    Texas stopped using solitary confinement as a punishment for prisoners in 2017 but maintains the system for prisoners designated an escape risk, gang members and offenders with a history of violence.

    There are currently more than 3,000 prisoners in Texas who are held in isolation for at least 22 hours a day. Those numbers are down significantly from 10 years ago, when the numbers were double that. There are more than 500 people who have been in isolation for more than a decade.

    The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) told Al Jazeera in a statement that it has “made great strides in reducing the security detention population and it only accounts for 3 percent of the total inmate population in the state”.

    A sketch of a solitary cell in Texas, courtesy of an anonymous inmate
    A sketch of a solitary cell in Texas, [courtesy of an anonymous inmate/Al Jazeera] (Restricted Use)

    One of the men currently in long-term solitary confinement, Sebastian Mejia, has spent more than 15 years in isolation. He is at the Polunsky Unit, which is the same facility as death row. Inmates awaiting execution are all held in solitary confinement. Mejia sent Al Jazeera a letter describing his experience there.

    “The impact on our soul and psyche from such an existence is absolute desolation. However it’s not just the impact on our souls in here that should concern people, it’s the impact it will have out there in the free world, 95 percent of the men surrounding me will be free one day.”

    The issue of extreme isolation in Texas prisons became more visible in January, when inmates at 11 facilities across the state went on a hunger strike. They wanted to raise awareness about lengthy sentences and a lack of access to a range of services such as taking classes or learning a trade that could help them become eligible for parole.

    “There really isn’t any independent oversight over the system, so for these inmates to speak up, it shows how desperate they are,” said CJai Foster, an advocate with Texans Against Solitary Confinement. “They know there is a chance that they could be retaliated against and they participated anyway.”

    The TDCJ responded to the strike partially by denying media access to the inmates taking part.  Amanda Hernandez, the department’s director of communications said the move was to prevent the strike from growing. “By allowing the interviews, we feel we are allowing them to organise and further cause disruption,” she said, according to the Texas Tribune. The strike ended after seven weeks with no concessions made by the state agency that manages the prisons.

    Exterior of The Lane Murray Unit, a women's prison in Gatesville, Texas,
    The exterior of The Lane Murray Unit, a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas, [Singeli Agnew/Al Jazeera] (Restricted Use)

    After the hunger strike, several bills were introduced in the Texas legislature to limit the amount of time people can be placed in isolation, as well as study the effect that it has on mental health. None of the bills were voted into law.

    The practice of isolating prisoners does not have a historical precedent in the US. In fact, for most of the country’s history, the act was frowned upon.

    “At the time of the founding and for at least the first 100 years of this country’s existence, we don’t have any record of someone being in solitary confinement for longer than 16 months,” Easha Anand, a lawyer with the MacArthur Justice Center told Al Jazeera. “The idea that someone would be in solitary confinement for more than a period of a few days or weeks was just not something that anyone accepted.”

    As mass incarceration exploded in the 1970s and 1980s, violence behind bars increased significantly. The Texas prison system reacted by locking away violent offenders in the administrative segregation programme. The agency was able to bring the violence under control but the system has remained in place for decades.

    Kwaneta Harris said she believes that, at some point, the practice will have to end.

    “They know the damage solitary confinement causes, it isn’t new. We’ve known this for over 100 years. It destroys people’s souls, it’s a slaughterhouse for souls. They have to end this.”

    An empty solitary confinement cell at Arizona State Prison Complex Lewis in Buckeye, Arizona
    An empty solitary confinement cell at Arizona State Prison Complex Lewis in Buckeye, Arizona [From court documents/Al Jazeera]

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  • Russian fighter aircraft hold combat drills over Baltic Sea

    Russian fighter aircraft hold combat drills over Baltic Sea

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    Air exercises come amid growing number of intercepts between NATO and Russian military planes over the Baltic and Black Sea.

    Russia has started tactical fighter jet exercises over the Baltic Sea with the goal of testing readiness to perform combat and other special operations, the country’s defence ministry has said, a day after Moscow said its jets had scrambled to intercept United Kingdom military planes over the Black Sea.

    “The main goal of the exercise is to test the readiness of the flight crew to perform combat and special tasks as intended,” Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.

    “The crews of the Su-27 [fighter jets] of the Baltic Fleet fired from airborne weapons at cruise missiles and mock enemy aircraft,” the ministry announced on the Telegram messaging channel, adding that as well as improving skills, Russian fighter pilots are on “round-the-clock combat duty” guarding the air space of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

    Wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast, Kaliningrad is Moscow’s westernmost state and was part of Germany until the end of World War II. Given to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the enclave has roughly 1 million residents – mainly Russians but also a small number of Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians.

    Russia said last year that it had deployed warplanes armed with state-of-the-art Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to the Chkalovsk airbase in Kaliningrad as part of its “strategic deterrence”.

    On Monday, the Russian defence ministry said that it had scrambled two fighter jets as UK Typhoon warplanes approached its border above the Black Sea and that the planes had “turned around and distanced themselves from the Russian border” following intervention from Russia’s fighter planes. The Typhoon jets were accompanying an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft, the defence ministry said.

    “The Russian planes safely returned to their airfield. There was no violation of the Russian border,” the ministry said.

    Interceptions involving Russian and Western military aircraft have multiplied over the Black Sea and Baltic Sea in recent months amid growing tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

    On Sunday, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said that Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighter aircraft operating with the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission in Estonia have scrambled to respond to Russian aircraft 21 times in the last 21 days. The RAF fighters are currently operating out of Estonia as part of NATO’s “quick reaction alert” to secure its eastern European flank.

    “The RAF Typhoons launch to monitor the Russian aircraft when they do not talk to air traffic agencies, making them a flight safety hazard,” the UK defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

    “These intercepts are a stark reminder of the value of collective defence and deterrence provided by NATO,” the UK’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said.

    In May, Moscow said it had intercepted four US strategic bombers above the Baltic Sea in two separate incidents in one week. In April, a US Reaper military drone crashed in the Black Sea after a confrontation with two Russian fighter jets. Washington blamed risky manoeuvres by Russian fighter jets for causing the drone to crash.

    Russia also scrambled warplanes to intercept French, German and Polish aircraft.

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