Tag: United States News

Food, firecrackers and family reunions: how lunar new year is celebrated differently across Asia

[ad_1]
For billions of people across Asia and in Asian diaspora communities around the world, this weekend marks the beginning of the lunar new year celebrations, a two-week holiday marking the end of the Zodiac year of the Tiger, and ushering in the Year of the Rabbit – or Cat, if you are in Vietnam. For the first few days commercial activity slows or stops, as people gather with their families. For many migrant workers in China, it is often the only time of the year they can return to home towns. The holiday is steeped in tradition, with a focus on family, food, reflection and looking forward.
MALAYSIA
Daniel Lee Lih Wei, a 37-year old father of two who oversees research at Kuala Lumpur’s Sunway University and lives in the suburban town of Klang. Photograph: Vignes Balasingam/The Guardian
As a Chinese-Malaysian, lunar new year is all about passing the Chinese traditions on to the next generation, says Daniel Lee Lih Wei, a 37-year-old father of two who oversees research at Kuala Lumpur’s Sunway University and lives in the suburban town of Klang.
“I want my children to learn and experience the different and the rich culture and heritage we have and how that can be translated into their own experiences throughout their life’s journey,” he explains. “It’s about giving them that exposure and the memories that I used to have as a child.”
With that in mind, Lee Lih Wei says that the key things for his children, aged four and one, will be playing with the firecrackers, enjoying cookies and watching traditional lion dances. In elaborate and brightly coloured costumes, performances by lion dancers across the country are common during the build-up to the new year and are said to signify luck and prosperity.
Taking a week off work, Lee Lih Wei says his family will dress in coordinated outfits of varying shades of red as they reunite with family over two days. While tradition dictates that the male side of the family is visited on the eve of the lunar new year, Lee Lih Wei says modernisation means they’ll visit his wife’s family for lunch and his own for dinner.
CHINA
Last year Wen Xu wasn’t able to get to her home town in a small Anhui county, because of Covid restrictions. This time, the 26-year-old will travel from Hong Kong, where she recently moved to work as a reporter. Even two months ago this wouldn’t have been possible, but since China’s government ended its zero-Covid policy in December, Xu is among the hundreds of millions of Chinese able to once again make the journey home.

“This year for New Year’s Eve, my uncle, aunt, and cousin will come to visit us from a town nearby,” she says. “We will have a big reunion dinner with traditional family dishes such as steamed pork with rice flour and bone broth together.”
A traditional pastry made of donkey hide gelatin, or ejiao, and jujube, walnut, rose and sesame. Photograph: Ma Li/Getty Images/iStockphoto
The week will be one of food and relaxation, reading new books and catching up with a cousin who has returned from Canada. She also plans to film her mother cooking a traditional Chinese health food, ejiao.
Growing up, Xu and her cousin would excitedly finish their new year’s meal and then rush upstairs together, to count the money they had received in red packets as traditional gifts from their elder relatives. “ Even now we are grown, my cousin and I still receive red-pocket money,” she says.
There’s some sadness this year, Xu adds, as her grandfather remains ill after Covid, and can’t join them for dinner. “He has to stay with an oxygen machine in his room on the third floor.”
The Year of the Tiger was great professionally for Xu, “but not so much relationship-wise”.
“My hope for next year is to find a partner who can experience things with me, be there for each other, and support each other.”
VIETNAM
Thanh Van, 24, a hotel receptionist poses for photos in front of a restaurant near her house in Ninh Binh, Vietnam. Photograph: Linh Pham for The Guardian
“Like many Vietnamese families, we cook, we spend time thinking about the day and the year,” says Thanh Van, a 24-year-old hotel receptionist who lives in the northern city of Ninh Binh with her parents and younger sister. Known locally as Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet, lunar new year is the most important occasion to Vietnamese people, including her family, she adds.
In the days beforehand, the family will spend hours in the kitchen making 12 chung cakes, a traditional new year dessert, which Van says symbolises the earth and “contains all the unique ingredients of the Vietnamese”, such as rice, pork, mung beans and banana. These are then gifted to family and friends alongside “lucky money”. Coveted in a red pocket, it is also a Vietnamese custom, she says, to gift money to family members in an act that ushers in luck for the year ahead. “It’s not important how much. It just means you received something lucky.”
The festivities will all culminate, she says, on New Year’s Eve when Van plans to watch the fireworks before visiting family members on New Year’s Day. “Vietnamese people believe what they do on the first day of the new year will affect the rest therefore they pay great attention to every word they say and everything they do,” she says.
TAIWAN
Stacy Liu, 32, is heading to her home town in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, on Friday. The Taipei resident usually goes home for a whole week, to spend quality time with her family and catch up with childhood friends who are also back for the holiday.
The traditional Chinese food Fo Tiao Qiang. Photograph: insjoy/Getty Images/iStockphoto
“The first three days of lunar new year are the biggest and the most important days and you want to spend them with your family,” she says. When she was younger they would visit her father’s side of the family first, and then go to her maternal grandmother’s house. “The second day is traditionally when the married daughter goes back to her home,” she says. “My grandma is a very traditional woman so we could only go back to her house on that day – otherwise apparently it’s going to bring bad luck.”
But in recent years they have kept it small, with just Liu, her two younger sisters and their partners gathering at their parents’ home. “I find that more and more families are not doing the most traditional way with all the relatives coming home,” she says.
On New Year’s Eve the family will stay in, cooking traditional dishes like “Buddha jumps over the wall”, chicken soup, braised fish, and mustard greens.
“The leftovers from New Year’s Eve are enough for the next two days of dinner, but for lunch we’ll go out to a nicer restaurant,” she says. “We made a reservation about a month ago. You need to book ahead for New Year.”
Liu and her family will stay home and eat plenty, hike in the nearby mountains and play mahjong. She hopes this year will see the end of Covid worries, and the chance to build her Mandarin-tutoring business so she can work remotely and travel.
SINGAPORE
Chua Yiying Charmaine at Sago street in Singapore. Photograph: Amrita Chandradas/The Guardian
For Chua Yiying Charmaine, a 21-year-old real estate student at the National University of Singapore, lunar new year means leaving campus to travel home to the east of Singapore. Here, she’ll reunite with her parents, younger brother and sister for what she calls a “typical” celebration.
“Most Singaporean Chinese families prioritise the reunion dinner,” she explains. This is a large gathering of extended family the night before lunar new year. “I usually don’t get to spend that much time with my family any more because of work and school so I think this year will be especially nice.”
While it’s yet to be decided whether the festivities will take place at her parents’ or grandmother’s house, either way, Charmaine says she’ll begin cooking with her grandmother around 4pm, making traditional dishes such as bakwa, salty-sweet dried meat, and lo hei, a Cantonese-style raw fish salad. “Usually people buy it because it’s very tedious to make … but my family likes to make it from scratch.”
The few days prior will be packed, she says, with visits to loved ones; a pair of oranges in hand to offer as a traditional token. “I enjoy it because it’s a type of celebration, and I think it’s always good to have that kind of festivity in your life. It helps everybody loosen up a little bit,” Charmaine says.
HONG KONG
Tabitha Mui’s favourite childhood memories of lunar new year are visiting relatives and receiving “lucky money” in lai see (red packets) and “endless amounts of sweets and coin chocolates”.
Traditional Chinese poon choi reunion dinner Photograph: AsiaVision/Getty Images
On New Year’s Eve, the extended family would gather together and share traditional dishes like braised Chinese mushrooms with fat choy (black moss seaweed), chicken, fish, and the Hakka-style poon choi (one bowl feast).
“The best things for kids were the long holidays and we wore Chinese costumes to school for new year parties,” she recalls.
“Now that I’m married, the most important thing is to have a New Year’s Eve reunion dinner with the older generation in our family. Both my husband and I come from big families so we’ll be busy. I’ll prepare presents for the older relatives and lai see money for the young ones.”
Hong Kong, like many parts of east Asia, were among the last to lift pandemic border restrictions and reopen for travellers. It makes Mui a little wary, now that visitors will be returning to the city. “I hope everyone in my family will stay healthy,” she says. “We’ll have to be cautious.”
“As for my hope for the Year of the Rabbit – I hope my work will be smooth, and I hope for world peace.”
[ad_2]
#Food #firecrackers #family #reunions #lunar #year #celebrated #differently #Asia
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Ukraine frustrated as Germany holds back decision on supply of tanks

[ad_1]
Germany has declined to take a decision on whether to give Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at a special international summit, prompting frustration in Kyiv and a warning from Poland that lives could be lost because of hesitation in Berlin.
It had been hoped in Europe and the US that Germany would at least allow Leopards owned by countries such as Poland and Finland to be re-exported, but despite days of pleading, Berlin’s newly appointed defence minister said no final decision had been taken.
Instead, Boris Pistorius said on the sidelines of the 50-nation meeting at the Ramstein US air force base in Germany on Friday that he had asked his ministry to “undertake an examination of the stocks” of the tanks available.
Germany’s Leopard 2
Although it was the closest Germany has come to suggesting it might be contemplating the use of the tanks in the conflict, it provoked a number of pointed comments from Ukraine and its allies as the meeting broke up without progress on what has come to be seen as the core issue.
Zbigniew Rau, Poland’s foreign minister, said Ukrainian lives would be lost because of Germany’s reluctance to act. “Arming Ukraine in order to repel the Russian aggression is not some kind of decision-making exercise. Ukrainian blood is shed for real. This is the price of hesitation over Leopard deliveries. We need action, now,” he tweeted.
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said after the meeting that there was “not a long time” available to provide Ukraine with extra equipment before the expected renewed offensives on both sides as the weather improves. “We have a window of opportunity between now and the spring,” he added.

The chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, said: “This year, it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from every inch of Russian-occupied Ukraine.”
Milley told reporters that a “continued defence stabilising the front” would be possible, but that would depend on the delivery and training of military equipment to Ukraine.
Prior to the meeting, Ukraine’s president said pointedly that his country was waiting for a “decision from one European capital that will activate the prepared chains of cooperation on tanks”. In an address, Volodymyr Zelenskiy added it was “in your power” to at least make a decision in principle about tanks.
Poland, which had said it could donate its own Leopard 2 tanks without seeking permission from Germany, said it had participated in a meeting of defence ministers of 15 countries to make progress on the topic.
Mariusz Blaszczak, the country’s defence minister, said he was still “convinced that coalition-building will end in success”.
Berlin is at the centre of the tanks debate because it has yet to allow the re-export of any of the 2,000-plus German-made Leopard 2 tanks owned by Nato countries, holding out for the US to agree to send some of its own Abrams tanks in addition.
The US argues that its Abrams tanks, which run on jet engines, are fuel-inefficient and so difficult to supply, but earlier this week the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, directly asked the US president, Joe Biden, to send US tanks in return for sending its own Leopard tanks.
Yet Berlin said on Friday it had backed away from such a demand, leaving Germany to carry on considering the issue in isolation. Steffen Hebestreit, a German government spokesman, said Scholz was not making the decision on the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks dependent on whether or not the US delivered its M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
“At no time has there been any deal or demand that one thing would follow on from another,” the spokesperson said. “I find it difficult to imagine a German chancellor dictating any conditions or making demands to an American president.”
Berlin, he further insisted, did not expect Poland to carry out its threat to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine unilaterally, without receiving the necessary export licence from Germany. Hebestreit said: “All our partners will surely want to behave in a law-abiding way.”
Leopard 2 inventories
There had been hope that Germany might, as a compromise, allow export licences to be issued to European owners of the Leopard 2, while withholding its own Leopard tanks.
But in the end that too was dashed at Friday’s meeting of 50 western defence ministers in the Ukraine international contact group. Ukraine says it wants 300 tanks to help force out the Russian invaders in the spring, although western analysts say the supply of 100 would be enough to make an immediate difference.
Zelenskiy had begun the meeting, arguing that urgent action was necessary because “Russia is concentrating its forces, last forces, trying to convince everyone that hatred can be stronger than the world”.
It was vital to “speed up” weapons supplies, Zelenskiy added, because the war with Russia amounted to a battle between freedom and autocracy. “It is about what kind of world people will live in, people who dream, love and hope.”
Earlier this week, Britain said it would donate 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, while Poland said it wanted to follow suit with a similar number of German-made Leopard 2s. Finland has said it wants to donate tanks, while France has indicated that it is considering supplying some of its own Leclerc armoured units.
But it is the Leopards that are considered crucial because they are the dominant tank model in Europe. Germany itself has 321 Leopards in active service, plus another 255 in storage, out of a Nato total of more than 2,300.
Austin also announced a fresh $2.5bn (£2bn) military aid package to Ukraine, including 59 more Bradley fighting vehicles, on top of 50 already announced earlier this month, and 90 Stryker eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers and 350 Humvees.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the war in Ukraine was escalating, and argued that Nato countries were playing a direct role in the conflict, although the western military alliance is not at war with Russia.
“It really is developing in an upward spiral. We see a growing indirect, and sometimes direct, involvement of Nato countries in this conflict,” Peskov said.
“We see a devotion to the dramatic delusion that Ukraine can succeed on the battlefield. This is a dramatic delusion of the western community that will more than once be cause for regret, we are sure of that.”
[ad_2]
#Ukraine #frustrated #Germany #holds #decision #supply #tanks
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Three active-duty US marines arrested for participating in Capitol attack

[ad_1]
Three active-service US marines, all with ties to intelligence work, were arrested this week for taking part in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, according to federal documents newly unsealed.
The men, all long-serving, were taken into custody on Wednesday on four charges, bringing to 12 the number of US military members charged in connection with the deadly insurrection by supporters of outgoing president Donald Trump as they tried to prevent the certification by Congress of his defeat by Joe Biden. The news was first reported by military.com.
The three were named as Micah Coomer, Joshua Abate and Dodge Dale Hellonen. According to the documents, unsealed on Thursday, they spent more than an hour together wandering around the Capitol rotunda, and at one point placed “a red Maga hat on one of the statues to take photos with it”, indicating Trump’s Make America Great Again election slogan.
Investigators noted social media posts by Coomer, including one where he stated he was “glad to be apart [sic] of history”, and a chat with another Instagram user in which he explained he was there because he was “waiting for the boogaloo”, a term popular with rightwing extremists and white supremacists to signify a race-related civil war.
Marine corps records provided to military.com show all three have been enlisted for more than four years, have good conduct medals, and that each works in “demanding jobs” tied to the intelligence community. At least one holds a “significant” security clearance.
In a statement to the outlet, a spokesperson said the service is “aware of an investigation and the allegations” and said it was “fully cooperating with appropriate authorities in support of the investigation”.
The men face misdemeanor charges including trespass, disruptive and disorderly conduct and obstructing government business.
According to the 13-page document compiled by FBI special agent Kelsey Randall of the agency’s joint terrorism taskforce, investigators “learned” of Coomer’s social media posts and, after obtaining a search warrant, identified the two others from images contained in them.

Security footage from the Capitol showed the three entering the building together through a door near the Senate chamber, and moving further inside as part of a mob of dozens of others, many wearing Trump’s signature Make America Great Again red caps.
Additional proof came from cell phone records showing the three were in the building, Randall wrote.
.
[ad_2]
#activeduty #marines #arrested #participating #Capitol #attack
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Judge rules DeSantis’ ouster of prosecutor was unconstitutional but upholds suspension

[ad_1]

Hinkle rejected DeSantis’ argument.
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended elected State Attorney Andrew H. Warren, ostensibly on the ground that Mr. Warren had blanket policies not to prosecute certain kinds of cases,” read the order. “The allegation was false.”
Hinkle said Warren’s office had a policy of using “prosecutorial discretion” in all cases, including those involving abortion.
“Any reasonable investigation would have confirmed this,” Hinkle wrote.
The judge conceded, though, that he didn’t have the authority to reinstate Warren to his position.
DeSantis’ office hailed the ruling was a victory, focusing primarily on Hinkle upholding Warren’s suspension.
“Today, Judge Hinkle upheld @GovRonDeSantis’ decision to suspend Andrew Warren from office for neglect of duty and incompetence,” DeSantis’ Communications Director Taryn Fenske said.
DeSantis replaced Warren with Susan Lopez, who previously served as a judge in the Tampa area.

During a brief press conference Friday after the ruling, Warren declined to say what his next move would be but told reporters “this is not over.”
He said the governor should now rescind his suspension and let him return to office.
“Let’s see if the governor actually believes in the rule of law. … let’s see what kind of man the governor actually is,” Warren said.
DeSantis began eyeing Warren after the governor in late 2021 asked his public safety czar, Larry Keefe, to see whether Florida had any “reform prosecutors,” a term generally associated with progressive prosecutors who pursue criminal justice reforms. When he ran for Hillsborough state attorney, Warren vowed to reduce recidivism, among other things.
“Mr. Keefe made some calls to acquaintances and quickly identified Mr. Warren as the Florida prosecutor who had taken the mantle of a reform prosecutor,” read Hinkle’s opinion.
In his ruling, Hinkle also highlighted testimony from Fenske centered on how the communications office handled the announcement that DeSantis was suspending Warren. The night before DeSantis held the Aug. 4 high-profile press conference to suspend Warren through executive order, former administration press secretary Christina Pushaw tweeted: “Get some rest tonight” and “[p]repare for the liberal media meltdown of the year.”
During trial, Fenske testified that Pushaw was admonished for the tweets, but Hinkle says he “does not credit” the testimony because Pushaw was tweeting about the suspension again the next day.
“Ms. Pushaw tweeted an equally partisan, unprofessional message about this the next night, after purportedly being admonished,” he wrote. “And in any event, any admonishment was about tone, not substance.”
As justification for the suspension, DeSantis’ legal team also brought up former GOP Gov. Rick Scott’s 2017 decision to reassign death penalty-eligible cases from Aramis Ayala, the former state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties, after she said she would never pursue the death penalty even in cases that “absolutely deserve the death penalty.”
In his ruling, Hinkle noted no one ever suggested removing Ayala from office, and that Warren never made similar statements.
“Quite the contrary,” Hinkle wrote. “[Warren] said repeatedly that discretion would be exercised at every state of the case.”
The issue now could go before the Florida Senate, which is responsible for removing from office officials who have been suspended by the governor.
The issue is currently on hold in the Senate until the legal proceedings are resolved, including any potential appeals.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) sent a memo to her members Friday morning after the Hinkle ruling telling them the issue isn’t completed.
“As such, the matter of Mr. Warren’s reinstatement or removal from office by the Florida Senate appellate remedies have been exhausted,” she wrote.
Gary Fineout contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#Judge #rules #DeSantis #ouster #prosecutor #unconstitutional #upholds #suspension
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 21, 2023
Hottest day of 2022 saw 638 more deaths than normal in England

[ad_1]
The hottest day on record last summer resulted in 638 more deaths in England than normal, according to official figures, which experts said show the danger that extreme heat and climate change pose to human life.
The following day, when temperatures remained almost as high, 496 more people died than would usually be expected.
The sudden spike in deaths on 19 and 20 July 2022, when temperatures rose above 40C (104F) for the first time on record, was revealed by the Office for National Statistics in data detailing daily deaths.
The extra death toll is higher than had been predicted by experts at the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine (LSTHM). With temperatures barely dropping below 27C at night, doctors warned that dehydration, overheating, heat exhaustion and heatstroke could be fatal, particularly for infants, old people, the homeless, outdoor workers and those with pre-existing medical conditions.
Over the two days, there were 3,805 deaths across England from all causes, up 42% on the five-year average of 2,671. At least six people died getting into trouble in water, but the largest number of deaths was expected to be among the elderly, particularly those aged 85 and over.
The UK Health and Security Agency has previously estimated that a later prolonged heatwave from 8 to 17 August saw an estimated 1,458 excess deaths, excluding Covid-19, in those over 65.
Age UK said the figures should be “a wake-up call for all of us”. Caroline Abrahams, the charity’s director, said: “As we get older, our bodies find it harder to manage extremes of heat as well as cold, so as the planet warms and we seek to adapt our lifestyles, as well as reduce carbon emissions, this is something that planners, builders and the NHS all need to take increasingly into account.”
Hundreds of firefighters battled blazes across England as temperatures recorded at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire surged to a high of 40.3C – a full 1.6C higher than the previous high, set in 2019.

“There is an absolutely huge spike on each of these two days,” said Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, chair of the Winton centre for risk and evidence communication at the University of Cambridge. “Deaths due to cold tend to be much more diffuse over time. Heat can kill more suddenly. These excess deaths are just because of the heat because the spike is so clear. It is rare to get a spike like that unless there is a massive accident. It is extraordinary data and shows the harm of extreme heat.”
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
The environment and health modelling lab at LSTHM had estimated the excess deaths would total 966 over four days. The government declared a level 4 heat alert, meaning “Illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups”.
[ad_2]
#Hottest #day #deaths #normal #England
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Gallego set to launch Senate bid, teeing up potential Sinema challenge

[ad_1]
A clash between Gallego and Sinema would inevitably turn chaotic and become one of the most highest-profile races in the country, pitting a 43-year-old former Marine and combat veteran against a 46-year-old triathlete and bipartisan deal-cutter. Sinema, in 2018, became the first Democrat to win a Senate race in the state in three decades, but Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has won two races since with a more progressive record, suggesting there are multiple pathways for the party to win in the state.
However, Gallego is unlikely to have uniform Democratic backing across the country, at least until Sinema makes a decision. Sinema has not yet decided whether to run for reelection and recently switched her party affiliation, though she essentially still caucuses with the Democrats.
That puts the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and others in the caucus in an awkward position, as they determine whether to consider her an incumbent they have to defend. She’s one of three independent senators who caucuses with the Democrats.
Sinema told local radio on Friday that people in her state are worn out from the last campaign and said she’s focused on immigration reform and other issues rather than her campaign: “I’m not really thinking about or talking about the election.
“A never-ending focus on campaign politics is why so many people hate politics,” she told KTAR.
The DSCC did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The party’s next moves after Gallego’s announcement will be critical, because Republicans are certain to contest the seat and Democrats will need to determine who is the most viable candidate to defeat a GOP contender. Both Kari Lake and Blake Masters, the 2022 nominees in the gubernatorial and Senate races, are among Arizona Republicans seen as potential contenders for the seat.
Gallego’s imminent Senate launch was first reported by Newsweek.

Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#Gallego #set #launch #Senate #bid #teeing #potential #Sinema #challenge
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 21, 2023
Santos leans on group with white nationalist ties

[ad_1]

And as scrutiny of Santos has intensified, he’s reached out to others at the club.
The club’s president, Gavin Wax, who, per FEC records, gave $500 to Santos’ joint fundraising committee in September, told POLITICO that the congressman called him last weekend. “He didn’t say much beyond how stressed he is and asking me how I’ve been,” Wax said. “I think he just wanted to speak to someone.”
But like others in conservative circles, even The New York Young Republican Club is distancing itself from Santos amid revelations that he fabricated numerous parts of his résumé, including false claims that he attended New York University and worked for Goldman Sachs. Santos has admitted that he has embellished his biography, but he has argued that others in politics have done the same.
Wax said the club won’t endorse Santos if he runs again in 2024, though unlike a number of New York House Republicans, it is not calling for his resignation. He described Santos’ relationship with the club as one of “self-interest” because of its influence in the district. He questioned whether the freshman congressman had fixed beliefs, saying he was “trying to play all sides” but aligned himself with the far right because that’s the coalition he thought would be most useful. He said that members suspected Santos was exaggerating his biography but that they kept him in the loop because he “was able to back it up with money.”
“The thing that made him good at being a con man was that he could align himself with whatever group he was addressing,” Wax said. As for that money he gave, he added, “I wish I got it back.”
A spokesperson for Santos, who is under investigation over his finances amid questions about how he was wealthy enough to lend his campaign $700,000, did not return a message seeking comment.
The relationship that has developed over time between Santos and The New York Young Republican Club is a microcosm of the odd place the congressman has found himself within the larger conservative firmament. Hoping to stay afloat politically, Santos has sought to forge alliances with some of the movement’s more extreme institutions and members. But it’s not entirely clear if they’re all that interested in having him in their ranks.
The degree to which Santos agrees ideologically with those extreme elements of The New York Young Republican Club is difficult to know. He embraced the group’s endorsement of his fledgling campaign in 2021, with the press release citing his commitment to fighting socialism — and a promise to not take a salary in Congress.

One New York Republican leader granted anonymity to speak freely about party tensions said Santos, who is gay, at times clashed with other members of the club over “values.”
“There were some individuals in that group that don’t support gay marriage, there was a little bit of contention there. George was offended because he didn’t feel like anybody stepped up,” the leader said.
And while some members of the New York Young Republican Club have chronicled meetings with far-right European leaders on social media, Santos largely avoided that issue in public. When Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, spoke at CPAC in August, Santos joked about him on Twitter — with “no disrespect,” he wrote in the tweet.
But within the city’s GOP circles, it is believed that the group served as a springboard to help the congressman pull off the win in his congressional race this past November. A New York Republican leader, granted anonymity to talk freely about intraparty tensions, said Wax in particular has proved to be a steady ally to Santos through the tumult.
“George’s inner circle has changed at least two or three times since [the summer],” said the Republican leader. “The consistent people have been Gavin and Vish [Burra].”
Despite its innocuous sounding name, the New York Young Republican Club is known for its support of far-right figures. The group recently endorsed Orbán, and Wax spoke at a December gathering that featured white nationalists from the U.S. and Europe, including members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has faced scrutiny in its own country for extremist ties. Santos also attended, along with a newly elected Florida House member, Cory Mills.
Domestically, it has closely aligned itself with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon and “Pizzagate” conspiracist Jack Posobiec. Burra, who is working for Santos in Washington, is a former producer of Bannon’s podcast who touts a role in exposing “the Hunter Biden ‘laptop from hell.’”
In the process, the club has gained political clout on the right. Within the past few years, Wax grew the group from a political backwater with a small membership to a robust kind of Junior League for Manhattan Republicans who flock to events like “Wine Wednesday” and gather at a midtown clubhouse with exposed brick walls and a vintage tin ceiling.
In addition to Santos, the group counts New York GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney and Marc Molinaro among its members, as well as the newly elected Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), a reflection of the group’s integration with the Republican Party. The club’s board members include Tyler Bowyer, who was among the Trump allies who signed fraudulent electoral vote certificates sent to Congress as part of the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. There’s also Michelle Malkin, a longtime conservative pundit who has appeared at events with white nationalists including a former Ku Klux Klan lawyer.
Wax doesn’t hide from these associations — he touts them as evidence of political cachet. He said the club rejects the “premise and narrative” that endorsements of Orbán and others “are beyond the pale and outside of polite society.”
“If you believe the Trump wing is racist, then there’s nothing we can do,” he said. “They’re big names in the conservative right wing of the party. If that’s the new level of controversy then, sure, we’re controversial.” Of the December event with European officials from parties with authoritarian influences, Wax said: “We reject the premise and narrative that these parties are beyond the pale and outside of polite society.”

[ad_2]
#Santos #leans #group #white #nationalist #ties
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 21, 2023
Family of Toronto man allegedly killed by teen girls criticizes law keeping identities secret

[ad_1]
The family of the Toronto man allegedly killed by teen girls in a “swarming” attack have denounced “flaws” in the criminal justice system, criticizing the opacity surrounding youth cases involving serious crimes.
Eight teenage girls have been charged with murder over the death of Ken Lee, who was repeatedly stabbed at a plaza near the main rail station in Canada’s largest city in the early hours of 18 December. Three of the girls are 13, three are 14 and two are 16.
Because of their age, none of the suspects can be identified under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act and few details can be printed by media outlets because of publication bans.
“How is the Act protecting the public if we don’t know who these perpetrators are and why they are released on bail?” Lee’s family said in a statement.
One of the suspects was granted bail in late December and is permitted to return to school. The teen cannot contact her co-accused, possess any weapons or use a mobile phone. She must also remain within the province of Ontario. The remaining suspects are pleading their cases for bail this week and next week.
Toronto police have also linked the group of teens to a series of assaults at downtown subways stations that same evening.
“For serious crimes, these perpetrators should not have any privacy rights or bail,” the family said. “The public should be aware of who these individuals are to protect themselves. The perpetrators must be named in order to bring forth more victims, witness(es) and evidence.”
The family also criticized the court’s decision to permit at least one of the accused to return to school.

“As a parent, my question to the lawmakers who wrote the Youth Criminal Justice Act is how are you protecting my child if the perpetrator cannot be named and she could be in my child’s school or class?”
Following the murder of a police officer last month, Canada’s bail system has come under scrutiny, with political leaders and police chiefs calling for tighter conditions, especially on firearms offences, despite evidence that a majority of those out on bail – who are legally innocent – rarely commit new crimes.
Lee, who had spent years in the city’s shelter system, is believed to have been attacked after he tried to stop the group of teens from stealing a bottle of alcohol from a friend.
“Just note that Ken was a kind soul with a heart of gold … He was not in the system due to alcohol or drug abuse,” his family said. “He was a man with pride who had fallen and wanted to learn to stand up on his own knowing that he always had his family behind him.”
[ad_2]
#Family #Toronto #man #allegedly #killed #teen #girls #criticizes #law #keeping #identities #secret
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 20, 2023
US ‘cult’ leader given 60 years in prison for sexual and emotional abuse

[ad_1]
A financial fraudster who lured students at an elite New York liberal arts college into a cult-like world of sexual, physical and emotional abuse was sentenced on Friday to 60 years in federal prison.
Larry Ray, born Lawrence Grecco, was found guilty in April of sex trafficking and racketeering, among other related charges, stemming from the psychological manipulation – and ensuing physical violence – against his daughter’s roommates at Sarah Lawrence College.
“It was sadism, pure and simple,” Judge Lewis Liman said in handing down the sentence, shortly after saying that Ray, 63, used his “evil genius” to torment his victims.
Authorities became aware of his criminal behavior following an explosive New York magazine feature.
During Ray’s four-week Manhattan federal court trial – during which he had several medical episodes – prosecutors laid out a chilling chronology of events that started when Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room around late 2010. Ray engaged in “therapy” sessions with some of her roommates under the false pretense of helping them navigate psychological issues.
Ray cast himself as a “father figure”, and several of the roommates moved into an apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood the following summer. The one-bedroom flat devolved into a house of horrors, they said in their indictment against him.
Ray engaged in still more spurious “therapy” sessions with students, convincing them to reveal deeply “intimate” details about their lives. He subsequently “alienated” several of his victims from their parents and convinced some that they were “broken” and “in need of fixing” – by him, charging papers said
After securing these students’ trust, Ray commenced “interrogation sessions” that mostly involved physical and verbal abuse. He made false allegations against the students during these sessions, including claims of property damage and, in one preposterous instance, accusations that one victim tried to poison him.

Ray once put a knife against one male victim’s throat until he confessed to wrongdoing, and placed a chokehold around another male victim’s neck, making him lose consciousness.
He slammed one female victim against the ground after she returned home with food that became cold. Ray also forced three female victims to work on a family property in North Carolina, where he kept food under lock and key – forcing them to work “in the middle of the night” and sleep outside despite the summer heat, prosecutors said in court papers.
Four years after Ray entered these students’ lives, he told one female victim that she should engage in prostitution to repay him for purported property damage. The victim, Claudia Drury, did so from about 2014 to 2018.
“I became a prostitute,” Drury testified and, according to the New York Times, said. “It was Larry’s suggestion.” Ray, who had sexually groomed Drury for several years prior, then pocketed more than $500,000 she had made from prostitution.
Drury also told jurors that Ray became livid after she told one of her clients about parts of her life. He threatened to waterboard her.
Drury provided a victim-impact statement to the court that was read by her friend.
“It was unrelenting sadism,” Drury’s statement said.
“It was hell – it was a deliberate, educated, and sustained campaign to break me,” Drury added. “Every time I was forced to prostitute myself … I felt myself getting more numb.”
“I barely have the energy to exist day to day,” Drury also said of the ongoing emotional impact.
Santos Rosario, who was also victimized by Ray, gave a victim-impact statement in court. “He drove me to attempt suicide more than once and at one point, I was contemplating it daily,” Rosario said.
As Ray’s victims provided statements, he looked at them attentively, though showed no sign of emotion. When Ray entered his sentencing hearing, he walked with a limp, and wore headphones throughout the proceeding.
In pushing for a life sentence, prosecutors said that “over a period of years, he intentionally inflicted brutal and life-long harm on innocent victims that he groomed and abused into submission”.
“While the defendant’s victims descended into self-hatred, self-harm, and suicidal attempts under his coercive control, the evidence showed that the defendant took sadistic pleasure in their pain, and enjoyed the fruits of their suffering,” they argued in court papers.
Prosectors vehemently argued that lust for money was not Ray’s only motivation. “He also enjoyed being cruel,” they argued.
“It is obvious, for example, that his victims, without any experience with physical labor or construction equipment, had no real chance of making productive financial improvements to the property in North Carolina – and yet the defendant forced them to toil senselessly under punishing conditions for weeks on end simply to revel in their Sisyphean struggle,” they said.
“When his victims expressed anguish or guilt, he feigned sympathy and twisted the knife in deeper.
“He baited his victims to attempt suicide and then stymied their recoveries, while pretending to be the only one concerned with their wellbeing.” Their arguments in court echoed their sentencing paperwork.
Ray’s defense, on the other hand, contended in court papers that any sentence exceeding 15 years would be “unnecessary”. They also claimed that Ray himself grew up in an abusive home.
Ray’s grandmother hit him with a cat o’ nine tails, a “whip intended for severe physical punishment”. And, as Ray was forced to sleep on top of a pile of blankets in his grandmother’s basement, his grandfather sexually assaulted him, they said.
When Ray’s lawyers had their chance to argue in favor of a less-than-life sentence, they extensively discussed his purported suffering. Ray didn’t have anyone at court to support him which, they said, “speaks volumes” – namely, that he is alone in the world following the recent deaths of his father, stepfather and stepmother.
Ray also had the chance to address Liman and when he did so, largely cast himself as a victim, even appearing to choke up. “These three years I’ve spent in jail have been hell,” Ray said.
Ray rattled off a list of alleged health maladies – numbing and tingling in his extremities, ear-ringing, “very frightening” lesions – and the many medical specialists who have not been able to determine what is wrong. “Being in jail has been horrible,” he said.
[ad_2]
#cult #leader #years #prison #sexual #emotional #abuse
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 20, 2023
Italy seeks Russian oligarch whose seized yachts disappeared from Sardinia

[ad_1]
Italian authorities are on the hunt for a Russian oligarch after two of his luxury yachts that were seized under EU sanctions mysteriously disappeared from a port in Sardinia.
A public notice informing Dmitry Mazepin, the billionaire owner of a mineral fertiliser company, of the penalties against him over the alleged illegal removal of the vessels has been issued by the town hall of Forte dei Marmi, the Tuscan coastal resort where the oligarch owns a home.
The yachts, both called Aldabra but featuring maritime flags of two different countries, went missing from the Sardinian port of Olbia within weeks of each other last summer.
They were seized last March after Mazepin, who is the father of the former Formula One driver Nikita Mazepin, was named on the sanctions list a few weeks after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It is the first case in Italy of a Russian with assets frozen in the country who has managed to dodge EU sanctions.
An investigation led by Olbia’s finance police found that the first vessel, said to be worth between €700,000 and €1m (between £613,000 and £876,000), left Olbia in June and made a stopover at the small port of Bizerte in Tunisia.
The second yacht is known to have left Olbia for Savona, a port in the northern Italian region of Liguria, before heading to Turkey. The current whereabouts of the yachts and their owner is unknown.
Police said Mazepin hired a foreign company, which in turn hired a Sardinian captain to move the yachts away from Italy.

The intermediary company and captain have both been hit with fines of up to €500,000. Mazepin faces the same penalties.
A police source said that he is fiscally resident in Forte dei Marmi, a popular destination for Russian oligarchs before the war in Ukraine, as he owns a villa in the town, hence why the notice was issued there.
A villa in Sardinia owned by Mazepin is also among the Russian-owned assets frozen across the island. Mazepin bought the villa, called Rocky Ram, from Carlo De Benedetti, an Italian businessman and former owner of La Repubblica newspaper.
[ad_2]
#Italy #seeks #Russian #oligarch #seized #yachts #disappeared #Sardinia
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 20, 2023