Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Supreme court rejects Trump bid to shield documents from January 6 panel
Court’s move leaves no legal impediment to turning National Archives documents over to congressional committee
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Thu 20 Jan 2022 01.28 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/19/us-capitol-riot-trump-documents-national-archives
New York AG says Trump’s company misled banks, tax officials
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
today
https://apnews.com/article/business-trump-investigations-donald-trump-new-york-b4895a63c5aee3991a2ffc42becfb564
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York attorney general’s office late Tuesday told a court its investigators had uncovered evidence that former President Donald Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits.
The court filing said state authorities haven’t yet decided whether to bring a civil lawsuit in connection with the allegations, but that investigators need to question Trump and his two eldest children as part of the probe.
Trump and his lawyers say the investigation is politically motivated.
In the court documents, Attorney General Letitia James’ office gave its most detailed accounting yet of a long-running investigation of allegations that Trump’s company exaggerated the value of assets to get favorable loan terms, or misstated what land was worth to slash its tax burden.
The Trump Organization, it said, had overstated the value of land donations made in New York and California on paperwork submitted to the IRS to justify several million dollars in tax deductions.
The company misreported the size of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse, saying it was nearly three times its actual size — a difference in value of about $200 million, James’ office said, citing deposition testimony from Trump’s longtime financial chief Allen Weisselberg, who was charged last year with tax fraud in a parallel criminal investigation.
James’ office detailed its findings in a court motion seeking to force Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. to comply with subpoenas seeking their testimony.
Investigators, the court papers said, had “developed significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions.”
Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers for the Trumps.
Trump’s legal team has sought to block the subpoenas, calling them “an unprecedented and unconstitutional maneuver.” They say James is improperly attempting to obtain testimony that could be used in the parallel criminal investigation, being overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Trump sued James in federal court last month, seeking to put an end to her investigation. In the suit, his lawyers claimed the attorney general, a Democrat, had violated the Republican’s constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”
In the past, the Republican ex-president has decried James’ investigation and Bragg’s probe as part of a “witch hunt.”
In a statement late Tuesday, James office said that it hasn’t decided whether to pursue legal action, but said the evidence gathered so far shows the investigation should proceed unimpeded.
“For more than two years, the Trump Organization has used delay tactics and litigation in an attempt to thwart a legitimate investigation into its financial dealings,” James said. “Thus far in our investigation, we have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit.”
Although James’ civil investigation is separate from the criminal investigation, her office has been involved in both, dispatching several lawyers to work side-by-side with prosecutors from the Manhattan D.A.’s office.
James’ office said that under state law, it could seek ”a broad range of remedies” against companies found to have committed commercial fraud, “including revoking a license to conduct business within the state, moving to have an officer or director removed from board of directors, and restitution and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.”
In the court papers, James’ office said evidence shows that Trump’s company:
-- Listed his Seven Springs estate north of New York City as being worth $291 million, based on the dubious assumption that it could reap $161 million from building nine luxury homes.
-- Added a “brand premium” of 15% to 30% to the value of some properties because they carried the Trump name, despite financial statements explicitly stating they didn’t incorporate brand value.
-- Inflated the value of a suburban New York golf club by millions of dollars by counting fees for memberships that weren’t sold or were never paid.
-- Valued a Park Avenue condominium tower at $350 million, based on proceeds it could reap from unsold units, even though many of those apartments were likely to sell for less because they were covered by rent stabilization laws.
— Valued an apartment being rented to Ivanka Trump at as high as $25 million, even though she had an option to buy it for $8.5 million.
-- Said in documents that its stake in an office building, 40 Wall Street, was worth $525 million to $602 million -- between two to three times the estimate reached by appraisers working for the lender Capital One.
One judge has previously sided with James on an earlier request to question another Trump son, Trump Organization executive Eric Trump, who ultimately sat for a deposition but declined to answer some questions.
Last year, the Manhattan district attorney brought tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg, its longtime chief financial officer.
Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he and the company evaded taxes on lucrative fringe benefits paid to executives.
Both investigations are at least partly related to allegations made in news reports and by Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets.
The disclosures about the attorney general’s investigation came the same day as Trump ally Rudy Giuliani and other members of the legal team that had sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election were subpoenaed by a House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
https://apnews.com/article/business-trump-investigations-donald-trump-new-york-b4895a63c5aee3991a2ffc42becfb564
Maddow's bombshell: MSNBC host reveals suspicious link between GOP's "forged" election documents
“We now know: multiple states — Republicans in multiple states — had sent in false assertions and forged documents"
By ALEX HENDERSON
PUBLISHED JANUARY 13, 2022 6:03PM (EST)
https://www.salon.com/2022/01/13/maddows-bombshell-msnbc-host-reveals-suspicious-link-between-gops-forged-documents_partner/
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has been offering in-depth analysis of MAGA Republicans' efforts to undermine the Electoral College results in states that now-President Joe Biden won in 2020, including sending out fake electors. And in a recent broadcast, the liberal MSNBC host reported that those fake electors tried to pull off that deception in "at least" five different states.
Maddow showed five Electoral College documents side by side on the screen, explaining, "I picked these five states to show you what the real electoral vote ascertainment documents look like. I picked these five because thanks to the watchdog group American Oversight, we now know that in all five of these states, Republicans also prepared forged fake documents that were sent to the government — proclaiming that actually, these other electors were the real electors from these states, and they were casting the states' Electoral College votes not for Biden, but for Trump."
...
MUCH MORE
https://www.salon.com/2022/01/13/maddows-bombshell-msnbc-host-reveals-suspicious-link-between-gops-forged-documents_partner/
Analysis: U.S. built 'textbook' case of sedition charges for Capitol attack -legal experts
By Jan Wolfe
January 14, 2022 12:04 PM GMT
Last Updated 44 minutes ago
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-built-textbook-case-sedition-charges-capitol-attack-legal-experts-2022-01-14/?taid=61e17057b732710001520c5e&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors appear to have proceeded carefully in bringing sedition charges against 11 people linked to a far-right militia who took part in the deadly 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and are likely to obtain convictions, legal experts said.
An indictment was released on Thursday against the founder of Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and 10 purported members of the group, accusing them of conspiring to forcefully oppose the transfer of power between then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, to his successor, Democrat Joe Biden.
Seditious conspiracy is defined as attempting "to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States" and the U.S. Department of Justice has been wary of lodging such a charge in part because of losing a case 12 years ago, a former government lawyer said.
The indictment for the Jan. 6 attack is "thorough and rigorous," said Alan Rozenshtein, a former Justice Department national security lawyer who teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School.
"I don't think there is much the defendants can say here," said Rozenshtein. "This is the textbook definition of seditious conspiracy. If this isn't seditious conspiracy what is?"
The sedition charges are the first against participants in the storming of the building by Trump supporters after he gave a fiery speech repeating his false claims that his November 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. U.S. prosecutors have brought criminal charges against at least 725 people linked to the riot.
The seditious conspiracy charges were filed a year and a week after the assault amid concern from some Democrats and advocates that the Justice Department had been too sparing in bringing serious criminal charges against people who stormed the building or planned for violence.
The Oath Keepers are a loosely organized group of activists who believe that the federal government is encroaching on their rights, and focus on recruiting current and former police, emergency services and military members.
'STACK' ATTACK
Members of the group moved up the Capitol steps on Jan. 6, 2021, in a military-style "stack" formation and wearing tactical gear, the indictment said. Nine of the 11 people named in the indictment were already facing charges.
"We aren't going through this without civil war. Too late for that. Prepare your mind, body and spirit," Rhodes said in a November 5, 2020, Signal message, according to prosecutors.
They said that in December 2020 Rhodes wrote of the certification of Biden's election win scheduled for Jan. 6 that "there is no standard political or legal way out of this."
Amy Cooter, an expert on U.S. militia movements and a lecturer at Vanderbilt University, said: "It's important to reserve seditious conspiracy for serious cases, and I personally think this is one."
A failed 2010 prosecution against a Christian nationalist militia called the Hutaree gave federal prosecutors pause, said Rozenshtein.
Members of the Hutaree were charged with conspiring to kill a Michigan police officer and then ambush the officer's colleagues who would have gathered for the funeral. But the seditious conspiracy charges were dropped after a judge ruled prosecutors had failed to prove that the militia members were doing anything more than talking about their hatred for authority.
Legal experts said that high-profile outcome highlighted a common issue in seditious conspiracy cases: that the charges might encroach on the broad free speech protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution.
In September 2020, amid civil unrest, then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr urged federal prosecutors to consider filing seditious conspiracy charges against people who engaged in violence at anti-police protests. That move drew immediate pushback from civil liberties group, who said the seditious conspiracy statute should be reserved for more dire threats to U.S. democracy.
Lawyers and extremism researchers said the Justice Department appears to have carefully vetted the Oath Keepers indictment, possibly using cooperating witnesses to build a more clear-cut case of attempting to overthrow the government.
One police officer who battled rioters on Jan. 6 died the day after the attack and four who guarded the Capitol later died by suicide. Four rioters also died, including a woman who was shot by a police officer while trying to climb through a shattered window. About 140 police officers were injured during the hours-long attack.
"The government has a strong case against the Oath Keepers," said Joshua Braver, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Unlike the Hutaree, the Oath Keepers "executed their real agreement to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-built-textbook-case-sedition-charges-capitol-attack-legal-experts-2022-01-14/?taid=61e17057b732710001520c5e&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
THE PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED IN THE JANUARY 6TH, 2021 INSURRECTION MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
https://insurrectionindex.org/
The Insurrection Index - goes live 06 Jan 22
More than 1,000 US public figures aided Trump’s effort to overturn election
Ed Pilkington
@edpilkington
The Guardian
Wed 5 Jan 2022 02.00 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/05/trump-capitol-attack-democracy-election-insurrection-index
The index shows the extent to which Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
----------------
The Insurrection Index identifies those who acted as accomplices by participating in 6 January attack or spreading Trump’s ‘big lie’
More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged.
The startling figure underlines the extent to which Trump’s attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Individuals who engaged in arguably the most serious attempt to subvert democracy since the civil war are now inveigling themselves into all levels of government, from Congress and state legislatures down to school boards and other local public bodies.
The finding that 1,011 individuals in the public realm played a role in election subversion around the 2020 presidential race comes from a new pro-democracy initiative that launched on Wednesday.
The Insurrection Index seeks to identify all those who supported Trump in his bid to hold on to power despite losing the election, in the hope that they can be held accountable and prevented from inflicting further damage to the democratic infrastructure of the country.
All of the more than 1,000 people recorded on the index have been invested with the public’s trust, having been entrusted with official positions and funded with taxpayer dollars. Many are current or former government employees at federal, state or local levels.
Among them are 213 incumbents in elected office and 29 who are running as candidates for positions of power in upcoming elections. There are also 59 military veterans, 31 current or former law enforcement officials, and seven who sit on local school boards.
When the index goes live on Thursday, it will contain a total of 1,404 records of those who played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. In addition to the 1,011 individuals, it lists 393 organizations deemed to have played a part in subverting democracy.
The index is the brainchild of Public Wise, a voting rights group whose mission is to fight for government that reflects the will and the rights of voters. Christina Baal-Owens, the group’s executive director, said that the index was conceived as an ongoing campaign designed to keep insurrectionists out of office.
“These are folks who silenced the voices of American voters, who took a validly held election and created fraudulent information to try to silence voters. They have no business being near legislation or being able to affect the lives of American people,” she said.
The project has been set up with legal advice from Marc Elias, one of the most influential election lawyers in the US who was Hillary Clinton’s top counsel in the 2016 presidential campaign and who successfully led Joe Biden’s resistance to Trump’s blitzkrieg of lawsuits contesting the 2020 results. Elias told the Guardian that the index was needed urgently to avoid history repeating itself in 2024 or beyond.
“We are one, maybe two elections away from a constitutional crisis over election subversion,” he said. “If we don’t recognize who was behind the attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, then next time we will be less prepared and it may succeed.”
Elias said he saw the index as an example of the kinds of robust action progressives need to take to combat an unprecedented wave of anti-democratic legislation emanating from Republicans in the past 12 months. While Trump had reshaped the right to be laser-focused on elections and winning at all costs, Democrats are spreading their energies thinly between a number of causes of which protecting democracy was just one, he said.
“The central theme of the Republican party today is undermining free and fair elections. Under Trump that has become a credential within the party, and we can’t let those folks win without a fight because if we do we lose our democracy.”
The individuals recorded on the index who are already in public office include the 147 members of Congress who objected to the certification of the 2020 election result. The list also names many elected officials in state legislatures across the nation, including states like Arizona that were ground zero for Trump’s efforts to steal the election from Biden.
Jake Hoffman, a lawmaker who represents Arizona’s 12th district, wrote to fellow Republicans a day before the Capitol insurrection urging them to pressure then vice-president Mike Pence into blocking Biden’s victory. “Vice-President Pence has the power to delay congressional certification and seek clarification from state legislatures in contested states as to which slate of electors are proper and accurate,” Hoffman wrote, reflecting a theory embraced by Trump that has been thoroughly rebutted.
The week before the insurrection, 17 Arizona state lawmakers wrote to Pence urging him to “block the use of any Electors from Arizona” despite multiple counts by then establishing that Biden had won the state by more than 10,000 votes. Among the signatories was Mark Finchem, a member of the Arizona House of representatives who was present at Trump’s “stop the steal” rally in Washington on 6 January and who is now vying to become Arizona secretary of state – the top election official who oversees the presidential count.
Among the 59 individuals on the index with military backgrounds is Christopher Warnagiris, who in June became the first active-duty member of the armed forces to be charged in relation with the Capitol assault. Despite facing nine counts of assault and violent entry, he has been permitted to continue serving within the training and education section at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Public Wise has drawn on a number of public information sources to compile the index, working in partnership with other pro-democracy groups who have added specialist skills. The partners include American Oversight, a non-partisan organisation that has used freedom of information laws to extract information from government agencies that exposes participants in the big lie.
“The goal is to build up a holistic picture so that nothing can fall through the cracks and no one can slip away,” said Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight. “We ask: who is this cc’d on this email? What handle is this on a social media account? If we can connect the dots we can ensure accountability can be brought to bear.”
Evers said that the most chilling revelation of the research was that the 6 January insurrection was inspired by an ideology that was supported by people in power. “State legislators in Arizona were involved in the run-up to January 6 and after January 6 used their positions to drive the big lie. That feels cancerous – the attack on democracy has the backing of political, and even governmental, infrastructure.”
One likely charge leveled at the new index by rightwing individuals and groups is that it is a form of “cancel culture”, designed to silence anyone airing uncomfortable views. Baal-Owens dismisses any such criticism.
“Our call to action is about voting, not doxing,” she said, pointing out that no private information is included on the index. “The call to action is not to show up at this person’s house or chase their child to school, but to allow every registered voter to have an educated way to cast their vote.”
The groups behind the index hope that it will alert voters to the anti-democratic actions of people running for elected office. The value of such a record, they believe, would increase exponentially were the Republicans to take back control of Congress in this year’s midterm elections, leading almost certainly to an abrupt halt in congressional investigations into the events of 6 January.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/05/trump-capitol-attack-democracy-election-insurrection-index
Companies race to stem flood of microplastic fibres into the oceans
New products range from washing machine filters and balls to fabrics made from kelp and orange peel
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Thu 30 Dec 2021 11.28 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/30/companies-race-to-stem-flood-of-microplastic-fibres-into-the-oceans
From filters to bags to balls, the number of products aimed at stopping the torrent of microplastic fibres being flushed out of washing machines and into rivers and oceans is increasing rapidly.
Grundig recently became the first appliance manufacturer to integrate a microfibre filter into a washing machine, while a British company has developed a system that does away with disposable fibre-trapping filters.
Entrepreneurs are also tackling the problem at source, by developing biodegradable fabrics from kelp and orange peel, and tweaking a self-healing protein originally discovered in squid tentacles.
...
MUCH MORE
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/30/companies-race-to-stem-flood-of-microplastic-fibres-into-the-oceans
Capitol panel to investigate Trump call to Willard hotel in hours before attack
Committee to request contents of the call seeking to stop Biden’s certification and may subpoena Rudy Giuliani
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Mon 27 Dec 2021 10.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/27/capitol-attack-panel-investigate-trump-call-willard-hotel-before-assault
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, has said the panel will open an inquiry into Donald Trump’s phone call seeking to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January hours before the insurrection.
The chairman said the select committee intended to scrutinize the phone call – revealed last month by the Guardian – should they prevail in their legal effort to obtain Trump White House records over the former president’s objections of executive privilege.
“That’s right,” Thompson said when asked by the Guardian whether the select committee would look into Trump’s phone call, and suggested House investigators had already started to consider ways to investigate Trump’s demand that Biden not be certified as president on 6 January.
Thompson said the select committee could not ask the National Archives for records about specific calls, but noted “if we say we want all White House calls made on January 5 and 6, if he made it on a White House phone, then obviously we would look at it there.”
The Guardian reported last month that Trump, according to multiple sources, called lieutenants based at the Willard hotel in Washington DC from the White House in the late hours of 5 January and sought ways to stop Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January.
Trump first told the lieutenants his vice-president, Mike Pence, was reluctant to go along with the plan to commandeer his ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress in a way that would allow Trump to retain the presidency for a second term, the sources said.
But as Trump relayed to them the situation with Pence, the sources said, on at least one call, he pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January in a scheme to get alternate slates of electors for Trump sent to Congress.
The former president’s remarks came as part of wider discussions he had with the lieutenants at the Willard – a team led by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn and Trump strategist Steve Bannon – about delaying the certification, the sources said.
House investigators in recent months have pursued an initial in into Trump’s contacts with lieutenants at the Willard, issuing a flurry of subpoenas compelling documents and testimony to crucial witnesses, including Bannon and Eastman.
But Thompson said that the select committee would now also investigate both the contents of Trump’s phone calls to the Willard and the White House’s potential involvement, in a move certain to intensify the pressure on the former president’s inner circle.
“If we get the information that we requested,” Thompson said of the select committee’s demands for records from the Trump White House and Trump aides, “those calls potentially will be reflected to the Willard hotel and whomever.”
A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment about what else such a line of inquiry might involve. But a subpoena to Giuliani, the lead Trump lawyer at the Willard, is understood to be in the offing, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Guardian reported that the night before the Capitol attack, Trump called the lawyers and non-lawyers at the Willard separately, because Giuliani did not want to have non-lawyers participate on sensitive calls and jeopardize claims to attorney-client privilege.
It was not clear whether Giulaini might invoke attorney-client privilege as a way to escape cooperating with the investigation in the event of a subpoena, but Congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee, noted the protection does not confer broad immunity.
“The attorney-client privilege does not operate to shield participants in a crime from an investigation into a crime,” Raskin said. “If it did, then all you would have to do to rob a bank is bring a lawyer with you, and be asking for advice along the way.”
The Guardian also reported Trump made several calls the day before the Capitol attack from both the White House residence, his preferred place to work, as well as the West Wing, but it was not certain from which location he phoned his top lieutenants at the Willard.
The distinction is significant as phone calls placed from the White House residence, even from a landline desk phone, are not automatically memorialized in records sent to the National Archives after the end of an administration.
That means even if the select committee succeeds in its litigation to pry free Trump’s call detail records from the National Archives, without testimony from people with knowledge of what was said, House investigators might only learn the target and time of the calls.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/27/capitol-attack-panel-investigate-trump-call-willard-hotel-before-assault
Capitol rioters hit with severe sentences and sharp reprimands from judges
Some of the longest sentences have gone to rioters charged with ‘assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon’
Maya Yang
Thu 23 Dec 2021 10.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/23/capitol-rioters-severe-sentences-reprimands-judges
Judges across the US have been handing down stiff sentences and hard words in recent weeks for extremist supporters of Donald Trump who took part in the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
Since a federal judge sentenced Jacob Chansley, the US Capitol rioter nicknamed the “QAnon shaman” for his horned headdress, to 41 months in prison last month, more US judges have been delivering strict sentences to defendants charged over their roles in the attacks earlier this year.
Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots. With hundreds facing criminal charges, Trump has come under growing scrutiny from the House select committee investigating the attacks.
The longest sentence so far was handed down to a Florida man who threw a wooden plank and fire extinguisher at police officers during the riots. On 17 December, Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Robert Palmer to 63 months of jail time, describing the prison term as “the consequence of those actions”.
According to Chutkan, individuals who attempted to “violently overthrow the government” and “stop the peaceful transition of power” would be met with “absolutely certain punishment”.
At his hearing, Palmer said he was “really, really ashamed” of his behavior, adding that he was “absolutely devastated” to see the “coldness and calculation” that he used to attack Capitol police.
On Tuesday, a Washington state man was sentenced to 46 months of prison time for assaulting police officers with a speaker and a metal baton during the riots. According to court documents, Devlyn Thompson helped move police shields up against a line of rioters in a tunnel, as well as hit police officers.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth told Thompson, “The violence that happened that day was such a blatant disregard to the institutions of government … You’re shoving and pushing … and participating in this riot for hours.”
Thompson is the second rioter, after Palmer, to be sentenced for the felony of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon. More than 140 other rioters face the same charge.
Lamberth also sentenced an 81-year-old Army veteran on the same day to three years of probation for illegally breaching the Capitol.
Gary Wickersham, one of the oldest of more than 700 rioters facing charges, was sentenced to 90 days of home detention, and will also have to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 for building damage.
Defense lawyers argued against any confinement, saying that Wickersham would be unable to visit his grandchildren during his “golden years”.
During his hearing, Wickersham asked for “mercy” from Lamberth and explained that he went to the Capitol because “you get bored” sitting at home.
“Mr Wickersham, I appreciate what you’ve done here. I think you have led the way for others to recognize that the jig is up,” said Lamberth. The 78-year-old judge also told Wickersham that he is “the first defendant I’ve had that’s older than me in quite some time”.
On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania man was also sentenced over his involvement in the riots after his wife accidentally implicated him in a Facebook status. US District Judge James Boasberg sentenced Gary Edwards to one year of probation, 200 hours of community service, as well as a $2,500 fine and $500 in damage fees.
In a since deleted Facebook post, Edward’s wife wrote, “Okay ladies, let me tell you what happened as my husband was there inside the Capitol,” adding, “these were people who watched their rights being taken away, their votes stolen from them, their state officials violating the constitution of their country.”
According to authorities, Edwards took pictures, helped teargassed protesters and entered an office of an unidentified congressional official.
“There really is no more serious and profound action democracy takes than the certifying of a lawful and fair election,” Boasberg said. “And to the extent anyone would interfere with that, particularly with force of violence, they strike at the root of democracy,” he added.
That message would seem to go for organizers of the 6 January events as well as participants in the violence.
On 22 November, US District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Capitol rioter Frank Scavo to 60 days in prison, one of the strictest sentences handed down to a misdemeanor defendant and more than four times the prosecutor’s recommendation of two weeks.
Scavo, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania and former school board official, was found guilty of chartering buses to transport approximately 200 residents from Pennsylvania to the Capitol on 6 January.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/23/capitol-rioters-severe-sentences-reprimands-judges
The myth of an overcrowded Britain suits our island psyche – and this government
Andy Beckett
Thu 23 Dec 2021 12.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/23/overcrowded-britain-myth-brexit-tories
Through Brexit, the Tories effectively promised a less crowded and less cosmopolitan country. And that is what they have created
Britain is full. That vague but powerful assumption has shaped so much of our politics. From the Brexit campaign with its “breaking point” poster of a queue of migrants and refugees, and border-fixated home secretaries from Jack Straw to Priti Patel, to the regular immigration panics spread by newspapers to voters, the idea that these small islands have reached their maximum viable population has become hugely influential.
It’s a convenient situation for the right. Blame for congestion and strained public services can be placed on population growth and migrants, rather than on our profoundly unequal patterns of land ownership and use or Conservative cuts in state spending. But the idea that Britain is full – or too full already – also appeals more widely: to some environmentalists, to people who like peace and quiet, and dislike cities or new housing developments, or think that being British is a privilege that needs protecting. A fear of overcrowding is deep in our island psyche.
And over recent decades the UK population has undeniably changed quite dramatically. Between 1981 and the beginning of the pandemic, it grew by more than a fifth, or about 12 million people. Meanwhile, the number of people visiting the UK also surged, almost doubling during the first two decades of this century. So many factors contributed to these increases – from globalisation and the end of the cold war to EU membership and improvements in life expectancy – that they seemed unstoppable. In British cities, where most of the influx took place, railway stations, restaurants, museums, schools and train carriages all got bigger.
How underpopulated those spaces have often been since the arrival of Covid-19. Lockdowns and anxiety about the virus do not fully explain the transformation. Far from having too many people, Britain may be in the early stages of a population decline – and it may last longer than the pandemic.
One recent Friday evening in central London, with Omicron yet to spread much and the Christmas shopping and drinking season theoretically in full swing, the usually packed pavements of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus were dotted with people walking unobstructed in small groups, surrounded by empty space. As absent as the usual crowds were the usual foreign accents. The tourism body VisitBritain expects that the number of foreign visitors this year will be more than 80% below its pre-pandemic figure – a much steeper fall than in comparable destinations such as France or Spain.
For Britain, where tourism is the fifth-largest sector of the economy and the source of a lot of national self-confidence, this is a big change – even if it has been masked in places by an increase in domestic visitors. Yet the suspension of our status as a leading destination may be less significant than what is happening to our more permanent population. In 2020 alone, according to the Economics Statistics Centre of Excellence, the number of UK residents may have dropped by “more than 1.3 million” – the largest fall since the second world war.
Other demographers estimate that there was a smaller fall or a tiny increase. But all agree that thanks to our terrible Covid death toll, a drop in the birthrate, and fewer EU and non-EU migrants after Brexit, the UK’s population boom has come to an end. If and when the pandemic fades, there is little confidence that this growth will resume. Even before Covid, the birthrate was falling, and the long modern rise in life expectancy was stalling – the latter almost certainly connected to Conservative austerity. Through Brexit and other policies, the Tories effectively promised a less crowded and less cosmopolitan country, and that is what they have created.
During the first lockdown, some people of all political persuasions relished the emptier, calmer streets. And with fewer foreign tourists, famous British places have felt more like meaningful national monuments and less like theme park attractions. Even the pompous plaza in front of Buckingham Palace had an atmosphere – a sort of stoical Victorian grandeur – when I found it almost deserted at dusk one day last summer.
But as with lockdowns, the appeal of this quieter country is wearing off. This year’s disruptive labour shortages are a sign that depopulation and consumerism are not completely compatible. In the longer term, we may also discover that living in a shrinking or static population is psychologically unsettling, even alarming. The last time Britain’s population stopped growing, in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, it was widely seen as a sign of national decline. When fewer people are choosing to live in a country, or to have children in it, that country feels less confident, and its prospects contract.
For now at least, many Conservative voters may not mind. Lots of them grew up in a postwar Britain with considerably fewer people, so they may feel that a return to those population levels is a restoration of the natural order. Alternatively, their opinions may not be that connected to social realities. During the Brexit referendum, the political journalist Stephen Bush visited Hull, and found that “the issue that moves [Brexit] voters” was “Britain is full”. Since the 1960s, the city’s population had actually fallen by a seventh. Yet Hull still voted leave by two to one.
Conversely, the most pro-EU and pro-immigration parts of Britain are often the most densely populated, such as inner London. Many Britons who have actually experienced life on a crowded island seem to like it.
It’s possible that the current population slump, like that of the 1970s and 1980s, will turn out to be temporary, ended by changes in economic and political conditions. But if it doesn’t, life on our archipelago at the edge of Europe will gradually become very different. One day, we may look back with nostalgia at when Britain felt full.
Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/23/overcrowded-britain-myth-brexit-tories
Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes in
Flurry of recent revelations raises the specter that the committee is swiftly heading towards an incriminating conclusion
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Mon 20 Dec 2021 07.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/capitol-attack-investigation-closes-in-trump
Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds
Surprising discovery shows scale of plastic pollution and reveals enzymes that could boost recycling
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Tue 14 Dec 2021 13.52 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/bugs-across-globe-are-evolving-to-eat-plastic-study-finds
Microbes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study.
The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic.
The study is the first large-scale global assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria and found that one in four of the organisms analysed carried a suitable enzyme. The researchers found that the number and type of enzymes they discovered matched the amount and type of plastic pollution in different locations.
The results “provide evidence of a measurable effect of plastic pollution on the global microbial ecology”, the scientists said.
Millions of tonnes of plastic are dumped in the environment every year, and the pollution now pervades the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. Reducing the amount of plastic used is vital, as is the proper collection and treatment of waste.
But many plastics are currently hard to degrade and recycle. Using enzymes to rapidly break down plastics into their building blocks would enable new products to be made from old ones, cutting the need for virgin plastic production. The new research provides many new enzymes to be investigated and adapted for industrial use.
“We found multiple lines of evidence supporting the fact that the global microbiome’s plastic-degrading potential correlates strongly with measurements of environmental plastic pollution – a significant demonstration of how the environment is responding to the pressures we are placing on it,” said Prof Aleksej Zelezniak, at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
Jan Zrimec, also at Chalmers University, said: “We did not expect to find such a large number of enzymes across so many different microbes and environmental habitats. This is a surprising discovery that really illustrates the scale of the issue.”
The explosion of plastic production in the past 70 years, from 2m tonnes to 380m tonnes a year, had given microbes time to evolve to deal with plastic, the researchers said. The study, published in the journal Microbial Ecology, started by compiling a dataset of 95 microbial enzymes already known to degrade plastic, often found in bacteria in rubbish dumps and similar places rife with plastic.
The team then looked for similar enzymes in environmental DNA samples taken by other researchers from 236 different locations around the world. Importantly, the researchers ruled out potential false positives by comparing the enzymes initially identified with enzymes from the human gut, which is not known to have any plastic-degrading enzymes.
About 12,000 of the new enzymes were found in ocean samples, taken at 67 locations and at three different depths. The results showed consistently higher levels of degrading enzymes at deeper levels, matching the higher levels of plastic pollution known to exist at lower depths.
The soil samples were taken from 169 locations in 38 countries and 11 different habitats and contained 18,000 plastic-degrading enzymes. Soils are known to contain more plastics with phthalate additives than the oceans and the researchers found more enzymes that attack these chemicals in the land samples.
Nearly 60% of the new enzymes did not fit into any known enzyme classes, the scientists said, suggesting these molecules degrade plastics in ways that were previously unknown.
“The next step would be to test the most promising enzyme candidates in the lab to closely investigate their properties and the rate of plastic degradation they can achieve,” said Zelezniak. “From there you could engineer microbial communities with targeted degrading functions for specific polymer types.”
The first bug that eats plastic was discovered in a Japanese waste dump in 2016. Scientists then tweaked it in 2018 to try to learn more about how it evolved, but inadvertently created an enzyme that was even better at breaking down plastic bottles. Further tweaks in 2020 increased the speed of degradation sixfold.
Another mutant enzyme was created in 2020 by the company Carbios that breaks down plastic bottles for recycling in hours. German scientists have also discovered a bacterium that feeds on the toxic plastic polyurethane, which is usually dumped in landfills.
Last week, scientists revealed that the levels of microplastics known to be eaten by people via their food caused damage to human cells in the laboratory.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/bugs-across-globe-are-evolving-to-eat-plastic-study-finds
Mark Meadows was at the center of the storm on 6 January. But only Trump could call it off
Trump’s former White House chief of staff has become a character of supreme interest to the Capitol attack committee, with a treasure trove of documents divulging golden nuggets of information
Ed Pilkington
@edpilkington
Sat 18 Dec 2021 07.00 GMT
...
MORE
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/18/mark-meadows-center-6-january-donald-trump
Pfizer’s anti-covid pill prevents severe illness and should work against omicron, company says
Antiviral pills needed urgently because variant poses threat to monoclonal antibody treatments
By Carolyn Y. Johnson
Today at 6:45 a.m. EST
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/14/does-pfizer-covid-pill-paxlovid-work/
As the omicron variant threatens to wipe out a mainstay of coronavirus treatment, Pfizer announced Tuesday that in a final analysis, its experimental antiviral pill sharply reduced hospitalizations and deaths among people at high risk of severe illness because of age or underlying medical conditions.
Reinforcing an earlier analysis from November, Pfizer’s drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90 percent when taken within three or five days of the onset of symptoms, the company announced. Preliminary laboratory studies suggest the easy-to-take drug will hold up against the omicron variant.
Two antiviral pills, Pfizer’s and one from Merck, are under consideration by regulators — and additional safe and effective treatment options can’t arrive soon enough.
The omicron variant that is rapidly taking over in South Africa and countries in Europe will probably evade — or at least severely diminish — many forms of the main tool physicians have, known as monoclonal antibodies, according to recent laboratory studies.
“We’re working with urgency to really make sure we can have this treatment available,” said Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer of bacterial vaccines.
Authorization of both pills is expected by the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In an early analysis, a second ongoing study that was designed to test whether the pill, called Paxlovid, relieved covid-19 symptoms faster in people who are not considered high risk found no benefit for symptom relief. But the pill regimen did cause the amount of virus in patients’ bodies to plummet and reduced the already low risk of hospitalization and death, though the result was at the edge of statistical significance, a sign that it could be due to chance.
The study of lower-risk people included those who were vaccinated and had at least one risk factor for severe covid.
Oral antiviral treatments are badly needed amid a surge of the delta variant and the still unknown threat of omicron.
Mounting evidence has suggested that monoclonal antibodies, laboratory-brewed molecules that block the virus by recognizing the distinctive spikes on its surface, will have trouble recognizing and stopping omicron’s heavily mutated spikes.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals warned in late November that its monoclonal antibody cocktail could be less potent against omicron and emphasized its continuing efforts on next-generation drugs that were more likely to work against the variant. A preprint study published Thursday found that omicron could evade cocktails from Regeneron, Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca, which last week received authorization for a monoclonal to prevent covid-19 in people whose immune systems do not respond to vaccines.
Brendan McEvoy, an AstraZeneca spokesman, said the company remains hopeful that its drug, called Evusheld, “will retain efficacy against the new variant. … We are conducting studies to evaluate Evusheld against Omicron, with data anticipated in the coming weeks.”
Allison Howell, a spokeswoman for Eli Lilly, said the company is working to understand the threat omicron poses to its monoclonal treatment.
“It has always been our view that additional monoclonal antibodies may be needed to address the evolution of the virus, including emerging variants that can differ by country or even by state,” Howell said.
Of the authorized monoclonal antibodies, one from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology is expected to hold up against omicron.
The companies reported last week that their drug, sotrovimab, was only slightly less efficient at blocking omicron in a lab test. Other studies have reached a similar conclusion.
“We are confident that sotrovimab will continue to provide significant benefit for the early treatment of patients hoping to avoid the most severe consequences of COVID-19,” Vir chief executive George Scangos said in a statement.
The potential loss of some monoclonals will intensify the urgency to develop antivirals that interfere with the virus’s ability to make copies of itself. The Merck drug introduces mutations into the viral genome. The Pfizer drug disrupts an enzyme the virus needs to make copies.
Both pills may have some limitations.
The Merck pill regimen, molnupiravir, which was modestly effective in its clinical trial, has raised concerns about its potential to cause mutations — either in the people who take the pill or in the virus itself. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration narrowly voted in late November to recommend that molnupiravir receive emergency use authorization, but it is likely the drug will carry recommendations that it not be used during pregnancy.
Some outside experts had been interested to see the data from the Pfizer pill because Merck’s initial data looked more promising than the final analysis. Molnupiravir cut the risk of hospitalization or death by about 30 percent.
The Pfizer regimen cut hospitalizations and deaths by 88 percent when taken within five days of symptoms among high-risk people, a result consistent with its first analysis. The drug contains a medication, ritonavir, that can interact with many commonly taken medicines, and those risks may need to be managed by physicians and pharmacists.
“From our perspective, that’s something that’s going to be manageable, with a severe life-threatening disease,” Anderson said.
Laurie McGinley contributed to this report.
By Carolyn Y. Johnson
Carolyn Johnson is a science reporter. She previously covered the business of health and the affordability of health care to consumers. Twitter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/14/does-pfizer-covid-pill-paxlovid-work/
First needle-less Covid vaccine that could work against all variants enters human trials
Forty adults will receive an experimental Covid booster jab designed to work on all past, present and future forms of the virus
By Joe Pinkstone, SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
14 December 2021 • 6:00am
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/14/first-needle-less-covid-vaccine-could-work-against-variants/
Scientists at the University of Cambridge are set to administer the first needle-less, air-powered Covid vaccine on Tuesday that could work against all variants.
The phase one clinical trial is being conducted in Southampton and will see 40 adults receive an experimental Covid booster jab.
Named DIOSvax, the vaccine is made with DNA and is designed to work on all past, present and future forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid-19.
It does this by targeting a highly conserved region of the pathogen’s family that is ubiquitous across coronaviruses, so it should in theory work against not only SARS-CoV-2, but also other similar viruses like SARS, the virus behind a smaller epidemic in 2002.
Volunteers will be paid £785 to receive the jab and must be between 18- and 50-years-old, as well as having already had their first two doses but not a booster.
'It presents the immune system with a picture of tomorrow's virus'
“Essentially, what it does is instead of taking yesterday's virus [like current jabs], it presents the immune system with a picture of tomorrow's virus,” Prof Jonathan Heeney, head of the Laboratory of Viral Zoonotics at the University of Cambridge and developer of the vaccine, told The Telegraph.
“We're trying to do it in such a way that it will not only protect us from the next variants, but the next pandemic virus that comes from the coronavirus family.”
The design of the vaccine means it does not need to be inserted deep between a person’s muscles to be effective, and only needs to penetrate the skin a small distance. Prof Heeney said it is not painful and can be easily done with a puff of air.
“It should [work against omicron] but we won’t know until we get it fully tested, but this is the first of a new generation of vaccines,” he said.
Saul Faust, clinical chief investigator and director of the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, added: “This isn’t simply ‘yet another’ coronavirus vaccine as it has both Covid-19 variants and future coronaviruses in its sights.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/14/first-needle-less-covid-vaccine-could-work-against-variants/
Two vaccine doses won’t protect from Omicron infection, Oxford study finds
By Rich Haridy
December 13, 2021
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/omicron-two-dose-vaccine-pfizer-astrazeneca-oxford-study/
The data shows Omicron evades neutralizing antibodies generated by two doses of either the AstraZeneca of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinesvampy1/Depositphotos
VIEW 1 IMAGES
A new study from researchers at the University of Oxford has found two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine may not be enough to protect against infection from the Omicron variant. The data offers no indication of protection from severe disease, but shows two doses will not be enough to prevent Omicron infection in most people.
As scientists race to learn more about the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, laboratory studies are beginning to offer insights into how this viral variant responds to vaccine-induced antibodies. This new study, available as a preprint and not yet peer-reviewed or published in a journal, looked at the way antibodies generated after two-doses of COVID-19 vaccines responded to an isolate of Omicron gathered from an infected case in the UK.
Blood samples were tested from individuals taken around four weeks following a second dose of either Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine or the AstraZeneca vaccine. The researchers were looking at what are known as neutralizing titres, a measure of an antibody response generated in reaction to a virus.
Two doses of AstraZeneca fared the worst with the study indicating neutralizing titres dropped to below detectable thresholds in all but one sample. The Pfizer vaccine fared marginally better, with only one sample dropping below the detectable threshold for neutralizing titres. However, the researchers still saw an average 30 fold reduction in neutralizing titres for two doses of Pfizer compared to the antibody responses seen with an earlier strain of the virus.
The study is cautious to note these findings do not indicate two doses of either vaccine will be ineffective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization or death from COVID-19. Antibody responses are just one part of the immune system response to a viral threat, and while antibody responses do generally play a major role in preventing initial infection, other immune cells jump into gear to kill and clear a virus once it has taken hold.
This data foreshadows Omicron leading to higher rates of breakthrough infections in those with only two vaccine doses. And although the severity of disease caused by Omicron is still unclear, the researchers stress more cases will inevitably lead to a greater burden on healthcare systems even if the variant is found to generally lead to milder disease.
“Whilst there is no evidence for increased risk of severe disease, or death, from the virus amongst vaccinated populations, we must remain cautious, as greater case numbers will still place a considerable burden on healthcare systems,” says Gavin Screaton, lead author on the new study.
The study offers no new insight into the effect of three vaccine doses against Omicron, but the researchers hypothesize an extra dose will boost neutralizing antibody responses significantly. A recent study from Pfizer offers valuable data affirming that hypothesis. https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/first-omicron-lab-data-antibody-pfizer-three-vaccine-doses-infection-protection/?itm_source=newatlas&itm_medium=article-body
These new findings have somewhat informed the recent push to offer a third mRNA vaccine dose to all adults in England as soon as three months past a second dose. In the UK, the prevalence of AstraZeneca and the massive growth in Omicron cases led Prime Minister Boris Johnson to recently declare an “Omicron emergency”. The UK government is looking to administer third doses to tens of millions of people by the end of the year.
The new Oxford study is available on the preprint server MedRxiv. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.10.21267534v1
Source: University of Oxford
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/omicron-two-dose-vaccine-pfizer-astrazeneca-oxford-study/
White House official allegedly said National Guard troops would protect Trump supporters Jan. 6
Emails from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows are among files released to support the House panel's recommendation that he be held in contempt.
Dec. 13, 2021, 4:49 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 13, 2021, 12:36 PM GMT
By Kyle Stewart and Dennis Romero
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/white-house-official-allegedly-said-national-guard-troops-protect-trum-rcna8530
A report out Sunday that recommends that Trump administration chief of staff Mark Meadows be held in contempt of Congress alleges that he said National Guard troops would keep President Donald Trump’s supporters safe Jan. 6.
In bullet points listing urgent questions for Meadows, the report by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot cites an email he is alleged to have sent Jan. 5 about the security of Trump supporters who would hit the streets the next day.
The recipient of the email is not identified.
“Mr. Meadows sent an email to an individual about the events on January 6 and said that the National Guard would be present to 'protect pro Trump people' and that many more would be available on standby,” it said.
An attorney for Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The claim adds a different angle to the government response to the Jan. 6 violence. Despite widespread forecasts of potential unrest, Capitol Police appeared to be overwhelmed by the incursion, and the National Guard was slow to respond.
The report was released to support a resolution to hold Meadows in contempt. A simple majority of the House could produce a contempt of Congress citation that would be referred to the Justice Department.
A federal grand jury last month indicted Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Trump, on two allegations of contempt of Congress — one for refusing to appear for a deposition and another for declining to produce documents the committee requested.
Bannon pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Meadows and Bannon have claimed that they are exempt from the law because they are covered by executive privilege, the doctrine that seeks to protect certain communications with the president to allow White House leaders to freely lead and respond to crises. Bannon left the White House in 2017 but maintained a relationship with Trump.
“The Select Committee is confident that there is no conceivable immunity or executive privilege claim that could bar all of the Select Committee’s requests or justify Mr. Meadows’s blanket refusal to appear for the required deposition,” the report said.
Meadows has twice failed to show up for scheduled depositions before committee investigators this fall, even though he produced documents that would be a part of his testimony, the report said. Other documents, it said, might have been misplaced.
“It appears that Mr. Meadows may not have complied with legal requirements to retain or archive documents under the Presidential Records Act,” the report states.
The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is trying to find out whether high-level political organizing was behind the violence, during which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as they sought to thwart congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
The panel has alleged that Meadows has knowledge of Trump’s activities Jan. 6 and appeared to have lines of communication with organizers of a rally near the Capitol that day.
“Mr. Meadows was in contact with at least some of the private individuals who planned and organized a January 6 rally, one of whom reportedly may have expressed safety concerns to Mr. Meadows about January 6 events,” the report states.
Meadows received a text from an organizer of the rally on the Ellipse, apparently as people moved toward the Capitol, seeking direction after things “had gotten crazy,” according the report’s quotation of the communication.
The report also indicates that the committee believes Meadows may know significant information about Trump’s request to Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” a precise number of votes that would overturn his loss there.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/white-house-official-allegedly-said-national-guard-troops-protect-trum-rcna8530
How Abraham Lincoln dealt with traitors and insurrectionists: A history lesson
After a bitter election, much of the nation resisted and rebelled — but this president knew where to draw the line
By MATTHEW ROZSA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 12, 2021 6:00AM (EST)
https://www.salon.com/2021/12/12/how-abraham-lincoln-dealt-with-traitors-and-insurrectionists-a-history-lesson/
Only one president, before the current one, won a national election only to see a large proportion of the country outright refuse to participate in our democracy rather than accept the result. That president was, of course, Abraham Lincoln. He concluded that those who conspired in an illegal plan to undo the American experiment in democracy had to be permanently banished from politics. It is a lesson Lincoln's successors forgot, and arguably one that should be studied carefully today.
There are key differences, to be sure, between the situation faced by Lincoln and what confronts Joe Biden today. Lincoln's victory in the 1860 election was controversial because of his opposition to slavery. No one claimed the election result itself was fraudulent — a region of the country simply despised him for being a Republican, with Lincoln's name being left off the ballot on the ballot in most Southern states. What's more, the aftermath of Lincoln's victory led to a literal civil war, and despite some dire predictions we are not close to that in the 21st century. In addition, while the 1860 election tore America apart because of one grave and highly divisive issue (that being slavery), the 2020 election posed a major threat to democracy largely because of the damaged ego of a highly narcissistic candidate.
In both cases, however, we see a large, reactionary faction rejecting an election loss, and that act serving as the catalyst for a crisis of democratic legitimacy. Lincoln faced a violent rebellion that literally caused armed conflict, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. What Biden faces today is more difficult to define, but looks to be an effort to subvert the rules of democracy in practice while maintaining rhetorical support for them, and while nominally abiding by existing laws and working through existing institutions.
The political question made visible in both cases is one of self-preservation rather than principle. To what degree can a democracy tolerate the actions of those who wish to destroy it? How much defiance and resistance is permissible before democratic institutions lose all meaningful authority?
...
MUCH MORE
https://www.salon.com/2021/12/12/how-abraham-lincoln-dealt-with-traitors-and-insurrectionists-a-history-lesson/
11 brands called out for greenwashing in 2021
From carbon neutral oil to planting billions of trees in the desert, greenwashing claims went into overdrive in 2021. Eco-Business highlights the times when businesses and governments were criticised for making sustainability claims of dubious credibility.
By Robin Hicks
Dec. 7, 2021
MORE
https://www.eco-business.com/news/11-brands-called-out-for-greenwashing-in-2021/
Capitol attack panel obtains PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup
Presentation turned over by Mark Meadows made several recommendations for Trump to pursue to retain presidency
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Sat 11 Dec 2021 02.01 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/10/trump-powerpoint-mark-meadows-capitol-attack
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack a PowerPoint recommending Donald Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to return himself to the presidency.
The fact that Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint the day before the Capitol attack that detailed ways to stage a coup suggests he was at least aware of efforts by Trump and his allies to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January.
The PowerPoint, titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan”, made several recommendations for Trump to pursue in order to retain the presidency for a second term on the basis of lies and debunked conspiracies about widespread election fraud.
Meadows turned over a version of the PowerPoint presentation that he received in an email and spanned 38 pages, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Guardian reviewed a second, 36-page version of the PowerPoint marked for dissemination with 5 January metadata, which had some differences with what the select committee received. But the title of the PowerPoint and its recommendations remained the same, the source said.
Senators and members of Congress should first be briefed about foreign interference, the PowerPoint said, at which point Trump could declare a national emergency, declare all electronic voting invalid, and ask Congress to agree on a constitutionally acceptable remedy.
The PowerPoint also outlined three options for then vice-president Mike Pence to abuse his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress on 6 January, when Biden was to be certified president, and unilaterally return Trump to the White House.
Pence could pursue one of three options, the PowerPoint said: seat Trump slates of electors over the objections of Democrats in key states, reject the Biden slates of electors, or delay the certification to allow for a “vetting” and counting of only “legal paper ballots”.
The final option for Pence is similar to an option that was simultaneously being advanced on 4 and 5 January by Trump lieutenants – led by lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as Trump strategist Steve Bannon – working from the Willard hotel in Washington DC.
The Guardian revealed last week that sometime between the late evening of 5 January and the early hours of 6 January, after Pence declined to go ahead with such plans, Trump then pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Biden’s certification from taking place entirely.
The recommendations in the PowerPoint for both Trump and Pence were based on wild and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, including that “the Chinese systematically gained control over our election system” in eight key battleground states.
The then acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen, and his predecessor, Bill Barr, who had both been appointed by Trump, by 5 January had already determined that there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
House investigators said that they became aware of the PowerPoint after it surfaced in more than 6,000 documents Meadows turned over to the select committee. The PowerPoint was to be presented “on the Hill”, a reference to Congress, the panel said.
The powerpoint was presented on 4 January to a number of Republican senators and members of Congress, the source said. Trump’s lawyers working at the Willard hotel were not shown the presentation, according to a source familiar with the matter.
But the select committee said they did find in the materials turned over by Meadows, his text messages with a member of Congress, who told Meadows about a “highly controversial” plan to send slates of electors for Trump to the joint session of Congress.
Meadows replied: “I love it.”
Trump’s former White House chief of staff had turned over the materials to the select committee until the cooperation deal broke down on Tuesday, when Meadows’ attorney, Terwilliger, abruptly told House investigators that Meadows would no longer help the investigation.
The select committee announced on Wednesday that in response, it would refer Meadows for criminal prosecution for defying a subpoena. The chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said the vote to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress would come next week.
“The select committee will meet next week to advance a report recommending that the House cite Mr Meadows for contempt of Congress and refer him to the Department of Justice for prosecution,” Thompson said in a statement.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/10/trump-powerpoint-mark-meadows-capitol-attack
California could become ‘sanctuary’ for care amid threat to abortion access
Advocates and providers have asked the state to offer funding to those from other states seeking an abortion if access is banned
Dani Anguiano and agencies
@dani_anguiano
Wed 8 Dec 2021 23.24 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/08/california-sanctuary-abortion-roe-v-wade
Misinformation fuelled by ‘tsunami’ of poor research, says science prize winner
Dutch microbiologist Elisabeth Bik, winner of prestigious John Maddox prize, says trust in science is being undermined
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
@hannahdev
Wed 1 Dec 2021 14.00 EST
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/01/misinformation-fuelled-by-tsunami-of-poor-research-says-science-prize-winner
A “tsunami” of poor quality research is fuelling misinformation and could undermine trust in science, the winner of the prestigious John Maddox prize has warned.
Elisabeth Bik, a Dutch microbiologist turned science sleuth who on Wednesday evening won the John Maddox prize for standing up for science in the face of harassment, intimidation and lawsuits, said the intense pressure to publish papers is leading to a “dilution” of the quality of scientific literature.
This risks flawed work being “amplified by bad actors” such as those seeking to stoke fears about vaccination.
“The danger with social media is that even a mediocre or bad or flawed paper can be taken by people who have different agendas and brought into the spotlight and celebrated as the new truth,” Bik said. “That is a new danger that has not been there before.”
She cited a recently retracted paper linking the HPV vaccine to female infertility and another that appeared to overstate the risk of myocarditis from Covid vaccines.
Bik has been recognised for her work exposing problems including image doctoring, plagiarism, data manipulation and unsound methodology.
She took up the campaign after discovering her own work had been plagiarised in 2013, and in 2019 left her job at a biotech firm to pursue the issue full time, funding her work through a Patreon account.
After raising serious concerns about claims that hydroxychloroquine was effective in treating Covid infections, Bik faced online harassment and threats of violence. Larger trials found no evidence to support the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid patients.
The controversial French professor behind the work, Didier Raoult, threatened legal action against her, which she described as “scary and intimidating”.
In general, Bik said, the intense demand for solutions to the global pandemic has created a new pressure for scientists to deliver breakthroughs.
“A lot of scientists wanted to become the big saviour of the pandemic,” she said. “That brought a lot of fraud or just even poorly executed research. People want to become a hero and might go to great lengths to achieve that.”
This vision of the heroic scientist sits in contrast to the reality of life in the laboratory, Bik said. “Ninety percent of your results will be failures, every now and again you’ll get a success … but most of the time it’s sad and boring to be in the lab,” she said. “You can work really hard in science and still not get the results everyone hoped for. You have to be able to deal with that.”
Through her Science Integrity Digest, Bik encourages the public and other scientists to learn how to spot manipulated data. Her work has led to the retraction of around 600 papers and she derives “some satisfaction” from setting the record straight. But she has a spreadsheet of nearly 5,000 papers that she has reported as problematic and says the overall response from scientific publishers has been disappointing.
“We [scientists] write the papers for free, we peer review them for free and then still we have to pay the publisher $4,000 to get our paper published,” she said. “Where does that money go to? It seems a lot of people sitting in shiny offices, bosses of bosses of bosses, people who don’t seem to be doing something directly to my paper. It’s hard to justify.”
Bik said that winning the prize was a “great honour and delight”. The prizes are awarded jointly by the charity Sense about Science and the journal Nature, where John Maddox was a former editor.
Tracey Brown, the director of Sense about Science, said: “The shocking thing about what Elisabeth is doing in challenging fraud and misrepresentation of scientific findings is that this is something that most people think already happens. Only it doesn’t. And in fact she has been unique and often alone in sounding the alarm. The judges were struck by her unstinting determination.”
A second John Maddox prize for an early career researcher was awarded to Mohammad Sharif Razai, a GP and researcher at St George’s, University of London, for bringing an evidence-based understanding of racial health inequalities to bear in public and policy debates. Razai’s work has covered vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups and systemic racism as a cause of adverse health outcomes.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/01/misinformation-fuelled-by-tsunami-of-poor-research-says-science-prize-winner
Who Just Gave Trump $1 Billion? Let’s Find Out.
Investments in a blank-check company backing the former president could turn out to be IOUs if he wins back the White House.
By Timothy L. O'Brien +Follow
December 6, 2021, 10:00 AM UTC
https://archive.fo/EsqWB#selection-3047.0-3067.30
ICIJ releases new Pandora Papers data from two offshore service providers
With the addition of more than 15,000 companies, foundations and trusts, ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks database now has information on more than 800,000 entities registered in secrecy jurisdictions coming from five different investigations.
By ICIJ
Image: ICIJ / Marwen Ben Mustapha / Inkyfada
December 6, 2021
https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/icij-releases-new-pandora-papers-data-from-two-offshore-service-providers/?utm_source=ICIJ&utm_campaign=a58b30d02b-2021206_WeeklyEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_992ecfdbb2-a58b30d02b-82055897
GSK says tests indicate antibody drug works against Omicron
By Ludwig Burger 5 hrs ago
(Reuters) -Laboratory analysis of the antibody-based COVID-19 therapy GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is developing with U.S. partner Vir has indicated the drug is effective against the new Omicron variant, the British drugmaker said on Thursday.
A GSK statement said that lab tests and a study on hamsters have demonstrated the sotrovimab antibody cocktail works against viruses that were bio-engineered to carry a number of hallmark mutations of the Omicron variant.
...
more
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/medical/gsk-says-tests-indicate-antibody-drug-works-against-omicron/ar-AARnFiO?li=BBoPWjQ
Sotrovimab: New COVID drug which cuts risk of hospitalisation and death by 79% approved for use in UK in people aged 12 years and older
Xevundy, also known as sotrovimab, has been approved for anyone aged 12 and over, who weighs more than 40kg. It is authorised for use in people who have a mild or moderate COVID infection and who are at risk of developing severe illness
Thursday 2 December 2021 13:12, UK
- more
https://news.sky.com/story/sotrovimab-new-covid-drug-which-cuts-risk-of-hospitalisation-and-death-by-79-approved-for-use-in-uk-in-people-aged-12-years-and-older-12484329
Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new book
Mark Meadows makes stunning admission in new memoir obtained by Guardian, saying a second test returned negative
Martin Pengelly in New York
@MartinPengelly
Wed 1 Dec 2021 06.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/trump-tested-positive-covid-before-biden-debate-chief-staff-mark-meadows-book
Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19 three days before his first debate against Joe Biden, the former president’s fourth and last chief of staff has revealed in a new book.
Mark Meadows also writes that though he knew each candidate was required “to test negative for the virus within seventy two hours of the start time … Nothing was going to stop [Trump] from going out there”.
Trump, Meadows says in the book, returned a negative result from a different test shortly after the positive.
Nonetheless, the stunning revelation of an unreported positive test follows a year of speculation about whether Trump, then 74 years old, had the potentially deadly virus when he faced Biden, 77, in Cleveland on 29 September – and what danger that might have presented.
Trump announced he had Covid on 2 October. The White House said he announced that result within an hour of receiving it. He went to hospital later that day.
Meadows’ memoir, The Chief’s Chief, will be published next week by All Seasons Press, a conservative outlet. The Guardian obtained a copy on Tuesday – the day Meadows reversed course and said he would cooperate with the House committee investigating the deadly Capitol attack of 6 January.
Meadows says Trump’s positive result on 26 September was a shock to a White House which had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett – an occasion now widely considered to have been a Covid super-spreader event.
Despite the president looking “a little tired” and suspecting a “slight cold”, Meadows says he was “content” that Trump travelled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called.
“Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows says Sean Conley told him. “He just tested positive for Covid.”
It wasn’t possible to stop Trump but when he called from Air Force One, his chief of staff gave him the news.
“Mr President,” Meadows said, “I’ve got some bad news. You’ve tested positive for Covid-19.”
Trump’s reply, the devout Christian writes, “rhyme[d] with ‘Oh spit, you’ve gotta be trucking lidding me’.”
Meadows writes of his surprise that such a “massive germaphobe” could have contracted Covid, given precautions including “buckets of hand sanitiser” and “hardly [seeing] anyone who ha[d]n’t been rigorously tested”.
Meadows says the positive test had been done with an old model kit. He told Trump the test would be repeated with “the Binax system, and that we were hoping the first test was a false positive”.
After “a brief but tense wait”, Meadows called back with news of the negative test. He could “almost hear the collective ‘Thank God’ that echoed through the cabin”, he writes.
Meadows says Trump took that call as “full permission to press on as if nothing had happened”. His chief of staff, however, “instructed everyone in his immediate circle to treat him as if he was positive” throughout the Pennsylvania trip.
“I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Meadows writes, “but I also didn’t want to alarm the public if there was nothing to worry about – which according to the new, much more accurate test, there was not.”
Meadows writes that audience members at the rally “would never have known that anything was amiss”.
The public, however, was not told of the president’s tests.
On Sunday 27 September, the first day between the tests and the debate, Meadows says Trump did little – except playing golf in Virginia and staging an event for military families at which he “spoke about the value of sacrifice”.
Trump later said he might have been infected at that event, thanks to people “within an inch of my face sometimes, they want to hug me and they want to kiss me. And they do. And frankly, I’m not telling them to back up.”
In his book, Meadows does not mention that Trump also held a press conference indoors, in the White House briefing room, the same day.
On Monday 28 September, Trump staged an event at which he talked with business leaders and looked inside “the cab of a new truck”. He also held a Rose Garden press conference “on the work we had all been doing to combat Covid-19”.
“Somewhat ironically, considering his circumstances”, Meadows writes, Trump spoke about a new testing strategy “supposed to give quicker, more accurate readings about whether someone was positive or not.”
The White House had still not told the public Trump tested positive and then negative two days before.
On debate day, 29 September, Meadows says, Trump looked slightly better – “emphasis on the word slightly”.
“His face, for the most part at least, had regained its usual light bronze hue, and the gravel in his voice was gone. But the dark circles under his eyes had deepened. As we walked into the venue around five o’clock in the evening, I could tell that he was moving more slowly than usual. He walked like he was carrying a little extra weight on his back.”
Trump gave a furious and controversial performance, continually hectoring Biden to the point the Democrat pleaded: “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.”
The host, Chris Wallace of Fox News, later said Trump was not tested before the debate because he arrived late. Organisers, Wallace said, relied on the honor system.
The White House had not said Trump had tested positive and negative three days before.
Three days later, on 2 October, Trump announced by tweet that he and his wife, Melania Trump, were positive.
That evening, Meadows helped Trump make his way to hospital. During his stay, Meadows helped orchestrate stunts meant to show the president was in good health. Trump recovered, but it has been reported that his case of Covid was much more serious than the White House ever let on.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/trump-tested-positive-covid-before-biden-debate-chief-staff-mark-meadows-book
Omicron variant: Nine cases linked to single event as Scotland ramps up testing
All nine cases of the Omicron variant so far identified in Scotland have been linked to a single private event, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
By Elsa Maishman
Tuesday, 30th November 2021, 2:40 pm
https://www.scotsman.com/health/omicron-variant-nine-cases-linked-to-single-event-as-scotland-ramps-up-testing-3476969
None of the cases had any connection with travel to South Africa, the First Minister announced on Tuesday, suggesting community transmission.
In an update to MSPs, Ms Sturgeon announced Scotland’s testing regime will be increased, with lateral flow tests to be made available for free at shopping centres, supermarkets, sports grounds and Christmas markets.
The First Minister did not announce any further Covid-19 related restrictions, but urged members of the public to comply with those already in place.
"Thanks to the work of the global scientific community, we will find out much more about Omicron in the days and weeks ahead - and as our knowledge and understanding expands, we will be able to assess with more certainty the implications for our response to the pandemic,” she said.
"I hope that as we learn more, our level of concern will diminish rather than increase. However, while hoping very much for the best, it is prudent at this stage to contemplate and prepare for something less positive than that.
"The fact is that any variant which might be more transmissible than Delta - and which could, even to a limited extent, evade vaccine or natural immunity - must be taken seriously.
"That is why we have - and will continue for now - to respond in a way that is proportionate but also highly precautionary.”
More cases of the new variant are expected in connection with the same private event, Ms Sturgeon said.
The individuals who have been identified – five in Lanarkshire, and four in Greater Glasgow and Clyde – have been self-isolating since they tested positive on or around November 23.
None of them is currently in hospital.
Public Health Scotland is still examining any potential link between the Omicron variant in Scotland and COP26, but Ms Sturgeon said no connection has so far been found.
The First Minister encouraged members of the public to take regular Covid tests and comply with current protection measures.
“While certainty is not possible until we know more, my hope is that – beyond temporary travel measures
– no additional restrictions will be required,” she said.
"However, that will depend partly on what information emerges about Omicron in the days to come, but also and significantly on all of us complying rigorously with all the protections currently in place to stem transmission.
"It remains the case that our first and most important defence against the virus is vaccination.”
https://www.scotsman.com/health/omicron-variant-nine-cases-linked-to-single-event-as-scotland-ramps-up-testing-3476969
Trump called aides hours before Capitol riot to discuss how to stop Biden victory
Sources tell Guardian Trump pressed lieutenants at Willard hotel in Washington about ways to delay certification of election result
Hugo Lowell in Washington
Tue 30 Nov 2021 07.00 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/30/donald-trump-called-top-aides-capitol-riot-biden
Hours before the deadly attack on the US Capitol this year, Donald Trump made several calls from the White House to top lieutenants at the Willard hotel in Washington and talked about ways to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win from taking place on 6 January.
The former president first told the lieutenants his vice-president, Mike Pence, was reluctant to go along with the plan to commandeer his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress in a way that would allow Trump to retain the presidency for a second term.
But as Trump relayed to them the situation with Pence, he pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January, and delay the certification process to get alternate slates of electors for Trump sent to Congress.
The former president’s remarks came as part of strategy discussions he had from the White House with the lieutenants at the Willard – a team led by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn and Trump strategist Steve Bannon – about delaying the certification.
Multiple sources, speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, described Trump’s involvement in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Trump’s remarks reveal a direct line from the White House and the command center at the Willard. The conversations also show Trump’s thoughts appear to be in line with the motivations of the pro-Trump mob that carried out the Capitol attack and halted Biden’s certification, until it was later ratified by Congress.
The former president’s call to the Willard hotel about stopping Biden’s certification is increasingly a central focus of the House select committee’s investigation into the Capitol attack, as it raises the specter of a possible connection between Trump and the insurrection.
Several Trump lawyers at the Willard that night deny Trump sought to stop the certification of Biden’s election win. They say they only considered delaying Biden’s certification at the request of state legislators because of voter fraud.
The former president made several calls to the lieutenants at the Willard the night before 6 January. He phoned the lawyers and the non-lawyers separately, as Giuliani did not want non-lawyers to participate on legal calls and jeopardise attorney-client privilege.
Trump’s call to the lieutenants came a day after Eastman, a late addition to the Trump legal team, outlined at a 4 January meeting at the White House how he thought Pence could usurp his role in order to stop Biden’s certification from happening at the joint session.
At the meeting, which was held in the Oval Office and attended by Trump, Pence, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short and his legal counsel Greg Jacob, Eastman presented a memo that detailed how Pence could insert himself into the certification and delay the process.
The memo outlined several ways for Pence to commandeer his role at the joint session, including throwing the election to the House, or adjourning the session to give states time to send slates of electors for Trump on the basis of election fraud – Eastman’s preference.
Then– acting attorney general Jeff Rosen and his predecessor, Bill Barr, who had both been appointed by Trump, had already determined there was no evidence of fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Eastman told the Guardian last month that the memo only presented scenarios and was not intended as advice. “The advice I gave the vice-president very explicitly was that I did not think he had the authority simply to declare which electors to count,” Eastman said.
Trump seized on the memo – first reported by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book Peril – and pushed Pence to adopt the schemes, which some of the other lieutenants at the Willard later told Trump were legitimate ways to flip the election.
But Pence resisted Trump’s entreaties, and told him in the Oval Office the next day that Trump should count him out of whatever plans he had to subvert the results of the 2020 election at the joint session, because he did not intend to take part.
Trump was furious at Pence for refusing to do him a final favor when, in the critical moment underpinning the effort to reinstall Trump as president, he phoned lieutenants at the Willard sometime between the late evening on 5 January and the early hours of 6 January.
From the White House, Trump made several calls to lieutenants, including Giuliani, Eastman, Epshteyn and Bannon, who were huddled in suites complete with espresso machines and Cokes in a mini-fridge in the north-west corner of the hotel.
On the calls, the former president first recounted what had transpired in the Oval Office meeting with Pence, informing Bannon and the lawyers at the Willard that his vice-president appeared ready to abandon him at the joint session in several hours’ time.
“He’s arrogant,” Trump, for instance, told Bannon of Pence – his own way of communicating that Pence was unlikely to play ball – in an exchange reported in Peril and confirmed by the Guardian.
But on at least one of those calls, Trump also sought from the lawyers at the Willard ways to stop the joint session to ensure Biden would not be certified as president on 6 January, as part of a wider discussion about buying time to get states to send Trump electors.
The fallback that Trump and his lieutenants appeared to settle on was to cajole Republican members of Congress to raise enough objections so that even without Pence adjourning the joint session, the certification process would be delayed for states to send Trump slates.
It was not clear whether Trump discussed on the call about the prospect of stopping Biden’s certification by any means if Pence refused to insert himself into the process, but the former president is said to have enjoyed watching the insurrection unfold from the dining room.
But the fact that Trump considered ways to stop the joint session may help to explain why he was so reluctant to call off the rioters and why Republican senator Ben Sasse told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that he heard Trump seemed “delighted” about the attack.
The lead Trump lawyer at the Willard, Giuliani, appearing to follow that fallback plan, called at least one Republican senator later that same evening, asking him to help keep Congress adjourned and stall the joint session beyond 6 January.
In a voicemail recorded at about 7pm on 6 January, and reported by the Dispatch, Giuliani implored Republican senator Tommy Tuberville to object to 10 states Biden won once Congress reconvened at 8pm, a process that would have concluded 15 hours later, close to 7 January.
“The only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow,” Giuliani said.
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to requests for comment on this account of Trump’s call. Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment. Eastman, Epshteyn and Bannon declined to comment.
Trump made several calls the day before the Capitol attack from both the White House residence, his preferred place to work, as well as the West Wing, but it was not certain from which location he phoned his top lieutenants at the Willard.
The White House residence and its Yellow Oval Room – a Trump favorite – is significant since communications there, including from a desk phone, are not automatically memorialized in records sent to the National Archives after the end of an administration.
But even if Trump called his lieutenants from the West Wing, the select committee may not be able to fully uncover the extent of his involvement in the events of 6 January, unless House investigators secure testimony from individuals with knowledge of the calls.
That difficulty arises since calls from the White House are not necessarily recorded, and call detail records that the select committee is suing to pry free from the National Archives over Trump’s objections about executive privilege, only show the destination of the calls.
House select committee investigators last week opened a new line of inquiry into activities at the Willard hotel, just across the street from the White House, issuing subpoenas to Eastman and former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, an assistant to Giuliani.
The chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said in a statement that the panel was pursuing the Trump officials at the Willard to uncover “every detail about their efforts to overturn the election, including who they were talking to in the White House and in Congress”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/30/donald-trump-called-top-aides-capitol-riot-biden
Covid live: Omicron variant spreads to Europe; UK expert says ‘reboot of pandemic’ extremely unlikely
- 61 travellers from South Africa test positive for Covid in Netherlands; - - first European case of B.1.1.529 variant identified in Belgium; travel bans target countries across southern Africa
- Omicron variant spreads to Europe, UK announces countermeasures
- US, UK, Canada and Australia restrict travel from southern Africa
- First European case of new Covid variant detected in Belgium
- B.1.1.529 variant ‘most worrying we’ve seen’, says UK medical adviser
- What do we know about the new ‘worst ever’ Covid variant?
See all our coronavirus coverage
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/nov/27/covid-news-live-omicron-variant-spreads-to-europe-countries-rush-to-impose-travel-bans-on-southern-africa
B.1.1.529 Covid variant ‘most worrying we’ve seen’, says top UK medical adviser
Dr Susan Hopkins said R value of variant first found in Gauteng, South Africa, is now 2
Haroon Siddique
Fri 26 Nov 2021 10.01 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/26/b11529-covid-variant-most-worrying-weve-seen-says-top-uk-medical-adviser
The chief medical adviser to the UK Health and Security Agency has warned that a newly identified Covid-19 variant in southern Africa is the “most worrying we’ve seen”, with transmission levels not recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.
Dr Susan Hopkins said the R value, or effective reproduction number, of the B.1.1.529 variant in Gauteng in South Africa, where it was first found, is now 2. For an R of anything above 1, an epidemic will grow exponentially.
She voiced her concerns as the European Commission announced plans to stop flights from the southern Africa region. England and Scotland said
on Thursday they were banning flights from six countries in the region.
...
more
Amount of litter on UK beaches is falling, national clean-up finds
But 75% of waste is still plastic or polystyrene and ‘piecemeal’ government approach not good enough, say campaigners
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Thu 25 Nov 2021 06.30 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/25/amount-of-litter-on-uk-beaches-is-falling-national-clean-up-finds
PLASTICS BENEFIT HUMANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT (GUEST: CHRIS DEARMITT, PH.D.)
NOVEMBER 24, 2021
By H. Sterling Burnett
https://www.heartland.org/multimedia/podcasts/plastics-benefit-humans-and-the-environment-guest-chris-dearmitt-phd
Chemist and materials scientist Chris DeArmitt's book “The Plastics Paradox: Facts for a Brighter Future” shows that plastics are better than the alternatives for both human health and the environment. Other materials use more energy and produce more waste. Neither cities, states, nor the federal government, should discourage the use of plastic bags, straws, utensils, or packaging. Claims that plastic is bad for the environment are based on myths. There’s no research to back up such claims. By contrast, thousands of peer reviewed papers demonstrate that plastics are a boon for humans and the environment. DeArmitt's analysis shows you can be for the environment or against plastics, but you can't be both.
https://www.heartland.org/multimedia/podcasts/plastics-benefit-humans-and-the-environment-guest-chris-dearmitt-phd
Lithium Shortage May Stall Electric Car Revolution And Embed China’s Lead: Report
Neil Winton Senior Contributor
Transportation
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2021/11/14/lithium-shortage-may-stall-electric-car-revolution-and-embed-chinas-lead-report/?sh=5c31cc8646ef
The electric car revolution will stall in the West if supplies of crucial battery elements like lithium fail to keep up with the forecast huge increase in demand. This will drive battery prices higher, decimate profit margins, and the coveted $100 per kWh battery, which would have signaled the arrival of affordable green vehicles, will remain on the launch pad.
“Western weaknesses in lithium-ion supply chains will slow electric vehicle adoption and demonstrate China’s dominance of the EV (electric vehicle) market,” according to a report from GlobalData. a leading data and analytics company.
This kind of pressure might also delay Tesla’s TSLA +4.1% long promised “affordable” $25,000 electric car.
The report said EV output is set to “skyrocket” to 12.76 million cars a year by 2026, with over half coming from China.
“With lithium prices set to rise throughout the next decade, the EV sector in the West will have to face rising battery costs. If they pass costs on to the consumer, EV adoption will likely accelerate at a slower rate than previously expected,” the report said.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that the growth in EVs could see lithium demand increase by over 40 times by 2030, according to the International Lithium Association (ILiA) . Last year lithium demand was about 320,000 tonnes and is expected to hit 1 million by 2025 and 3 million by 2030, according to Reuters.
Earlier this month, LMC Automotive predicted European EV sales would rise from 1.2 million in 2021 to 3.4 million in 2024, 6.1 million in 2027 and 10.5 million in 2030.
U.S. investment newsletter Energy & Capital’s Luke Sweeney put it this way, as world leaders rush to implement green energy promises.
“They (the leaders) are ignoring the trillion-ton elephant in the room. Carbon-free power and gasoline-free transportation cannot exist without mining an absurd amount of lithium. Right now, production is not even close to keeping up. We simply aren’t pulling enough lithium out of the ground to match the projected demand,” Sweeney said.
Daniel Clarke, Thematic analyst at GlobalData, said China held 80.5% of global lithium-ion battery capacity in 2020, and even with the U.S. and EU’s best efforts will still dominate by 2026 with an expected 61.4% share.
“The rising price of lithium demonstrates what many in the industry have warned about for some time: the growing divergence between supply and demand for lithium. Ultimately, this will lead to an increase in the price of EVs, as automakers pass the cost on to the consumer,” Clarke said.
The average price of lithium carbonate has been erratic - halving before doubling again, and this has made investors wary of investing in new capacity.
“Batteries are already the most expensive part of an EV. Cell costs would need to be notably below $100 per kilowatt hour for mainstream production to take off, but this isn’t looking likely. Any increases in cost will be a blow to the decarbonization agenda of advanced economies, as well as lead to a deceleration in the decarbonization of the automotive industry,” Clarke said in the report.
In an online interview, I asked Clarke if the outlook for the price of lithium meant LMC Automotive’s European EV sales targets were still possible.
"It very much depends on automakers. Estimates see the rising cost of lithium hitting the EV market sometime between 2022 and 2024. (manufacturers) will have to decide on whether to absorb the cost or pass it onto the consumer. The market will become more competitive as a result. It is very possible that the (manufacturers) with the deepest pockets, such as Toyota, are able to take market share by absorbing the cost of the battery and undercutting their competitors, who would be forced to increase their prices. Tesla, whose EV market is focused on premium cars, would likely not be too badly affected, but it will make them potentially reconsider their plans for a low-cost $25,000 Tesla Model 2."
Clarke said lithium represents about 7% of the total cost of a battery but you also need Graphite, Manganese, Nickel, Cobalt. The latter two prices are also precarious because of supply issues.
“Cobalt is used in the cathode, and the cathode is the most expensive part of a battery, which is in turn the most expensive part of an EV. However, necessity is the mother of invention, and new battery chemistries are being developed all around the world."
Is the 100 kWh battery now in jeopardy?
"It is hard to say. Recent reports have the price per kWh at $105 but it is expected to rise next year as a result of the aforementioned forces at play. Lithium shortages will get worse next year and may continue into the middle of the decade. It is important to remember that building a lithium mine takes seven years and many automakers want high-quality batteries. Mines are huge investments, much like chip fabrication plants, there isn't a lot of room for just increasing capacity… most of these mines will be working around the clock anyway," Clarke said.
According to the ILiA, natural lithium minerals are relatively abundant and found in many countries. Currently there are large industrial operators in Australia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, China, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Portugal, that produce lithium raw materials at significant scale, although this number is set to rise as lithium production increases to meet demand. Experts say there are bottlenecks in the conversion processes needed to produce usable lithium. Plants take years to reach full production and this, combined with accelerating demand, means supplies will remain tight and prices high.
The big car and SUV makers are scrambling to set up deals to guarantee supplies. Tesla has a deal with Piedmont Lithium of North Carolina. General Motors GM -0.6% is investing in a Californian project. Companies like Stellantis, Renault and BMW are known to be investing in projects which seek to speed up, and clean up, the conversion process. It’s safe to assume that every single auto operative is doing the same thing.
Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.
Neil Winton
As a former European Automotive correspondent for Reuters, I’ve a spent a few years writing about the industry. I will penetrate the corporate hype and bluster and find out... Read More
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2021/11/14/lithium-shortage-may-stall-electric-car-revolution-and-embed-chinas-lead-report/?sh=5c31cc8646ef
Brexit poll: Boris dealt huge blow as more than HALF of UK adults want to REJOIN EU
BREXIT BRITAIN and Boris Johnson have been dealt a crushing blow after a bombshell poll revealed more than half of UK adults would vote to rejoin the European Union if another referendum was to take place.
By PAUL WITHERS
00:00, Sat, Nov 13, 2021 | UPDATED: 00:05, Sat, Nov 13, 2021
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1520605/brexit-news-poll-uk-rejoin-eu-referendum-remainers-vote-leave-boris-johnson-update
The UK voted by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent to split from the bloc during the historic referendum in June 2016. Both sides signed an 11th hour post-Brexit trade deal at the end of last year that put an end to the UK's 47-year membership of the European Union - with the Prime Minister insisting Brexit Britain will flourish as a sovereign nation. But a significant poll from Savanta ComRes suggests the tide is quickly changing, with huge doubts now creeping into the minds of those that voted to leave the continental bloc.
The survey of 2,231 UK adults from November 5-7 shows if another referendum was to take place, 53 percent of UK adults would vote to rejoin the EU.
This is up four points from when the polling firm asked the same question in June, when just under half (49 percent) said they would vote for the UK to once again become an EU member.
Significantly, just under half (47 percent) maintain they would not vote for the UK to rejoin the EU - down four points from the last survey five months ago.
Perhaps most notably is the result among those who voted Leave during the 2016 referendum 2016 - one in ten (10 percent) would now vote to rejoin, with a fifth (20 percent) of Conservative Party voters also voting to rejoin.
From those who decided not to vote in the referendum more than five years ago, more than eight in ten (82 percent) said they would now vote to rejoin the EU.
Four in 10 (40 percent) of UK adults would support a referendum on whether to re-join the EU within the next five years, while just a third (34 percent) were against this idea.
Fifteen percent of Leave voters would support a referendum within this time frame, with 14 percent of Remainers saying they would oppose one.
Only eleven percent of Remainers and a fifth (20 percent) of Labour voters would vote to stay out of the EU in a referendum.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1520605/brexit-news-poll-uk-rejoin-eu-referendum-remainers-vote-leave-boris-johnson-update
To inform tomorrow, we're free today. Read our climate coverage and everything else for free today. Visit our climate hub The Big Read United Nations
myFT COP26: where does all the climate finance money go?
https://www.ft.com/content/d9e832b7-525b-470b-89db-6275853315dd
Rich governments have pledged $100bn to help poorer countries reduce emissions. But there is no agreement on how to spend the funds
On the Caribbean island of Antigua, builders will soon put hurricane reinforcements on hospital roofs and strengthen the windows on police stations. As climate change makes tropical storms more intense and more devastating, Antiguans are getting prepared. This $46m storm-proofing project is just one part of a much bigger flow of money: a promised $100bn a year that rich countries pledged to spend helping poorer countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.
The funding is shaping up to be a make or break issue at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. The $100bn target is an “acid test” for whether rich countries are sincere about tackling climate change, says Molwyn Joseph, minister of the environment for Antigua and Barbuda. “We are not asking for handouts, we are asking for compensation for damages, as a result of the profligacy of these developed countries,” he says. “Those that emit this carbon, that is causing climate events, should pay.”
Many countries say they need the money to reach their climate targets and invest in projects that lower emissions. When Indian prime minister Narendra Modi pledged on Monday to reach net zero emissions by 2070, there was a demand attached: $1tn in climate finance to developing countries.
https://www.ft.com/content/d9e832b7-525b-470b-89db-6275853315dd
Plastic Degradation Myths
Do Plastics Really Last Forever?
By Dr. Chris DeArmitt FRSC FIMMM
https://plasticsparadox.com/do-plastics-last-forever/
This page will prove that plastics do degrade at about the same speed as other organic materials like leaves or paper. That means that we have been lied to. However, it turns out that we do not want materials to degrade rapidly because the longer they last, the greener they become, as proven by lifecycle analysis. That is one reason why stabilizers are added to make plastics more durable. When you think about it, it is strange that plastics have been unjustly attacked on the basis that they last longer than other materials because we know that other materials like bronze, stone, bone, glass and even paper can survive for hundreds or thousands of years. Paper takes over 2000 years to degrade at room temperature but we don’t complain when we find a thousand year old document that we can still read do we?
Degradation and degradability are topics that frequently come up when discussing plastics. What does the layperson really know about this though? We’ve been told that plastics take several hundred or thousands of years to degrade. That’s what we see on the web and on social media anyway. Therefore, it might surprise you to learn that scientists have studied the topic in tremendous detail for decades and they know, with certainty, that the exact opposite is true. There are no scientific articles proving that plastics last hundreds of years and hundreds proving that they do not. The idea that plastics do not degrade in utter fiction. In fact, the plastics industry spends billions of dollars per year on stabilizers to help slow down the degradation of plastic materials.
Think about your own experiences with plastics and you will realize that you know it too. In my garden is a trampoline with a plastic surround. After two years outdoors the polypropylene plastic faded from blue to white and disintegrated completely. I had to buy a new one. Many of us remember the original plastic garden chairs that would turn white due to micro-cracks on the surface and shortly afterwards, the legs would snap off. There are plenty of other examples. We all know that plastics degrade rapidly, so when a so-called “environmentalist” tells us that they last a thousand years, we should recall our own experiences and reject their absurd claims.
Just as a reminder, here is a picture of polypropylene chairs left outdoors. They are severely degraded and falling to pieces. Please think back on all the times you have seen degraded plastic. Was it a yellowed and opaque headlamp? Perhaps it was a car grille that changed from shiny black to a faded grey. Think about the paint on your house. Paint is after all just a thin layer of plastic. Are you forced to repaint every ten years or so as the paint is attacked by sun and rain, or do you find that the paint lasts hundreds of years as the “environmental” groups claim?
….
MUCH MORE
https://plasticsparadox.com/do-plastics-last-forever/
Trump’s real-estate business pays the price for poisonous politics
JOSEPH TANFANI
REUTERS PUBLISHED YESTERDAY UPDATED 37 MINUTES AGO
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-trumps-real-estate-business-pays-the-price-for-poisonous-politics/
Former U.S. president Donald Trump’s slashing rhetorical style and divisive politics allowed him to essentially take over the Republican Party. His supporters are so devoted that most believe his false claim that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud.
But the same tactics that have inspired fierce political loyalty have undermined Trump’s business, built around real-estate development and branding deals that have allowed him to make millions by licensing his name.
Trump’s business brand was once synonymous with wealth and success, an image that now clashes sharply with a political brand rooted in the anger of his largely rural and working-class voter base. His presidency is now associated in the minds of many with its violent end, as supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Those searing images, along with years of bitter rhetoric, are costing Trump money. Revenues from some of his high-end properties have declined, vacancies in office buildings have increased and his lenders are warning that the company’s revenues may not be sufficient to cover his debt payments, according to Trump’s financial disclosures as president, Trump Organization records filed with government agencies, and reports from companies that track real-estate company finances.
Prospective tenants in New York are shunning his buildings, one real-estate broker said, to avoid being associated with Trump. Organizers of golf tournaments have pulled events from his courses.
Trump’s focus on the political brand has increasingly overtaken his identity as a real-estate mogul, says one hospitality industry veteran.
“Prior to his political career, the Trump brand was about luxury – the casinos, the golf resorts,” said Scott Smith, a former hotel executive and hospitality professor at the University of South Carolina. “When he entered into politics, he took the Trump brand in an entirely different direction.”
Trump’s business also remains under the cloud of a joint criminal fraud investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the New York Attorney General. The company and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged with a scheme to evade payroll taxes, and investigators continue to probe whether Trump or his representatives committed fraud by misrepresenting financials in loan applications and tax returns. Weisselberg and the company deny wrongdoing and are contesting the charges.
As his development business struggles, Trump has announced his first major deal since leaving office – and it has nothing to do with real-estate. On Oct. 20, he said he will build a new social media platform aimed in part at giving him a political forum after being banned by Facebook and Twitter, who said after the U.S. Capitol riots that Trump used their platforms to incite violence.
That deal could prove lucrative for Trump regardless of whether the platform succeeds. Investors rushed to buy shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp, the publicly traded blank-check acquisition company that plans to merge with the newly announced Trump Media and Technology Group. Digital World shares surged and are now worth about $2 billion. Trump’s new media company will have at least a 69% stake in the combined company, but Trump has not disclosed his level of ownership in Trump Media.
Trump has also been raising money for his political operation, which reported having $100 million on June 30, as he hints at a 2024 presidential run.
Eric Trump, the former president’s middle son and a Trump Organization executive, said in an interview that the company is now in “a phenomenal spot.” He cited a refinancing of a loan on San Francisco office buildings that gave the Trump business about $162 million in cash, according to loan documents and a release by Vornado Realty Trust, the venture’s majority owner.
“We’re sitting on a tremendous amount of cash,” Eric Trump told Reuters.
In an email, a spokesperson for Donald Trump denied that the business has slumped since he entered politics.
“The real estate company is doing extremely well, and this is evident in Florida and elsewhere,” Liz Harrington said in an emailed statement. “Considering the coronavirus pandemic, in which the hotel industry was hit particularly hard, Mr. Trump’s company is doing phenomenally well.”
Financial records show Trump’s real-estate business has declined. Income from the family’s holdings, heavy on golf courses and hotels, took a beating during 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Revenues at his Las Vegas hotel, for instance, fell from $22.9 million in 2017 to $9.2 million during 2020 and the first 20 days of 2021, according to Trump’s financial disclosures.
Trump is now making a second attempt to sell his lease on one high-profile property, the Trump International Hotel, housed in a former federal building in Washington, D.C., after failing to secure a buyer at the original asking price of $500 million. Meanwhile, the business is paying the federal government $3 million annually in lease payments, according to documents released earlier this month by the House Oversight Committee of the U.S. Congress. Those records show Trump’s Washington hotel lost more than $73 million since 2016.
The damage to Trump’s business image started early in his presidency. One consultant for Trump, arguing in a 2017 public hearing for a lower tax bill at his Doral golf resort, said Trump’s politics had damaged his business model.
“It’s actually not about the property, it is about the brand,” said consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak, at a December 2017 hearing of the Miami-Dade Value Adjustment Board, in a video recording reviewed by Reuters. She cited a meeting she attended where top Trump Organization executives had described “severe ramifications” to his golf business from, for instance, tournaments and charity events being cancelled by organizations wanting to avoid associating with Trump.
The resort saw revenues fall from $92 million in 2015 to $75 million in 2017, she said at another hearing the following year. Trump’s presidential financial disclosure listed Doral revenues at $44 million last year.
Vachiratevanurak declined a Reuters request for comment.
“This is obviously false as Doral is doing very well,” Trump spokesperson Harrington said.
In Trump’s home base of New York, the Trump name has become increasingly toxic. One high-profile property, the Trump SoHo hotel in lower Manhattan, was rebranded the Dominick in 2017. New York City in January cancelled his leases on a golf course, two Central Park skating rinks and a carousel; Trump has sued the city for wrongful termination of the golf course lease.
At 40 Wall Street, the 72-story skyscraper that was among Trump’s proudest acquisitions, problems that started before the pandemic have gotten worse, according to reports from firms that track real-estate performance. After the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, some of Trump’s large tenants, including the Girl Scouts and a nonprofit called TB Alliance, said they were exploring whether they could get out of their leases. One commercial real-estate broker says many prospective tenants won’t consider the building because Trump’s name is on it.
The Girl Scouts did not respond to comment requests, and TB Alliance said it was “exploring all options” for leaving the Trump building.
“Most New York tenants want nothing to do with it, and that’s been the case for five years now,” said Ruth Colp-Haber, who said she has placed seven clients in the building over the years, but can’t interest anyone now. “It’s the biggest bargain going, but they won’t look at it.”
Occupancy was 84% in March 2021, well below the average of about 89% for that downtown New York office market, according to Mike Brotschol, managing director of KBRA Analytics LLC. The rents Trump has been able to charge are lower, too – between $38 and $42 per square foot in a market where the average runs closer to $50, he said.
The property’s financials have tumbled into risky territory, the reports say.
Trump took out a $160 million loan in 2015 to refinance 40 Wall Street – personally guaranteeing $26 million. Last year, the building was placed on an industry watchlist for commercial mortgage-backed securities at risk of defaulting, according to reports by KBRA and Trepp, which also monitors real-estate loans. In the first quarter of the year, according to the KBRA report, the debt-service coverage ratio, a statistic monitored by banks, dipped to a number indicating that the building’s cash flow can’t cover its debt payments.
In the statement for Trump, Harrington blamed “the disastrous policies of Bill de Blasio,” New York’s mayor, for the downturn in the city’s office market. “Despite all these serious headwinds, Mr. Trump has very little debt relative to value and the company is doing very well,” she said.
The Doral resort and Washington hotel, along with a hotel in Chicago, are secured by about $340 million in loans from Deutsche Bank AG, Trump’s biggest lender. But the bank has no appetite for more business with Trump and has no plans to extend the loans after they come due in 2023 and 2024, a senior Deutsche Bank source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the bank’s unwillingness to work with Trump, his spokeswoman said: “So what?”
Experts say the prospect of any new Trump-branded development faces long odds. One hotel industry executive said hotel developers – worried about cutting themselves off from the millions of customers turned off by Trump – will likely think twice before signing any branding deals to put the Trump name on their properties.
“People have choices. You can go to the Ritz Carlton, you can go to the Four Seasons, and not bring the politics into it one way or the other,” said Vicki Richman, chief operating officer of HVS Asset Management, a hospitality industry consultancy and property manager.
The Trump Organization tried to take its premium luxury hotel brand downmarket with two new brands: Scion, a mid-priced offering, and American Idea for budget travellers. The company scrapped plans for both in 2019, citing difficulties doing business in a contentious political environment.
Harrington said nothing is off the table for Trump’s business.
“We have many, many things under consideration,” she said. “But we also have politics under consideration.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-trumps-real-estate-business-pays-the-price-for-poisonous-politics/
The 14 things you need to know about Trump’s letter in the Wall Street Journal
By Philip Bump
National correspondent
Yesterday at 5:28 p.m. EDT|Updated today at 7:11 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/27/14-things-you-need-know-about-trumps-letter-wall-street-journal/
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published a letter written by former president Donald Trump in which he makes a number of claims about the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. Below, the 14 things you need to know about the letter.
1. The Wall Street Journal should not have published it without assessing the claims and demonstrating where they were wrong, misleading or unimportant.
2. The Journal would have been better served had it explained why it chose to run the letter without contextualizing it, since that might have at least offered some clarity on the otherwise inexplicable decision, but it didn’t.
3. Even if those who decided to publish the letter lacked the resources to fact-check each of the claims, they might have pushed back on obviously false claims, as when Trump falsely claims that Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg spent millions of dollars to “interfere in the Pennsylvania election.”
4. They might also have noted that the organization that Trump repeatedly cites as an authority for his claims, the “highly respected” group Audit the Vote PA, has no actual experience in evaluating elections.
5. Or, perhaps, that the organization’s website includes allegations of fraud that are themselves obviously false. This includes a reference to former Trump administration official Peter Navarro’s collection of fraud claims and a presentation by Douglas Frank, a close ally of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
6. They could have pointed out that the first claim in Trump’s letter, about late-arriving mail ballots, had already been adjudicated by the courts and wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the race. That’s even if the numbers he cited (which came from Audit the Vote) were credible, which they aren’t.
7. They could have contextualized Trump’s argument that changes made by the state legislature should have nullified votes by pointing out that a court had already considered this question and determined that the votes should stand.
8. They could have noted that Trump’s lead on election night was meaningless given the number of absentee ballots that remained to be counted. It was obvious by the morning of Nov. 4 that there were enough absentee votes outstanding to probably hand Joe Biden a victory in the state. Yet, nearly a year later, the Journal allows Trump’s claim that something suspicious happened to stand without comment.
9. They could have taken out obviously unimportant arguments like his trip back to the “we have signed affidavits!!!” well.
10. They might have done more to elevate the fact that Trump’s loyal-until-the-election attorney general, William P. Barr, dismissed Trump’s claims of fraud, instead of letting him malign Barr’s refusal to chase Trump’s imaginary rabbits.
11. If they really wanted to spread their wings, they could have pointed out that a canvass of one county that claims to have identified 78,000 “phantom voters” is simply not credible. If you think contacting hundreds of people at home is trivial, you are encouraged to speak with someone who has spent even one day running a door-to-door political or marketing campaign.
12. The Journal could also have come back to Trump before publishing his letter, setting a higher bar for publication than, say, a guy from Ramapo who took issue with the paper’s coverage of dogecoin. The paper could, for example, have asked that Trump offer some baseline number of examples of proven, demonstrated fraud, not simply various numbers dependent on amateur analyses of voter data. It could have insisted that the former president of the United States, a billionaire, present whatever concrete evidence of fraud he should have ascertained nearly a year after the election and with all of the power of his political party and his pocketbook at his disposal.
13. The paper could have come back to Trump and asked him why he didn’t include various other claims of fraud in the state that he has in the past embraced. He once claimed that the state had 205,000 more votes than voters, a claim debunked in December, given that it was based on flawed analysis of voter data (including from the same system on which many of his Audit the Vote claims are based). Why was that debunked claim excluded when others weren’t?
14. The main thing you need to know about the letter, of course, is that Donald Trump is still railing against his election loss 358 days after it occurred. And that prominent institutions are still enabling his dangerous misinformation more than 358 days after they should have known better.
By Philip Bump
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Twitter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/27/14-things-you-need-know-about-trumps-letter-wall-street-journal/
Trump accuses Bill Barr and Mark Zuckerberg of stealing Pennsylvania election in angry letter to WSJ
Brad Reed
October 27, 2021
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2020-pennsylvania/
Former President Donald Trump accused Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his own former Attorney General William Barr of helping to steal Pennsylvania's election in 2020 in an angry letter written to the Wall Street Journal.
Specifically, Trump took issue with a WSJ editorial published on Monday that accurately claimed Biden defeated Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania.
"Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven't figured out," Trump claimed. "Here are just a few examples of how determinative the voter fraud in Pennsylvania was."
The former president then went through a series of previously debunked claims about "fraud" in Pennsylvania's election, which also included two claims about Barr and Zuckerberg.
Specifically, Trump took issue with a WSJ editorial published on Monday that accurately claimed Biden defeated Trump by more than 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2020-pennsylvania/