World
US hands Bagram Airfield to Afghans after nearly 20 years
After nearly 20 years, the U.S. military left Bagram Airfield, the epicenter of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, two U.S. officials said Friday.
The airfield was handed over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force in its entirety, they said on condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.
One of the officials also said the U.S. top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin S. Miller, “still retains all the capabilities and authorities to protect the forces.”
Afghanistan’s district administrator for Bagram, Darwaish Raufi, said the American departure was done overnight without any coordination with local officials, and as a result early Friday dozens of local looters stormed through the unprotected gates before Afghan forces regained control.
Read:Biden vows 'sustained' help as Afghanistan drawdown nears
“They were stopped and some have been arrested and the rest have been cleared from the base,” Raufi told The Associated Press, adding that the looters ransacked several buildings before being arrested and the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF) took control.
“Unfortunately the Americans left without any coordination with Bagram district officials or the governor’s office,” Raufi said. “Right now our Afghan security forces are in control both inside and outside of the base.”
The deputy spokesman for the defense minister, Fawad Aman, said nothing of the early morning looting. He said only the base has been handed over and the “ANDSF will protect the base and use it to combat terrorism.”
The withdrawal from Bagram Airfield is the clearest indication that the last of the 2,500-3,500 U.S. troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure, months ahead of President Joe Biden’s promise that they would be gone by Sept. 11.
It was clear soon after the mid-April announcement that the U.S. was ending its “forever war,” that the departure of U.S. soldiers and their estimated 7,000 NATO allies would be nearer to July 4, when America celebrates its Independence Day.
Most NATO soldiers have already quietly exited as of this week. Announcements from several countries analyzed by The Associated Press show that a majority of European troops has now left with little ceremony — a stark contrast to the dramatic and public show of force and unity when NATO allies lined up to back the U.S. invasion in 2001.
The U.S. has refused to say when the last U.S. soldier would leave Afghanistan, citing security concerns, but also the protection of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport is still being negotiated. Turkish and U.S. soldiers currently are protecting the airport. That protection is currently covered under the Resolute Support Mission, which is the military mission being wound down.
Read:Taliban gains drive Afghan government to recruit militias
Until a new agreement for the airport’s protection is negotiated between Turkey and the Afghan government, and possibly the United States, the Resolute Support mission would appear to have to continue in order to give international troops the legal authority.
The U.S. will also have about 650 troops in Afghanistan to protect its sprawling embassy in the capital. Their presence it is understood will be covered in a bilateral agreement with the Afghan government.
The U.S. and NATO leaving comes as Taliban insurgents make strides in several parts of the country, overrunning dozens of districts and overwhelming beleaguered Afghan security Forces.
In a worrying development, the government has resurrected militias with a history of brutal violence to assist the Afghan security forces. At what had all the hallmarks of a final press conference, Gen. Miller this week warned that continued violence risked a civil war in Afghanistan that should have the world worried.
At its peak around 2012, Bagram Airfield saw more than 100,000 U.S. troops pass through its sprawling compound barely an hour’s drive north of the Afghan capital Kabul.
The departure is rife with symbolism. Not least, it’s the second time that an invader of Afghanistan has come and gone through Bagram.
Read: US to keep about 650 troops in Afghanistan after withdrawal
The Soviet Union built the airfield in the 1950s. When it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government, it turned it into its main base from which it would defend its occupation of the country. For 10 years, the Soviets fought the U.S.-backed mujahedeen, dubbed freedom fighters by President Ronald Reagan, who saw them as a front-line force in one of the last Cold War battles.
When the U.S. and NATO inherited Bagram in 2001, they found it in ruins, a collection of crumbling buildings, gouged by rockets and shells, most of its perimeter fence wrecked. It had been abandoned after being battered in the battles between the Taliban and rival mujahedeen warlords fleeing to their northern enclaves.
The enormous base has two runways. The most recent, at 12,000 feet long, was built in 2006 at a cost of $96 million. There are 110 revetments, which are basically parking spots for aircraft, protected by blast walls. GlobalSecurity, a security think tank, says Bagram includes three large hangars, a control tower and numerous support buildings. The base has a 50-bed hospital with a trauma bay, three operating theaters and a modern dental clinic. Another section houses a prison, notorious and feared among Afghans.
There was no immediate comment from Afghan officials as to the final withdrawal from Bagram Airfield by the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Delta variant exploits low vaccine rates, easing of rules
The latest alarming coronavirus variant is exploiting low global vaccination rates and a rush to ease pandemic restrictions, adding new urgency to the drive to get more shots in arms and slow its supercharged spread.
The vaccines most used in Western countries still appear to offer strong protection against the highly contagious delta variant, first identified in India and now spreading in more than 90 other countries.
But the World Health Organization warned this week that the trifecta of easier-to-spread strains, insufficiently immunized populations and a drop in mask use and other public health measures before the virus is better contained will “delay the end of the pandemic.”
READ: Cattle smuggling on amid concern about Indian Delta variant
The delta variant is positioned to take full advantage of those weaknesses.
“Any suffering or death from COVID-19 is tragic. With vaccines available across the country, the suffering and loss we are now seeing is nearly entirely avoidable,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday in urging more Americans to roll up their sleeves ahead of the mutant’s spread.Amid concerns about the variant, parts of Europe have reinstated travel quarantines, several Australian cities are in outbreak-sparked lockdowns — and just as Japan readies for the Olympics, some visiting athletes are infected. The mutation is causing worry even in countries with relatively successful immunization campaigns that nonetheless haven’t reached enough people to snuff out the virus.
For instance, the mutant has forced Britain, where nearly half the population is fully vaccinated, to postpone for a month its long-anticipated lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, as cases are doubling about every nine days.
In the U.S., “we’re still vulnerable for these flare-ups and rebounds,” said Dr. Hilary Babcock of Washington University at St. Louis.
The variants “are able to find any gaps in our protection,” she said, pointing to how hospital beds and intensive care units in Missouri’s least-vaccinated southwestern counties suddenly are filling — mostly with adults under 40 who never got the shots.
With nearly half the U.S. population immunized, CDC’s Walensky said about 1,000 counties, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast, with vaccination rates below 30% “are our most vulnerable.”
But the variant poses the most danger in countries where vaccinations are sparse. Africa is seeing cases rise faster than ever before, partially driven by the mutation, the WHO said Thursday, while areas in Bangladesh that border India are also seeing a variant-fueled surge. Fiji, which got through the first year of the pandemic without just two virus deaths, is now experiencing a significant outbreak blamed on the strain, and Afghanistan is desperately seeking oxygen supplies because of it.
The delta variant remains far from the only version of the coronavirus that’s spreading — and you don’t want to catch any kind. Here’s what scientists know so far:
EASIER SPREAD IS THE CHIEF THREAT
Scientists believe the delta variant is about 50% more transmissible than other types. Researchers are just beginning to tease apart why. But there are early clues that some mutations may ease a key step in how the virus slips inside human cells, said Priyamvada Acharya, a structural biologist at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.
Still, it’s not clear if higher contagion is the whole reason the variant is spreading so quickly. In Britain, its rise followed a loosening of restrictions in May, when restaurants, gyms and other businesses reopened, and thousands of fans have attended sports events.
IS IT MORE DANGEROUS?
It’s harder to tell if the delta variant makes people sicker. British experts have said there are some preliminary signs it may increase hospitalization, but there’s no evidence it is more lethal.
It fueled a devastating COVID-19 surge in India in February, and “this time around we had a lot more people who were very sick compared to before,” said Dr. Jacob John of Christian Medical College at Vellore. But he cautioned that the “explosion” of cases didn’t necessarily mean this version was more dangerous, as more cases usually mean more hospitalizations.
READ: AstraZeneca, Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta Covid-19 variants: Study
THE BEST PROTECTION IS FULL VACCINATION
British researchers found two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the AstraZeneca one were only slightly less effective at blocking symptomatic illness from the delta variant than from earlier mutations — and importantly, remain hugely protective at preventing hospitalization.
But there’s an important catch: Just one dose proved far less effective against the delta variant than against earlier versions of the virus. That has prompted Britain, which originally extended the gap between doses, to speed up second shots.
There’s little information on whether the delta variant can escape other vaccines, such as ones developed in China or Russia.
Experts say the Moderna vaccine, the same type as Pfizer’s, should be similarly protective.
Johnson & Johnson announced late Thursday that its one-dose shot also protects against the delta variant, citing lab tests of vaccine recipients’ blood. In a news release, the company said the immune response lasts eight months and counting. The information comes as some people immunized with J&J’s single shot have wondered whether they’d need a booster against the new mutated virus.
WHAT ABOUT MASKS?
The WHO has urged governments not to lift pandemic restrictions too quickly — including saying everyone, even the vaccinated, should continue to wear masks given that the delta variant spreads more easily and no vaccine is 100% effective.
In the U.S., the CDC maintains it still is safe for the fully vaccinated to go mask-free. But there’s no way to know if maskless people really are vaccinated and local governments can set tighter guidelines. This week, with the delta variant spreading locally, health officials in Los Angeles County said they still recommend masks indoors in public places for everyone.
If that’s confusing, consider that the more the virus is spreading in a particular area, the more risk even the vaccinated have of getting a mild or asymptomatic infection they could spread to someone not protected — such as children too young to qualify for the shots.
In Missouri, fully vaccinated Babcock makes sure she has a mask to pop on quickly if she runs into a crowd: “I feel like my new normal is holding a mask in my hand, ready to put it on if I need it.”
Collapse survivors escaped with their lives, but little else
Susana Alvarez fled her home on the 10th floor of Champlain Towers South, escaping with her life and almost nothing else.
“I don’t have anything,” said the 62-year-old survivor of the condominium building collapse just outside Miami. “I walked out with my pajamas and my phone.”
The disaster that killed at least 18 people, with more than 140 still missing, also rendered dozens of people homeless. Many lost cars, too, buried in the building’s underground parking garage.
Though most who managed to flee to safety lived in parts of the building that remain standing, they have little hope of returning to reclaim clothing, computers, jewelry and sentimental possessions they left behind.
Read:Devastated condo community looks to Biden visit for comfort
Officials said Thursday they’re making plans for the likely demolition of all parts of the building that didn’t collapse. The announcement came after search and rescue operations were paused for hours because of growing signs the structure was dangerously unstable.
Alvarez is still dealing with the trauma. She hasn’t slept in a bed since the collapse a week ago. Instead she’s been sleeping in a chair, constantly thinking of the victims who couldn’t escape. She still hears the screams from that night.
“I lost everything,” Alvarez said, “and it doesn’t mean anything to me.”
Still, friends and even complete strangers have been helping replace what she’s lost. Friends she’s staying with outfitted her with new clothes and a computer. An eyeglass store refilled her prescription, even though she never called it in. And she got the last condo in a 16-unit building that was opened up rent-free to Surfside survivors for the month of July.
It’s unclear exactly how many residents have been displaced, but those with insurance policies should recoup at least a portion of their losses.
Victims also appear likely to get some money from the liability insurer for Champlain Towers South’s condominium association, which has at least four lawsuits pending related to the collapse.
An attorney for James River Insurance Company wrote to the judge in one case this week that it plans to “voluntarily tender its entire limit” from the association’s policy toward resolving claims. An attached copy of the policy showed limits between $1 million and $2 million.
Michael Capponi, the president of a Miami-area nonprofit that for the past decade has helped victims of disasters from hurricanes to wildfires in the U.S. and abroad, said he has personally dealt with 50 people who lost homes in the building.
Read:Latest victims in condo tower collapse include 2 children
Capponi’s organization, Global Empowerment Mission, has distributed roughly $75,000 in gift cards among surfside survivors, and he’s also working with hotel and condo owners to find places they can live for the next two months.
Most people who have contacted his nonprofit for help lived in the part that is still standing but assume their homes and anything inside are a complete loss.
“They are going to basically have to start all over again,” Capponi said. “Some of them don’t have insurance, and they’ve lost everything they worked all their lives for.”
Raysa Rodriguez, a retired postal worker who lived at Champlain Towers South for 17 years and was close to paying off her mortgage, described in a lawsuit she filed against the condominium association how crashing sounds roused her from bed the night of the collapse.
“The building swayed like a sheet of paper. ... I ran to the balcony. I (opened) the doors and a wall of dust hit me,” she said in the filing.
Rodriguez helped neighbors escape to a second-floor balcony where firefighters helped them to the ground. Now she has moved in with family members and assumes what’s left of the building will be torn down with no chance to recover belongings.
“She lived there for a long time,” said Adam Schwartzbaum, her attorney, “and she was planning to live there for the rest of her life.”
Ryan Logan, the American Red Cross’ regional disaster officer for south Florida, said the organization has been helping about 18 families, and some of them have been looking for ways they can help other victims.
Read:Florida officials pledge multiple probes into condo collapse
“These folks that we are serving, who we know they are having the worst experience of their lives, are turning around and asking you what can they do to serve,” Logan said. “It’s nothing short of amazing.”
Gabriel Nir narrowly escaped a first-floor apartment with his mother and 15-year-old sister. The family had just moved in six months ago. Nir, a recent college graduate, was living there while he looked for a job and considered medical school.
For now they are staying at a nearby hotel, the floor of their room cluttered with items donated by friends and strangers. They have no luggage. Their car was destroyed in the building’s garage. But all the material possessions they lost can be replaced, he said.
“I’m just grateful I made it out alive with my family,” Nir said.
Xi Jinping -- Leading CPC to strive for a better world
"What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."
Addressing over 600 representatives of political parties from over 120 countries at a high-level dialogue in 2017, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and president of China, laid out the historic mission of the world's largest political party.
Read:Interview: CPC offers significant governance experience, says PCI leader
Committed to the party's original aspiration, Xi is leading the CPC not only to build China into a modern socialist country but to create a better shared future for the world.
DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL
A day before the official centenary of the CPC on Thursday, China, after a 70-year fight, was officially declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, which marks the latest of the numerous achievements China has made under the CPC's leadership.
In February, Xi announced that China, with a population larger than 1.4 billion, had secured a complete victory against poverty, which was widely acclaimed as a miracle in the human history of poverty reduction.
While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.
Whether in the fight against malaria or in poverty alleviation, China has over the past decades extended a helping hand to others, especially developing countries.
Back in 2000, Xi, then governor of southeastern China's Fujian Province, helped launch a pilot Juncao project to help improve the livelihood of the Papua New Guinean people.
Juncao, famed as "magic grass" and discovered by Chinese scientists, is an economical and environmentally friendly substitute for timber, which can be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.
Eighteen years later, during Xi's state visit to the Oceanian country, the two countries signed another aid project using the grass technology. By 2023, the aid program is expected to lift 30,000 local people out of poverty.
Today, the Juncao project has taken root in over 100 countries, helping combat poverty in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific region.
Meanwhile, from the decades-old Canton Fair to the 3-year-old China International Import Expo and to the newly launched China International Consumer Products Expo, high-end international expos have repeatedly demonstrated China's commitment to wider opening-up and mutual benefits.
Read: China sees remarkable achievements under CPC leadership, says Pakistani PM
China sees remarkable achievements under CPC leadership, says Pakistani PM
China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has made remarkable achievements such as the eradication of absolute poverty, said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In an interview with Chinese media at the Prime Minister House on Tuesday, Khan lauded the CPC's efforts to score a complete victory in China's fight against poverty.
Read:Interview: CPC offers significant governance experience, says PCI leader
"This is, I think, one of the most remarkable achievements of any human society. I don't think there is any precedent in history of a society achieving these great goals," he noted.
Extending his congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the CPC, the Pakistani prime minister described the party's governance of China as a unique model.
People were told that the Western system of democracy is the best way for social progress, and yet what the CPC has achieved proves that there is another feasible model, he said.
As the prime minister of Pakistan and chairman of the country's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Khan has paid several visits to China in the past few years. He said that the CPC's system of talent selection and grooming as well as its long-term planning for the development of China have impressed him.
Climate change, Khan said, is one of the most serious challenges facing mankind. And the CPC has been upholding the idea of the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and leading China to do a large amount of work in protecting the environment and tackling climate change.
On Pakistan-China relations, Khan said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties seven decades ago, the two countries have been walking shoulder to shoulder through difficulties, and have forged a very deep, strong and unique relationship which is not limited between the two governments, but also exists between the two peoples.
Read:Xi takes firm line as China Communist Party marks centenary
He said that whenever Pakistan is in trouble, the Chinese side will always extend a helping hand. "The people of China have a special place in the hearts of the people of Pakistan. Because you will remember a friend who stands with you in your difficult times as in good times, everyone stands with you."
In the fight against COVID-19, China has not only performed exemplarily within the country, but also helped many other countries including Pakistan control the epidemic through vaccine donation and other ways, Khan said.
Hailing the vaccine donation by China a timely help, he said that his country was able to kick off the nationwide vaccination drive because of the vaccine doses from China to vaccinate frontline health workers and senior citizens in the first phase, "which gives us a lot of confidence."
As a landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been fruitful in solving Pakistan's electricity shortage and improving the country's transport infrastructure, the Pakistani prime minister said.
The CPEC is "a program which gives us the greatest optimism and hope for our future economic development," he said, adding that Pakistan will deepen industrial, agricultural and skill training cooperation with China in the future.
Read: At 100, China’s Communist Party looks to cement its future
Pakistan will attract companies from China and other countries to invest in the special economic zones under the CPEC through incentives to create jobs and bolster economic growth, Khan said.
Pakistan will further strengthen its relations with China in the future, including political and economic and trade relations, he said, adding that no matter how the world situation changes, the Pakistan-China relationship will remain rock-solid.
CPC offers significant governance experience, says PCI leader
Running a country as large as China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is providing a significant amount of experience that can be drawn on in the field of governance, National Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) Mauro Alboresi has said.
The success of the CPC lies in its capability to combine political theory and practice, which has set a great example across the globe, the PCI leader said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Read:NKorea’s Kim vows to boost China ties amid pandemic hardship
"The facts say a lot," said Alboresi, taking China's campaign of poverty alleviation as an example.
"The challenge of lifting millions of people out of poverty, which many thought to be impossible, has proved to be a possibility. It became real, thanks to the governance of the CPC and the efforts made in this direction in such a short span of time," he added.
Alboresi said the CPC has not only helped its own people out of poverty, but also reached out to other developing countries in need with Chinese experience.
China's cooperation with African nations, for example, has supported "local infrastructure construction in order to allow them to improve their production capacity and exports, sustaining a strong idea of development," he said.
When it comes to the fight against COVID-19, the PCI leader said that under the guidance of the CPC, "China handled the pandemic in a resolute, effective way, so much so that, today, China has been able to respond (to the pandemic) while other countries are struggling."
Read:Xi takes firm line as China Communist Party marks centenary
"It should be highlighted that China faced the COVID-19 pandemic with a supportive approach of collaboration toward other countries," he added.
Alboresi pointed out that the entire humankind should reflect on this COVID-19 pandemic and the world is seeing historically unprecedented processes of interconnection and interdependence between different countries.
China's proposal of building a community with a shared future for mankind "is the necessary answer to address the big challenges that affect the planet," Alboresi said.
"This proposal confirms the profound belief that encourages the CPC ... about the centrality of multilateralism within relations with different countries," said Alboresi. "I really think we need to head toward this direction."
Noting this year marks the 100th anniversary of the CPC, Alboresi said that the centenary, "to which we pay great attention, is an opportunity for reflection for all the international communist movement."
Read: At 100, China’s Communist Party looks to cement its future
"In this sense, we truly believe there are all the right conditions for this centenary to bring about further momentum to continue in this direction," he said.
"The PCI has always been highlighting the decisive role played by China in the history of the international communist movement," he said, adding that the CPC's experience accumulated in the past has been the most valuable part that is worth learning for the whole international communist movement.
Mega Cabinet rejig on the cards of Modi govt?
A mega Cabinet expansion is on the cards of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ahead of next year's crucial assembly polls in five Indian states and the 2024 general election.
Though there has been no official word on the possible Cabinet rejig, UNB has learnt that as many as 28 new faces, including a few from West Bengal, could be inducted into the Council of Ministers this month.
Read: Twin blasts rock Indian Air Force base in first-ever drone attack
Modi's Cabinet currently has 53 Ministers. This would be the first Cabinet expansion since his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept back to power in 2019 general election, decimating the opposition Congress.
In fact, the names of at least three BJP leaders from the eastern state of Bengal -- Jagannath Sarkar, Shantanu Thakur and N Pramanik -- are doing the rounds. Bengal shares its border with Bangladesh.
Modi's nationalist party lost badly to firebrand Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in April-May's polls in Bengal. Mamata bucked anti-incumbency to pull off a landslide victory in the polls.
Bengal had witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state polls. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development".
Read:Two back-to-back blasts rock Indian Air Force station
UNB has also learnt that former Congress lawmaker Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Chief Minister of northeastern state of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, are likely to be part of the Cabinet expansion.
Scindia, who served as a minister in the previous Congress-led federal government,defected to the BJP last year and helped the saffron outfit reclaim its bastion in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
Sonowal, on the other hand, made way for his deputy Himanta Biswa Sarma as Assam Chief Minister after the BJP swept to power for the second time in a row in the recently concluded assembly polls in the state.
Others who could be part of the Cabinet rejig are former deputy chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Sushil Modi, and former chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane.
Read: India cuts Middle East oil imports as it seeks to diversify energy sources
Nine serving Ministers in the Modi Cabinet, including Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani, who currently hold additional portfolios, may have to relinquish the extra ministries to make way for the new faces, sources said.
"Five Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh in the north, are to go to polls next year. It's said that the party which wins Uttar Pradesh gets India. This is because the state has 80 parliamentary seats," said Rama Sharma, a Delhi-based political analyst.
Trump Organization, CFO indicted on tax fraud charges
Donald Trump’s company and its longtime finance chief were charged Thursday in what prosecutors called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme in which the executive collected more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition.
Trump himself was not charged with any wrongdoing, but prosecutors noted he signed some of the checks at the center of the case. And one top prosecutor said the 15-year scheme was “orchestrated by the most senior executives” at the Trump Organization.
It is the first criminal case to come out New York authorities’ two-year investigation into the former president’s business dealings.
Also read: Trump targeting GOP impeachment voter at Ohio revenge rally
According to the indictment, from 2005 through this year, the Trump Organization and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg cheated tax authorities by conspiring to pay senior executives off the books by way of lucrative fringe benefits and other means.
Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.
The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand larceny, carries five to 15 years in prison. The tax fraud charges against the company are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.
The 73-year-old Weisselberg has intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial dealings from nearly five decades at the company. The charges against him could enable prosecutors to pressure him to cooperate with the investigation and tell them what he knows.
Both Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty. Weisselberg was ordered to surrender his passport and was released without bail, leaving the courthouse without comment.
In a statement, Trump condemned the case as a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats.” Weisselberg’s lawyers said he will “fight these charges.”
The case is being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats.
Vance has been investigating a wide range of matters involving Trump and the Trump Organization, such as hush-money payments made to women on Trump’s behalf and whether the company falsified the value of its properties to obtain loans or reduce its tax bills.
The news comes as Trump has been more seriously discussing a possible comeback run for president in 2024. He has ramped up his public appearances, including holding his first rallies since leaving the White House.
In announcing the grand jury indictment, Carey Dunne, a top deputy in Vance’s office, said: “Politics has no role in the jury chamber, and I can assure you it had no role here.”
The Trump Organization is the entity through which the former president manages his many ventures, including his investments in office towers, hotels and golf courses, his many marketing deals and his TV pursuits. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric have been in charge of day-to-day operations since he became president.
In addition to exposing the Trump Organizations to fines, the criminal case could make it more difficult for the business to secure bank loans or strike deals — a hit that comes at a particularly bad time, with the company already reeling from lost business because of the coronavirus and the backlash over the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Companies that are being indicted, whether they are private or public, big or small, face serious collateral consequences,” said Daniel Horwitz, a white-collar defense attorney. “Companies in the financial services industry are reluctant to do business with them. Their access to capital is limited or cut off.”
Weisselberg came under scrutiny in part because of questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.
Weisselberg’s son Barry — who managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park — paid no reported rent while living in a Trump-owned apartment in 2018, and he was charged just $1,000 per month — far below typical Manhattan prices — while living in a Trump apartment from 2005 to 2012, the indictment said.
Allen Weisselberg himself, an intensely private man who lived for years in a modest home on Long Island, continued to claim residency there despite living in a company-paid Manhattan apartment, prosecutors said.
Also read: Seized House records show just how far Trump admin would go
By doing so, Weisselberg concealed that he was a New York City resident, and he avoided paying hundreds of thousands in federal, state and city income taxes while collecting about $133,000 in refunds to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Weisselberg paid rent on his Manhattan apartment with company checks and directed the company to pay for his utility bills and parking, too.
The company also paid for private school tuition for Weisselberg’s grandchildren with checks bearing Trump’s signature, as well as for Mercedes cars driven by Weisselberg and his wife, and gave him cash to hand out tips around Christmas.
Such perks were listed on internal Trump company documents as being part of Weisselberg’s compensation but were not included on his W-2 forms or otherwise reported, and the company did not withhold taxes on their value, prosecutors said.
Trump’s company also issued checks, at Weisselberg’s request, to pay for personal expenses and upgrades to his homes and an apartment used by one of his sons, such as new beds, flat-screen TVs, carpeting and furniture, prosecutors said.
Barry Weisselberg’s ex-wife has been cooperating with investigators and given them reams of tax records and other documents.
Two other Trump executives who were not identified by name also received substantial under-the-table compensation, including lodging and the payment of automobile leases, the indictment said.
Weisselberg has a reputation as a workaholic utterly devoted to Trump’s interests. So far, there is no sign that he is about to turn on the former president.
“I think it’s possible that Weisselberg would reconsider. Seeing the charges spelled out in this much detail, and seeing that the alleged federal tax loss is included, could in theory change his mind,” said Daniel R. Alonso, former chief assistant district attorney. “On the other hand, he is a loyal Trump soldier, which obviously argues against his cooperation.”
Trump has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the business and in no way a crime. The Trump Organization accused the district attorney’s office of using Weisselberg as “a pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president.” It said the DA’s office and the IRS have never before brought criminal charges against a company over employee benefits.
Vance fought a long battle to get Trump’s tax records and has been subpoenaing documents and interviewing company executives and other Trump insiders.
James Repetti, a tax lawyer and professor at Boston College Law School, said a company like the Trump Organization would generally have a responsibility to withhold taxes not just on salary but on other forms of compensation.
Another prominent New York City real estate figure, the late Leona Helmsley, was convicted of tax fraud in a federal case that arose from her company paying to remodel her home without her reporting that as income.
“The IRS routinely looks for abuse of fringe benefits when auditing closely held businesses,” Repetti said.
Also read: Mourinho accepts guilty plea for tax fraud in Spain
Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who has been cooperating with Vance’s investigation, wrote in his book “Disloyal” that Trump and Weisselberg were “masters at allocating expenses that related to non-business matters and finding a way to categorize them so they weren’t taxed.”
Weisselberg first started working for Trump’s real estate-developer father, Fred, after answering a newspaper ad for a staff accountant in 1973, and rose in the organization.
Keeping a low profile — aside from a 2004 appearance as a judge on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice” — Weisselberg was barely mentioned in news articles before Trump started running for president and questions arose about the boss’ finances and charity.
Cohen said Weisselberg was the one who decided how to secretly reimburse him for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who said she had sex with Trump.
Hundreds believed dead in heat wave despite efforts to help in Northwest
Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.
As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.
An excessive heat warning remained in effect for parts of the interior Northwest and western Canada Thursday.
Also read: Hundreds of deaths could be linked to Northwest heat wave
The death toll in Oregon alone reached 79, the Oregon state medical examiner said Thursday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland.
In Canada, British Columbia’s chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 “sudden and unexpected deaths” between Friday and Wednesday afternoon. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.
She said it was too soon to say with certainty how many deaths were heat related, but that it was likely the heat was behind most of them.
Washington state authorities have linked more than 20 deaths to the heat, but authorities said that number was likely to rise.
In Oregon’s Multnomah County, the average victim’s age was 67 and the oldest was 97, according to county Health Officer Jennifer Vines.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Vines said she had been worried about fatalities amid the weather forecasts. Authorities tried to prepare as best they could, turning nine air-conditioned county libraries into cooling centers.
Between Friday and Monday, 7,600 people cooled off amid the stacks of books. Others went to three more cooling centers. Nearly 60 teams sought out homeless people, offering water and electrolytes.
“We scoured the county with outreach efforts, with calls to building managers of low-income housing to be checking on their residents,” Vines said.
Also read: With 'big one' coming, quake alert system launches in Oregon
But the efforts weren’t enough, she said: “It’s been really sobering to see these initial (fatality) numbers come out.”
Oregon Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps agreed. “Learning of the tragic loss of life as a result of the recent heat wave is heartbreaking. As an emergency manager – and Oregonian – it is devastating that people were unable to access the help they needed during an emergency,” he said.
Among the dead was a farm laborer who collapsed Saturday and was found by fellow workers at a nursery in rural St. Paul, Oregon. The workers had been moving irrigation lines, said Aaron Corvin, spokesman for the state’s worker safety agency, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, or Oregon OSHA.
Oregon OSHA, whose database listed the death as heat-related, is investigating labor contractor Andres Pablo Lucas and Ernst Nursery and Farms, which did not respond to a request for comment. Pablo Lucas declined to comment Thursday.
Farm worker Pedro Lucas said the man who died was his uncle, Sebastian Francisco Perez, from Ixcan, Guatemala. He had turned 38 the day before he died.
Lucas, who is cousins with the labor contractor, was summoned to the scene. But by the time he arrived, his uncle was unconscious and dying. An ambulance crew tried to revive him but failed. Lucas said Perez was used to working in the heat and that the family is awaiting an autopsy report.
Reyna Lopez, executive director of a northwest farmworkers’ union, known by its Spanish-language initials, PCUN, called the death “shameful” and faulted both Oregon OSHA for not adopting emergency rules ahead of the heat wave, and the nursery.
Corvin said Oregon OSHA is “exploring adopting emergency requirements, and we continue to engage in discussions with labor and employer stakeholders.”
He added that employers are obligated to provide ample water, shade, additional breaks and training about heat hazards.
An executive order issued in March 2020 by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would formalize protecting workers from heat, but it is coming too late for the dead farmworker, whose name was not disclosed. Brown’s order focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also tells the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon OSHA to jointly propose standards to protect workers from excessive heat and wildfire smoke.
They had until June 30 to submit the proposals, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the two agencies requested the deadline be pushed back to September.
In Bend, Oregon, a scenic town next to the snowy Cascade Range, the bodies of two men were found Sunday on a road where dozens of homeless people stay in trailers and tents.
Volunteer Luke Richter said he stepped into the trailer where one of the men, Alonzo “Lonnie” Boardman, was found.
“It was very obviously too late. It was basically a microwave in there,” Richter told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Cooling stations had been set up at the campsite on Saturday, with water, sports drinks and ice available.
Weather experts say the number of heat waves are only likely to rise in the Pacific Northwest, a region normally known for cool, rainy weather, with a few hot, sunny days mixed in, and where many people don’t have air conditioning.
Also read: Blackouts in US Northwest due to heat wave, deaths reported
“I think the community has to be realistic that we are going to be having this as a more usual occurrence and not a one-off, and that we need to be preparing as a community,” said Dr. Steven Mitchell of Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, which treated an unprecedented number of severe heat-related cases. “We need to be really augmenting our disaster response.”
This week’s heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.
Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).
Xi rallies Party for 'unstoppable' pursuit to national rejuvenation as CPC celebrates centenary
The Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, as its top leader declared the achievement of a milestone development goal and announced that the Chinese nation is "advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation."
Addressing a grand gathering at the iconic Tian'anmen Square, where CPC forefather Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the people's republic, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, hailed the Party's success over the past century and called on the whole Party to continue its hard work and carry out "a great struggle" to achieve national rejuvenation.
Xi delivered a nationally-televised speech from Tian'anmen Rostrum before a 70,000-strong crowd. The historic event also witnessed a chorus of Party songs, a flypast of fighter jets and helicopters, a 100-gun salute, and a flag-raising ceremony.
Xi, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, declared that China has realized the first centenary goal of "building a moderately prosperous society in all respects."
"This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects," Xi said.
HISTORICAL INEVITABILITY
Reviewing the past 100 years, Xi said the Party has united and led the Chinese people in achieving great success in the new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, reform, opening up and socialist modernization, as well as for socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
In 1921 when the CPC was founded, it had just over 50 members. Today, with more than 95 million members in a country of more than 1.4 billion people, it is the largest governing party in the world and enjoys tremendous international influence.
Xi paid tributes to CPC forefathers including Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, as well as revolutionary martyrs who died for the Party's cause.
"All the struggle, sacrifice, and creation through which the Party has united and led the Chinese people over the past hundred years has been tied together by one ultimate theme -- bringing about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," Xi said, adding that this prospect "has become a historical inevitability."
The ceremony was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng -- all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, as well as Vice President Wang Qishan.
At the event, Wan Exiang, chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, read a congratulatory message on behalf of the eight non-CPC political parties in China, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and personages without party affiliation.
Also read: Xi takes firm line as China Communist Party marks centenary
Over 1,000 young people, who are representatives of the Chinese Communist Youth League and Young Pioneers, conveyed their congratulatory message through a recitation at Tian'anmen Square, expressing the younger generation's commitment to the CPC's cause.
"I feel very honored," said Wang Fangyanni, a 22-year-old university student who watched the celebrations on the spot. Wang gained full membership of the CPC in April.
Xi's one-hour speech captured the Party's tremendous success over a century.
Under the Party's leadership, the country has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades. China is now the world's second-largest economy, the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and boasts one of the world's largest consumer markets. Its GDP has exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan (about 15.47 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold.
Many people have experienced a significant improvement in their lives.
Bao Xianjie is one of them. A member of the Tu ethnic group, she relates the CPC centenary with changes in her home county in northwestern Qinghai Province, which has recently cast off poverty.
"When I returned home in recent years, I saw big changes: expressway has been opened, traffic is made convenient, and everyone's life is getting better," Bao told Xinhua at Tian'anmen Square.
Yang Pin-hua, an ethnic singer from Taiwan who has been living in Beijing for 14 years, was also in the audience at the square.
Having traveled to more than 70 mainland cities with large ethnic populations, Yang said he has seen those places undergoing tremendous changes over the years. "The Party's support has reached every village and every ethnic group."
EVEN STRONGER PARTY
In his address, Xi laid down principles that must be followed on the journey ahead.
The firm leadership of the Party must be upheld, he said, calling it the foundation and lifeblood of the Party and the country, and the crux upon which the interests and wellbeing of all Chinese people depend.
Vowing to remain committed to combating corruption and root out "any viruses that would erode its health," Xi said the CPC must continue to advance the great new project of Party building.
"We must unite and lead the Chinese people in working ceaselessly for a better life," he added.
"Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass," he said.
Xi stressed continuing to adapt Marxism to the Chinese context.
Also read: At 100, China’s Communist Party looks to cement its future
NO PREACHING, NO BULLYING
Xi said efforts to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics must be continued. In doing so, the Party has "created a new model for human civilization."
The Party is eager to learn what lessons it can from the achievements of other cultures, and welcomes helpful suggestions and constructive criticism, Xi said.
"We will not, however, accept sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us," he said.
Xi added that the Chinese nation does not carry aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes. "We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will."
But the Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us, he said.
"Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people," Xi said, as the crowd present at Tian'anmen Square burst into thunderous applause and cheers.
Xi underlined elevating the armed forces to world-class standards to achieve greater capacity and more reliable means for safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests.
He also called for making efforts to strengthen the great unity of the Chinese people.
Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the CPC, Xi said, vowing resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward "Taiwan independence."
"No one should underestimate the great resolve, the strong will, and the extraordinary ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.