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2025-02-01
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The Carter administration era opened the floodgates to Miami. President Jimmy Carter’s name is indelibly tied to one of the largest sea exoduses in history, one that shaped Miami for years to come and arguably played a part in his reelection defeat: the Mariel boatlift. Between April and October of 1980, about 125,000 Cubans came to South Florida in boats from Havana’s Port of Mariel, provoking political backlash for Carter, who, in a speech that May, said America would “continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom.” His foreign policy left a profound impression in a city where thousands of Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan refugees fled from countries that his administration struggled to steer toward democracy — with little success. Carter died on Sunday. He was 100 years old. His years in office were marked by mass migration to the shores of South Florida , the rise of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and human rights and constitutional crises elsewhere. Almost half a century later, the failure of the Carter administration to advance democracies in the hemisphere remains a challenge for U.S. policy. “Carter’s record in Latin America was mixed,” said Eric Farnsworth, a former State Department and White House official who leads the Washington office of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society. “He had some real successes. He was the first to meaningfully put human rights at the center of policy in Latin America. The main challenge is that he seemed to misunderstand the true nature of violent dictatorships. He thought that by engagement and diplomacy, somebody like Fidel Castro might be convinced to change the path of the Cuban dictatorship.” At the beginning of his presidency, in June 1977, Carter, the one-time peanut farmer from Georgia who campaigned on reorienting U.S. foreign policy following the end of the Vietnam War, vowed to put human rights and non-intervention principles at the center while working toward detente with the Soviet Union. But the approach was immediately put to the test by the realities of Latin America and the Caribbean, as the region turned into a Cold War playground, with Cuba playing a central role, and other nations in the hemisphere found themselves rocked by political instability, armed conflicts and repressive dictatorships. Carter would go on to have significant accomplishments in the hemisphere, like the treaty to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panamanian authorities. Because he put human rights at the center of his diplomacy, experts also credit him for launching countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Brazil, all under right-wing dictatorships, on a path toward democratization. But without a regional policy framework, his administration was left to react to a series of crises whose ramifications are still being felt today in South Florida. And “by trying to put human rights at the center of policy in the Western Hemisphere, somehow, the United States ended up being soft on some of the worst human rights abusers in the hemisphere,” Farnsworth said. “Maybe the lesson to be taken there is that human rights can be abused by the left as well as the right,” he added. Engagement with Cuba Despite tensions with Cuba, Carter wanted to lift the U.S. embargo on the island and improve human rights conditions there. He was unable to achieve either, despite his best intentions. Instead, Carter was forced to deal with a mass exodus from Cuba skillfully exploited by Fidel Castro, which many observers believe contributed to his 1980 loss of the presidency against Ronald Reagan, whose landslide victory marked the first time since 1932 that an incumbent president was denied reelection. Early in his presidency, Carter had engaged in direct talks with Castro. In 1978, he was interested in normalizing relations and opening a U.S. Interest Office that could work as a diplomatic mission in Havana. His administration also worked with a group of Cuban Americans who established a dialogue with Castro that resulted in the release of more than 3,000 political prisoners and the reestablishment of family travel. But talks on normalization eventually failed when Castro refused to withdraw his forces fighting in Angola during the African nation’s civil war. The release of Castro’s political prisoners marked an important achievement for Carter’s foreign policies, but it was shortly overshadowed by one of the largest sea migration events in modern U.S. history — the Mariel boatlift. After years of isolation, economic scarcity and lack of political freedoms, discontent spread in Cuba. When a group of Cubans entered the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking asylum, Castro saw an opportunity to get rid of critics while creating another problem for Carter, whose administration would now face immigration challenges at home. Castro forced exiles in South Florida who had rented boats to pick up their relatives on the island to take other passengers, mostly men, who were criminals or mental health patients. While less than 3,000 migrants were deemed inadmissible by U.S. immigration authorities, the narrative about Mariel and criminal refugees became entangled with national politics and anti-immigrant sentiments. Eventually, the handling of the Mariel boatlift, along with a worsening economy, an energy crisis and the Iranian hostage crisis, became one of the factors that led to Carter’s defeat at the polls. On top of the 125,000 Cubans that came to South Florida, about 25,000 Haitians also arrived in boats in South Florida fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship at home. Declassified State Department documents show that if he had been reelected, Carter intended to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Over the years, he remained an advocate of lifting sanctions but also pushed for human rights and democracy in Cuba. In 2002, he traveled to the island, called for free elections and brought attention to the Varela Project, a plebiscite initiative led by the opposition leader Oswaldo Payá. The visit played out in ways Carter could not foresee. Granted by Castro the unprecedented opportunity to give a speech, televised live nationwide from the University of Havana, Carter spoke of democracy, civil liberties, political prisoners and the Varela Project. He even mentioned the claims disputes over confiscations of U.S. properties after Castro took power in 1959. Many Cubans, especially the younger generation, had never heard of many of the issues before, even less on state television, nor had they seen a foreign leader openly calling Castro to allow for a democratic transition. Viewers were stunned. But while Carter’s words resonated among many, they made Castro even more determined to prevent the plebiscite proposal from posing a risk to his rule. Less than a year later, Castro imprisoned 75 dissidents, many directly involved in the Varela Project. Rise of the Sandinistas Similarly, Carter’s efforts to push the Anastasio Somoza regime to improve its human-rights record and prevent a socialist revolution in Nicaragua failed. When Carter came to office, Nicaragua was already mired in conflict. Somoza’s rule was being challenged by a Marxist guerrilla group supported by Cuba, the Sandinista National Liberation Front. After one of its attacks, Somoza ordered a fierce crackdown, and Carter cut off aid to Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan ruler lifted the state of siege to restart the flow of U.S.. aid, but the Sandinistas took the opportunity to launch new attacks. Various attempts by Carter to seek a mediated solution to the conflict collapsed. When Somoza refused such plan in January 1979, Carter ended military assistance to the Nicaragua National Guard. The Sandinistas took power just a few months later under the leadership of Ortega and quickly declared a state of emergency, abolished the constitution and began confiscating private property. Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans fled to South Florida. Many years later, in 2006, Carter was in Nicaragua to monitor elections in which Ortega was set to win the presidential elections. At the time, Carter told Reuters that he thought Ortega had changed. “His demeanor, his approach and his public statements are radically different from what I knew in the ‘80s,” Carter told Reuters. Ortega is still in power as the head of one of the most repressive regimes in the hemisphere. Haiti and human rights In Haiti, Carter faced a dilemma he had wrestled with several times: He wanted to support friendly governments but found their resistance to peace and democracy challenging his push on human rights. When Carter came into office, he inherited a U.S. ally in Haiti, President-for-Life Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the son of the country’s former dictator, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. The Carter administration continued to provide assistance and Haiti was receiving about $41 million despite its sordid human rights record. That support led to increased criticism of U.S. policy as critics of the Duvalier regime accused it of exploiting the aid to tighten its hold on the country. They also pointed out that Haitians were increasingly fleeing on boats only to be turned away by the U.S. and denied legal status if they made it onto land. Eventually, Haitian refugees found reprieve under the Carter administration. They were treated the same as Cubans and considered refugees with the establishment of the Cuban-Haitian Entrant Program in June 1980. The program granted temporary status and access to asylum processing and assistance to fleeing Cubans and Haitians. A different world? Despite the setbacks during Carter’s presidency, Andrew Young, the administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, believes that had Carter won a second term, the world would be a far different place. A few months into the job, Young arrived in Haiti with a list of political prisoners given to him by Haitians and others and asked for a private meeting with the young Haitian dictator, who was then 26 years old. “I went back to his office, took this list out of my pocket, and said, ‘I don’t know who’s on here, but friends of mine say that these people have been unjustly convicted,” Young said. “I said there are many other places in the world that are far worse than Haiti. But they don’t get the publicity you get because they’re not as close to the United States,” Young added. “I said it would really do Haiti good, and it would help me and the people in jail if you could find a way to do whatever you think is right.” On Sept. 21, 1977, months after the visit, 106 Haitian political prisoners were released, including Robert “Boby” Duval, a well-known soccer player who told the Miami Herald in 2008 that Carter saved him from death after he had spent eight months imprisoned on the grounds of the presidential palace where prisoners were being hogtied, beaten and tortured. While his record in Latin America and the Caribbean has detractors, few question Carter’s values and intentions. His time in office coincided with a difficult time in history, in some ways bearing similarity with current international affairs. Scrutiny over his legacy might help to get some answers for today’s world. “Carter, I believe his heart was truly in the right place,” Farnsworth said. “He truly wanted to make peace. ... He wanted to reevaluate the traditional U.S. posture in the region, trying to reduce the tensions of the Cold War. Those are laudatory goals. But the question is, did that desire, at some point, overwhelm the ugly reality of what was possible in the region at the time? I think that’s the question that historians will have to answer.” ©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Mike McDaniel stepped in to keep Dolphins from trading veteran DT Calais Campbell to RavensJOHNSON CONTROLS ANNOUNCES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND
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Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan are in talks to merge to better compete with electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla, BYD, and others. As reported by , the two have discussed signing a memorandum of understanding that outlines plans to split equity into a new holding company from which both will do business, according to anonymous sources. Both Honda and Nissan are also discussing a plan to pull Mitsubishi into the party, which would be akin to how various — such as Konica Minolta, JVCKenwood, and others. Honda and Nissan were already working together to develop EV technology and software and had to that party as well. Of the two companies, it’s Nissan that’s really in trouble and reportedly will only survive another year unless another company (Honda) swoops in to buy Nissan shares. According the , Nissan’s net earnings in the middle of 2024 were down more than 90 percent year over year, and it had to cut its annual operating profit forecast by nearly 70 percent. Nissan and Honda relased statements to Reuters saying: EV market growth has slowed worldwide, but Chinese brands are outpacing US, European, and Japanese manufacturers. , Japanese automakers are losing big market share in east and southeast Asia from China to Indonesia. Honda is preparing to launch its new EV platform next year and is finding some success in the US with its GM-based electric . Meanwhile Nissan had fumbled its early pioneering lead with the 2011 Leaf and has only released one other EV, . Both companies, along with domestic competitor Toyota, have added more hybrid models than full EVs to their product roadmaps. This year Nissan said it would have by 2026, and Honda is looking to launch next year. /
NEW YORK (AP) — In a string of visits, dinners, calls, monetary pledges and social media overtures, big tech chiefs — including Apple’s Tim Cook , OpenAI’s Sam Altman , Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg , SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — have joined a parade of business and world leaders in trying to improve their standing with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office in January. “The first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said in remarks at Mar-a-Lago . “In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.” Tech companies and leaders have now poured millions into his inauguration fund, a sharp increase — in most cases — from past pledges to incoming presidents. But what does the tech industry expect to gain out of their renewed relationships with Trump? RELATED COVERAGE Trump hosts Apple CEO at Mar-a-Lago as big tech leaders continue outreach to president-elect OpenAI’s legal battle with Elon Musk reveals internal turmoil over avoiding AI ‘dictatorship’ OpenAI’s Altman will donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund Clearing the way for AI development A clue to what the industry is looking for came just days before the election when Microsoft executives — who’ve largely tried to show a neutral or bipartisan stance — joined with a close Trump ally, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, to publish a blog post outlining their approach to artificial intelligence policy. “Regulation should be implemented only if its benefits outweigh its costs,” said the document signed by Andreessen, his business partner Ben Horowitz, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company’s president, Brad Smith. They also urged the government to back off on any attempt to strengthen copyright laws that would make it harder for companies to use publicly available data to train their AI systems. And they said, “the government should examine its procurement practices to enable more startups to sell technology to the government.” Trump has pledged to rescind President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, which sought to protect people’s rights and safety without stifling innovation. He hasn’t specified what he would do in its place, but his campaign said AI development should be “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” Easier energy for data centers Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, has spoken openly about the need to boost electricity production to meet increased demand from data centers and artificial intelligence. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to healthcare to education to productivity as a country,′′ Burgum said on Nov. 15, referring to artificial intelligence. “And the AI that’s coming in the next 18 months is going to be revolutionary. So there’s just a sense of urgency and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration′′ to address it. Demand for data centers ballooned in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and AI, and local governments are competing for lucrative deals with big tech companies. But as data centers begin to consume more resources, some residents are pushing back against the world’s most powerful corporations over concerns about the economic, social and environmental health of their communities. Changing the antitrust discussion “Maybe Big Tech should buy a copy of ‘The Art of The Deal’ to figure out how to best negotiate with this administration,” suggested Paul Swanson, an antitrust attorney for the law firm Holland & Hart. “I won’t be surprised if they find ways to reach some accommodations and we end up seeing more negotiated resolutions and consent decrees.” Although federal regulators began cracking down on Google and Facebook during Trump’s first term as president — and flourished under Biden — most experts expect his second administration to ease up on antitrust enforcement and be more receptive to business mergers. Google may benefit from Trump’s return after he made comments on the campaign trail suggesting a breakup of the company isn’t in the U.S. national interest, after a judge declared its search engine an illegal monopoly . But recent nominations put forward by his transition team have favored those who have been critical of Big Tech companies, suggesting Google won’t be entirely off the hook. Fending off the EU Cook’s notoriously rocky relationship with the EU can be traced back to a 2016 ruling from Brussels in a tax case targeting Apple. Cook slammed the bloc’s order for Apple to pay back up to 13 billion euros ($13.7 billion) in Irish back taxes as “total political crap.” Trump, then in his first term as president, piled on, referring to the European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who was spearheading a campaign on special tax deals and a crackdown on Big Tech companies, as someone who “really hates the U.S.” Brussels was eventually vindicated after the bloc’s top court rejected Apple’s appeal this year, though it didn’t stop Cook from calling Trump to complain, Trump recounted in a podcast in October. Making amends? Altman , Amazon and Meta all pledged to donate $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural fund. During his first term, Trump criticized Amazon and railed against the political coverage at The Washington Post, which billionaire Bezos owns. Meanwhile, Bezos had criticized some of Trump’s past rhetoric. In 2019, Amazon also argued in a court case that Trump’s bias against the company harmed its chances of winning a $10 billion Pentagon contract. More recently, Bezos has struck a more conciliatory tone. He recently said at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York that he was “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while also endorsing president-elect’s plans to cut regulations. The donation from Meta came just weeks after Zuckerberg met with Trump privately at Mar-a-Lago. During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president, but voiced a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt. Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. And Altman, who is in a legal dispute with AI rival Elon Musk, has said he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence in the incoming administration. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company earlier this year alleging that the maker of ChatGPT betrayed its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. What about Elon Musk? “We have two multi-billionaires, Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are tasked with cutting what they’re saying will be multiple trillions of dollars from the federal budget, reducing the civil service, the workforce,” said Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University. Musk, he said, has a level of access to the White House that very few others have had -- access that allows him to potentially influence multiple policy areas, including foreign policy, automotive and energy policy through EVs, and tech policy on artificial intelligence. “Elon Musk walked into Twitter’s headquarters with a sink and then posted, ‘let that sink in,‘” he said. “Elon Musk then posted a status update on X, a picture of himself with a sink in the Oval Office and said, ‘Let that sink in.′"