genie in a bottle meaning
genie in a bottle meaning
Timeline: Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024
Possible 25 per cent Trump tariff 'hurts everybody': Alberta business stakeholders
Senior Biden White House aides, administration officials and prominent defense attorneys in Washington, DC, are discussing potential preemptive pardons or legal aid for people who might be targeted for prosecution by President-elect Donald Trump after he retakes power, multiple sources told CNN. Reports of these conversations have captured the attention of Trump’s legal advisers, who, according to a source familiar with their strategy, believe President Joe Biden would be setting a new precedent in terms of the scope of pardons that they could take advantage of, down the line, to help their own allies. Biden’s senior aides inside the White House have been deliberating for weeks about the possibility of issuing preemptive pardons, according to the sources familiar with the discussions. The move, which would cover people who haven’t ever been formally accused of any crimes, would be an extraordinary step and shows the grave concerns many Democrats have that Trump will prosecute a range of figures that he considers to be his enemies. Trump has publicly called for the jailing of people like Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney, who served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, as well as special counsel Jack Smith , who brought federal criminal cases against Trump. One former senior White House official said aides inside the White House and across various federal agencies are intensely worried about the possibility that the incoming Trump administration will prosecute anyone deemed as having antagonized the president-elect. Additionally, several prominent white-collar lawyers across Washington have fielded calls in recent weeks from government officials, including investigators from Smith’s office, who are concerned they could be targeted by the incoming Trump administration. Biden and his top aides view Trump’s public threats – particularly against current and former government officials – as unprecedented, and some believe that it would be reckless and irresponsible for Biden to leave office without granting preemptive pardons. “You have got (an incoming) president that has basically said he’s going to go after all these people,” a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. “Why not do it?” A White House spokesperson declined to comment. Possible legal defense funds According to Politico, which first reported on the internal debate, the discussions are being led by White House counsel Ed Siskel and other senior aides to the president, including chief of staff Jeff Zients . The former White House official who spoke to CNN, who is intimately familiar with the workings of the White House counsel’s office, said it would be typical for Siskel and his team to first put together a detailed memo to be presented to Biden. In that situation, that memo would include a list of individuals that Biden might consider pardoning preemptively, the context about any prior legal precedent, and a discussion of the wide range of potential ramifications if the president does move forward with these pardons. The calls among worried government officials and top white-collar defense lawyers in DC, appear, at this point, to be precautionary. One private attorney told CNN that they’re “feeling out what they should do if something happens” once Trump takes over. A spokesman for Smith’s special counsel office declined to comment on whether he would seek a preemptive pardon. CNN previously reported that Smith intends to step down before Trump takes office, instead of being fired, as the president-elect has pledged to do . As Democrats brace for the political and legal scrutiny that could come from the new president, his administration, and the GOP-run Congress , one significant concern for many current and former administration officials is the possibility of mounting legal bills. Multiple sources said there have been discussions about setting up legal funds to help support those who would not be able to afford thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees. Some of the private practice bar have discussed if influential white-collar practices could work together to help career Justice Department workers – and others who are exiting the federal workforce – to possibly provide them low-cost or pro-bono representation. And at least one progressive group is working on assembling resources – such as lawyers, security experts and communications professionals – who could help government officials placed under investigation during the Trump years, some of the people familiar with the discussions said. Emboldening Trump? A source familiar with Trump legal strategy says his team believes Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter has set a new precedent for presidents to issue expansive pardons to their children – and this could be something Trump chooses to do before he leaves office. The Hunter Biden pardon was notable for not only forgiving the crimes in his tax and gun indictments, but also for protecting him from being charged with any offense he “may have committed or taken part in” between January 2014 and December 2024. There’s also the president’s brother James Biden, who hasn’t faced charges but whose overseas business dealings attracted intense scrutiny from congressional Republicans. Several GOP-run House committees urged the Justice Department to prosecute James Biden in connection with lying to Congress. (He denies all wrongdoing and declined to comment for this story.) If Biden goes even further and grants preemptive pardons to an expansive list of individuals, Trump’s team believes that move would also create a new precedent and give Trump political cover to do the same for his allies, according to the source. CNN reported in 2021 that before Trump left office during his first term, he considered – but did not grant – preemptive pardons for family members , political allies, his personal attorneys, and even for himself , including in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Attorneys across the political spectrum have raised concerns about blanket pardons to protect against future investigations or prosecution. “It’s just such a different use of the pardon power,” said Neil Eggleston, former White House counsel to President Barack Obama. “You would create the beginning of a tit for tat where, when any administration is over, you just pardon everybody.” Presidential pardons protect against federal Justice Department prosecutions, but do not shield individuals from state-level criminal cases or congressional investigations. While Trump has publicly said he wants his Justice Department to go after his perceived adversaries, the system has built-in checks against abuses of power, such as judges that can throw out charges, grand juries that can refuse to indict, juries that can return “not guilty” verdicts, and other safeguards to protect against purely vindictive prosecutions. Some prominent former Justice Department officials have said they wouldn’t want a preemptive pardon from Biden, because it might imply they’re conceding there was wrongdoing during their work for the federal government, according to a source familiar with their thinking. Trump’s ever-growing enemies list Trump has a well-documented history of pushing – both publicly and privately – for investigations and prosecutions of his political opponents, almost always based on unproven, baseless and conspiracy-tinged allegations about their supposed activities. Many of his recent threats targeted prosecutors who charged him with crimes: Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He has publicly called for investigations into prominent lawmakers: Cheney and the rest of the January 6 committee members (who he said “should go to jail”), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (for her supposed “ties to Russia”), Senator-elect Adam Schiff (for his role in the Trump-Ukraine impeachment saga) and a host of other Democratic lawmakers. Still, members of Congress have immunity from the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause” that offers such broad protections for their legislative work that even members of the defunct January 6 committee would be unlikely to take seriously any legal threats. Trump also has said Vice President Kamala Harris “should be ... prosecuted” for letting undocumented immigrants into the country. After the election, Trump called for probes of Iowa pollster Ann Selzer (for “election fraud,” by releasing a poll with Harris ahead), and into stock traders who spread “illegal rumors” about his investment in Truth Social. During his first term, some of Trump’s calls for probes were apparently heeded, leading to investigations into 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton , former FBI director James Comey , and former FBI deputy director Andy McCabe , now a CNN contributor. None of them were ever charged with crimes. Some of Trump’s longtime foes who worked on the Russia probe around the 2016 election may not have much legal exposure now because their government service ended so long ago and statutes of limitations may have lapsed. There are plenty of other figures that, despite Trump’s calls, weren’t investigated during his first term, but could be scrutinized when he returns to power: former President Barack Obama (for “treason”), former Secretary of State John Kerry (for his contacts with Iran), and even MSNBC host Joe Scarborough (based on a conspiracy theory that he was possibly able to “get away with murder” after one of his interns died in 2001). Attorneys who might defend top targets have their own fears, too. Representing Trump administration and political officials had largely gone out of fashion for large DC defense firms in recent years, with few willing to take on clients, especially after January 6. The view at Washington’s elite firms – which tend to lean liberal – may be shifting back toward getting involved, but it’s still not clear how much pushback the next Trump presidency may receive from the capital’s powerful law firms, several prominent attorneys told CNN this week. “There could well be a fear now by law firm leaders that if we take on those cases, could we ourselves be targeted?”one white-collar lawyer who regularly represents high-profile political figures told CNN on Thursday. Focus on political pardons angers activists Some liberal-leaning and criminal justice reform groups are pushing Biden to focus his final clemency efforts less on family members, political allies or Trump’s potential targets – and instead to help incarcerated Americans whom they believe deserve relief. One group, FWD.us, is airing TV ads in the Washington, DC, market, pressing Biden to “give people a second chance,” by granting clemency to Americans with “outdated” prison sentences that they argue would be shorter under today’s laws and policies. They’ve pointed to Obama’s record-setting commutations as a model. He reduced the punishments of more than 1,300 convicts, including 500 people serving life sentences. “The thousands of people serving disproportionately long and racially disparate sentences in federal prison have been waiting for relief long before the politics of this particular moment,” Zoë Towns, executive director of FWD.us, said in an email. “It is our hope that whatever comes next includes a robust clemency effort focused on them.” CNN’s Kayla Tausche and Curt Devine contributed to this report.
A Florida man was arrested Wednesday and charged with a plot to "reboot" the U.S. government by planting a bomb at the New York Stock Exchange this week and detonating it with a remote-controlled device, according to the FBI. Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, 30, of Coral Springs, Florida, was charged with an attempt to use an explosive device to damage or destroy a building used in interstate commerce. The FBI began investigating Yener in February based on a tip that he was storing "bombmaking schematics" in a storage unit. They found bomb-making sketches, many watches with timers, electronic circuit boards and other electronics that could be used for building explosive devices, according to the FBI. He had also searched online for things related to bomb-making since 2017, according to the FBI. RELATED STORY | Court overturns actor Jussie Smollett's 2019 conviction in hate crime hoax case Yener also told undercover FBI agents that he wanted to detonate the bomb the week before Thanksgiving and that the stock exchange in lower Manhattan would be a popular site to target. "The Stock Exchange, we want to hit that, because it will wake people up," he told undercover FBI agents, according to court documents. Yener, who was described as "unhoused," wanted to bomb the stock exchange in order to "reboot" the U.S. government, explaining that it would be "like a small nuke went off," killing everyone inside the building, according to court documents. In the last month, he had rewired two-way radios so that they could work as remote triggers for an explosive device and planned to wear a disguise when planting the explosives, according to court documents. Yener had his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon and will be detained while he awaits a trial. He was known to post videos on a YouTube channel about making explosives and fireworks from household items, and had a history of making threats, according to court documents. He was fired last year from a restaurant in Coconut Creek, Florida, after his former supervisor said he threatened to "go Parkland shooter in this place." He was also part of a small group that tried to join the far-right anti-government group the " Boogaloo Bois " and extremist group the Proud Boys but was denied membership because he said he wanted "to pursue martyrdom," according to court documents. The news was first reported by the website CourtWatch. Calls to telephone numbers listed for Harun Abdul-Malik Yener in public records rang unanswered and a lawyer was not listed in court records.
NEW YORK -- A New Jersey family on Sunday marked the birthday of their son, Edan Alexander, who is among the hostages still being held by Hamas . They gathered in Central Park and solemnly sang "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew for now 21-year-old, who was 19 when he was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. "This is a day that should be filled with joy and celebration, but instead we are marked by pain and worry," father Adi Alexander said. Edan Alexander, a swimmer, Boy Scout, and Knicks fan from Tenafly, joined the Israel Defense forces out of high school. Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, families have gathered periodically in Central Park to call for the release of hostages . On Sunday, his mother, Yael Alexander, focused on staying positive. "So we have a restaurant that we go to for every celebration with the kids. So definitely, going for shopping, and that's it, just to spend it with the family," she said. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said on social media Sunday that the Israeli-American should be home with his family, adding, "We will not relent until he is home." Edan Alexander has a younger brother and sister, 13-year-old Roy Alexander and 18-year-old Mika Alexander. His sister said she was thinking of how she'd celebrate if her older brother was home. "We would just go to a restaurant with him and just share fun memories that we have with him," Mika Alexander said. Omer Hortig has known Edan Alexander since the second grade. "He's the type of person that today, on his birthday, he would be having a lot of fun. We'd be going out. I mean, he's turning 21," Hortig said. Edan Alexander's birthday also falls on the fifth night of Hanukkah this year, a time when his family and friends say his absence is certainly felt. "Every night of Hanukkah you light a candle and you're reminded of him and the other hostages and it's usually a very happy holiday. This year, it's not so happy, as well as last year, so I hope it's the last year we have to spend the holiday like this," Hortig said. The last time Edan Alexander's family saw him was in a Hamas propaganda video just after Thanksgiving . They say it gave them hope that he's still alive. His father sent him the same message as he has for the past 450 days. "Stay strong, survive, and you'll be out soon," Adi Alexander said.
Fox News Politics: First Order of BusinessPLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter's in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter's path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That's a very narrow way of assessing them," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn't suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he'd be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter's tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter's lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor's race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival's endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King's daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters' early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan's presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan's Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.The UK Government was warned that a “save David campaign” for UUP leader Lord Trimble would ruin progress made under the Good Friday Agreement. Extensive confidential documents in the lead-up to the collapse of Northern Ireland’s institutions in 2002 have been made available to the public as part of annual releases from the Irish National Archives. They reveal that the Irish Government wanted to appeal to the UK side against “manipulating” every scenario for favourable election results in Northern Ireland, in an effort to protect the peace process. In the years after the landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a number of outstanding issues left the political environment fraught with tension and disagreement. Mr Trimble, who won a Nobel Peace Prize with SDLP leader John Hume for their work on the Agreement, was keen to gain wins for the UUP on policing, ceasefire audits and paramilitary disarmament – but also to present his party as firmer on these matters amid swipes from its Unionist rival, the DUP. These issues were at the front of his mind as he tried to steer his party into Assembly elections planned for May 2003 and continue in his role as the Executive’s first minister despite increasing political pressure. The documents reveal the extent to which the British and Irish Governments were trying to delicately resolve the contentious negotiations, conscious that moves seen as concessions to one group could provoke anger on the other side. In June 2002, representatives of the SDLP reported to Irish officials on a recent meeting between Mr Hume’s successor Mark Durkan and Prime Minister Tony Blair on policing and security. Mr Blair is said to have suggested that the SDLP and UUP were among those who both supported and took responsibility for the Good Friday Agreement. The confidential report of the meeting says that Mr Durkan, the deputy First Minister, was not sure that Mr Trimble had been correctly categorised. The Prime Minister asked if the SDLP could work more closely with the UUP ahead of the elections. Mr Durkan argued that Mr Trimble was not only not saleable to nationalists, but also not saleable to half of the UUP – to which Mr Blair and Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid are said to have laughed in agreement. The SDLP leader further warned that pursuing a “save David” campaign would ruin all they had worked for. Damien McAteer, an adviser for the SDLP, was recorded as briefing Irish officials on September 10 that it was his view that Mr Trimble was intent on collapsing the institutions in 2003 over expected fallout for Sinn Fein in the wake of the Colombia Three trial, where men linked to the party were charged with training Farc rebels – but predicted the UUP leader would be “in the toilet” by January, when an Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) meeting was due to take place. A week later in mid September, Mr Trimble assured Irish premier Bertie Ahern that the next UUC meeting to take place in two days’ time would be “okay but not great” and insisted he was not planning to play any “big game”. It was at that meeting that he made the bombshell announcement that the UUP would pull out of the Executive if the IRA had not disbanded by January 18. The move came as a surprise to the Irish officials who, along with their UK counterparts, did not see the deadline as realistic. Sinn Fein described the resolution as a “wreckers’ charter”. Doubts were raised that there would be any progress on substantive issues as parties would not be engaged in “pre-election skirmishing”. As that could lead to a UUP walkout and the resulting suspension of the institutions, the prospect of delaying the elections was raised while bringing forward the vote was ruled out. Therefore, the two Governments stressed the need to cooperate as a stabilising force to protect the Agreement – despite not being sure how that process would survive through the January 18 deadline. The Irish officials became worried that the British side did not share their view that Mr Trimble was not “salvageable” and that the fundamental dynamic in the UUP was now Agreement scepticism, the confidential documents state. In a meeting days after the UUC announcements, Mr Reid is recorded in the documents as saying that as infuriating as it was, Mr Trimble was at that moment the “most enlightened Unionist we have”. The Secretary said he would explore what the UUP leader needed to “survive” the period between January 18 and the election, believing a significant prize could avoid him being “massacred”. Such planning went out the window just weeks later, when hundreds of PSNI officers were involved in raids of several buildings – including Sinn Fein’s offices in Stormont. The resulting “Stormontgate” spy-ring scandal accelerated the collapse of powersharing, with the UUP pulling out of the institutions – and the Secretary of State suspending the Assembly and Executive on October 14. For his part, Irish officials were briefed that Mr Reid was said to be “gung ho” about the prospect of exercising direct rule – reportedly making no mention of the Irish Government in a meeting with Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan on that day. The Northern Ireland Secretary was given a new role and Paul Murphy was appointed as his successor. A note on speaking points for a meeting with Mr Murphy in April showed that the Irish side believed the May elections should go ahead: “At a certain stage the political process has to stand on its own feet. “The Governments cannot be manipulating and finessing every scenario to engineer the right result. “We have to start treating the parties and the people as mature and trusting that they have the discernment to make the right choices.” However, the elections planned for May did not materialise, instead delayed until November. Mr Trimble would go on to lose his Westminster seat – and stewardship of the UUP – in 2005. The November election saw the DUP emerge as the largest parties – but direct rule continued as Ian Paisley’s refused to share power with Sinn Fein, which Martin McGuinness’ colleagues. The parties eventually agreed to work together following further elections in 2007. – This article is based on documents in 2024/130/5, 2024/130/6, 2024/130/15
Raw Farm LLC, of Fresno, California, voluntarily recalled one lot of “cream top” whole raw milk after Santa Clara County health officials found the bird flu virus in a sample last week.
Cam Akers reached down in front of him to scoop a sinking pass from Sam Darnold, bringing it into his body as he tumbled backwards. As he did, two words ran through his mind: game over. Akers’ late catch, which came with less than two minutes left in the game on a third-and-2 pass, sealed a 27-25 win for the Vikings over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon in a game at U.S. Bank Stadium that got tight late. ADVERTISEMENT “I’m blessed,” Akers said. “On my journey from where I’ve come from, to be able to be in there, crunch time, fourth quarter, the coaches trust me, the team trusts me,” Akers said. “I’m blessed.” It’s been a long journey for the running back, who has dealt with two serious Achilles injuries in previous seasons. But Akers, now in his second stint with the Vikings, has rewarded the coaching staff for its faith in him. He also caught a 9-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter, one which ended up proving the difference in the win. His opportunities on Sunday came in part because Aaron Jones took a shot to the quad earlier in the game, which he played through before watching the end of the game from the sidelines. His last carry in the game came near the end of the third quarter. “Coach was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to hold you for a little bit,’ but I was good,” Jones said. “I kept warm just in case they needed me. Kept my helmet on.” They didn’t wind up needing him, thanks in large part to Akers. “Cam has something inside him that allowed him to push through the adversity of what’s happened to him over the course of his career,” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “His teammates were probably the most excited all season when Cam scored on that screen and then obviously the catch late. He just brings something. He brings physicality. He brings a level of mental and physical toughness that I think makes us all better.” ADVERTISEMENT Darnold aired it out and found his receiver, on the run, open in the end zone. It wasn’t Justin Jefferson, nor Jordan Addison, but Jalen Nailor, who hauled in the 31-yard pass for the Vikings’ first touchdown of the game. “I just had a post route. I’ve seen the far safety. He wasn’t there,” Nailor said. “I just took off running as fast as I could and Sam found me.” Darnold found Nailor a season-high five times on Sunday. He finished the day with 81 yards, also a season-high, and his touchdown was his first in more than a month, with the last one coming in the Vikings’ Nov. 24 win over the Bears. “It just felt good to be out there, just help the team win,” Nailor said. “That’s all I’m trying to do.” Will Reichard’s first field goal attempt Sunday hit the crossbar. The rookie kicker missed a 55-yard attempt near the end of the first half, but a Green Bay penalty negated his miss and a subsequent Packers’ timeout took away a 50-yard make. He then connected from 50 yards to send the Vikings into halftime up 10. His last field goal attempt of the day went off the left upright from 43 yards. But despite a shaky day, O’Connell’s confidence in the 23-year-old, who also converted on a short kick in the second quarter, hasn’t wavered. ADVERTISEMENT “I just told him, ‘Hey, next one’s going to be the best one.’ My confidence in Will is sky high,” O’Connell said of Reichard. “If we think we’re anywhere near the range, I’m going to give him the swing. He’s a phenomenal kid, great makeup. The next kick’s going to be his best kick.” ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here .President Joe Biden pledged another 600 million US dollars (£472 million) on Wednesday for an ambitious multi-country rail project in Africa as one of the final foreign policy moves of his administration. Mr Biden told African leaders the resource-rich continent of more than 1.4 billion people had been “left behind for much too long”. “But not anymore,” Mr Biden added. “Africa is the future.” Mr Biden used the third and final day of a visit to Angola – his long-awaited, first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president – to travel to the coastal city of Lobito and tour an Atlantic port terminal that’s part of the Lobito Corridor railway redevelopment. Mr Biden described it as the largest US investment in a train project outside America. The US and allies are investing heavily in the project that will refurbish nearly 1,200 miles of train lines connecting to the mineral-rich areas of Congo and Zambia in central Africa. The corridor, which likely will take years to complete, gives the US better access to cobalt, copper and other critical minerals in Congo and Zambia that are used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies that Mr Biden said would power the future. China is dominant in mining in Congo and Zambia. The US investment has strategic implications for US-China economic competition, which went up a notch this week as they traded blows over access to key materials and technologies. The African leaders who met with Mr Biden on Wednesday said the railway corridor offered their countries a much faster route for minerals and goods – and a convenient outlet to Western markets. “This is a project that is full of hope for our countries and our region,” said Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, whose country has more than 70% of the word’s cobalt. “This is not just a logistical project. It is a driving force for economic and social transformation for millions of our people.” The leaders said the corridor should spur private-sector investment and improve a myriad of related areas like roads, communication networks, agriculture and clean energy technologies. For the African countries, it could create a wave of new jobs for a burgeoning young population. Cargo that once took 45 days to get to the US – usually involving trucks via South Africa – would now take around 45 hours, Mr Biden said. He predicted the project could transform the region from a food importer to exporter. It’s “something that if done right will outlast all of us and keep delivering for our people for generations to come,” he said. The announcement of an additional $600 million took the U.S.’s investment in the Lobito Corridor to 4.0 billion dollars (£3.15 billion).
X Financial Reports Third Quarter 2024 Unaudited Financial ResultsAir Canada to bar carry-on bags for lowest-fare customersFormer shock jock, ruthless powerbroker and alleged sexual predator Alan Jones has been pretty much untouchable for decades. Earlier this week, Jones was arrested on 26 offences of aggravated indecent assault and inappropriate touching. At the time of publication, the charges committed against nine alleged victims included 11 counts of aggravated indecent assault, 11 counts of assault with acts of indecency, two counts of sexually touching another person without consent and two counts of common assault. Jones was released on bail. His lawyer, Chris Murphy , said that Jones “denies any misconduct” and intends to “assert his innocence appropriately in the courtroom” . This is not the first time Jones has been accused of sexual misconduct or had unsavoury spats with the law. In 1975, he was ‘persuaded to resign as teacher’ at Sydney’s exclusive The King’s School for boys after it was alleged Jones had a 'bad, very bad' influence over and inappropriate relationships with some of his students. Then there was the London incident in 1988 when Jones was arrested at an underground public toilet and charged with " outraging public decency" and "committing an indecent act". Those charges were later dropped. Alan Jones' 1988 arrest, as reported in the Daily Mirror Jones’ chequered record also includes the time he incited the Cronulla race riots in 2005, for which he was fined . In that particular escapade, among other choice expressions of racial hatred, Jones used his radio program to read out a text message encouraging people to: “Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge... get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day." Then there was the time the Australian Broadcasting Authority found that Jones had engaged in “cash for comment”, misleading listeners by presenting paid endorsements as editorial opinion. There were also many verdicts against him and 2GB in defamation actions, including one in 2018 , in which the judge found his behaviour 'vicious and spiteful' and ordered Jones and 2GB to pay over $3 million in compensation. Socking it to shock jock Alan Jones Executive editor Michelle Pini discusses shock jock Alan Jones' latest angry, misogynistic tirade. Olden-style radio was also Jones’ main platform for his assorted public toilet-style misogyny, sprinkled with a few abusive tweets, including the following standout declarations: "Women [specifically,Victoria Chief Police Commissioner Christine Nixon and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore ] are destroying the joint” ; Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore should be hanged over Sydney’s George Street; PM Julia Gillard ’s father " died of shame” ; "they should shove [Gillard] and [Greens' leader] Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can and tell them to swim home"; Gillard should be " kicked to death" ; (to Premier Gladys Berejiklian ), “Your head is in a noose ... one that will tighten once the truckies and the farmers start” ; (on former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern), “I hope Scott Morrison gets tough here with a few backhanders ”, and (again, on Ardern), “ I just wonder whether Scott Morrison is going to be fully briefed to shove a sock down her throat.” Until his retirement in 2020, when he was earning around $4 million per annum, such hate-filled, blatantly racist and misogynistic tirades formed the foundation of Jones’ massive following for his Sydney 2GB radio program. Indeed, for this "service to the media", Jones even received an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) award. His Liberal Party pedigree includes writing speeches for former PM Malcolm Fraser , several (failed) election bids and the appointment of a dedicated trouble-shooter known as “the Minister for Alan Jones” during former PM John Howard ’s reign. Apart from Fraser and Howard, Jones has counted among his high-profile friends former PMs Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison , and billionaire mining magnate and Liberal Party buddy Gina Rinehart . Following Jones’ arrest on Monday, billionaire James Packer said : “Alan is a dear, dear friend who I love and it’s a pleasure to support him.” Alan Jones and Andrew Tate: The cancel culture mates This week in Romania, infamous misogynist Andrew Tate lost his appeal to end his detention there and, closer to home, Alan Jones is having a garage sale. Now that he no longer wields power on the airwaves, his other high-profile friends have not rushed to gush about their association with Jones, with most – including Abbott and Rinehart – declining to comment. Interestingly, his name no longer appears on any of Ms Rinehart’s websites. The charge of aggravated indecent assault, which he now faces, carries a maximum penalty of seven years' imprisonment for each alleged offence and is the most serious on Jones’ rap sheet. Nonetheless, Alan Jones is still a rich white man of influence, propped up and insulated by a solid network of prominent power brokers — and arrest is not synonymous with conviction. Former shock jock, ruthless powerbroker and alleged sexual predator Alan Jones has been pretty much untouchable for decades. This is not the full story! Subscribe here to read the full editorial and receive our weekly newsletter. Follow managing editor Michelle Pini on Bluesky @michellepini.bsky.social and Independent Australia on Bluesky @independentaus.bsky.social . This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA. Related Articles EDITORIAL: Alan Jones’ touching story How the Opera House debacle has highlighted misogyny and gambling addiction in Australian culture Ignorant Alan Jones and the Stolen Generations Coal mine expansion approved after $700k donation to LNP now faces hurdle Dear Alan Jones POLITICS MEDIA CRIME ALAN JONES indecent assault sexual misconduct #auspol 2GB shock jock The King's School Gina Rinehart James Packer Cronulla race riots Share Article
