Analysis-With another ex-prime minister charged, Malaysia risks further turmoil


Former Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at Kuala Lumpur Court Complex

Fri, March 10, 2023 
By Rozanna Latiff and A. Ananthalakshmi

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia could face further political polarisation and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim risks a backlash as his administration prosecutes his opponent and predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin just three months after a divisive election, analysts say.

Muhyiddin, who was prime minister for 17 months between 2020 and 2021, was charged on Friday with abuse of power and money laundering over projects launched under his premiership. He has pleaded not guilty and said the charges were politically motivated.

Anwar has dismissed that and said the matter was entirely up to the law enforcement agencies.

But the case could make the Anwar government even more unpopular among the country's conservative, ethnic-Malay majority for targeting the opposition even as it has senior leaders in its fold facing criminal graft charges, observers told Reuters.

That in turn could bring more political uncertainty in a country that has seen five prime ministers in six years. Anwar's alliance is expected to face a formidable challenge from Muhyiddin's coalition at regional elections in six states, which are due by June.

"It's a big test for Anwar, who has people in his government who are facing corruption cases," Bridget Welsh, political analyst at the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute, told Reuters.

"His administration will face a broad crisis of credibility unless there is an effort to undertake more meaningful reforms... This narrative of persecution feeds into the polarized dynamic of Malaysian politics," she said.

Muhyiddin is the second prime minister in Malaysia's history to be charged for corruption soon after losing an election, and his case has thrown a spotlight on the various fissures in the country's politics.

In a multi-ethnic, multi-faith country Muslim ethnic Malays form a majority, while the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities are mostly Hindu, Buddhist or Christian.

Anwar runs a progressive, multi-ethnic bloc but has faced criticism for joining hands with the corruption-tainted United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party to form a government after he failed to win a majority in last year's election.

Anwar appointed UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as his deputy despite multiple criminal graft charges.

Muhyiddin leads a conservative ethnic-Malay, Muslim alliance that has portrayed itself to be clean of corruption, and that made huge inroads in the Malay heartlands in the election. Anwar does not enjoy popularity in that base, surveys have shown.

In another possible political fall-out, the charges against Muhyiddin could potentially weaken his party and strengthen the role of the Islamist party PAS within the opposition bloc, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore's Institute of International Affairs.

"A PAS-dominated Perikatan will be heavy on religious sentiment. That can echo with an increasing conservative cohort in Malaysian electorate," Oh said, referring to the opposition bloc.

REVENGE POLITICS?

Anwar maintains that the case against Muhyiddin was not politically motivated. For stability, it is important for his government to signal that it was not targeting the opposition, said political analyst Wong Chin Huat.

"As long as Anwar can hold and expand the middle ground by demonstrating state impartiality, instead of revenge politics, his government would be safe and the international community needs not worry about political instability," Wong said.

Unlike recent Malaysian premiers, Anwar has not made any changes to the leadership of the country's law enforcement agencies upon winning power.

In fact, Muhyiddin appointed the top civil servants who were instrumental in the investigations into his alleged graft: the chief of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the country's attorney general.

The MACC on Friday denied interference in its investigation process.

Muhyiddin is not the first Malaysian leader to blame political motivations for the accusations against him.

Anwar himself served jail time for corruption and sodomy before becoming prime minister, charges he insists were designed to keep him from power. He was pardoned in 2018.

Malaysian politics has been in a flux since Najib Razak lost elections in 2018, bringing to an end an uninterrupted rule by the UMNO party that had governed for more than 60 years since independence.

Najib, who has also claimed political persecution, is now serving a jail term for graft related to the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Opinion | I Helped Write the Jan. 6 Committee Report. Here’s What Tucker Carlson Left Out.


Brynn Anderson/AP Photo

Tom Joscelyn
Fri, March 10, 2023

Tucker Carlson tried to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, and utterly failed.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the Fox News host and his producers exclusive media access to more than 40,000 hours of security footage recorded by the U.S. Capitol Police. Carlson promised viewers that his reveal of this massive tranche of video would dramatically alter our collective understanding of the events. It did not.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise that his supposed investigation was a dud — even if you hadn’t spent countless hours poring over details of the Capitol riot like I did.

I served as a senior professional staff member on the January 6th Select Committee and helped write its final report. I got a close look at some of the video evidence that Carlson obtained — and his manipulation of the audience was immediately obvious to me.

 Here’s why.

First, the premise of his “investigation,” that the USCP footage was being withheld to cover up the full story, was always false. Working with the Select Committee’s members, the investigative team and staffers reviewed the USCP’s recordings, which provided new angles at some key locations. But it did not change our basic understanding of what transpired. How could it? The riot is one of the most widely covered events in history. There is no dearth of footage from that day.

In addition to the USCP’s surveillance video, the Select Committee reviewed footage recorded by cameras worn by Metropolitan Police Department officers, the work of documentary filmmakers and countless open-source videos, including clips recorded by the rioters themselves. Many Americans have already seen some of this footage with their own eyes. They know the mob was not at the Capitol primarily for sightseeing, as Carlson claimed.

On Monday night, the Fox News host showed just several minutes of cherry-picked footage. Cameras inside the Capitol and on its grounds recorded many more scenes that he did not play for viewers. Some of this footage has long been available online. For example, you can watch rioters ramming their way through USCP officers at the Senate Wing door, members of the mob smashing the ornate East Rotunda doors before other rioters open them from the inside, and the melee at the west plaza tunnel (at the two-hour, 14-minute mark). You can also view a timeline of events used by federal prosecutors, who relied on the USCP’s camera footage. Carlson’s team had access to this footage, and more, but chose not to show any of it to Fox News viewers Monday night. It’s easy to see why. The full USCP cache tells a very different story from the one Carlson wants people to see.

There is another fundamental problem with Carlson’s presentation that may not be so easy for the casual viewer to spot. He has repeatedly whitewashed the key role played by far-right extremists, namely, the Proud Boys. Their story, including how then-President Donald Trump inspired them, is told in Chapters 6 and 8 of the January 6th Select Committee’s final report. The Proud Boys and other extremists led the mob, but Carlson refuses to let his viewers know it.

Let us compare one of Carlson’s conspiracy theories to the well-established facts. For more than two years, Carlson has chased a bogeyman, arguing that provocateurs working for the federal government (or, alternatively, agitators on the left) somehow tricked Trump’s “patriots” into rioting. He still cannot identify any federal agents working for the so-called “deep state.” Carlson and others have focused on a lone individual who has not been charged, Ray Epps, insinuating that he was a secret FBI plant. This claim is baseless. They’ve produced no evidence connecting Epps, a Trump supporter, to the FBI or any other federal agency.

Meanwhile, Carlson has ignored nearly all of the evidence collected against the approximately 1,000 January 6th defendants who have been charged. That evidence reveals the real parties responsible for channeling the mob’s anger.

In fact, one of the most important January 6th trials is currently ongoing in a Washington, D.C., courtroom. Five members of the Proud Boys, including the group’s chair, Enrique Tarrio, have been charged with seditious conspiracy and other serious crimes. The Department of Justice claims the Proud Boys “conspired to prevent, hinder and delay the certification of the Electoral College vote, and to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States.” Moreover, on Jan. 6, 2021, the Proud Boys “directed, mobilized and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol, leading to dismantling of metal barricades, destruction of property, breaching of the Capitol building, and assaults on law enforcement.”

The DOJ’s allegations are consistent with the Select Committee’s findings, as well as the investigative work done by real reporters. Law enforcement officials have collected overwhelming evidence, including text messages and videos, showing how the Proud Boys conspired against America’s democracy. They discovered that Tarrio told his men to “storm the Capitol” in the days leading up to the joint session of Congress.

While the attack was underway, Tarrio also claimed responsibility, messaging his men: “Make no mistake…” and “We did this.” Then, on the night of Jan. 6, Tarrio posted a video on the conservative social media site Parler that he titled, “Premonition.” The video shows a masked man, dressed as a super villain, standing in front of the Capitol. The figure is presumably Tarrio himself and the clip, recorded prior to Jan. 6, implies that he had foreknowledge of that day’s events.

You can watch “Premonition” here. It’s the type of spooky scene, set to foreboding background music, that makes for good television. Carlson did not show it to his viewers. In fact, he did not mention the Proud Boys at all.

The Select Committee’s review of video footage from multiple sources, including the U.S. Capitol Police, showed that the Proud Boys were conspicuously present on the front lines and at key breach points throughout the attack. Prosecutors are currently relying on the same type of footage, as well as additional sources of video, to make their case to a jury.

For example, Proud Boy leaders Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean riled up the crowd at the Peace Circle Monument just outside of the U.S. Capitol. The Select Committee showed how the Proud Boys marched from the Washington Monument, around the Capitol, and then instigated the first perimeter breach at this key location. By attacking the police officers stationed between the monument and the Capitol, sweeping away security fences in the process, the Proud Boys and their associates opened a clear path onto the Capitol’s grounds. Thousands of Trump’s supporters marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and through the Peace Circle after leaving the president’s rally at the White House Ellipse.

Dominic Pezzola, another Proud Boy, was responsible for the first breach of the U.S. Capitol building itself. Pezzola smashed in a Senate Wing window with a stolen riot shield. This allowed the mob to swarm into the Capitol through both the window and a nearby door. Pezzola bragged about his actions in a video he recorded of himself inside the Capitol. While smoking a victory cigar, Pezzola said: “I knew we could take this motherfucker over if we just tried hard enough. Proud of your motherfuckin’ boy.”

During his presentation Monday night, Carlson focused on Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. the QAnon Shaman, pretending that he is the central figure in the January 6th story. Carlson claimed that we still don’t know how he entered the building. That’s not true — even the footage shown by Carlson makes it clear that Chansley entered through the Senate Wing door next to the window Pezzola bashed in.

There is much more evidence against the Proud Boys. Some members of the group have already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and other charges, admitting that their comrades planned to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. And the Proud Boys were not the only far right extremists involved. Members of two anti-government groups, the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, attacked the Capitol as well. Some Oath Keepers have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, while juries convicted the group’s leader and other members of the same crime. White nationalists were also among the extremists who stormed the Capitol.

The Fox News audience did not hear any of this. Nor did they hear how Trump summoned these extremists to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6 via his tweets and statements. This part of the story is explained at great length in the Select Committee’s final report.

Tucker Carlson wants people to believe that phantom government agents were responsible. No one who relies on facts and logic will be fooled.

EU strikes deal to curb energy use by 2030

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) - The European Union struck a deal on Friday to cut final energy consumption across the bloc by 11.7% by 2030, a goal lawmakers said would help fight climate change and curb Europe's use of Russian fossil fuels.

The deal was agreed after all-night talks between negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament.

Hitting the targets will require countries to renovate millions of draughty buildings to waste less energy. With most European buildings heated by fossil fuels, the policy is crucial to the EU's efforts to combat climate change.

"This will mean real change for the benefit of the climate and disadvantage of Putin," said Niels Fuglsang, Parliament's lead negotiator.

Negotiators agreed that energy consumed by end-users in the bloc such as households and factories in 2030 should be 11.7% lower than expected use by that date.

But the deal fell short of the 13% target the European Commission last year said the EU would need to help wean countries off Russian fossil fuels faster after Moscow invaded Ukraine.

"It improves the current energy efficiency directive, but not to the extent needed to meet the REPowerEU objectives," Arianna Vitali, Secretary General of the non-profit Coalition for Energy Savings, referring to the EU's targets to quit Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

The EU Parliament had wanted a higher goal of 14%, while some EU countries pushed for a lower 9% - the original EU proposal from 2021, which it changed following Russia's invasion.

The target will be legally binding. Countries will set their own non-binding national goals - but if they do not add up to the 11.7% goal, the European Commission will correct them.

From 2024 to 2030, countries will have to save an average of 1.49% of final energy consumption per year. Countries will have to speed up renovations of publicly-owned buildings, renovating at least 3% of such buildings' total floor area each year.

The deal will now go to the European Parliament and EU countries for a final vote, which is usually a formality that approves the law with no changes. (Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Kate Abnett; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Ukrainian journalists fight another kind of war - against graft

Thu, March 9, 2023 
By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV, March 9 (Reuters) - Ukrainian reporter Serhii Andrushko believes his country's struggle for freedom also includes another kind of war - against high-level corruption - which experts think could have more success now as Kyiv strives for European Union membership.

Last month, the Radio Liberty correspondent confronted candidates on camera vying to become Kyiv's next top anti-corruption official about their personal finances and political ties.

That might seem less urgent when soldiers are dying every day, but part of Ukraine's battle includes shedding any perceived similarities to Russia. "Particularly its attitude to corruption," Andrushko said.

According to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine ranked slightly better than Russia but still well below the global average.

So reporters like Andrushko say they are working to keep their rulers honest, a job some experts and media insiders said could have more impact now that Kyiv is under pressure to prove it can clean up its act as it seeks membership in the European Union.

They said a major political shake-up seen earlier this year, when more than a dozen officials were dismissed amid a flurry of critical domestic press coverage, could be a taste of things to come if Ukraine's investigative journalists continue.

Their focus also shows civil society is embracing its role as a government watchdog even as the war grinds on.

"Media are becoming more influential because they're appealing to the more acute sense of justice among citizens," said researcher Petro Burkovskyy, of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think-tank.

They will need to choose stories wisely and back up their reporting, he added, since being sloppy or overly critical can invite public scepticism or even accusations of being unpatriotic.

Many journalists are also turning their attention to uncovering Russian war crimes and assets in Ukraine.

KEEPING WATCH

Before the war, critical reporting on illicit or scandalous behaviour had been a fixture in Ukraine, where a robust free press means reporters spotlight everything from opulent homes to luxurious trips abroad that are unaffordable on official salaries.

They lurk outside pricey properties, filming officials entering and exiting, or snap images of them driving flashy cars. Video investigations are often sleekly produced, set to dramatic music and narrated in an acerbic tone.

Now the stakes are higher, said investigative reporter Mykhailo Tkach, as many Ukrainians donate their own money to keep soldiers equipped as they fight Russia's invasion, and want to know it is spent properly.

The EU has also made eradicating graft a key condition for membership, which most here believe is a lifeline to a brighter future. Ukraine wants candidacy negotiations to begin this year.

Reporting by Tkach, a journalist for online outlet Ukrayinska Pravda, on a top official's Spanish vacation during the war played a role in the dismissals in January, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged to continue if more graft was uncovered.

A separate report by a peer alleging the defence ministry was overpaying to feed its troops helped crystallize the immediate dangers of corruption and led to a ministry shake-up.

A more recent Tkach investigation probed the purchase of a luxury apartment, among other assets, by a brother of one of Zelenskiy's advisers allegedly at a bargain-basement price.

PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP

Such reports play a key role in Ukraine's fledgling anti-corruption system, created after the 2014 Maidan revolution toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Oleksandr Novikov, head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), a state body that monitors officials' lifestyles, said the information media uncover can help build legal cases against officials suspected of graft.

"We consider Ukrainian journalism, especially investigative reporting, to be like another anti-corruption institution," he told Reuters during a recent interview in his Kyiv office.

Watchdogs believe cleaning up corruption will be a long game, while media advocate Oksana Romaniuk said journalists must vet their stories on graft extra carefully to help retain public confidence.

A recent survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) showed that trust in mass media grew from 32% to 57% over the past year. But that's far below the 96% and 84% who trust the military and Zelenskiy respectively.

Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, an NGO in Kyiv, said Ukrainian journalists' role as anti-corruption activists will become increasingly important as Kyiv maps out a more transparent future.

"Our plan is definitely to preserve democracy, because we see what happens when there isn't any." (Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Fauci says Redfield’s testimony of COVID call was ‘unequivocally incorrect’



Jared Gans
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Anthony Fauci, who led much of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said testimony from former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield that he was excluded from a conference call about the possible origins of the virus was “unequivocally incorrect.”

Fauci told Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto in an interview on Thursday that he was not involved in deciding who would be involved in a call he took with a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the “possibility” that the virus was “engineered.”

“He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he’s saying that I excluded him,” he said. “I had nothing to do with who would be on that call.”

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made his comments in response to testimony that Redfield gave on Wednesday before a House select subcommittee investigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans serving on the committee focused much of their attention on the theory that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in Wuhan, China, causing the pandemic to start.

Redfield said he believes this theory “based on the biology of the virus itself” more so than the theory that the virus naturally spread from an animal to humans.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the subcommittee, asked Redfield about a meeting that Jeremy Farrar, the director of the British charity Wellcome Trust, organized of 11 top scientists from five time zones, including Fauci, to discuss the pandemic in February 2020.

She said Fauci responded to an invitation he received for it that he wanted to “keep this group really tight” and keep the discussion “in total confidence.”

Redfield testified that he had multiple conservations in January 2020 with Fauci, Farrar and Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, about scientists needing to explore both hypotheses.

Malliotakis asked Redfield why he was “excluded” from the call Farrar organized, and Redfield responded that he was told that they “wanted a single narrative” and he had a different point of view about the origins of the pandemic.

Fauci told Cavuto that he believes “it is unfortunate” that Redfield made “that absolutely incorrect statement” in a public setting. He said he did not add or remove anyone’s name from the list of who would be included in the call.

Fauci said half of the people who were present on the call believed the origin of the pandemic might have been a lab leak, making his rationale of why he thought he was excluded “invalid.”

“He’s a good guy — I’ve known him for years. I’m just really a little bit disturbed about why he said that, which was completely untrue,” he said, referring to Redfield.

The Hill

Trump’s CDC director says Fauci shut down debate on Covid’s origin


Ng Han Guan/AP Photo

Carmen Paun
Wed, March 8, 2023 

Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins.

The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and then I obviously had a different point of view,” Redfield told representatives.

Redfield said Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and Collins left him out because Redfield suspected the coronavirus had leaked from the Chinese lab.

Fauci, who was not at the hearing, dismissed Redfield’s accusation as “completely untrue.”

“No one excluded anyone,” he told POLITICO after the hearing.

“And the idea of saying that he was not wanted there because he had a different opinion … there were several people on the call who had the opinion that it might have been an engineered virus,” said Fauci, who retired from his government post at the end of last year.

Collins, who is now a science adviser to President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he shares Fauci’s view that the virus likely came from nature, but that a lab leak was possible.

Redfield thought the highly infectious nature of the virus distinguished it from other coronaviruses and made it unlikely to have evolved naturally, he told representatives.

Fauci and others said it most likely came from a natural spillover from animals, as was the case with other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, Redfield said.

The former CDC director said he later found out he was excluded from a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call with Fauci and Jeremy Farrar, a U.K. scientist who at the time led the Wellcome Trust, and other conversations that resulted in the publication of an article in Nature in March 2020 dismissing the possibility of the virus originating in a lab. Farrar is now the World Health Organization’s top scientist.

Fauci told POLITICO he was not involved in the drafting of the article.

But Republican representatives at the hearing accused Fauci of having orchestrated it to deflect attention from U.S. funding research at the Wuhan lab.

“I think Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They got caught supercharging viruses in an unsecured Chinese lab,” said James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Fauci has repeatedly denied that the NIH financed so-called gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. That research aims to make viruses either more lethal or more transmissible or both to find ways to combat them.

Some Democratic representatives at the hearing warned that accusing Fauci of ill motives would further erode trust in government health officials, threatening public health.

“I want the facts, but I hope and say to my colleagues on the other side: We cannot go down a dangerous path by pushing unfounded conspiracies about Dr. Fauci and other long-serving career public health officials,” said Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).

Ukrainians who fled war face end of temporary US sanctuary



 Ukrainian refugees play with frisbees as they wait in front of a gymnasium Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. As many as 20,000 Ukrainians who were granted permission to remain in the United States for one year after fleeing the early fighting in their native country are facing their humanitarian parole expiring, according to advocates. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

JULIE WATSON
Thu, March 9, 2023 
SAN DIEGO (AP) — When U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border stamped the Ukrainian passports of Mariia and her daughter last April and gave them permission to stay for a year, she figured she would return home within months.

Now with that year almost up and the war that caused them to flee still raging, their permission to stay in the U.S. — known as humanitarian parole — is set to expire April 23.

“The word `worry’ doesn’t capture what I’m feeling,” said Mariia, who spoke through an interpreter and asked that only her first name be used over concerns that speaking publicly would hurt their immigration case. “This is something that frightens me, mainly because of my daughter and my daughter’s future.”

The 46-year-old woman and her daughter, now 13, are among 20,000 Ukrainians in a similar situation, according to resettlement agencies. Most arrived to the United States at its southern border after fleeing to Mexico, where it was easier and faster to get a visa to enter the country in the first months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mariia's parole is tied to her work permit, enabling her to earn a living as a nanny, and makes her eligible for food stamps and other public assistance. Her husband flew to the U.S. to join them in July and received humanitarian parole for two years.

The Biden administration has said it is working on a fix but so far has issued no official guidance on what Ukrainians should do, according to advocates helping the Ukrainians. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Jewish Federations of North America, which provided support for the agency that helped Mariia’s family get settled, is among the organizations that have written to the Biden administration to quickly renew humanitarian parole for Ukrainians.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said people are scrambling to figure out what to do. One option would be to apply for asylum, but a war doesn't necessarily qualify someone for that.

"Even short-term solutions like individual parole extensions are unclear since there’s no uniform guidance, which leads to delays and confusion,” she said.

Some Ukrainians have considered returning to the U.S. border crossings where they entered to ask for an extension, but that leaves the decision up to the port director, O’Mara Vignarajah said. It can also be expensive to travel and requires time off work, advocates said.

Some have been told by officials to write across the top of the government's parole form “Re-Parole," since there is no option to check for an extension, according to advocates.

“It highlights how ad hoc the process is,” O’Mara Vignarajah said. “These requests often go unanswered or are transferred to different agencies, and because there is no clear process in how to handle them, sometimes they are simply denied.”

The government turned to humanitarian parole as a quick fix to deal with the fallout from the many world crises that have occurred as the U.S. refugee system that was dismantled by the previous administration was being built back up. Now numerous groups are facing their permission to remain in the United States expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.

“Humanitarian parole was never meant to be over relied on at the expense of refugee resettlement or asylum protections," said Meredith Owen of Church World Service.

Liliia Lukianchuk, a Ukrainian mother of four, has applied for asylum with the help of Lutheran Social Services, but she and her husband have not gotten an answer. Their parole expires April 16, and it is tied to her husband’s mechanic job in Jacksonville, Florida, where they live. She fears that if they're sent back, her 17-year-old son will end up on the front lines as a solider.

“Of course, I’m worried because the worst-case scenario would be to be returned to Ukraine, but I have to be strong for my family,” she said through an interpreter.

Mariia and her daughter arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after trying to settle in four different countries. The lines at Poland's border were too long. In Hungary, they could find a hotel room for only one night at a time and were told by locals that the government was not in favor of hosting Ukrainians. They went on to Belgium, where many Ukrainians were arriving, but the local school had no room for her daughter. Then in Spain, they were told it would be difficult to find work and an apartment. That's when Mariia decided to go to the United States and was told Mexico was the best way.

Jewish Family Services of Greenwich helped her find a job, enroll her daughter in school and get settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mariia said only recently did she and her daughter start feeling hopeful about rebuilding their lives.

“To be honest, the first five months, my eyes to that were closed. My primary goal was to just make sure my child was OK, to calm her down and reassure her that she was safe,” she said.

Tania Priatka of Jewish Family Services said Mariia's family is working with a lawyer who has advised them to wait for guidance from the government. If that doesn't happen soon, they plan to go to the nearest airport and ask Customs and Border Protection officials there for help.

For now, Mariia tries to stay hopeful, but struggles when her daughter asks what will happen.

“I feel lost. I feel hopeless." Mariia said, her voice shaking as she grew emotional. "As a mother, I should be able to give my child an answer that she will be well and that she will be safe.”

GOP Virginia Governor Stumbles As Trans Student Confronts Him On Live TV

Ben Blanchet
Fri, March 10, 2023

A transgender high school student’s question for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who has rolled back protections for trans students during his administration, got a dodge for the ages in return at a CNN town hall event on Thursday night.

The student, who goes by Niko, noted how they’re a transgender man and pressed Youngkin on his anti-trans policies including those limiting trans students’ participation in athletics and their usage of bathrooms.

“Do you think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” asked Niko.

Youngkin refrained from providing a yes or no answer and instead touted his belief in strong parent-children relationships.

“I believe first, when parents are engaged with their children, you can make good decisions together...I also think there are lots of students involved in this decision,” Youngkin said.

He then went on to call for extra bathrooms in school including gender-neutral facilities “so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with.”

His policy on sports, the governor added, is clear and non-controversial as he dropped a brief summary of his policy and implied it’d conflict with progress made for “women in sports” otherwise.

“Again, I think these are very difficult discussions and I am very, very glad to see you and your dad here together,” said Youngkin as CNN’s cameras showed the two appearing to be disappointed by the response.

Youngkin, in response to questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper, later emphasized the role of parents in a child’s life and said the topic offered counselors, teachers and parents an opportunity to come together to deal with a difficult issue.

Twitter users noted Niko’s “dubious expression” and criticized Youngkin for his response.

Glenn Youngkin Defends Anti-Trans Legislation, Says Schools Just Need ‘Gender Neutral’ Bathrooms

Charisma Madarang
Thu, March 9, 2023

Glenn Youngkin Campaign Holds Election Night Event - Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered a shallow solution to the state’s divided stance on public education and transgender policies during CNN’s town hall on Thursday. The Republican governor, whose administration’s guidelines ban transgender students from using bathrooms and competing in sports teams that do not match their gender assigned at birth, attempted to minimize the controversial new policies.

As Youngkin fielded questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper, parents, and educators, a 17-year-old student who identified as a transgender man asked, “Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” The governor circled around the question, and instead insisted that school’s needed “extra bathrooms” and “gender neutral” bathrooms, before arguing that “biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls.”

Youngkin, whose issued guidelines that require students to file legal documents in order to be called by different pronouns, has received backlash from transgender and equal rights advocates who argue that his recent policies limit the rights and protections of transgender children at school.

 

The 56-year-old Republican gave the GOP hope when the party lost control of the White House and the Senate in 2021. His defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe marked only the second time a Democrat has lost a race for governor in the Virginia in the past 20 years, and the first since 2009. Although he declined to comment on a potential 2024 presidential run during Thursday’s town hall, his high-profile victory has some questioning if he will make a bid for the White House.

The longtime private equity executive tailored his campaign around hot-button issues like critical race theory, vaccine mandates, and transphobia in an effort to bait and drum up fear among the state’s moderate suburban voters.

Last September, the ACLU of Virginia responded to the reversal of school protections for transgender students. “We are appalled by the Youngkin administration’s overhaul of key protections for transgender students in public schools,” the group wrote on Twitter. “LGBTQ+ students already experience much higher self-harm & suicide rates because of the discrimination they face. This will only make matters worse.”

Yellen defends request for $29 billion increase in IRS enforcement funds


U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Joe Biden's fiscal year 2024 Budget Request in Washington

Fri, March 10, 2023 
By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday defended a Biden administration budget request for an additional $29.1 billion in IRS enforcement funds as Republicans in Congress pressed her to explain how $80 billion funds approved last year would be spent.

The budget proposal aimed at boosting tax enforcement and collections comes on top of a fiscal 2024 appropriations request of $14.1 billion, marking an increase of $1.8 billion, or 15% over the 2023 IRS budget.

The additional IRS funding requests contained in President Joe Biden's budget plan announced on Thursday drew the ire of Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, where Yellen testified on Friday. The budget includes hefty tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations to bring down deficits over the coming decade.

"You already got $80 billion for the IRS. Now you want $43.2 billion more, all without explaining what will be done with the first $80 billion," said Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, adding the two budget requests.

"The American people, they deserve to know how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent and the impact that a supercharged IRS will have on them," the Missouri Republican added.

Yellen said she would unveil "in the coming weeks" a promised spending plan for the $80 billion in IRS investments approved last year as part of the climate and healthcare-focused Inflation Reduction Act.

The additional $29.1 billion in long-term enforcement investments would add two more years to the $80 billion program for 2032 and 2033, according to the budget. The Treasury estimates that this would produce an additional $105 billion in net revenue from collections during those two years.

Republicans fear that the IRS will hire an "army" of 87,000 agents and harass small business owners with onerous audits, claims denied by Yellen.

She repeated her vow not to use the IRS investment funds, aimed at rebuilding the IRS' audit capabilities after more than a decade of budget cuts under past Republican-controlled Congresses, to increase audit rates for Americans and small businesses earning less than $400,000.

Yellen also said that the "vast majority" of hiring at the agency from the $80 billion would go towards replacing retiring employees over the next decade.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

IRS nominee Daniel Werfel confirmed by Senate vote


Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File) 

FATIMA HUSSEIN
Thu, March 9, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Daniel Werfel to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday by a vote of 54-42.

Werfel, who pledged before senators not to expand tax audits on businesses and households making less than $400,000 per year, will serve a five-year term as leader of the federal tax collection agency.

The approval came after the Senate agreed a day earlier to move to a final vote on Werfel’s nomination, with six Republicans breaking party ranks to back him and a lone Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, voting against him.

“While Daniel Werfel is supremely qualified to serve as the IRS Commissioner, I have zero faith he will be given the autonomy to perform the job in accordance with the law and for that reason, I cannot support his nomination,” Manchin said in a statement.

President Joe Biden nominated Werfel to steer the IRS as it receives nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years through the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in August along party lines.

Previously a private consultant who led Boston Consulting Group’s global public sector practice, Werfel faced rounds of questions before the Senate Finance Committee in February on how he would spend the agency’s new infusion of money.

He drew praise for being willing to leave a private consulting job to take on the top job at the troubled agency.

Werfel will have to navigate controversy surrounding the new funding, as critics have distorted how the new law would affect the IRS and taxes for the middle class. About $46 billion was allocated for enforcing tax laws and the rest for taxpayer services, operations support and updated business systems.

Republicans have suggested without evidence that the agency would use the new money to hire an army of tax agents with weapons.

IRS officials say the new money is already being put to use — announcing Wednesday that the agency has expanded its digital scanning capabilities. The agency has scanned more than 120,000 paper forms related to unemployment taxes, a twenty-fold increase compared with all of 2022.

“This expansion of scanning is another milestone for the IRS as we work to transform the agency,” acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said in an emailed statement.

Taking note of the potential impact of the funding, Werfel said during his confirmation hearing that “Americans rightfully expect a more modern and high-performing IRS.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, praised Werfel's ability to receive support from Republicans for the top IRS role.

“For Mr. Werfel to get bipartisan support to lead the IRS at a time when a lot of Republicans would happily mothball the entire agency is a testament to his fairness, his ability to work with both sides and his undeniable qualification for this role," Wyden said.

Another reason to avoid rodents: NYC's rats found infected with virus that causes COVID

These cities across the US are the top rat havens, according to Orkin pest control

Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
Fri, March 10, 2023 

There are supposedly as many rats as people in New York City (hold the jokes, please) and some of them carry variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study published this week.

It's not entirely clear how the rats contracted SARS-CoV-2 or whether they pose a particular danger to human health.

But theoretically, the fact that they can catch the virus from people means they can pass it back, according to researchers. This would be a particular concern if, say, they incubated a highly contagious vaccine-resistant variant.

Other animals have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus from people, including deer, otters, ferrets, hamsters, gorillas, cats, dogs, lions and tigers. Millions of farm-raised mink were killed early in the pandemic to prevent them from infecting people.

There's no evidence that any of these sparked an outbreak in people, but the possibility for transmission is there, particularly among animals that come in close contact with people.

Urban wildlife "is a reservoir from which we can anticipate further infection of humans," said W. Ian Lipkin, a researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "It's going to be going in both directions."

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What this study found

After rats in Hong Kong and Belgium were suspected of carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus, federal researchers teamed up with several academics to study Norway rats, which make up most of the wild rat populations in New York City.

Between Sept. 13 and Nov. 16, 2021, when the delta variant was circulating among New York's human residents, researchers collected 79 rats from three sites in Brooklyn.

Fifteen of the rats, about 19%, showed evidence of infection with SARS-CoV-2, according to the study, published Thursday in mBio. Two of those were infected at the time of study, though they didn't show any obvious symptoms, according to Xiu-Feng "Henry" Wan, a pathogen expert at the University of Missouri, who helped lead the study.

Researchers then took Sprague Dawley rats and infected them in the lab with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, showing they could be infected by the alpha, delta and omicron variants. Those variants also mutated, possibly to make it easier for the virus to replicate, Wan said via email.

It's not clear whether the virus continues to circulate among New York City rats or is now being passed among rats rather than from human to animal.

"Our sampling was limited," said co-author Dr. Thomas DeLiberto, assistant director for the National Wildlife Research Center, noting that they have funding for another round of testing. "Further study is needed to address these critical questions."
Rodents and disease

This isn't the first time rodents in New York have been shown to harbor pathogens.

In 2015, city rats were shown to be carrying fleas that could theoretically become infected with and transmit the plague. (An outbreak of bubonic plague carried by such fleas killed one-third of Europeans in 1347. Now, plague is treated with antibiotics.)

And in 2018, mice living in New York apartment building basements were found to carry disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bugs and never-before-seen viruses.

Lipkin, who was involved in both earlier studies but not the new one, said he's not at all surprised city rats would be infected with SARS-CoV-2.

But there's no evidence that any human illnesses can be blamed on the rodents, he said. "When we did our studies of rats and mice in NYC, we were unable to say more than that both carried antibiotic resistant strains of human bacterial pathogens."

Lipkin said he's more concerned about mice than rats because they come into closer contact with people, living in apartment building walls often scurrying into inhabited spaces. "We have a more intimate relationship with mice," he said.

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How did the rats get SARS-CoV-2?

It's not clear how the rats became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Public health officials have said the virus is unlikely to be transmitted among people outdoors except in tightly packed crowds and that keeping a safe distance indoors helps prevent infection.

Presumably, people with COVID-19 didn't get within 6 feet of a rat indoors.

The study suggests they didn't catch it from sewage.

"No evidence has shown that SARS-CoV-2 viruses in sewage water are infectious," the study says, "suggesting that sewage rats may have been exposed to the virus through airborne transmission, e.g., overlapping living spaces with humans or indirect transmission from unknown fomites, e.g., contaminated human food waste."

People aren't known to pass the virus through food and Lipkin said the precise route is unknowable.

The U.S. government is running research projects to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus behaves in animals, how it moves between animals and people and "what we and our public health partners can do to interrupt the chain of transmission," DeLiberto said.

Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York City rats found infected with COVID virus, study finds

Why too many young men love Andrew Tate – and why we need to understand that, not dismiss it

Sasha Mistlin
Thu, 9 March 2023 

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

I have a teenage cousin who loves Andrew Tate. This became an issue recently when he posted one of his videos in the family WhatsApp group and I was dispatched by my mum to “have a chat” with him. I think I was supposed to tell him off, but to be honest – I understand why he is drawn to Tate. My cousin is a good kid who’s working hard to better himself, just as I was at his age.

On the surface, Tate preaches hard work, determination and “no excuses”: values my cousin probably sees as parallel to the philosophy of our Nigerian immigrant family. “He’s funny,” my cousin said, when I asked him why he watches Tate’s videos. “And his view of success is very binary – either you want it or you don’t.”

Tate’s views may appeal to teenagers, but he is currently detained, awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking. He denies all allegations, and has pledged $100m (£85m) to start a charity in his will for men faced with false accusations.

Tate was banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being raped. He has also said he would not allow his partner to go on a girls’ holiday because: “it’s disrespectful”. The 36-year-old’s predilection for young women may be the creepiest facet of his persona; he says he mainly dates 19-year-olds because he can: “make an imprint” on them. When I asked my cousin if he thought Tate was a misogynist, he replied he “wasn’t sure” – even though Tate describes himself as one .

My cousin is far from the only young man enthralled by him. Videos tagged #AndrewTate on TikTok have been viewed more than 12.7bn times. This matters. I’m 25 and other than sport and Love Island, I haven’t watched television in a decade. If you are my age or younger, Tate’s videos are as mainstream as the six o’clock news. Tate may have styled himself as a cult preacher, but he is anything but fringe.

Imagine you are a young man and your first time encountering Tate is not in a newspaper article like this, but rather a YouTube video titled “FIX YOUR MIND – Motivational Speech”. In the video, Tate dishes out harsh truths about money, success and endeavour. It is easy to see how it could inspire someone feeling powerless or confused about their place in the world: “You’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt,” he says. “If you’re 5ft 2in you need to become strong, and rich, and charismatic. If you’re 6ft 4in, you need to become rich, strong, well-connected. It’s the same game.” It is this messaging – the subtler, motivational stuff – that has given him such a following. If Tateism has a message, it’s about male emancipation.

While the technology that delivers Tate’s views might be new, much of his persona is a throwback to older ideas of masculinity. Tate is TikTok’s Tony Montana: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” Women appear in the background of his videos wearing very little and saying even less. There are fast cars being driven irresponsibly. We like to think the lads’ mags that peddled all this in the 90s and 00s went out of business because the world became a more enlightened place; but they went out of business because the audience went online.

The difference with Tate is that the women are not solely there for titillation. They are both direct objects of his misogyny, and their behaviour is used by Tate as justification for that misogyny. Comparing gender roles to chess, he says: “The king moves one square at a time and the queen can just zip across the board. So you’re partying in Miami – you see all these chicks on a boat. For the man to get on that boat, he has to move one square at a time: he has to get a good job, he has to get his credit right, he has to go through all this shit, stage by stage … a chick, what does she need? Lip fillers? Boom. Zip. That’s the difference between the king and the queen.”

Reprehensible it may be, but Tate’s baseless misogyny and “me-first, get-yours” narcissism is alluring to young men at a time when mainstream culture is telling them to check their privilege for reasons they don’t fully understand.

I hope it’s not too late for my cousin and that his flirtation with Tate’s toxic message is just a phase – a part of growing up that I worry is inevitable these days. That’s why a new framework for online safety is needed, one that recognises that the harmful content comes looking for you now via your social media algorithm and the “bad” looks just the same as the “good” on a TikTok feed.

We can’t afford to be English about this sort of thing. My friends and I didn’t get any proper education about sex, consent or relationships until we were 13, by which time we had learned it all from internet porn and lads’ mags. Teachers and parents have to be proactive about telling boys what mutually respectful sex is before they’re exposed to something else all together.

My cousin’s had a tough time recently, riven with personal and professional insecurity, amped up by a pandemic and a recession. In that context, I understand Tate’s appeal – an alternative lifestyle guru, saying get yours, before someone else takes it.

What makes me saddest is that it’s taken someone like Tate to bring us together. Sometimes all young men need is each other. Unfortunately, I was too busy “getting mine” to have a few chats with my cousin about what, and who, he was getting into.

Sasha Mistlin is a commissioning editor on Guardian Saturday