Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Tuesday, 29 November 2016
Monday, 28 November 2016
Sunday, 27 November 2016
Saturday, 26 November 2016
Thursday, 24 November 2016
Wednesday, 23 November 2016
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
France’s 2017 presidential election: Everything to Know About François F...
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François Fillon has emerged as the surprise frontrunner in a race to choose France’s center right presidential candidate in next year’s elections, after former President Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated in the first-round of voting.
On Sunday, French voters unexpectedly propelled Fillon to first place in
the Les Republicains primary, who had long been the third man in a race
dominated by Sarkozy and Bordeaux mayor Alain Juppé. After months
behind Sarkozy in the polls, Fillon took more than 44% of the vote in
the first round, with Juppé trailing in second with around 28%. The race
is significant because polling suggests the winner will likely be the
main challenger to far-right, Euroskeptic National Front leader Marion
Le Pen in next year’s election.
Sarkozy once belittled Fillon—
who served under him as prime minister from 2007 to 2012— by calling him
his “employee.” By Sunday, Fillon had effectively ended the political
career of his former boss. Sarkozy conceded defeat from his campaign
headquarters, giving Fillon his endorsement over the more centrist
Juppé.
'Gilmore Girls' Revival: What Are the Final Four Words?
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After a disappointing final season, the unspoken words have been the cornerstone of Gilmore lore
When Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premieres on Netflix this Friday, some fans will inevitably skip to the end of the final episode. This act is not one inspired by some sort of When Harry Met Sally nihilism. Rather, they want to be the first to know—and share on social media—the last four words of the series, which have become the cornerstone of Gilmore lore.
The show’s creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino has had these words simmering in her mind for a decade. She had a reputation for plotting out every single aspect of the show, including the final words spoken on the series—words that were never uttered. Controversially, she and the WB parted ways a year before Gilmore Girls ended in 2007. Fans, critics and even the show’s stars consider the seventh and final season lacking, even beyond the missing final words.
For many fans those four words have come to represent an alternate reality where Sherman-Palladino stayed with the show and wrote a better, more satisfying ending. (This dreamy “what if?” scenario neglects that many show endings tend to be weaker than their beginnings or middles.) They’ve gained mythical status, thanks in part to their mystery: Sherman-Palladino has not even confirmed who utters the final words, though many fans have assumed either Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) or her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) will do the honors.
After nine years of stewing over what could have been, many fans anticipate that A Year in the Life will be sort of a do-over. Sure, they can’t rewind time, throw a now 32-year-old Rory back into Yale and re-write her senior year. But they can rewrite the ending to these characters’ onscreen lives. This may be misguided: Sherman-Palladino told TIME that the new 90-minute installments are not just more episodes of Gilmore Girls. They endeavor to be deeper, darker and different.
Still, fans will look to the new series for closure, hence the urge to discover those last four words. The creator is so worried about spoilers that she says they filmed several different endings to make sure the words didn’t leak. She also unsuccessfully lobbied Netflix to release the episodes piecemeal instead of all at once.
No such luck. Fans will either be celebrating or fuming on Friday night (or, rather, in the wee hours of Saturday morning) when they hear the words meant to end the series, the words which they’ve awaited for nine years.
Monday, 21 November 2016
Sunday, 20 November 2016
Sunday, 13 November 2016
Second Powerful Earthquake Has Hit New Zealand’s South Island
Second quake comes after multiple powerful aftershocks
A new, powerful tremor has taken place in New Zealand just hours after a massive earthquake hit the same area, at one point triggering tsunami warnings in parts of the country.
The BBC reports that the second quake happened northeast of Christchurch, on the South Island, at a depth of 10 kilometers. The tremor came at around 1:45 p.m. local time Monday, following an earlier, stronger quake at shortly after midnight, which hit at the same depth. There have been multiple strong aftershocks following the midnight quake, according to the report.
Some small towns on the South Island, including Kaikoura, were left isolated by damages caused by the first quake, reports the New Zealand Herald. That magnitude-7.5 earthquake had seen roads to Kaikoura blocked and electricity supply in the area disrupted, according to the Herald, and mobile network congestion has made substantiating the exact extent of damage more difficult.
The BBC reports that there had been airlifts rescuing people from the area. At Monday afternoon local time, Radio New Zealand reported that a local dam had been breached.
A new, powerful tremor has taken place in New Zealand just hours after a massive earthquake hit the same area, at one point triggering tsunami warnings in parts of the country.
The BBC reports that the second quake happened northeast of Christchurch, on the South Island, at a depth of 10 kilometers. The tremor came at around 1:45 p.m. local time Monday, following an earlier, stronger quake at shortly after midnight, which hit at the same depth. There have been multiple strong aftershocks following the midnight quake, according to the report.
Some small towns on the South Island, including Kaikoura, were left isolated by damages caused by the first quake, reports the New Zealand Herald. That magnitude-7.5 earthquake had seen roads to Kaikoura blocked and electricity supply in the area disrupted, according to the Herald, and mobile network congestion has made substantiating the exact extent of damage more difficult.
The BBC reports that there had been airlifts rescuing people from the area. At Monday afternoon local time, Radio New Zealand reported that a local dam had been breached.
Hillary Clinton Blames FBI Director James Comey for Election Loss
She said his letters to Congress stopped her campaign’s momentum and motivated Donald Trump voters
Hillary Clinton on Saturday blamed her stunning election loss on FBI Director James Comey, saying his late-October letter to Congress about her use of a private email server hurt her campaign’s momentum.
“There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Clinton said on a call with top donors Saturday, according to the Washington Post. “But our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”
Comey sent a letter to Congress
on Oct. 28, announcing that the FBI would examine newly discovered
emails to determine whether they were relevant to the investigation into
Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State. Two days
before the election, Comey sent another letter
saying the bureau’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against
Clinton remained unchanged. By that time, Donald Trump had already
touted the incident as an example that Clinton was unfit for the
presidency.
“We dropped, and we had to keep
really pushing ahead to regain our advantage — which going into the
last weekend, we had. We were once again up in all but two of the
battleground states, and we were up considerably in some that we ended
up losing. And we were feeling like we had put it back together,”
Clinton said.
“Just as we were back up on the
upward trajectory, the second letter from Comey essentially doing what
we knew it would — saying there was no there there — was a real
motivator for Trump’s voters.”
On a call with volunteers on Friday, Clinton asked them to keep fighting, while acknowledging how “very, very tough” the past days had been.
What Comes Next With President Trump
It turns out that Donald Trump was qualified to be President, after
all. He was credentialed by the American people on Election Day. I’m
still not sure he’s fit for the job, and I’m certain he’s not prepared
for it, and his demeanor remains profoundly unpresidential–but make no
mistake, it was his demeanor that won him the presidency. Every time he
said something that “serious” people found unhinged, a vast swath of the
country found it honest and refreshing and real, even if they disagreed
with it. This should have been obvious from the moment he slagged
Senator John McCain, a true American hero, early in the campaign. He
didn’t suffer for the outrage; he gained strength from it.
And now the American political establishment has been toppled. As a
longtime member of that clan, I am writing from beneath the rubble. The
view from here is rather limited. I don’t trust myself to predict what
happens next, although Trump’s victory speech set a far more gracious
and sober tone than anything he said or did during the campaign. It is
also impossible, given his frequent policy shifts, to say what Trump
will actually do as President. But it is possible to catalog some of the
pillars that have fallen: the entire political-consultant industrial
complex has collapsed. Money raised and spent on advertising meant
nothing. The use of market-tested language has become a liability, a
sign of dull conformity on the part of the candidate. Focus groups,
polling, the ground game, surrogates and–yes, sadly–truth have been
shown to be irrelevant. Political parties have long been hollow vessels,
but they now seem utterly archaic.
Several truths do remain. A successful candidate for the presidency
needs a message and also the ability to sell that message. Trump didn’t
need policies: his attitude was the message. He was distressingly
effective at selling it; the fact that he could barely control himself
was integral to what he was selling–spontaneity, authenticity, strut.
Indeed, the greatest danger of his victory is that it will spawn a whole
generation of candidates, in both parties, who believe that being
obnoxious is the path to power.
Like Trump, Hillary Clinton was her message. She was the embodiment
of the boring pillow fight that American politics had become. She was
the embodiment of a system slouching toward dynasty–remember when we
thought Clinton and Jeb Bush would replay that same old familial battle?
It was appropriate that her closing argument became: I’m not him. That
was, in the end, all she had. Clinton has been a fine public servant–let
the silly investigations stop now–but she was a clueless candidate from
start to finish, and her perpetual defensive crouch was the precise
opposite of Trump’s offensiveness. He said some things that needed
saying. The war in Iraq can now be acknowledged by Republicans for the
terrible mistake it was.
But it also became permissible for a certain sector of people–white
people without college educations–to say and think a lot of less savory
things too. Trump empowered a brutal ignorance, especially about Latinos
and Muslims and the world outside our borders. He attracted a
dangerous, supremacist, sexist, lunatic fringe. He created scapegoats
and encouraged his followers to exploit them.
And what now? The Republican Party suddenly has a shiny new populist
identity, and the Democrats are in shambles. It is likely that both
parties will now pursue the wrong road. Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren, will move left; Trump has liberated the Democrats
to lift the taboo on the word socialism, a philosophy fundamentally at
odds with the American spirit. The future of Trump’s Republican Party is
harder to discern, and people like Paul Ryan may not have a place in
it. But who knows? Trump didn’t mention the border wall in his victory
speech. He did mention infrastructure. He promised to get along with all
nations “willing to get along with us.”
It would be nice to think his revolution will be a gentle one. But he
is not a gentle man. He is puerile, thin-skinned and crude. He is also
70 years old, and all those decades of bombastic hucksterism have now
been ratified by the American people. His vision of a dark, declining
country has been ratified too–but only by a momentary plurality that
looks more to the past for answers than to the future. That has never
been the American way. This is a dynamic country. Its only possible
future is multiethnic and globalist. Donald Trump won’t succeed unless
he learns how to keep up with it.
Democrats Are Facing an Existential Crisis After Donald Trump’s Victory
“We need somebody to represent us in the fights which are inevitable in the next four years”
Days after suffering stunning and sweeping presidential and congressional defeats,
the Democratic Party faces the challenge of repairing internal turmoil
while mounting an appropriate response to an unpredictable but
inevitable four-year battle against President-elect Donald Trump.
While President Obama and others immediately called for unity after a notoriously divisive election, the party’s forward-looking message has since become more nuanced: Your move, Donald.
“We’re going to stand up and say there’s a lot we’ll
try to work with you on, there are a lot of places where there are
going to have to be compromises,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
said Thursday on MSNBC. “But on those core
issues about treating every single human being in this country with
dignity, on that we stand up and we fight back. We do not back down. We
do not compromise, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
In his first tweet since Election Day, Georgia Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon, made a subtle reference Friday to his signature rallying cry
for activism, using the hashtag #goodtrouble. Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, has
alternated between a wary willingness to work with Trump on populist
economic issues and a promise to oppose his racist and sexist
rhetoric—and any policies that come as a result.
“If Donald Trump takes people’s anger and turns it against Muslims,
Hispanics, African Americans and women, we will be his worst nightmare,”
Sanders warned Thursday, while also calling for reform to the
Democratic Party, which he said “has to be focused on grassroots America and not wealthy people attending cocktail parties.”
But it was retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who sent the
strongest message to the future president, placing the responsibility of
reconciliation squarely on his shoulders.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the
responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald
Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his
campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not
absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of
Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those
fears, but he owes it to this nation to try,” Reid said in a statement
on Friday. “If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed,
he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”
At the same time, Democrats are considering the best next step for
their own leadership, amid criticism that the party lost a winnable
high-stakes presidential election. Former Maryland Gov. and presidential
candidate Martin O’Malley and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison are among
those in the running to replace interim Democratic National Committee
chair Donna Brazile, as is former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
“We need somebody to represent us in the fights which are inevitable
in the next four years,” Tad Devine, a longtime Democratic strategist
who served as senior adviser to Sanders’ presidential campaign, told Fortune.
“And that will be fights over whether or not we have a broad and
inclusive society or whether Trump falls back to the rhetoric that got
him elected, which was the opposite of inclusion.”
As the party looks to avoid a similar outcome in future elections, it
will need to expand its geographic reach, reconsider the role of the
DNC in the nomination process and work to excite more people, especially
young people, Devine said.
“I also think that the issues that we run on are really important,
and Donald Trump really sort of reached into the bag of the Democratic
Party on some issues—issues like trade, for example, and also talking
about massive investments in infrastructure that create jobs,” Devine
said. “We can’t let the Republicans steal those issues from us.”
If Trump pursues those issues—investing in infrastructure, creating
millions of jobs and working on trade policies that keep jobs in the
country—Devine predicts Democrats will work with him.
“If, instead, he wants to ban Muslims from coming to America or spend
time and resources trying to build an impenetrable wall, I don’t think
he’s going to get a lot of support form Democrats,” Devine said. “It’s
frankly going to be up to him.”
Racist Incidents Are Up Since Donald Trump’s Election. These Are Just a Few of Them
The Southern Poverty Law Center received 200 hate crime reports since Election Day
In the days since the presidential election,
states across the country have seen increased incidents of racist or
anti-Semitic vandalism and violence, many of which have drawn directly
on the rhetoric and proposals of President-elect Donald Trump.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has counted more than 200 complaints of hate crimes since Election Day, according to USA Today.
“Since the election, we’ve seen a big uptick in incidents of vandalism, threats, intimidation spurred by the rhetoric surrounding Mr. Trump’s election,” Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center told USA Today. “The white supremacists out there are celebrating his victory and many are feeling their oats.”
Many advocacy groups have called on Trump to condemn such attacks and threats, but the President-elect has yet to do so.
Here are a few examples:
Maryland
When the rector at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland opened the church on Sunday morning, he found that a sign advertising Spanish services had been ripped and vandalized with the words, “TRUMP NATION WHITES ONLY.” The same message was written on a brick wall near the church’s memorial garden.
“He was shocked and appalled, and everyone has been shocked and appalled,” Parish administrator Tracey Henley told TIME. “Montgomery County—it’s not the kind of place where racial incidents happen, but since last Tuesday they’ve been increasing in number.”
Henley said other churches in the area, especially those with large Latino congregations, have been targeted in similar ways, and she worries the community will see more incidents of racism in the future.
“A year ago, it wasn’t possible to be a racist bigot and get elected president,” she said. “People now feel free to say racist things that they wouldn’t have said before.”
New York
Swastikas were drawn on several doors in a residence hall at the New School in New York City on Saturday. Three Jewish women live in the suite where one of the swastikas was drawn, according to a tweet from one of the students who lives there.
“That someone would attempt to create fear amongst us is inexcusable. This is not what we as a community stand for, nor is it something we will tolerate,” New School President David E. Van Zandt said in a statement, calling the vandalism an “illegal, inflammatory and hurtful influence on our campus.” He said the New York City Police Department is investigating the incident, and campus security has been increased.
“Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC. To the affected, we stand with you. To the perpetrators, we are better than this,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
A residence hall at SUNY Geneseo was also vandalized with a swastika and the word “Trump” on Friday, the Genesee Sun reported.
California
Anti-Semitic graffiti—including a swastika and the words “Heil Trump”—appeared at a bus stop at the University of California at San Diego on Thursday. In a statement, Hillel of San Diego said it worked with the office of Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Campus Police, and the Anti-Defamation League to ensure the graffiti was removed.
Pennsylvania
Black students at the University of Pennsylvania were added to a racist GroupMe message on Friday that included violent threats toward them. The messages were sent by someone using the name “Daddy Trump,” and the group was named “MudMen,” Philly.com reported.
Screenshots of the account shared on social media showed messages with racial slurs, a calendar invite for a “daily lynching” and old images of African-American lynchings.
It also included references to Trump’s comments about grabbing women by the genitals without consent.
Michigan
A man threatened a Muslim student at the University of Michigan on Friday, demanding that she remove her hijab or be set on fire with a lighter, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Police in Ann Arbor, Mich., are investigating the incident, and the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned it.
“Our nation’s leaders, and particularly President-elect Donald Trump, need to speak out forcefully against the wave of anti-Muslim incidents sweeping the country after Tuesday’s election,” Dawud Walid, the chapter’s executive director, said in a statement.
In a separate incident on Thursday, students at Royal Oak Middle School in Royal Oak, Mich., chanted “build that wall!” during their lunch period, echoing Trump’s promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration.
“In responding to this incident – indeed in responding to this election – we need to hear each other’s stories, not slogans, we need to work towards understanding, not scoring points, and we need to find a way to move forward that respects and values each and every member of our community,” Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin said in a statement.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has counted more than 200 complaints of hate crimes since Election Day, according to USA Today.
“Since the election, we’ve seen a big uptick in incidents of vandalism, threats, intimidation spurred by the rhetoric surrounding Mr. Trump’s election,” Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center told USA Today. “The white supremacists out there are celebrating his victory and many are feeling their oats.”
Many advocacy groups have called on Trump to condemn such attacks and threats, but the President-elect has yet to do so.
Here are a few examples:
Maryland
When the rector at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Silver Spring, Maryland opened the church on Sunday morning, he found that a sign advertising Spanish services had been ripped and vandalized with the words, “TRUMP NATION WHITES ONLY.” The same message was written on a brick wall near the church’s memorial garden.
“He was shocked and appalled, and everyone has been shocked and appalled,” Parish administrator Tracey Henley told TIME. “Montgomery County—it’s not the kind of place where racial incidents happen, but since last Tuesday they’ve been increasing in number.”
Henley said other churches in the area, especially those with large Latino congregations, have been targeted in similar ways, and she worries the community will see more incidents of racism in the future.
“A year ago, it wasn’t possible to be a racist bigot and get elected president,” she said. “People now feel free to say racist things that they wouldn’t have said before.”
New York
Swastikas were drawn on several doors in a residence hall at the New School in New York City on Saturday. Three Jewish women live in the suite where one of the swastikas was drawn, according to a tweet from one of the students who lives there.
“That someone would attempt to create fear amongst us is inexcusable. This is not what we as a community stand for, nor is it something we will tolerate,” New School President David E. Van Zandt said in a statement, calling the vandalism an “illegal, inflammatory and hurtful influence on our campus.” He said the New York City Police Department is investigating the incident, and campus security has been increased.
“Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC. To the affected, we stand with you. To the perpetrators, we are better than this,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
A residence hall at SUNY Geneseo was also vandalized with a swastika and the word “Trump” on Friday, the Genesee Sun reported.
California
Anti-Semitic graffiti—including a swastika and the words “Heil Trump”—appeared at a bus stop at the University of California at San Diego on Thursday. In a statement, Hillel of San Diego said it worked with the office of Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Campus Police, and the Anti-Defamation League to ensure the graffiti was removed.
Pennsylvania
Black students at the University of Pennsylvania were added to a racist GroupMe message on Friday that included violent threats toward them. The messages were sent by someone using the name “Daddy Trump,” and the group was named “MudMen,” Philly.com reported.
Screenshots of the account shared on social media showed messages with racial slurs, a calendar invite for a “daily lynching” and old images of African-American lynchings.
It also included references to Trump’s comments about grabbing women by the genitals without consent.
Michigan
A man threatened a Muslim student at the University of Michigan on Friday, demanding that she remove her hijab or be set on fire with a lighter, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Police in Ann Arbor, Mich., are investigating the incident, and the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned it.
“Our nation’s leaders, and particularly President-elect Donald Trump, need to speak out forcefully against the wave of anti-Muslim incidents sweeping the country after Tuesday’s election,” Dawud Walid, the chapter’s executive director, said in a statement.
In a separate incident on Thursday, students at Royal Oak Middle School in Royal Oak, Mich., chanted “build that wall!” during their lunch period, echoing Trump’s promise to build a wall on the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration.
“In responding to this incident – indeed in responding to this election – we need to hear each other’s stories, not slogans, we need to work towards understanding, not scoring points, and we need to find a way to move forward that respects and values each and every member of our community,” Superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin said in a statement.
Protests Against Donald Trump Spread Across the U.S.
"I just can't have Donald Trump running this country and teaching our children racism, sexism and bigotry"
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump’s presidential upset win sparked a
fourth day of protests across the United States, with tens of thousands
of protesters marching and railing against him.
Saturday protests — held in big cities such as Los Angeles, New York
and Chicago as well as smaller ones, such as Worcester, Massachusetts,
and Iowa City, Iowa — were largely peaceful, although two police
officers were slightly injured in protests in Indianapolis.
Demonstrators rallied at New York’s Union Square before taking their
cause up Fifth Avenue toward Trump Tower, where they were held back by
police barricades.
The Republican president-elect was inside his tower apartment, working with aides on the transition to the White House.
Among those railing against him was filmmaker Michael Moore, who tweeted a demand that Trump “step aside.”
Fashion designer Noemi Abad, 30, agreed.
“I just can’t have Donald Trump running this country and teaching our
children racism, sexism and bigotry,” she said. “Out of his own mouth
he made this division. He needs to go — there’s no place for racism in
society in America.”
Trump’s comments — particularly a 2005 recording of him making lewd
comments about women — sparked outrage during his campaign. That spilled
over into demonstrations following an election that ended with half of
U.S. voters choosing the other candidate, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Demonstrators in Indianapolis on Saturday threw rocks at police,
slightly injuring two officers, said Police Chief Troy Riggs. Some
protesters began chanting threats including “Kill the Police,” and
officers moved in to arrest seven demonstrators.
Police briefly fired pepper balls into the crowd during the confrontation.
“We believe that we have some instigators that arrived in our city,” trying to start a riot, Riggs said.
Rowdy demonstrators marched through downtown Portland, Oregon, for
the fourth night Saturday despite calls from the mayor and police chief
for calm.
Several hundred people took to the streets and Portland authorities
made multiple arrests after protesters threw bottles and other items at
officers in riot gear and blocked streets and light rail lines. The
exact number of arrests wasn’t immediately available.
The gathering came after a news conference Saturday in which Mayor
Charlie Hayes and Police Chief Mike Marshman urged restraint after
several days of violent marches that damaged property and left one
person shot.
Friday night, police used flash-bang grenades to disperse a crowd of
hundreds in the downtown area. Seventeen people were arrested and one
man was shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries in what police
described as a confrontation with gang members. Two people were arrested
on attempted murder charges.
In Los Angeles, an estimated 8,000 people marched through downtown
streets Saturday to condemn what they saw as Trump’s hate speech about
Muslims, pledge to deport people in the country illegally and crude
comments about women.
Jennifer Cruz, 18, of Ventura, California, carried a sign that asked:
“Legalize weed but not my Mom?” — a reference to Californians’ Tuesday
passage of a measure legalizing recreational marijuana use.
Cruz said her parents have been in the United States illegally for 30
years, although her mother has spent years seeking citizenship. She
called the possibility of their deportation terrifying.
“We talk about it almost every day,” she said. “My Mom wants to leave
it in the hands of God, but I’m not just going to sit back and not do
anything. I’m going to fight for my parents, even if it kills me.”
Shawn Smith, 41, of Los Angeles, wore an American flag vest and held a glittery sign that said “Love Trumps Hate.”
“What he’s been able to do is make 50 percent of the nation look over
their shoulder,” he said. “If you’re gay, if you’re LGBT, if you’re
Muslim, if you’re Latin, if you’re special needs, if you’re female, it’s
a much unsafer place now.”
“What is happening today is going to be the normal for a while,” he
said of the demonstration, “because we’re not going to just sit back and
watch our rights being taken away, our health care being taken away.”
Meanwhile, several dozen Trump supporters gathered at his vandalized
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to urge the protesters to give him a
chance. One person held a cross that read “All lives matter to me.”
In other parts of the country, spirited demonstrations on college
campuses and peaceful marches along downtown streets have taken place
since Wednesday.
Evening marches disrupted traffic in Miami and Atlanta.
Trump supporter Nicolas Quirico was traveling from South Beach to
Miami. His car was among hundreds stopped when protesters blocked
Interstate 395.
“Trump will be our president. There is no way around that, and the
sooner people grasp that, the better off we will be,” he said. “There is
a difference between a peaceful protest and standing in a major highway
backing up traffic for 5 miles. This is wrong.”
Protests also were held in Detroit; Minneapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Olympia, Washington, Iowa City and more.
More than 200 people, carrying signs, gathered on the steps of the
Washington state Capitol. The group chanted “not my president” and “no
Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.”
In Tennessee, Vanderbilt University students sang civil rights songs
and marched through campus across a Nashville street, temporarily
blocking traffic.
In Cincinnati, hundreds of protesters already had taken to the
streets early Saturday afternoon to protest a jury’s failure to reach a
verdict in the trial of a white former police officer who killed an
unarmed black motorist in 2015.
A mistrial was declared in the trial of former University of
Cincinnati officer Ray Tensing. He was fired after shooting Sam DuBose
in the head after pulling him over for a missing front license plate
last year.
Several hundred anti-Trump protesters joined the trial protesters and marched through downtown Cincinnati.
In Chicago, hundreds of people including families with small children
chanted “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here” Saturday as
they marched through Millennium Park, a popular downtown tourist
attraction.
Sonja Spray, 29, who heard about the protest on Facebook, said she
has signed an online petition urging the electoral college to honor the
popular vote and elect Clinton.
Demonstrations also took place internationally. A group of Mexicans
at statue representing independence in Mexico City expressed their
concerns about a possible wave of deportations. One school teacher said
it would add to the “unrest” that’s already in Mexico. About 300 people
protested Trump’s election as the next American president outside the
U.S. Embassy near the landmark Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
President Barack Obama meets in Berlin next week with Chancellor
Angela Merkel and several other European leaders, and is expected to
confront global concerns about Trump’s election.
___
Jablon reported in Los Angeles. Associated Press writers William
Mathis and Jonathan Lemire in New York, Lisa Baumann and Phuong Le in
Seattle, Carla K. Johnson and Greg McCune in Chicago, Terrence Petty in
Portland, Oregon, and David Rising in Berlin contributed to this report.
Saturday, 12 November 2016
Donald Trump’s Legal Troubles Aren’t Over Just Because He Won
What to know about ongoing lawsuits and investigations surrounding the president-elect
When lawyers filed a class action lawsuit in 2010 against Trump University, they could hardly have expected that six years later they’d be coming up against the president-elect in the courtroom.But that’s exactly what stands to happen during the trial, which is
scheduled to start on Nov. 28, as Trump and his lawyers will defend
against allegations that Trump University defrauded students by
presenting itself as an accredited institution and pressuring people to
spend up to $35,000 for classes taught by people advertised as “hand
picked” by Trump.
The
Trump University lawsuit isn’t the only legal headache hanging over the
president-elect. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (who
also brought a case against Trump University in 2013), is investigating Trump’s foundation,
after it was found in October to have violated state law by soliciting
donations without the proper charity certification. Additionally, the
FBI is conducting a preliminary inquiry into former Trump campaign
manager Paul Manafort’s foreign business ties, NBC reports, a potential conflict that had already caused Trump to distance himself from Manafort. And Trump has sued two D.C. restaurateurs for pulling out of deals to operate in his new hotel.
“It is unusual for a president-elect to be entering the Oval Office
with these types of live legal issues involving the business entities
that he had been running,” says Caleb Burns, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP
focused on election law and government ethics.
Trump will now have to juggle these trials and investigations while
also getting his administration in place by Jan. 20, when he becomes
leader of the free world. It is perhaps ironic that the husband of his
general election opponent paved the way for the potential legal problems
that may follow him into the Oval Office; in a 1997 case involving
then-President Bill Clinton and Paula Jones, who was suing him for
sexual harassment, the Supreme Court ruled that a sitting president
isn’t immune from litigation over actions done before taking office.
But Burns cautions that there’s a crucial difference between the case
Clinton dealt with and the ones confronting Trump: Clinton was sued
personally, whereas Trump’s cases concern disputes with businesses that
he is or was involved with. “Those matters will continue to progress and
make their way through the legal process, but those matters aren’t
aimed at Donald Trump personally,” Burns says. “Therefore they in all
likelihood will not have much of an effect on his presidency.” It also
means that in cases like these in which Trump is a witness, not the
defendant, judges might be more reluctant to compel the president to
testify. “My instinct would be that a judge would take great pains to
avoid that situation,” Burns says.
The most immediate issue for Trump is the Trump University trial
beginning this month. With Trump’s new status as president-elect, U.S.
District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has advised both sides to consider a
settlement rather than trial, “given all else that’s involved.” Trump’s
attorney Daniel Petrocelli indicated Trump might be willing to settle,
despite Trump’s past reticence. “I could settle these cases for peanuts…
but I’m not a settler,” Trump told TIME of the case last November.
Petrocelli has also said he’ll file a formal request to delay the trial
until after Trump’s inauguration.
If the parties do not agree to a settlement, however, Trump will have
to testify, though Judge Curiel will allow him to do so via video
rather than appearing in court. And Curiel denied a request Thursday to
ban campaign statements from the trial. This could include any speeches,
tweets, sexual misconduct allegations, tax history, corporate
bankruptcies or details about his charitable foundation. It could also
include inflammatory statements Trump made about Curiel; in May, Trump
called Curiel “a hater” and “very hostile” and said Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates a “conflict of interest” given Trump’s hardline immigration stance.
Trump’s lawyer argued this campaign information “carries an immediate
and irreparable danger of extreme and irremediable prejudice to
defendants, confusion of issues and waste of time.” But Curiel wrote on
Thursday that he wouldn’t issue a “blanket ruling” because Trump’s
attorneys did not specify which statements they wanted banned.
Voters knew they were choosing a businessman to be their president, and a litigious one, at that. A USA Today analysis
found that Trump and his businesses have been involved in at least
3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts during the past three
decades. Trump prides himself on deal-making and standing tough to
opponents, at least in posture. But as Trump cedes control of his
foundation and businesses to members of his family, which he’s signaled
that he’ll do, Burns says these cases will largely become their problem.
President-elect Trump, after all, will soon have much bigger things to
worry about.
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