Michael Cohen Predicts Giuliani Will Flip on Trump: Rudy Would Give Him Up ‘In a Heartbeat’...ovvero: Per chi suona la campana (a morto)?

By Joe DePaolo (CNN)

It takes one to know one, the old saying goes. And if that maxim applies to Donald Trump’s attorneys, the former president might be in trouble.

Speaking with Alisyn Camerota, Michael Cohen — a former Trump attorney — predicted that one of the men who succeeded him, Rudy Giuliani, will eventually do as he did and turn on the ex-president.

“He’s got some real trouble coming down the pike,” Cohen said. “I can assure you on that one.”

Cohen believes the search warrant executed by federal authorities on Wednesday will bear fruit, and end up incriminating Trump.

“There’s going to be a ton of stuff,” Cohen said. “I’m certain of it. There’s going to be a ton of documentation and there’s going to be a bunch of tweets, and a bunch of texts, and a bunch of God knows what else that they ended up obtaining from these devices.”

“Do you think that Donald Trump is scared today?” Camerota asked Cohen.

“I know so,” the former Trump attorney replied.

And as for the idea of Giuliani flipping? Cohen believes it is fait accompli — and Trump knows it.

“Rudy knows that he has trouble,” Cohen said. “I think Donald understands that Rudy will provide whatever information that he has to [attorneys for the Southern District of New York], because Rudy has no interest in going to prison and spending the golden years of his life behind bars. That I’m certain of.”

Gun violence “an epidemic"

Non sono mai stato leggero nel criticare questo anziano signore che ha vissuto per più di trent'anni nel Senato, per otto anni è stato vicepresidente degli Stati Uniti ed è sopravvissuto a terribili drammi familiari.

Se poi ci aggiungi la balbuzie che ha curato con grande impegno sin da quando era un ragazzo ma che nei momenti di maggiore stress ogni tanto riaffiora allora la consistenza fisica di Joe Biden era non solo per il vostro redattore ma anche per larga parte degli stessi democratici ad ogni livello un grande punto interrogativo.

Il Biden che abbiamo visto ieri recitare e interpretare un lungo discorso di oltre un'ora in occasione dello State of the Union al giro di boa dei primi 100 giorni della sua amministrazione ha meritato un applauso a scena aperta anche da chi come noi per molto tempo ha nutrito perplessità su questo stagionato uomo politico.

Il discorso del presidente in questa occasione molto formale viene giudicato non solo per i punti qualificanti del programma della sua amministrazione ma anche soprattutto per il body language, che nella cultura dell'immagine televisiva è di estrema importanza.

Perché la gente capisce poco ma vede e giudica a tasto.

Il presidente Joe Biden ha recitato il suo discorso in una maniera molto convincente e penetrante, approfittando del fatto che l'audience che aveva di fronte era estremamente ridotta quanto a deputati e senatori perché erano stati imposti i distanziamenti personali causa il Covid.

Joe Biden si è permesso addirittura di lasciare spesso il testo che seguiva sul teleprompter inserendo considerazioni e ricordi personali a braccio.

Dopo quattro anni di sofferenza psicofisica per colpa degli irriverenti comportamenti del clown distlettico mandato alla Casa Bianca grazie anche all'intervento russo nel rimaneggiamento della campagna elettorale, questo anziano signore ha rimessa in carreggiata la credibilità dell'istituzione presidenziale.

Di seguito alcuni spunti di valutazione dell'importante discorso sullo Stato dell'Unione fatta dal presidente Joe Biden.
_____________________________________________________
Biden says he’ll do everything in his power to protect Americans from gun violence
By Colby Itkowitz (Reuter)

Calling gun violence “an epidemic,” Biden made a forceful case for new gun laws, imploring lawmakers to finally do something to stop the daily American death toll from guns.

“I’ll do everything in my power to protect the American people from this epidemic of gun violence,” Biden said. “But it’s time for Congress to act as well.”

Talking directly to Senate Republicans, he urged more of them to join Democrats in passing universal background checks on purchases of firearms, legislation that has had support from a smattering of Republicans but never enough to pass. He also again called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“We’re not changing the Constitution; we’re being reasonable,” Biden said. “I think this is not a Democrat or Republican issue, I think is an American issue.”
________________________________________________________
By
Aaron Blake (The Washington Post)

President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, coinciding with the end of his first 100 days in office.

Below are some takeaways from the speech.

1. ‘All of you’: A repeated, fanciful nod to bipartisanship

Listening to parts of Biden’s speech, you wouldn’t necessarily know Congress is stuck in gridlock. While no Republicans supported Biden’s coronavirus stimulus and the party is balking at the size of his infrastructure package — among many other proposals — Biden spoke almost as if Congress had put up a united front.

Biden said that with “the overwhelming support of the American people — Democrats, independents and Republicans — we did act together. We passed the American Rescue Plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in American history.”

He added of the coronavirus vaccine response: “Senior deaths from covid-19 are down 80 percent since January — down 80 percent, because of all of you.”

And: “We will have provided over 220 million covid shots in those [first] 100 days — thanks to all the help of all of you. We’re marshaling — with your help, everyone’s help — we’re marshaling every federal resource …”

It was an interesting rhetorical tactic. Beyond an appeal to Republicans to support various gun restrictions, Biden didn’t dwell much on his opposition. And even when making that appeal, Biden seemed to almost apologize for his tone, ad-libbing from his prepared remarks: “Look, I don’t want to become confrontational …”

Aspects of the coronavirus response have sometimes been more bipartisan, but that hasn’t been the case during Biden’s presidency. Biden almost seemed to be pretending it were, perhaps reaching out to Republicans by suggesting he would be more than happy to give them credit if they just play a little ball.

2. A conspicuous China focus

This week, I wrote about how Biden’s early agenda is geared toward capitalizing on the partisan barriers former president Donald Trump bulldozed. Trump made Republicans more noninterventionist, more in favor of infrastructure spending and less doctrinaire on many issues. (The unifying principle of the GOP often seemed to be “Trump” rather than any specific ideology.)

Again on Wednesday, there were traces of Biden trying to build upon or recast Trumpism for his benefit. That was particularly the case on China, which he brought up repeatedly.

At one point, he said there was “simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing.”

Biden at two different points recounted conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, pitching China as a formidable foe that must be dealt with (albeit in different ways than Trump did).

“He’s deadly earnest about becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world,” Biden said of Xi. “He and other autocrats think that democracy can’t compete in the 21st century with autocracies — it takes too long to get consensus. To win that competition for the future, in my view, we also need to make a once-in-a-generation investment in our families and our children.”

Biden added at another point: “Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart? America’s adversaries —- the autocrats of the world —- are betting we can’t.”

To oversimplify things a bit: You really want to really get tough on and keep the upper hand on China? Forget trade wars; pass my bill.

3. Hey, big spender

For much of the 2020 presidential campaign, Republicans tried to paint Biden as a radical liberal — or at least an enabler of radical liberals.

It’s too simplistic to say Wednesday’s speech revealed that caricature to be true. Biden used it to propose massive spending — but generally focused more on bread-and-butter issues that have high levels of bipartisan support than the liberal true-believer ideas that conservatives have turned into boogeymen.

But the speech did demonstrate a president who seems less and less concerned about risking that kind of reputation.

While Congress is still considering Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure and jobs bill, Biden detailed a new $1.8 trillion American Families Plan that would include significant expansions of government spending on education and the social safety net. Combined with the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus plan that already passed in Congress, that brings Biden’s proposed spending near $6 trillion.

It remains to be seen how much the still-percolating ideas will be paid for rather than financed through deficit spending. Biden is calling for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, for example, along with funding the IRS to more aggressively audit their tax returns, which he claims could bring in hundreds of billions. And he’s pitching these ideas as spurring huge growth, rather than simply giveaways. But what’s clear is that he’s proposing a huge expansion of government the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades.

For weeks, stories have described a president who is not content to play it safe in the office he long sought. He has to be especially emboldened by the strongly positive public reviews of the coronavirus stimulus and his early infrastructure proposal, despite the price tags. But even as Americans seem more comfortable with government spending these days — again, with Biden owing some credit to Trump — there’s always a limit.

The proposals also present a challenge for Republicans. The math isn’t really in Biden’s favor, given the 50-50 Senate and the required 60-vote majority for most things. A cynic might suggest he’s putting forward popular ideas that probably won’t pass and challenging Republicans to kill them.

But either way, Wednesday’s speech threw down the gauntlet for the next three years of legislative battles. And a big story line in the coming days, weeks and months will be just how much spending people are prepared to stomach, beyond the trillions used to combat a public health emergency.

4. Setting the terms of the tax debate

Biden devoted a significant chunk of his speech to defending his proposed tax increases, saying over and over again — in several different ways — that they wouldn’t touch anyone but the very wealthy.

“Let’s start with what I will not do: I will not impose any tax increase on people making less than $400,000,” Biden said.

And: “We’re only going to affect three-tenths of 1 percent of all Americans by that action — three-tenths of 1 percent.”

And: “When you hear someone say they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent or corporate America, ask them whose taxes you want to raise instead.”

And of the 39.6 percent capital gains rate he’s proposing for top earners: “That’s where it was when George W. [Bush] was president.”

The repeated emphasis on this point was calculated. Biden knows he’ll be called a tax-raiser. He wanted to make sure he’s talking early and often about exactly who will pay those taxes — a promise that he’ll now have to live up to — and challenging Republicans to address that specifically, given polls showing Americans strongly favor those specific types of tax increases.

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Sebastian Smith (Yahoo News)

President Joe Biden triumphantly declared Wednesday that the United States is "on the move again" in a rousing speech to Congress, calling for trillions of dollars to rebuild the post-Covid US middle class and give new life to "forgotten" workers.

Lauding the success of mass vaccination against Covid-19, Biden told Congress and the nation on primetime television that "in America, we always get up."

"America is ready for takeoff," he said. "We are working again, dreaming again, discovering again, leading the world again."

Biden, who was celebrating the eve of his 100th day in office, called the vaccine rollout one of "the greatest logistical achievements" in the nation's history.

But he quickly pivoted to insisting that this national effort must now focus on rebuilding the economy and fighting inequality with "the largest jobs plan since World War II."

In a line that could have come from his populist Republican predecessor Donald Trump, Biden said working class Americans had been ignored, while the top one percent got richer, and that his plans would give them a chance.

"You feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that's rapidly changing. Let me speak directly to you," Biden said, before going on to promise Americans "good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced."

- No more solo America -

In every aspect of the primetime television speech, Biden echoed his almost daily mantra that "America is back" -- both in recovering from the coronavirus disaster and in putting the turbulence of the Trump era behind.

When it comes to foreign policy, he underlined Washington's return to international partnerships damaged under Trump.

"No one nation" can succeed alone, he said, in a rebuke of Trump's isolationist policies.

Among his many references to arch-rival China, Biden said that while Beijing is seeking supremacy, "we welcome the competition" and "are not looking for conflict."

On domestic issues, Biden made the case for a lengthy Democratic wish list, including police reform, pro-immigrant reforms and gun control -- some of the most sensitive issues in US politics.

He pleaded with Republicans and Democrats to work together on one of the nation's most hot button topics, saying "let's end our exhausting war on immigration."

- Yes, new taxes -

US presidents usually bend over backwards to avoid or at least hide tax increases.

However, Biden is banking on popular support for his idea of leaning on the super rich to fund his latest new spending proposal, which he unveiled in the speech -- the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan.

The plan, which will need approval by a deeply divided Congress, would pour money into early education, childcare and higher education.

To fund this, the top income tax rate would increase from 37 percent, where Trump's plan put it, back to its pre-Trump 39.6 percent.

The Biden plan would also end loopholes and capital income tax breaks, while raising "billions," according to the White House, in a tightened tax regime for inherited wealth.

Americans earning less than $400,000 a year, however, would face no extra taxes.

"My fellow Americans, trickle-down economics has never worked. It's time to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out," Biden said. "What I've proposed is fair."

The proposed new splurge comes after Congress already approved a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which injected stimulus into almost every corner of the economy, and is now debating a proposed $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan.

- Extraordinary times -

The setting for Biden's maiden address to Congress as president reflected the crisis times in which he took office.

Security has been at top level around the Capitol building since the January 6 riot when Trump supporters rampaged against what the Republican falsely claims was a stolen election.

Although Covid-19 is on the back foot -- vaccinated Americans were told Tuesday they can now do most things outside without wearing a mask -- the pandemic also loomed heavily.

Instead of a House chamber crammed with the usual 1,600 or so politicians and guests, Biden looked out on a select group of around 200.

Of the nine members of the Supreme Court, only Chief Justice John Roberts attended.

Only the secretaries of defense and state were in the room, meaning that the tradition of nominating a "designated survivor" -- someone who could take over the country if the entire government died while inside the Capitol -- was not necessary.

Ahead of the speech Senior Republican Senator Mitch McConnell urged the White House to "shake off its daydreams of a sweeping socialist legacy," accusing the Biden team of acting in synch with "the radical left."

Brexit, Drangheta, Londra, Massoneria (fa vendere piu' copie)

UK to come under scrutiny in Italy’s largest mafia trial in decades

Witnesses will be asked to respond to claims the ’Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in City of London

A Carabinieri police officer stands guard at the start of the trial of more than 350 alleged members of Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia group and associates. Photograph: Gianluca Chininea/AFP/Getty Images

Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and Alessia Candito in Reggio Calabria (The Guardian)

In a high-security, 1,000-capacity courtroom converted from a call centre, Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades is under way in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. About 900 witnesses are set to testify against more than 350 defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful criminal group.

Several of the defendants will be asked to respond to charges of money laundering over establishing companies in the UK with the alleged purpose of simulating legitimate economic activity.

“’Ndrangheta interests in the UK have figured prominently as clans have used the country as an investment and money-laundering base,” says Nicola Gratteri, the prosecutor whose investigation has culminated in the maxi-trial.


Inside the trial against the 'Ndrangheta, Italy's biggest mafia syndicate

Read more

The ’Ndrangheta – based in the southern region of Calabria, the toe of the Italian boot – is reputed to be one of the richest and most feared criminal organisations in the world. A study by the Demoskopita Research Institute in 2013 estimated its financial strength as more than that of Deutsche Bank and McDonald’s combined, with an annual turnover of €53bn (£44bn).

Investigators say the secret of its success lies in its ability to connect the underworld with the upper world, where often the “upper world” stands for London. In the last decade, hundreds of investigations have asserted how the ’Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in the City.

A 2019 report from Italy’s Antimafia Investigative Directorate claimed that criminal organisations laundered billions of pounds each year through UK banks. Investigations between 2018 and 2020 in Reggio Calabria asserted how bosses of the Nirta clan had entrusted the management of their profits to a man who officially sold tiles, but who was described by investigators as a sort of “alchemist” capable of creating shield companies in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Romania (he has denied that he acted in this way). After a few years, all of these companies were systematically transferred to the UK and then closed.

Col Claudio Petrozziello of Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, which monitors illicit flows of capital, said ’Ndrangheta clans in the UK had no interest in controlling the local territory, just the exploitation of the financial system.

“It’s not that there are no rules in London,” he said. “The problem is that the risk of mafia infiltration is underestimated.”

The ’Ndrangheta is often considered archaic and almost hermit-like, with wanted clan members living in hideouts deep in the Calabrian mountains, and as such it may seem an unlikely candidate to exploit the modern City of London. But it has an interest in perpetuating such myths: in reality, its origins are as a middle-class phenomenon, which took advantage of the system of social capital found in Masonic lodges to manage the profits generated by international drugs trafficking.
A woman walks past a view of the City of London skyline at sunrise in March. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

The grand master of the Grande Oriente d’Italia (GOI) lodge, Giuliano di Bernardo, claimed in trials in 2014 and 2019 that linked the ’Ndrangheta with terrorism that he had a discussion with the Duke of Kent, the grand master of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), in the early 1990s over infiltration of the Italian lodges in the south of the country by criminal clans.

“It was the Duke of Kent who suggested that I leave the GOI and create a new order,” he claimed. “I would like to point out that the Calabrian context was very concerning because Freemasonry there was much more extensive and powerful than in Sicily.”

A spokesman for the Duke said he “would never comment on vague sensationalist claims based on alleged conversations from over 30 years ago, suddenly made in a court case which until now was unheard of”. UGLE said it had no comment to make about alleged criminal elements in a foreign constitution with no connection to it but added: “It sounds as though some Italians might, certainly at that time, have significantly lost their way.”

In the minds of Italian investigators who have followed the ’Ndrangheta’s illicit activities, a new problem now looms large: Brexit. Magistrates and police officials in the country have shared concerns that ’Ndrangheta clans may try to take advantage of the UK’s exit from the European Union, if, as they fear, police and judicial cooperation between the EU and UK proves less effective than when both countries were in the bloc.

“With Brexit, things could spin out of control,” Gratteri said.

According to investigators and experts, the UK could equally be left to fight the ’Ndrangheta clans without international judicial support and the assistance of Italian investigators.

“When the UK was part of the European Union, it benefited from the effective sharing of data in the fight against organised crime,” Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor, Federico Cafiero De Raho, told the Guardian.

“Now that it has left the EU, problems will start to emerge. London will not be absent, but things will change and even the best post-Brexit cooperation will be less effective than within the EU. Today’s mafias are moving among countries and continents, and where they find weakness in international cooperation, they exploit that opportunity.”

Among the consequences of Brexit are the UK leaving the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), a provision that allowed for fast extradition, as well as the European Investigation Order (EIO), which empowered countries to call upon a member state to lead an investigation, place wiretaps, or track a suspect.

“Italy and the UK will sign agreements to continue such efforts,” Cafiero said. “However, in practice, the collaboration will be different.”

“Imagine two investigators from two different EU member states who are looking, at the same time, into a wiretap from two different screens and while in two different countries,” added Cafiero. “Non-EU countries will have more difficulty participating in a team of this sort.”

It is a view the UK disputes, saying its deal with the EU allows for extradition as effective as the EAW, bilateral information sharing, arrangements to simplify asset confiscation and full participation in investigatory teams with EU member states.

“The agreement the UK reached with the EU delivers a comprehensive package of capabilities which ensures we can work with partners in Europe, including Italy, to tackle serious crime and terrorism – protecting the public and bringing criminals to justice,” said Kevin Foster, the UK minister for future borders and immigration, in a statement.

“It includes streamlined extradition arrangements, continued exchange of data for law enforcement purposes and arrangements enabling close and effective cooperation with Europol and Eurojust. We are committed to working together with European partners, including Italy, to counter the threats we all face, within Europe and beyond. The UK will continue to be a global leader on security and one of the safest countries in the world.”

Of the Italian fears, Tim O’Sullivan, a former crown prosecutor and chair of the Law Society’s EU committee, said: “These concerns are certainly shared because at the moment there is still uncertainty on how the new arrangements will work.

“The EU mechanisms give law enforcement a legal basis on which to operate. [But] This doesn’t mean that in the new cooperation agreement there aren’t the means to address these concerns.”

In the meantime, to make things worse, Covid-19 and the financial crisis generated by the pandemic have amplified the risk that the ’Ndrangheta could deepen its involvement in international markets.

Giuseppe Lombardo, the deputy prosecutor of Reggio Calabria, warned that “in a phase of very scarce global liquidity, the goal of the ’Ndrangheta will be to create a banking system parallel to the legal one”, as all the eyes are on the City.

Federico Varese, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford, believes Brexit is forcing the UK government to rethink the fight against transnational organised crime.

“Criminals consider borders an opportunity and will make the most of it,” said Varese. “It is just another price of Brexit.”

Top Republican: Trump is not the party leader

by Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent |




Former President Donald Trump is not the leader of the Republican Party, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney told reporters Monday at a lawmaker retreat not far from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump in January on a charge of inciting an insurrection in the form of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, said the party leaders are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

“I think our elected leaders are the ones who are in charge of the Republican Party,” the Wyoming Republican told reporters when she was asked about Trump’s role.

Cheney has been outspoken about her opposition to Trump since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by throngs of pro-Trump protesters. She has declared he should not play a role in leading the party.

But her stance contradicts McCarthy, a California Republican who is a staunch Trump ally and has visited the former president at his Palm Beach estate. McCarthy has told reporters that Trump is the leader of the GOP. McCarthy did not appear at the press conference with Cheney, nor did Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Trump is not appearing at the House GOP issues conference, which began Sunday and wraps up on Tuesday. Republicans are huddling on messaging and policy issues they hope will help them recapture the House majority in 2022.

While Trump is poised to play a role in the next election, Cheney dismissed his influence not just in the midterm elections but in the next presidential election. Trump has not ruled out making an attempt to regain the White House and could be a leading candidate.

Cheney suggested Republicans can win with a strong platform.

“As we look at 2022 and 2024, we are very much going to be focused on substance and on the issues, and I think that is where we have to go to attract back the voters that we lost in 2020 by conveying to them that, in fact, we are the party that they can trust regarding confidence and conservative principles.”

 

US population rises to 331,449,281, Census Bureau says

yesterday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Census Bureau says the population of the United States is 331,449,281. The 7.4% increase over the last decade is the second slowest ever.

The Census Bureau is releasing the first data from its 2020 headcount.

The release marks the official beginning of the once-a-decade redistricting battles. The numbers released Monday, along with more detailed data expected later this year, will be used by state legislatures or independent commissions to redraw political maps to account for shifts in population.

Altro nero ucciso da un poliziotto mentre aveva le mani sul volante

20-second bodycam video shows Andrew Brown being 'executed'

The family of a 42-year-old Black man who died in a hail of bullets fired by North Carolina sheriff's deputies outside his home last week said on Monday that body camera video shows their loved one being "executed."

The family members of Andrew Brown Jr., a father of seven, and their attorneys said county officials only offered them a 20-second clip of one police bodycam video. The footage, they said, showed multiple sheriff's deputies, some armed with high-caliber rifles, unleashing a fusillade into Brown's car while his hands were firmly gripped on the steering wheel.© Sean Rayford/Getty Images

"My dad got executed just by trying to save his own life," Brown's son, Khalil Ferebee, said after he and several family members watched the video. "The officers were in no harm of him at all. It just messed up how this happened."

The family had planned to see the video at 11:30 a.m. ET. But an hour before the meeting they were informed of an unexpected delay. Harry Daniels, one of the lawyers for the Brown family, said he received an email at 10:29 a.m. on Monday from Pasquotank County Attorney Michael Cox that redactions were being made to the video.

"I was told by the district attorney that the family will get to see the raw footage, not the redacted version," Daniels said. "These county administrators are walking back the promises they have made. Show the tape. If you ain't got nothing to hide, show the tape."© Sean Rayford/Getty Images Demonstrators hold signs during a protest march, April 24, 2021, in Elizabeth City, N.C., calling for the release of body camera footage from the shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr., 3 days prior.

The family members were allowed into the sheriff's department just after 3 p.m., but officials refused to let most of their attorneys watch the video with them because they are not members of the North Carolina Bar Association. Elizabeth City attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter was eventually allowed to watch the footage with Brown's relatives.

One of the family's out-of-state attorneys, Bakari Sellers, claimed that when he and other lawyers protested and demanded to be allowed to watch the video, Cox allegedly berated him and told him, "I'm not going to be f------ bullied."

"We do not feel that we got transparency. We only saw a snippet of the incident. They determined what was pertinent," said Ben Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Brown family.

Cox released a statement Monday saying that while state law allows the county to show the body camera video to Brown's family in private, state law "also allows us to blur some faces on the video and that process takes time."

"This may be done when necessary to protect an active internal investigation," Cox said in his statement.

Lassiter said she and the family members watched the video clip multiple times and made copious notes.

"Let's be clear, this was an execution," Cherry-Lassiter said. "Andrew Brown was in his driveway. The sheriff truck blocked him in his driveway so he could not exit his driveway. Andrew had his hands on his steering wheel. He was not reaching for anything. He wasn't touching anything. He wasn't throwing anything around. He had his hands firmly on the steering wheel."

She said the video clip began with deputies running up to his vehicle shooting. She said she counted five deputies on the driver's side of the car firing at Brown while screaming obscenities and ordering him to show his hands.

"He still sat there in his vehicle with his hands on the steering wheel while being shot at," Cherry-Lassiter said.

She said Brown eventually tried to get away to save his own life. He backed out of the driveway, maneuvering around the sheriff's truck and away from the deputies.

"There was at no time in the 20 seconds we saw where he was threatening the officers in any kind of way," Cherry-Lassiter said. "He was trying to evade being shot."

She said the deputies ran after the vehicle and continued to fire at Brown as he drove a short distance and crashed into a tree.

"They were still shooting at him after the car had already crashed into the tree," she said.

Brown was pronounced dead at the scene.

"We saw one video, 20 seconds from bodycam. There were at least eight officers there. We only saw one bodycam," Cherry-Lassiter said.© Courtesy Brown Family Andrew Brown Jr. in an undated photo.

Seven Pasquotank County deputies involved in the shooting that erupted last Wednesday morning in Elizabeth City have been placed on administrative leave while the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation probes the circumstances of the deadly encounter. The names of the the deputies have not been released.MORE: 16-year-old girl fatally shot by police in Ohio

In advance of the viewing by Brown's family, Elizabeth City Mayor Bettie Parker declared a state of emergency for her city on Monday morning. The emergency declaration went into effect at 8 a.m. and Parker said it will last "until deemed no longer necessary."

Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II said he is hoping file a motion asking a judge for permission to release the video to the public.© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock Andrew Brown's youngest daughter listens to Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the Brown family, speak outside the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office in Elizabeth City, N.C., April 26, 2021.

"It seems likely that the video and audio footage will be released in the very near future. In order to ensure the safety of our citizens and their property, City officials realize there may potentially be a period of civil unrest within the city following the public release of that footage," Parker, who is Black, said.MORE: DOJ to probe if excessive force, 'unlawful policing' used in Minneapolis

City offices in Elizabeth City, the county seat of Pasquotank County, were closed on Monday and government meetings, including a budget work session, were canceled.

Parker's order came despite peaceful protests that have occurred for five straight days in Elizabeth City since Brown's death.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff Department has released few details of the shooting in the town of 18,000 people.© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA via Shutterstock Attorneys Harry Daniels and Benjamin Crump, right, representing the family of Andrew Brown, speak outside the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office in Elizabeth City, N.C., April 26, 2021.

The shooting unfolded about 8:30 a.m. on April 21 when deputies from Pasquotank and Dare Counties went to Brown's home to attempt to serve an arrest warrant on Brown that stemmed from a felony drug investigation, officials said.

Deputies opened fire on Brown's car as he attempted to drive away from his home. A first responder was recorded on 911 dispatch saying Brown was shot in the back.

Attorneys for Brown's family said he was shot in the back of the head and they plan to commission an independent autopsy.

Wooten declined to say how many deputies discharged their weapons.

The shooting occurred one day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man.MORE: Daunte Wright's parents speak out after shooting in ABC News exclusive: 'He's never coming back'

Brown's family said police found no weapons nor drugs in Brown's vehicle or home.

Wooten promised to be transparent about what occurred at Brown's home.

"If any of my deputies broke any laws or violated any policies that come out through this investigation, they will be held accountable," Wooten said.

Il Secondo Emendamento (che consente di avere le armi) alla Corte Suprema

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to restrictions on the carrying of firearms outside the home, teeing up a potentially landmark dispute over the scope of the Second Amendment.

In an unsigned order, the justices took up a bid by two gun owners and a New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to challenge the state’s denial of their applications for concealed-carry licenses for self-defense.

The case will be heard next term, which begins in October.

Lo Space X stava per sbattere contro un UFO ?

SpaceX starship had ‘near miss with a UFO’ and ‘astronauts were told to prepare for a CRASH’, Nasa reveals

Katie Davis
(SUN)
THE SPACEX starstip is reported to have had a near miss with a UFO - with astronauts on board told to buckle up and prepare for a crash, Nasa has revealed.

While en route to the International Space Station after a successful launch in Florida, the four crew members were notified they could soon collide with an unknown object.

8The SpaceX starship reportedly had a near miss after launching in FloridaCredit: Alamy

8The four astronauts on board were told to put on their pressurized suits in case of a collisionCredit: AFP

8SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flying to the International Space Station after blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in FloridaCredit: Getty


There was no time to perform an avoidance manoeuvre and instead the astronauts on board SpaceX's recycled Crew Dragon capsule, the Endeavour, were told to put on their pressurized suits in case of a collision, reports Futurism.

"The NASA/SpaceX team was informed of the possible conjunction by US Space Command," Nasa spokesman Kelly Humphries said.

"The object being tracked is classified as ‘unknown'.

“The possibility of the conjunction came so close to the closest approach time that there wasn’t time to compute and execute a debris avoidance manoeuvre with confidence, so the SpaceX team elected to have the crew don their pressure suits out of an abundance of caution."


8There was no time to for the crew to perform an avoidance manoeuvreCredit: Alamy

8The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, left, approaches to the International Space StationCredit: AP

8The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen from the International Space StationCredit: AP

The Pentagon had notified Nasa about the potential crash about seven hours after the spacecraft launched, US Space Command spokesman Erin Dick told Futurism.

“After further analysis, the 18th Space Control Squadron quickly determined there was no conjunction threat, all aboard are safe and the spacecraft was not at risk,” Dick said.

According to Nasa spokesman Humphries, the closest the UFO got to the spacecraft was 45 kilometers away, but "there was no real danger to the crew or the spacecraft."

The team of four astronauts were propelled into orbit on SpaceX's third crewed mission at 5.49am ET (10.49EST) from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday - docking at the International Space Station yesterday.


8The astronauts in the cockpit of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as it prepared to dockCredit: AP

8Astronauts from SpaceX joined the astronauts of the International Space Station for an interviewCredit: AP

The Endeavour lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Both have been used on previous spaceflights.

The nearly 24-hour ride to the space station, which orbits some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, had been set to begin on Thursday.

However, the flight was delayed for a day by unfavourable weather forecasts along the rocket's flight path.

The mission marks the second "operational" space station team to be launched by Nasa aboard a Dragon Crew capsule since the United States resumed flying astronauts into space from US soil last year.

Astronauts had flown to orbit onboard Russian rockets during a nine-year hiatus at the end of the US space shuttle program in 2011.

It is also the third crewed flight launched to orbit under Nasa's fledgling public-private partnership with SpaceX, the rocket company founded and owned by billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The crew is expected to spend about six months aboard the orbiting research platform conducting science experiments and maintenance before returning to Earth.

Nuove regole per fare diventare lo “smart working” veramente intelligente

Rendimenti in calo: il lavoro agile e i problemi da risolvere per il futuro

Articolo di Romano Prodi su Il Messaggero del 25 aprile 2021

Il lavoro a distanza che troppi, anche in Italia, chiamano “Smart Working” (come se tutti gli altri lavori non fossero intelligenti) era stato all’inizio pensato solo per particolarissime prestazioni. Con lo sviluppo del digitale, quest’innovazione si è progressivamente estesa e, dopo l’arrivo della pandemia, la sua diffusione è esplosa, fino a diventare abituale per una grande parte di coloro che non sono obbligati ad adempiere alle proprie funzioni nei tradizionali luoghi di lavoro, come gli operai o gli agricoltori.

Le attività a distanza alterano, in modo radicale, i tradizionali elementi fondanti del rapporto di lavoro: il tempo e lo spazio.

Da un anno il lavoro a distanza è una pratica comune a milioni di italiani e viene attuato in mille diversi modi, sempre alla ricerca di un difficile equilibrio fra le esigenze della vita personale e le necessità dell’attività professionale.

Un equilibrio che si compone e ricompone continuamente, con enormi difficoltà nel definire le ore effettive di lavoro, il livello della sua produttività e le modalità con le quali deve essere eseguito.

E, soprattutto, con la mancanza della consapevolezza di quanti e quali posti di lavoro verranno a mancare all’interno o all’esterno delle strutture che lo praticano.

I nuovi problemi sono imprevedibili ed infiniti. Non solo riguardano la determinazione della percentuale di attività da compiere a casa o in ufficio, ma anche come inserire i nuovi assunti in professioni che quasi necessariamente esigono un gioco di squadra o un rapporto continuativo con clienti e utenti.

Problema che è esploso nella Pubblica Amministrazione, settore in cui ci siamo trovati di fronte a casi nei quali il servizio è stato prestato in modo sostanzialmente regolare ed in altri nei quali il cittadino non ha avuto alcuna possibilità di prendere contatto con gli uffici.

Vi sono strutture pubbliche nelle quali, da ormai oltre un anno, non è più entrato nessuno.

Nel variegato mondo dei lavoratori a distanza, la distinzione fra gli imboscati e coloro che lavorano il doppio è un compito di così difficile soluzione che, in molti casi, non viene nemmeno affrontato. Mancano infatti le regole per stabilirlo.

A questo si deve aggiungere la necessità di disciplinare problemi, pur ovvi ed elementari, dei quali non si è potuto ancora tenere conto, come gli incidenti nel lavoro a domicilio.

Di fronte alla varietà dei casi che questa rivoluzione presenta, sono state altrettanto numerosi gli esperimenti di cambiamento organizzativo e di adattamento delle strutture degli uffici.

Su tutto questo abbiamo ormai moltissime analisi e valutazioni, ma non stiamo ancora procedendo verso la preparazione di un quadro generale di regolamentazione della materia.

Si tratta di un’operazione complessa, nella quale non sarà certo possibile includere le infinite sfumature che il lavoro a distanza presenta.

Tuttavia i diritti e i doveri che da quest’innovazione nascono, o sono trasformati, non possono essere ignorati né dal legislatore né dai sindacati né dai responsabili del mondo imprenditoriale e della Pubblica Amministrazione.

Mi rendo conto che non è facile produrre regole per il lavoro a distanza in un periodo in cui esso è condizionato da una situazione di assoluta emergenza, ma proprio perché si tratta di un compito che inciderà per sempre su tutti gli aspetti della nostra vita futura, diventa indispensabile costituire un gruppo di lavoro, rappresentativo di tutte le categorie interessate, che possa fornire ai legislatori gli elementi di conoscenza necessari per disciplinare questo settore, tenendo conto non solo delle conseguenze sul mondo del lavoro, ma sull’intera società.

Pensiamo ad esempio alle trasformazioni che si produrranno nelle nostre città, che sono sempre state (e tuttora sono) la sede privilegiata del lavoro, soprattutto impiegatizio e del commercio, quando il lavoro e il commercio tenderanno ad allontanarsi dalle città stesse.

Abbiamo il diritto e il dovere di sapere quali saranno i vantaggi e gli svantaggi di queste trasformazioni che già incidono sulla vita di milioni di persone.

Abbiamo assolutamente bisogno di approfondire quali saranno le conseguenze sugli italiani che vedranno direttamente modificate le proprie condizioni di vita e le proprie prospettive di occupazione.

Non si tratta solo dell’ingente numero di persone che ne sono direttamente interessate: le trasformazioni in corso vanno ben oltre i settori produttivi.

Le nostre città non sono solo il luogo dello scambio delle merci, ma dello scambio del sapere e della fermentazione necessaria per progredire nella ricerca, nella cultura e nel divertimento.

Anche se sappiamo benissimo che una parte di questo futuro è imprevedibile, abbiamo però il dovere di cercare di capire fino a dove possano arrivare le conseguenze della rivoluzione in corso.

Deve essere infatti ben chiaro che, se non usiamo lo “Smart Working” in modo intelligente, il lavoro a distanza provocherà più danni che benefici.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft docks with the International Space Station

The hatch for the Endeavor capsule is open as astronauts prepare to board the ISS
By
Christian Davenport

Nearly 24 hours after its on-time liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, the first goal of its journey.

In a delicate dance, the spacecraft aligned itself with one of the station’s docking ports and parked itself. The maneuvers were directed completely by the spacecraft’s computers. Controllers on the ground and the astronauts on board the capsule and the station monitored closely, but the computers were in control.

The two crafts were then locked together by a dozen hooks. The astronauts will check to ensure that the seal between spacecraft and station is tight and that the air pressure inside the spacecraft and the station is the same. Then they’ll open the hatch and cross into the station.

Here’s what to know:

For the third time in a year, SpaceX on Friday launched astronauts to the station.
The astronauts were due to dock with the station at 5:10 a.m. but arrived two minutes early. The astronauts are expected to enter the station about two and a half hours later.
The launch was initially postponed after high winds along the flight path.
It took the Dragon spacecraft almost 24 hours to catch up to the space station, which is traveling 17,500 mph at an altitude of about 240 miles.
The astronauts are expected to stay aboard the station for approximately six months. They are Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Americans who work for NASA; Thomas Pesquet of France from the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Space Exploration Agency. Hoshide will assume command of the space station next week when the current commander, NASA astronaut Col. Michael Hopkins, returns to Earth.

In this image made from NASA TV, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, left, approaches to the international space station, Saturday, April 24, 2021. The recycled SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, the third high-flying taxi ride in less than a year for Elon Musk's company. (AP)

As Crew-2 arrives, Crew-1 prepares to go home
By Christian Davenport

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft -- the same capsule that docked Saturday at the International Space Station -- is shown landing with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. It was the first splashdown in 45 years for NASA astronauts and the first time a private company has ferried people from orbit. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

When NASA started its “commercial crew” program, the plan was to create a regular transportation system to the International Space Station, with multiple flights a year, as had existed during the space shuttle program.

Now, once again, NASA has it. SpaceX has flown three human spaceflight missions to the station. The latest, known as Crew-2, docked Saturday morning. Now that those four astronauts have arrived, the Crew-1 astronauts, who arrived at the station in November, are preparing to fly home after a six-month stay.

First, they’ll hand over operation of the station to their new crew mates, helping them get up to speed with everything that’s happening. Then on Wednesday, the Crew-1 astronauts are scheduled to get back into their spacecraft for the fiery journey home through Earth’s atmosphere. If all goes well, the crew, comprised of NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Victor Glover as well as Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, would undock from the station at about 5 a.m. and splashdown off the coast of Florida at about 12:35 p.m.

SpaceX’s next mission to the station, Crew-3, is scheduled for the fall.

NASA video

https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg

‘It’s Gonna Be Fun’: Nevada Brothels Hot to Trot for Reopening

Jon Ralston
Steve Sisolak


Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

For the past 14 months, Madam Dena has sat on a sprawling, abandoned ranch outside Las Vegas, overseeing an empty empire of themed bungalows, hotel rooms, and tennis courts. Usually tasked with managing nearly 100 staffers and contractors, the madam has been almost entirely alone, save for a skeleton crew of employees and a few lone men who sidle up to the locked front gates and pound on the front door, demanding to know if they are open for business.

The answer, of course, is no. Nevada’s brothels—the only legal places to buy sex in the United States—shut their doors in March 2020, when Gov. Steve Sisolak shuttered all nonessential businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic. And they have remained closed since, even as other close-contact businesses have opened up around them.

“When we made the announcement that we were opening on May 1, I could not believe it,” Madam Dena, the manager of Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump, told The Daily Beast this week. “The phones started ringing off the hook; emails coming through for reservations.”

“I was like, ‘Whoa—it's almost like everybody was holding their breath."

“Oh yeah, we’re booked out,” added Jennifer Barnes, a madam at the Mustang Ranch in Storey County, about the month of May. “Everybody’s been locked up. It’s gonna be fun.”


Sheri’s Ranch is ready to open on May 1.
Satori Son/Wikimedia Commons

Nevada was one of the first states to begin reopening last May, even as infection rates were climbing nationwide. Since then, it has reopened most nonessential businesses at a limited capacity—casinos, tattoo parlors, even strip clubs. Brothels, however, never made the cut. “We’re going to have to look at getting kids back into schools before we look at getting folks back into brothels,” Sisolak said at the Nevada Independent’s conference in October.

But the arrival of widespread vaccination programs and a declining case rate has opened the doors for the oldest profession to get back to business. Last week, Sisolak announced the state would fully reopen June 1 and gave back full control of social distancing policies to the counties starting May 1. Several counties quickly voted to reopen all businesses, brothels included.

While some county politicians are charging full speed ahead (commissioners in Nye County are already attempting to override the statewide mask mandates,) brothel owners are proceeding with caution. Most are operating at a reduced capacity and heavily encouraging masks in common areas—”putting one foot in,” as Madam Dena put it. There will be the familiar trappings of pandemic life—temperature checks upon arrival, and questions about symptoms and recent travel—along with a few notable changes: Customers at the Mustang Ranch in Storey County will not be allowed to congregate at the bar, but will instead enter and meet up with their courtesans one at a time.

Still, brothels say the increased safety measures haven’t put a damper on demand. All of the madams who spoke to The Daily Beast said they were nearly booked up for the month of May.

“I’m not gonna lie, I was surprised,” Madam Dena said of the response from customers. “It’s like ‘Heck yeah, here we go!’”

And it's not just the customers who have been holding their breath: The pandemic year has been nothing short of devastating for the state’s sex workers.

With the only legal place to conduct their work indefinitely shuttered, women accustomed to making six figures in a year were suddenly without a source of income. Applying for a “square job” was nearly impossible—five years at the Bunny Ranch isn’t exactly ideal resume fodder—and many found themselves locked out of the kind of government benefits provided for other service workers affected by the pandemic. It took months for lawmakers to extend unemployment benefits to independent contractors, and some pandemic-related grants and loan programs excluded sex workers completely.

Katrina, a courtesan at the Chicken Ranch for more than 13 years, estimated she lost more than 30 percent of her income due to the pandemic.

“It seems like anywhere I tried to go for help I was not getting it,” she said. “I'm in a legit business like everyone else, I pay my taxes. I applied for the [Small Business Administration loans] and I was denied because of what I do, and I think that is so unfair.”

Katrina was one of the lucky ones: She earned her masters in computer science during the pandemic and was able to supplement her income by designing websites for friends. But others were not as fortunate. Barbara G. Brents, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and expert on the sex industry, said about a third of Nevada’s legal sex workers previously moonlighted in illegal markets. Post-pandemic, she said, that number is likely much higher.

“Obviously sex workers are always resourceful and used to adjusting to the markets,” she said. “But given Nevada’s legal brothel system, one of these adjustments undoubtedly has for many sex workers been to move to a much more dangerous, illegal market.”

The trend speaks to a larger problem among sex workers during the pandemic in general. Fearful of coming in close contact with other people, and facing markedly decreased demand, sex workers in both legal and illegal markets were forced to move their work online or suspend it completely. (The number of users on OnlyFans, a site where users can charge for explicit photos and videos, grew nine times between December of 2019 and December 2020.) And according to Brents, even online markets were only profitable for those who already had sizable followings or the resources to build them. “For the most marginalized, the impact has just been devastating,” she said.

The pandemic’s effect on sex workers has driven calls for decriminalization, or the removal of criminal penalties for sex workers and their clients. It has also shone a light on some of the flaws in Nevada’s 50-year-old, fully legalized system.

Alice Little, often described as one of the country’s highest-paid legal sex workers, sued the governor last November after being locked out of work for almost eight months. She claimed the order barring brothels from reopening was “blatant discrimination against Nevada’s legal sex workers,” and interfered with their freedom of association and right to earn a living. But a Lyon County district court judge ruled against her, claiming she could not represent the interests of the brothel owners as an independent contractor.

“Had one brothel owner from Lyon County signed onto my lawsuit, it would have been successful,” Little told the Daily Beast this week. But not a single one did. In fact, none even bothered to attend the court hearings—something the judge said indicated that “owners may not desire to operate during the pandemic.”




Alice Little sued the governor last November after being locked out of work for almost eight months.
Courtesy Alice LittleMore

Little eventually dropped her lawsuit after incurring a six-figure bill and raising less than a quarter of her GoFundMe target.

“I think that’s the most upsetting part of this: I paid $100,000 to be told that, as a sex worker, I have zero rights,” she said. “But a brothel owner would have had the rights? That’s not OK.”

“We need to fix the brothel system and center the sex workers and prioritize our rights, our ability to stand up for ourselves,” she added. “And until that happens, it’s a desperately flawed industry."

There are other, smaller difficulties with re-entering the sex trade after a year of social distancing: re-registering business licenses, getting up-to-date STD checks, shaking off the cobwebs on old skills. (“It’s been a year!” Madam Dena exclaimed. “Do I remember how to process a transaction? I don’t know!”) There have also been unexpected hurdles: Madam Dena said several ladies chose not to return to work rather than submit themselves to vaccinations or weekly COVID tests.

But every sex worker who spoke to The Daily Beast said they were thrilled about getting back to work. Several were already back in Nevada in advance of the reopening, dusting off their social media feeds and booking appointments with customers they hadn’t seen in over a year. The reasons for their excitement ranged from a desire to reunite with customers and coworkers to a yearning—and in some cases, a deep-felt need—for the extra income. (Asked what she had missed most about her job during the pandemic, Mustang Ranch courtesan Nola Blue said simply, “The money!”)

Even Little says she is excited to get back to work. She has switched from her brothel in Lyon County to the Chicken Ranch in Pahrump, where she says management has been more supportive. And she is excited to get back to her customers, who she knows have been struggling as well.

“I keep joking with everyone that it’s like I’m going to see folks again and pretty much burst into tears upon being able to hold them and hug them and see them,” she said. “Because this year has been extremely stressful on everyone, to say the least.”

Si chiamava...Margherita..e non era la Pizza

Una personale interpretazione di Margherita, il grande successo di Riccardo Cocciante.

I sibili microfonici sono la conferma che la registrazione e' stata fatta a 'botta calda'.

Criticabile quanto si vuole, ma questo e' il mio modo di 'leggere' la musica pop che e' anche grande poesia.

SpaceX launches NASA’s Crew-2 to orbit, its third human spaceflight in less than a year

The mission involves an international group of astronauts and comes as the company eyes several more, including a couple with private citizens

SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off for the Crew-2 mission carrying NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. (AP)

By
Christian Davenport
April 23, 2021 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched another crew of astronauts to the International Space Station in a predawn liftoff Friday that marked the company’s third human spaceflight in less than a year and plans for several more in the months to come.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center here at 5:49 a.m., beginning a day-long journey to the space station, where the crew of four astronauts will join seven others now aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Flying inside SpaceX’s autonomous Dragon spacecraft was an international quartet known as Crew-2: NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, as well as Thomas Pesquet of France and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan.

The flight represents another step in SpaceX’s metamorphosis from a fringe start-up born nearly 20 years ago that many, including its founder, Elon Musk, thought was unlikely to succeed to an aerospace juggernaut that is fast becoming one of NASA’s most trusted partners.

Currently, SpaceX is NASA’s sole American human spaceflight provider. Boeing is months behind schedule in its efforts to win similar status. SpaceX last week became the only company awarded a NASA contract to develop a lunar lander.

Friday’s flight was the first time NASA has allowed SpaceX to use a previously flown rocket and spacecraft in a human spaceflight, a significant milestone for the company, which Musk founded with the goal of driving down the cost of space exploration.

The Dragon capsule was the same one used in SpaceX’s first human spaceflight mission, a test flight with two NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, that lifted off last May. Behnken and McArthur are married — and during her flight Friday, McArthur was assigned to the same seat her husband occupied last year. “That certainly adds a little something special to the mission,” she said.

Lifting off under an orange tail of fire with a roar that reverberated across the Florida Space Coast, the crew of four is expected to take nearly a full day to reach the space station, with docking scheduled for 5:10 a.m. Saturday. Once there, the astronauts will spend about six months performing science experiments.

NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur as they prepared to board the Crew Dragon. (Joe Skipper/Reuters)


SpaceX has two more astronaut missions planned for this year — the Crew-3 mission to the space station for NASA this fall, and a mission to fly a group of four private astronauts that could come as early as September and become the first all-civilian space mission.

That flight, known as Inspiration4, is being funded by billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who has made it a fundraising effort for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Joining Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 Payments, are four private citizens: Haley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude who as a child was treated for bone cancer there; Sian Proctor, a scientist who won her seat in a competition by building an online store using Isaacman’s platform; and Chris Sembroski, a Lockheed Martin engineer, who was picked at random as part of a hospital fundraising sweepstakes.

The group is scheduled to spend a few days orbiting Earth inside SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

SpaceX also is planning to launch another crew of private citizens early next year in a mission organized by Axiom Space, a Houston-based company. That group, three billionaires who are paying $55 million each, would be joined by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is now a vice president at Axiom. The crew would spend about a week at the space station before returning to Earth.

The Crew-2 mission initially was set for Thursday, but it was delayed by high winds.

The arrival of Crew-2 at the space station will expand the station’s population to 11, nearly twice the six people that are normally there at a time.

But the astronauts make do. After arriving at the space station in November, NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins also faced tight conditions and knew he’d have to hunt for a place to bunk since sleeping quarters were full. He ended up using the Dragon, which was connected to the station.

In the past, people have slept anywhere they could find a spot — even on the ceiling, since in the weightless environment of space there is no up or down.

The space station will only be crowded for a few days, however, since Hopkins’s group of astronauts, known as Crew-1, is scheduled to return to Earth next week. In February, that group surpassed the record for the most days in space by a crew launched on a U.S. spacecraft, surpassing the 84-day milestone set by the Skylab 4 crew in 1974.

If all goes well, Crew-1 will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico shortly after noon on Wednesday, ending a six-month stay on the station.

SpaceX’s monopoly on launching American astronauts from U.S. soil will probably last into next year. Boeing, the other company under contract to fly NASA astronauts to the station, is expecting to do a no-crew test flight of its Starliner capsule in August or September, but a mission with astronauts is not expected before early 2022.

NASA also paid Russia about $80 million a seat to take American astronauts to the space station from a space center in Kazakhstan. But now that SpaceX is flying people, and Boeing could start doing the same next year, the agency plans to swap seats with the Russians.

The Castros are finally gone. The U.S. should end the Cuba embargo and open the gates.

Raúl Castro, the outgoing first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party and former president of Cuba, waves goodbye on Monday as the eighth congress of the Cuban Communist Party comes to an end in Havana. (Ariel Ley/ACN/AFP via Getty Images)

Opinion by
Kathleen Parker  (TWP)
All hail: The wicked Castros are finally gone.

With the official retirement on Monday of Raúl Castro as head of Cuba’s Communist Party, the last of the revolutionary brothers has relinquished control of the tiny, redoubtable island-state. The Communist Party remains in place. The president and new party boss, Miguel Díaz-Canel, vows continuation and unity. But the official end of the 62-year rule of the Castro family proffers a glimmer of hope that things could change.

And none too soon. Cuba’s economy, thanks in large measure to the long-standing U.S. embargo, has long been a shambles. But the pandemic has made life in Cuba even more challenging. Ggross domestic product dropped 11 percent last year. Basic necessities, including food, toiletries, cleansers and medicine, are subject to continuing shortages, though widespread hunger was eliminated long ago.

Díaz-Canel, 61, was born a year after the revolution. As a rising leader in the Communist Party, he oversaw some modest free-market reforms. Will Cuba’s direction change with a new party leader? That seems unlikely. Still, the departure of the Castros after more than six decades gives both Washington and Havana a chance to reconsider their failed relationship.

It is revealing that Raúl’s departure received only modest coverage here at home; even 10 years ago, we might have heard about little else. But most people alive today, both in Cuba and elsewhere, were born long after the 1959 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Fulgencio Batista and put Fidel, the young rebel, in charge. The fatigue-clad eader wasn’t a communist when he traded his rifle for a microphone, but the Soviet Union’s early financial support convinced him of the unifying power of state control.

Fidel’s legacy, continued by brother Raúl with some minor modifications, has meant continued misery for the island’s 11 million people. These days, covid-19 restrictions have exacerbated circumstances that can only be described as dire.

It’s easy to romanticize Cuba. Tourists love the colorful if decaying architecture, the sight of 1950s Fords and Chevys chugging along Havana’s streets, having a drink at Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bar and visiting his 38-foot fishing boat, Pilar, and his Finca Vigia (Lookout Farm), now a museum. But only tourist hotels and government offices have air conditioning, assuming reliable electricity.

In contrast to these images is a booming biotechnology industry prompted by the blockade, as well as an exemplary state-run medical system. Not only has Cuba kept covid infections remarkably low, but Cuban researchers are also developing five vaccines, two of which seem promising. Cuba says it plans to export its vaccine for free to South America and Central America.

Meanwhile, every Cuban citizen receives an annual medical checkup, wanted or not, while the state maintains health profiles, categorizing people according to healthy, not-so-healthy, elderly (one in five is over 60) or predisposed to illness because of obesity, diabetes and so on. So, yes, a state-run system focused on prevention can boast enviable health outcomes, but the trade-off is a loss of privacy and freedom, which is no choice at all.

With Raúl stepping aside at 89, now would seem a good time for President Biden to ask Congress to lift the embargo once and for all, allow for expanded tourism and remittances, and reestablish more formal diplomatic relations. That would end the absurdly long standoff between the United States — a superpower, after all — and the beleaguered little nation that lies 90 miles from Key West.

Surely, the big dog can afford to let the little dog eat.

The embargo is an aging farce perpetuated in the spirit of a folie à deux — a shared delusional disorder. Fidel, who reportedly owned many homes, a yacht and a private island where he entertained countless guests, has never shared his countrymen’s fate. Like any run-of-the-mill dictator, he lived a big life at the expense of the oppressed and used the embargo as an excuse for his fundamentally failed policies.

The United States, meanwhile, has clung to the embargo largely out of habit. It has given hard-line Cuban Americans some measure of revenge against the regime that drove the capitalists and landowners out of Cuba, and enabled the United States to complain about the Cuban government’s disregard for basic freedoms. But it has changed nothing.

Two generations post revolution, it is a propitious time to end the madness. Open the gates, flood Cuba with U.S. goods and goodwill, and trust that freedom will speak for herself.

Biden calls guilty verdict in Derek Chauvin trial 'a step forward'

Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder and guilty on one count of manslaughter in George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May.


By Dartunorro Clark and Shannon Pettypiece (NBC NEWS)


President Joe Biden called the guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin "a step forward," but also said that the nation still has to reckon with systemic racism in all walks of life, including policing.

Biden said the guilty verdict is "much too rare" and "not enough."

Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder and guilty on one count of manslaughter in Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May. The video of Floyd pleading for help as the former officer Chauvin knelt on him for more than nine minutes was seen around the world last year, igniting a wave of protests over police brutality.

“It was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off the whole world to see," he said. “Systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul.”

Biden, in his most direct comments in the case and race in America, noted the police officers who stepped up during the trial to testify for the prosecution in the case but gave credit to the activists who protested and the teen who recorded Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes.

Before he spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris also reacted to the case.

“America has a long history of systemic racism, Black Americans and Black men, in particular, have been treated as less than human,” Harris said. “Because of smartphones so many Americans have now seen the racial injustice that black Americans have known for generations.”



Biden was holding a virtual tour of an electric battery company in South Carolina before the verdict was read in the courthouse.

Biden and Harris watched the verdict with staff in the president's Dining Room. Following the announcement, Biden spoke with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, Then Biden, Harris and the first lady spoke with Floyd's younger brother, Philonise, from the Oval Office.

Biden and Harris also talked with Floyd's family over the phone, the details of which can be heard in a video released on Twitter by the family's attorney, Ben Crump.

"Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice," Biden told the family. "You're an incredible family. I wish I were there to put arms around you."

He added, "We're all so relieved."

"In George’s name and memory we are going to make sure his legacy is intact, and that history will look back at this moment and know this is an inflection moment," Harris said on the call.

The White House waited for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Floyd family and Walz to speak before making public remarks.

Before the verdict was announced Tuesday afternoon, the president said that he spoke with George Floyd’s family by phone and said that he “wanted to know how they’re doing personally [and] talked about personal things.”

White House officials had been huddling on Tuesday before the verdict was announced, watching and waiting like the rest of the country.

Biden sparked backlash earlier in the day when he said, “I am praying the verdict is the right verdict,” and added. “I think it’s overwhelming in my view.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked repeatedly about these comments. She refused to clarify but insisted the president was not trying to prejudge the case.

Biden, who spoke briefly to reporters in the Oval Office, added that he wouldn’t have made such a comment if the jury wasn't sequestered, indicating he would have withheld his thoughts if the thought the jury could hear them. Jurors were sequestered after closing arguments Monday.

Multiple people close to Biden told NBC News his comments were not helpful to White House efforts to tamp down tensions across the country. One of the people close to the president said it would’ve been worse if he’d made the comment before the jury was sequestered. Another said regardless of the timing of his remark it risks being interpreted as disrespectful of the judicial system.

There are hundreds of posts about plans to attack the Capitol. Why hasn't this evidence been used in court?

The feds have presented no evidence any of the people charged in the Jan. 6 riot planned to attack the Capitol. But these posts gave detailed plans.
People march with those who say they are members of the Proud Boys as they attend a rally in Washington in support of Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.Carolyn Kaster / AP file

By Ken Dilanian and Ben Collins

WASHINGTON — FBI officials have repeatedly said they gathered no credible intelligence in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection suggesting that pro-Trump extremists intended to storm the U.S. Capitol.

And even after months of intensive investigation, Justice Department prosecutors have presented no evidence so far that any of the 420 individuals charged to date for their actions on Jan. 6 planned in advance to attack the building in which Congress was certifying Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election.

But a new report by a nonprofit research group, and a separate review by NBC News, uncovered hundreds of social media posts discussing plans to move on the Capitol, including a map of the building and talk of how to create a stampede that would overwhelm Capitol Police.

"You know there will be riot police preventing us from getting in the capitol building," one anonymous poster wrote in December. "What if we created a stampede/crush situation? Start pushing from the back. Surely they will have to get out of the way or get crushed. They're not going to start shooting people."

One post on a very active forum for angry Trump fans called the TheDonald.win was titled "If we occupy the Capitol building, there will be no vote." The top response to that post reads: "GOTTA OVERWHELM THE BARRICADES AND COPS."

The posts raise new questions about whether the FBI missed or failed to act on these threats, and why federal prosecutors have so far said in court they have not determined whether anyone planned the attack in advance. A Justice Department spokesman and the FBI declined to comment.

"This information, sitting in plain sight on the internet before Jan. 6, paints a clear picture of a planned and coordinated violent attack," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to NBC News. "It's important to understand how much of this the FBI and DOJ knew, when they knew it, and how they decided which pieces of information warranted action."

In the past, FBI officials have said that unattributed comments on social media don't always add up to credible intelligence, in part because many people fail to act on the things they say online. They also have pointed to what they call an unvetted "situational information" report from their Norfolk field office describing unspecified plans to make "war" on the Capitol that was sent to law enforcement agencies around the country the night before the riots. That shows they did offer some warning, they say, while acknowledging the report did not circulate at the highest levels of the FBI.

Critics say the FBI missed a torrent of threats online in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

"There are thousands of posts — with tens of thousands of comments — detailing plans to travel to Washington and engage in violence against the U.S. Capitol," said Daniel Jones, a former FBI analyst and longtime Senate investigator who is now president of Advance Democracy. "The ultimate end goal of this violence was, on behalf of Trump, to disrupt the Congress and overturn the presidential election."

The Advance Democracy report gathered the material from a now-defunct website, TheDonald.win, where Trump supporters vented their anger in the wake of an election they believed was stolen from the former president. The report was first detailed last week by the Washington Post. NBC News obtained the full cache of postings from the defunct website and reviewed material that was not included in the Advance Democracy report.

While some of those who posted on TheDonald.win participated in the Capitol riot — some posted photos of themselves on the scene that were reviewed by NBC News — what's not clear is whether any of those who posted specific plans or threats of violence against the Capitol are among the defendants who have been charged. The posts reviewed by NBC News are anonymous, and the court documents in the cases against alleged Capitol rioters don't always detail their social media handles.

Sen. Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, called what happened Jan. 6 "a massive and historic intelligence failure."
Trump supporters gather outside the Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021.Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

Still unclear is whether it was a failure to collect intelligence or a failure to act on intelligence that had been collected.

A report by the Capitol Police Inspector General released Thursday says that force's intelligence unit was aware that "Congress itself was the target on the 6th," but didn't act on it, leaving the Capitol poorly defended.

Yet the FBI, not the Capitol Police, is ultimately responsible for detecting and thwarting terrorism attacks, and FBI officials have continued to insist there was no intelligence failure. An investigation by the Department of Justice Inspector General is ongoing.

"None of us had any intelligence that suggested individuals were going to storm and breach the Capitol," Jill Sanborn, then the FBI's top counterterrorism official, told a Senate committee on March 3.

"We do not have at this point someone explicitly saying our plan is to force entry into the Capitol in order to stop the certification," an assistant U.S. attorney told a federal judge on March 12.

FBI officials have not said say whether anyone at the FBI was aware of the hundreds of posts calling for violence on TheDonald.win. The intelligence report from the FBI's Norfolk, Virginia, field office described threats to attack the Capitol, and was passed to the Capitol Police on Jan. 5. Sanborn called it "raw, unvetted information, and said neither she nor FBI Director Christopher Wray had been briefed on it.

Social media was teeming with angry rhetoric in the weeks before Jan. 6, and experts say it wasn't the usual venting.

On Jan. 5, NBC News published a story based in part on postings from TheDonald.win, headlined "Violent threats ripple through far-right internet forums ahead of protest."

FBI officials acknowledge that there were calls for violence at the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally by Trump supporters, held just prior to the Capitol attack, but they say they did not add up to specific, credible intelligence.

Yet on TheDonald.win, the talk of attacking the Capitol was granular in its detail.

For example, many posters discussed surrounding the entire Capitol complex, including blocking tunnels that lead from surrounding House and Senate office buildings to the Capitol itself.

"Don't forget, there are three subways leading to and from the Capital that Congress uses to escape. Hypothetically speaking, if those were occupied or sabotaged, they'd have to come out and face us in order to leave," a user named "Free Speech Master" responded.
An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

A map was posted showing entrances and exits to the Capitol and the tunnels that connect it to nearby House and Senate office buildings.

"Black X's are for those ready for action if Congress tries to certify the steal. There's 535 politicians and ~3500 guards," a poster under the username "The Mutualist" wrote on Dec. 28.

The map was reposted over the next several days. Some users expressed the belief that taking the Capitol would lead to a successful coup, because "all the other agencies… are directly under the control of Trump."
An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

"Bring handcuffs and zipties to DC," reads another post from a user named CommunismSucks. "No more tolerating 'elected' officials who hate our country. January 6th is the chance to restore this country. Barging into the Capitol through multiple entryways is the surest way to have our bases covered and apprehend these traitors."

Some posts discussed what type of guns to bring, and how to build gallows and tie nooses to hang members of Congress.

A noose and makeshift gallows was in fact erected by rioters on the West side of the Capitol on Jan. 6.


One poster who said he "works on types of doors," discussed how rioters could break through the Capitol's historic doors.

"Remember, these are things that can be replaced…" the poster said. "So if you need to batter them down, go for it."

Some users on TheDonald.win asked for help in joining extremist groups, including The Proud Boys, some of whose members have been charged with conspiracy in the Capitol riots.

After a Dec. 19 post on TheDonald.win titled "How do I join the Proud Boys?" the most popular response was by the user eplettner: "Come to DC on January 6th."

"That's the plan," the original poster responded.
An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

Users posted pictures of flights and buses full of Trump supporters en route to D.C. for the event on the 6. One user, who called themself "2021is1776," posted a picture of his hotel room full of weapons and tactical gear.

"Hoping not to need them they are a contingency, plenty of other items on hand for anything other than all out...well you know. the escalation is up to the BLM/ Police," that user wrote.
An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

Hours before the riots, users began posting lists of government officials they hoped to "track down." "When all of the s--t starts, I want to be in the group that tracks down this guy," the user BlooperBoy wrote above a picture of Anthony Fauci on Jan. 5.

An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

"Congress has a choice to make tomorrow," reads a post by the user Doejohnblowjoe, followed by a meme that reads "Certify Trump" or "Get Lynched by Patriots."
An anonymous post on TheDonald.win ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.obtained by NBC News

It wasn't just on TheDonald.Win. Other posters on 4chan's /pol/ board, which is unaffiliated with TheDonald but shares extremist far-right users and viewpoints, made even more explicit threats before Jan. 6.

"You can go to Washington on Jan 6 and help storm the Capitol," one anonymous user wrote on Jan. 5. "As many patriots as can be. We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents, and demand a recount."

As NBC News has previously reported, confusion and caution pervades the FBI's approach to reviewing social media. Even though the Justice Department guidelines that govern FBI tactics say the bureau should be proactive in hunting for threats, the FBI says it must wait for a tip before it can look even at public social media.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, asked FBI Director Christopher Wray about the issue at last week's hearing on top national security threats.

"It appears that probably some of the best intelligence prior to Jan. 6 was open source," Schiff said. "It was discussion on social media (about) plans to attack the Capitol. This raises a important but very difficult question for the bureau….what is the bureau's policy in terms of your ability to review social media when it's appropriate to do it when it's not appropriate to do it? Do you have a clear policy on that, and are there legal constraints as well that preclude you from getting the intelligence that you need?"

In his response, Wray said that absent a tip or some other impetus, the bureau was not free to hunt for threats of violence or domestic terror plots social media, even if the posts are public.

"We do not as the FBI, simply patrol social media, looking for problems," he said.

He added, "We have properly predicated investigations where we look at social media as a key part of those investigations. We get tips from social media companies, which we follow up on. We get tips from members of the public about things they see on social media. And if we have the appropriate predication, we follow up on those."

He did not address the Justice Department guidelines that govern the FBI, which state:

"To carry out its central mission of preventing the commission of terrorist acts against the United States and its people, the FBI must proactively draw on available sources of information to identify terrorist threats and activities…It cannot be content to wait for leads to come in through the actions of others, but rather must be vigilant in detecting terrorist activities to the full extent permitted by law, with an eye towards early intervention and prevention of acts of terrorism before they occur."