The Trump administration told Russia on Thursday to stop what it said was harassment of international shipping vessels in the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait aimed at trying to weaken Ukraine’s economy.

“Russia’s actions to impede maritime transit are further examples of its ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilize Ukraine, as well as its disregard for international norms,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. 

The U.S. accused Russia of delaying commercial ships since April and stopping at least 16 commercial ships from reaching Ukranian ports.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region and provoked conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko observed Ukraine’s Independence Day last week by announcing that his country had “cut all ties with the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.”

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to the U.S. request. 
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The Justice Department on Thursday sided with Asian-American students suing Harvard University over the Ivy League school’s consideration of race in its admissions policy, the latest step in the Trump administration’s effort to encourage race-neutral admissions practices.

The Justice Department said in a court filing Thursday that the school has failed to demonstrate that it does not discriminate on the basis of race and cited what it described as “substantial evidence that Harvard is engaging in outright racial balancing.”

The department’s “statement of interest” was in a case filed in 2014 by Students For Fair Admission, which argues that one of the world’s most prestigious universities discriminates against academically strong Asian-American applicants. Harvard fired back, saying that it does not discriminate and will fight to defend its right to use race as a factor in admissions.

The Supreme Court permits colleges and universities to consider race in admissions decisions, but says it must be done in a narrowly tailored way to promote diversity and should be limited in time. Universities also bear the burden of showing why their consideration of race is appropriate.

But in Harvard’s case, Justice Department officials said, the university hasn’t explained how it uses race in admissions and has not adopted meaningful criteria to limit the use of race.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, “No American should be denied admission to school because of their race.”

Harvard said it was disappointed by the Justice Department’s “recycling the same misleading and hollow arguments that prove nothing more than the emptiness of the case against Harvard.”

“Harvard does not discriminate against applicants from any group, and will continue to vigorously defend the legal right of every college and university to consider race as one factor among many in college admissions, which the Supreme Court has consistently upheld for more than 40 years,” the university said in a statement. “Colleges and universities must have the freedom and flexibility to create the diverse communities that are vital to the learning experience of every student.”

Sessions argued the school’s use of a “personal rating,” which includes highly subjective factors such as being a “good person” or “likeability,” may be biased against Asian-Americans. Sessions said the school admits that it scores Asian-American applicants lower on personal rating than other students. Sessions also argued that Harvard admissions officers monitor and manipulate the racial makeup of incoming classes.

Edward Blum, president of SFFA, hailed the administration’s action. “We look forward to having the gravely troubling evidence that Harvard continues to keep redacted disclosed to the American public in the near future,” he said.

The Justice Department’s court filing opposes Harvard’s request to dismiss the lawsuit before trial.

“Harvard’s failure to provide meaningful criteria to cabin its voluntary use of race, its use of a personal rating that significantly harms Asian-American applicants’ chances of admission and may be infected with racial bias, and the substantial evidence that Harvard is engaging in outright racial balancing each warrant denial of Harvard’s Motion for Summary Judgment,” the department said in the filing.

The department is separately investigating Harvard’s admissions policies, a probe that could also result in a lawsuit.

The filing follows a July decision by the Justice and Education departments to abandon Obama-era guidelines that instructed universities to consider race in their admissions process to make the student body more diverse. Democrats criticized the decision, saying that the Trump administration was taking away protections for minorities.

Civil rights advocates blasted the administration’s filing.

“The Trump administration again put itself on the wrong side of history … contrasting its positions with more than four decades of clear and consistent Supreme Court precedent,” said Catherine Lhamon, the top civil rights official at the Education Department under the Obama administration.
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Hmong farmers in St. Paul, Minnesota have the best advocate for their business enterprises: themselves, working together.

Originally from China, the Hmong are an Asian ethnic group that migrated to Vietnam and Laos in the 18th century. They have never had a country of their own. After the Vietnam War ended, many resettled in the U.S., giving the U.S. the largest Hmong population outside of Asia. The population in Minnesota is more than 60,000, second behind the state of California.

The Hmong, who are long time farmers, did what they knew best when they got to Minnesota. And by the late 1980’s they spearheaded the revitalization of local farmers’ markets, making them some of the most vibrant in the city.

But the Hmong also discovered that as immigrant farmers, they faced barriers in buying land, obtaining financing, accessing markets and building sustainable family businesses. They were struggling. To combat all that, a group of Hmong farmers established the non-profit Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) in 2011.

“One of the reasons HAFA was created was because Hmong farmers were experiencing so much uncertainty. They didn’t always have access to land,” HAFA co-founder Pakou Hang explained. “So when you don’t have land tenure or land certainty you can’t actually invest in organic certification, you can’t invest in perennials, which actually have higher profit margins.”

HAFA’s intent was to “advance the prosperity of Hmong American farmers through cooperative endeavors.” At the center of the association is a 63-hectare (155-acre) farm outside St. Paul where member farmers have long-term leases on two to four hectare (five to 10-acre) parcels to grow their vegetables and flowers.

How HAFA helps

On a recent Friday, Mao Moua and her husband were harvesting vegetables at their plot – for a Saturday farmer’s market.

The Mouas were among the mass exodus of Hmong people fleeing Laos for Thailand and eventually the U.S. in the 1970s. Ever since they arrived, they have been farming in Minnesota and in recent years on the HAFA membership farm.

“I like farming on the HAFA farm because this is a Hmong association,” Moua said. “There are Hmong workers who help us. They are like our hands, eyes and ears. I like there is also water, electricity and the food hub.”

She added proudly, “[I grow] corn, sweet potato, cherry, snap pea, cucumber, and a little cherry tomato. That’s all.”

HAFA’s alternative markets program is called Food Hub.

“Our Food Hub is the place where we aggregate HAFA farmers’ produce and we distribute, sell it to different institutions such as schools, co-ops, or restaurants. And then we also have a CSA program or community supported agriculture that we have about 350 currently members. They get a weekly subscription of produce,” explained Operations Manager Kou Yang.

And if any of the farmers need micro loans to buy tractors or new farming equipment, HAFA’s business development programs are there to help. But Hang said all the programs are not just for income generation.

“What we’re really interested in, what we are focused on is actually wealth creation not just intergenerational wealth but community wealth,” Hang said.

Community wealth

Today, Hmong American farmers make up more than 50 percent of all produce growers selling at area farmers’ markets.

“The Hmong growers’ participation in the farmers’ market has really revitalized the farmers’ market,” said David Kotsonas a director of the Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association.

The Hmong are also at the center of a Minnesota-based local foods economy that has changed the way Minnesotans eat.

“Hmong farmers are major contributors to our local food economy and to our overall economy,” Hang said. “I mean studies have shown that they produced over $250 million in sales.”

Hang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came to the U.S. with her parents in 1976.

“During the Vietnam war in Laos my father joined actually a secret army that was allied with the United States CIA. When the Vietnam War ended and the communist faction came into power in Laos they actually began to target Hmong soldiers,” she said.

Hang has big dreams for the HAFA farm which in addition to enabling farmers, conducts research and fosters community ties.

“A hive of learning. A hive of community building,” Hang described it.
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Puerto Rico’s Archdiocese of San Juan filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after officials embargoed $4.7 million from its accounts following a lawsuit filed by retired Catholic school teachers seeking their pensions. 

Archdiocese attorney Carmen Conde told The Associated Press that the filing was a last recourse. She said roughly 75 full time and part-time employees are affected, along with dozens of parishes across the U.S. territory. She said the Archdiocese cannot pay its water or power bills, has halted all charity work and is relying on a group of volunteers.

“The Archdiocese no longer has money to operate,” she said. “The embargo caused an economic and administrative crisis.”

A judge earlier this year ordered the Archdiocese to pay $4.7 million worth of pensions to both active and retired teachers working at dozens of its schools. The ruling comes two years after Archdiocese officials informed several hundred teachers that their pensions would be eliminated because payouts exceeded contributions, which led to the lawsuit. Enrollment at Catholic schools in Puerto Rico has plunged with hundreds of thousands of families leaving the island for the U.S. mainland amid a 12-year recession.

Antonio Bauza and German Brau, two attorneys who are representing the teachers, did not return messages for comment. In a June filing, the attorneys wrote that the teachers are mostly elderly people who are suffering irreparable damage.

“Some of them have lost, or are in danger of, losing their homes. Others, who suffer from serious and debilitating health conditions, are unable to pay for their medical costs, including cancer treatments,” they stated.

Conde said it’s the first time the Archdiocese has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. She said officials embargoed 21 Archdiocese accounts that hold a total of $606,000 and froze another 12 accounts that have nearly $341,500 in them. In addition, officials also froze 160 accounts belonging to dozens parishes that hold a total of $3.8 million.

She said the Archdiocese will be filing a document with more details, but that it has assets ranging from $10 million to $50 million, along with debts of that same amount.
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Victims of a prominent Washington rabbi who for years secretly videotaped women as they used a ritual bath reached a $14.25 million settlement with four Jewish organizations, their lawyer confirmed Wednesday.

The settlement covers over 150 women filmed by Bernard “Barry” Freundel, along with other women who undressed where the hidden camera was located even if they were not taped, attorney Alexandra Harwin told AFP Wednesday.

Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in 2015, after his voyeurism went undetected for years.

Rabbi at the Kesher Israel synagogue in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood, he placed his secret camera near the mikveh, a bath used to achieve ritual purity in Judaism.

The case has shocked the city’s Jewish community, in which Freundel was a highly respected figure who taught at several universities in the area.

The class action lawsuit initially sought $100 million in damages, but the organizations’ insurance policies “provided far less coverage for the claims,” Harwin explained.

Nonetheless, she said the settlement “provides prompt and substantial payments to the women victimized by Freundel, while maintaining their confidentiality and avoiding an overly burdensome process.”

Freundel is expected to be released in 2020, his lawyer told The Washington Post.
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