All four bridges at the U.S. border with Canada in western New York were closed Wednesday afternoon after authorities reported that a “vehicle explosion” had occurred on the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls.

With uncertainty surrounding the incident near the world-renowned waterfalls, officials took the precaution of also closing the Peace Bridge, Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, Whirlpool Bridge, with traffic lanes blocked both into and out of the U.S. and Canada.

Local police and the top U.S. criminal investigative agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, immediately opened an investigation into the explosion on the Rainbow Bridge, which is within sight of the much-visited Niagara Falls.

The explosion occurred on one of the busiest travel days in the U.S., the day before the annual Thanksgiving holiday when many families were driving and flying to visit relatives and friends.
…

your ad here

The United States and the Philippines were conducting joint air and maritime patrols in the South China Sea, which come as the two countries step up cooperation in the face of growingly aggressive Chinese activity in the area.

The Philippine Air Force said on Wednesday its aircraft had taken part in joint patrols on Tuesday in the vicinity of Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines, which is only about 200 kilometers from Taiwan, a self-governed island that China claims as its own.

The patrols run through Thursday and include both the U.S. and Philippine navies.

They come only days after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called the situation in the South China Sea increasingly “dire” as China seeks to assert its presence in an area where multiple nations have competing territorial claims.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea as its own waters, which has led to disputes not only with the Philippines but also with Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, which have long been regarded as potential flashpoints in the region and the U.S.-China rivalry.

Earlier this month a Chinese coast guard ship blasted a Philippine supply ship with a water cannon in disputed waters, and last month a Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat near a contested shoal, according to Philippine officials.

Speaking on Sunday in Honolulu, Marcos said China has been showing interest in atolls and shoals that are “closer and closer” to the coast of the Philippines, with the nearest atoll about 111 kilometers away.

In announcing the start of the joint patrols, Marcos said on X, the social media platform originally known as Twitter, that they were “testament to our commitment to bolster the interoperability of our military forces.”

“Through collaborative efforts, we aim to enhance regional security and foster a seamless partnership with the United States in safeguarding our shared interests,” he wrote.

Under Marcos, who was elected last year, the Philippines has been deepening its relationship with the U.S. in a shift from his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who had been closer to China and Russia.

In February, Marcos approved an expansion of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines to add four new bases from five existing sites under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the longtime treaty allies.

The move, which Marcos said would boost the Philippines’ coastal defense, dovetails with the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China.

Marcos has also been strengthening ties with others, including Tokyo, signing an agreement earlier in the year to allow Japanese troops to join training exercises.

 
…

your ad here

As lawmakers in Washington weigh sending billions more in federal support to Kyiv to help fight off Russian aggression, close to half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Those sentiments, driven primarily by Republicans, help explain the hardening opposition among conservative GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are rebuffing efforts from President Joe Biden to approve a new tranche of Ukraine aid, arguing that the money would be better spent for domestic priorities.

Yet opposition to aid is down slightly from where it was a month ago in another AP-NORC poll. Now, 45% say the U.S. government is spending too much on aid to Ukraine in the war against Russia, compared with 52% in October. That shift appears to come mostly from Republicans: 59% now say too much is spent on Ukraine aid, but that’s down from 69% in October.

Nonetheless, the Republican resistance to continued Ukraine aid remains strong.

“I understand the citizens need help, but I feel like we’re spending way too much money on Ukraine when we have our issues here, on our own soil, that we need to deal with,” said Eric Mondello, 40, from Fountain, Colorado. Pointing to needs such as health care for veterans and homelessness in communities, Mondello added, “I understand the U.S. has been an ally to others, but I feel like, let’s take care of our people first.”

More than one-third (38%) of U.S. adults says that current spending is “about the right amount,” which is up slightly from last month (31%). Among Republicans, nearly 3 in 10 (29%) say the current spending is about right, up from 20% last month.

Paula Graves, 69, is among those who say the amount of spending for Ukraine is the right amount.

“Putin, he’s straight up evil. I don’t think there should be any question in anyone’s mind,” said Graves, of Clovis, California. “He’s a dictator. He’s infringed on human rights, he’s a very scary person and if Ukraine falls to him, who’s next? What country’s next?”

Graves, who says she is not affiliated with a political party but leans more conservative, said she believes the U.S. has a leadership role on the global stage, adding, “I think we definitely need to put America first, but I don’t think that needs to be first and only.”

The White House has been repeatedly pressing lawmakers to pass Biden’s nearly $106 billion emergency spending package that he proposed in October. It includes more than $61 billion specifically for the war in Ukraine. The rest of Biden’s request has aid for Israel as it battles Hamas, money for various priorities in the Indo-Pacific region and additional resources to help manage migration at the southern border.

On Ukraine, the Biden administration is increasingly warning that the well of aid is running dry. In an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russian forces “matters to the rest of the world” and pledged that U.S. support would continue “for the long haul.”

That message was reinforced at the White House.

“As President Biden has said, when aggressors don’t pay a price for their aggression, they’ll cause more chaos and death and destruction,” John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told the White House press briefing Monday. “They just keep on going, and the cost and the threats to America and to the world will keep rising.”

But Congress has rebuffed the White House efforts at bolstering Ukraine support at least twice in recent months. First, it ignored a roughly $40 billion supplemental request before a Sept. 30 funding deadline. Then last week, it passed a stopgap funding measure that keeps the government operating through early next year, but with no additional Ukraine aid.

In the Senate, a small bipartisan group is working on legislation that would combine fresh Ukraine assistance with stricter border measures to address concerns from Republicans that the U.S. was focused on needs abroad at the expense of issues closer to home. A broad majority of senators remains supportive of Ukraine aid, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., being one of the most stalwart supporters despite the isolationist strain in his party.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said lawmakers will continue to work on the Ukraine-border package over the Thanksgiving break and won’t wait until mid-January — when Congress faces another government funding deadline — to act on Ukraine.

The big question mark is in the House, where still-new Speaker Mike Johnson — who had voted against Ukraine aid as a rank-and-file conservative — has spoken broadly of the need to counter Russian aggression yet faces unruly GOP lawmakers who have shown more hostility to continued support for Kyiv.

Johnson, too, is insisting that additional Ukraine aid be paired with tougher border measures, although it is far from certain that any immigration agreement that clears the Democratic-led Senate could pass the GOP-controlled House.

Half of U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned that Russia’s influence poses a direct threat to the United States. Democrats (53%) and Republicans (51%) are similarly concerned about Russian power – but Democrats are more likely than Republicans to see Ukraine as a nation of shared values to the U.S. and to support more aid for Ukraine.

About half of the public (48%) endorses providing weapons to Ukraine (57% among Democrats, 42% among Republicans). About 4 in 10 favor sending government funds directly to Ukraine (54% for Democrats, 24% for Republicans).

Americans have grown slightly more likely to say the U.S. should take “a less active role” in solving the world’s problems, compared with a September poll from AP-NORC and Pearson. Slightly fewer than half (45%) now says the U.S. should be less involved, up from 33% in September. Just 16% of Democrats now say the U.S. should take a more active role, down from 29% in September.

Peter Einsig, a Republican from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said he still believes the U.S. has a role to play abroad, but that he remains concerned about excessive government spending and federal debt.

Yet Einsig said he would be more inclined to support aid to Ukraine if there were more oversight into how the money was being used abroad, as well as a timeline of how much longer the U.S. would be providing support.

“We don’t have transparency on where the money is really, really going,” said Einsig, 40. “It’s a big lump sum.”

Four in 10 U.S. adults say Ukraine is an ally that shares U.S. interests and values. That view is most common among Democrats (53%), who are much more likely than independents (28%), Republicans (29%) and Americans overall to see Ukraine as a nation with similar values and needs. About half of Republicans say Ukraine is a partner that the U.S. should cooperate with, but say it is not a nation that shares U.S. values.
…

your ad here

The U.S. government dealt a massive blow to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which agreed to pay a roughly $4 billion settlement Tuesday as its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a felony related to his failure to prevent money laundering on the platform. 

Zhao stepped down as the company’s chief executive, and Binance admitted to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and apparent violations of sanctions programs, including its failure to implement reporting programs for suspicious transactions. 

“Using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who called the settlement one of the largest corporate penalties in the nation’s history. 

As part of the settlement agreement, the U.S. Treasury said Binance will be subject to five years of monitoring and “significant compliance undertakings, including to ensure Binance’s complete exit from the United States.” Binance is a Cayman Islands limited liability company. 

The cryptocurrency industry has been marred by scandals and market meltdowns. 

Rival of FTX founder

Zhao was perhaps best known as the chief rival to Sam Bankman-Fried, the 31-year-old founder of FTX, which was the second-largest crypto exchange before it collapsed last November. Bankman-Fried was convicted earlier this month of fraud for stealing at least $10 billion from customers and investors. 

Zhao, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in a federal court in Seattle on Tuesday to one count of failure to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program. 

Magistrate Judge Brian A. Tsuchida questioned Zhao to make sure he understood the plea agreement, saying at one point: “You knew you didn’t have controls in place.” 

“Yes, your honor,” he replied. 

Binance wrote in a statement that it made “misguided decisions” as it quickly grew to become the world’s biggest crypto exchange, and said the settlement acknowledges its “responsibility for historical, criminal compliance violations.” 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Binance processed transitions by illicit actors, “supporting activities from child sexual abuse to illegal narcotics, to terrorism, across more than 100,000 transactions.” 

Binance did not file a single suspicious activity report on those transactions, Yellen said, and the company allowed more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades that violated U.S. sanctions, including ones involving Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, al-Qaida and other criminals. 

The judge set Zhao’s sentencing for February 23, however it’s likely to be delayed. He faces a possible guideline sentence range of up to 18 months. 

One of his attorneys, Mark Bartlett, noted that Zhao had been aware of the investigation since December 2020, and surrendered willingly even though the United Arab Emirates — where Zhao lives — has no extradition treaty with the U.S. 

“He decided to come here and face the consequences,” Bartlett said. “He’s sitting here. He pled guilty.” 

Zhao, who is married and has young children in the UAE, promised he would return to the U.S. for sentencing if allowed to stay there in the meantime. 

“I want to take responsibility and close this chapter in my life,” Zhao said. “I want to come back. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here today.” 

Company sent investor assets to third party

Zhao previously faced allegations of diverting customer funds, concealing the fact that the company was commingling billions of dollars in investor assets and sending them to a third party that Zhao also owned. 

Over the summer, Binance was accused of operating as an unregistered securities exchange and violating a slew of U.S. securities laws in a lawsuit from regulators. That case was similar to practices uncovered after the collapse of FTX. 

Zhao and Bankman-Fried were originally friendly competitors in the industry, with Binance investing in FTX when Bankman-Fried launched the exchange in 2019. However, the relationship between the two deteriorated, culminating in Zhao announcing he was selling all of his cryptocurrency investments in FTX in early November 2022. FTX filed for bankruptcy a week later. 

At this trial and in later public statements, Bankman-Fried tried cast blame on Binance and Zhao for allegedly orchestrating a run on the bank at FTX. 

A jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of wire fraud and several other charges. He is expected to be sentenced in March, where he could face decades in prison. 
…

your ad here

More people work from home in Colorado, while Mississippi has the lowest percentage of teleworkers
…

your ad here

Despite inflation and memories of past holiday travel meltdowns, millions of people are expected to hit airports and highways in record numbers over the Thanksgiving break.

The busiest days to fly will be Tuesday and Wednesday as well as the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday. Sunday will draw the largest crowds with an estimated 2.9 million passengers, which would narrowly eclipse a record set on June 30.

Meanwhile, AAA forecasts that 55.4 million Americans will travel at least 80 kilometers from home between next Wednesday and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with roads likely to be the most clogged on Wednesday.

The weather could snarl air and road traffic. A storm system was expected to move from the southern Plains to the Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing severe thunderstorms, gusty wind and possible snow.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a news conference Monday that the government has tried to better prepare for holiday travel over the last year by hiring more air traffic controllers, opening new air routes along the East Coast and providing grants to airports for snowplows and deicing equipment. But he warned travelers to check road conditions and flight times before leaving home.

“Mother Nature, of course, is the X factor in all of this,” he said.

The good news for travelers by plane and car alike: Prices are coming down.

Air fares are averaging $268 per ticket, down 14% from a year ago, according to the travel site Hopper.

Gasoline prices are down about 45 cents a gallon from this time last year. The national average was $3.30 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA, down from $3.67 a year ago.

A survey of GasBuddy users found that despite cheaper pump prices, the number of people planning to take a long driving trip this Thanksgiving hasn’t changed much from last year. Patrick De Haan, an analyst for the price-tracking service, said inflation has cooled but some things like food are still becoming more expensive. Consumers are also charging more on credit cards and saving less.

“Sure, they love the falling gas prices, but a lot of Americans spent in other ways this summer and they may not be ready to open their wallets for Thanksgiving travel just yet,” De Haan said.

Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday travel season, and many still haven’t shaken last December’s nightmare before Christmas, when severe winter storms knocked out thousands of flights and left millions of passengers stranded.

Scott Keyes, founder of the travel site Going, is cautiously optimistic that holiday air travel won’t be the same mess. So far this year, he said, airlines have avoided massive disruptions.

“Everyone understands that airlines can’t control Mother Nature and it’s unsafe to take off or land in the middle of a thunderstorm or snowstorm,” Keyes said. “What really irks people are the controllable cancellations — those widespread disruptions because the airline couldn’t get their act together because their system melted down the way Southwest did over Christmas.”

Indeed, Southwest didn’t recover as quickly as other carriers from last year’s storm when its planes, pilots and flight attendants were trapped out of position and its crew-rescheduling system got bogged down. The airline canceled nearly 17,000 flights before fixing the operation. Federal regulators told Southwest recently that it could be fined for failing to help stranded travelers.

Southwest officials say they have since purchased additional deicing trucks and heating equipment and will add staff at cold-weather airports depending on the forecast. The company said it has also updated its crew-scheduling technology.

U.S. airlines as a whole have been better about stranding passengers. Through October, they canceled 38% fewer flights than during the same period in 2022. From June through August — when thunderstorms can snarl air traffic — the rate of cancellations fell 18% compared to 2022.

Even still, consumer complaints about airline service have soared, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. There have been so many complaints, the agency says, that it has only compiled figures through May.

The airlines, in turn, have heaped blame on the Federal Aviation Administration, which they say can’t keep up with the growing air traffic. In fact, the Transportation Department’s inspector general reported this summer that the FAA has made only “limited efforts” to fix a shortage of air traffic controllers, especially at key facilities in New York, Miami and Jacksonville, Florida.

Meanwhile, staffing levels in other parts of the airline industry have largely recovered since the pandemic. After shedding tens of thousands of workers early on, airlines have been on a hiring spree since late 2020. Passenger airlines have added more than 140,000 workers — an increase of nearly 40% — according to government figures updated last week. The number of people working in the business is the largest since 2001, when there were many more airlines.

Airlines are using their expanded work forces to operate more flights. Southwest is the most aggressive among the big carriers, planning to offer 13% more seats over Thanksgiving than it did during the comparable five-day stretch last year, according to travel data provider Cirium. United and Delta are growing 8% each. American will grow a more modest 5% but still have the largest number of seats.

 
…

your ad here

“Liberty” and “Bell” — two turkeys — strutted onto the White House South Lawn Monday and became immediate celebrities for what has become the official beginning of the holidays in Washington. 

Amid an autumn day, with Christmas carols playing, President Joe Biden addressed the families of staff, 4-H and Future Farmers of America, and students from Eliot-Hine Middle School as they gathered for the popular event. 

Next to him stood a table lined with a fall garland of burgundy, green, orange and yellow, bearing a sign “Happy Thanksgiving 2023.”  Standing on it was an 18 kg (40lb) turkey, with another next to it on the ground, beside the Minnesota farmers who raised them.

“I hereby pardon Liberty and Bell,” said Biden, as the male turkey fanned its tail. And, with that, the two birds were given the long-held tradition of a long life, just days prior to the American holiday that features a roasted turkey as its centerpiece.

Turkeys on leashes at the White House

In 1989, then President George H.W. Bush promised a crowd of children and reporters that the 23 kg (50lb) turkey donated to the White House would not be eaten.  

President Bush was the first to make the pardon an annual action, but not the first to show mercy for a bird. The son of President Abraham Lincoln treated the turkey like a dog, leading him around on a leash inside the White House. Ultimately, President Lincoln granted the turkey clemency. 

The act of donating a turkey (or a gaggle of gobblers) dates to the 1800s and embraces the nation’s heritage of farmland.  For the past month, Biden has traveled to rural America, announcing $5 billion in investments.  

“We’re restoring hope and opportunity so family farms can stay in the family,” proclaimed Biden at Monday’s event, “and children don’t have to leave home if they wish to stay and make a living on the farm.” 

Biden told the crowd that the birds love the Minnesota favorites, including Honeycrisp apples, ice hockey, a thousand lakes and the Mall of America.

 

Happy 81st birthday 

President Biden’s 81st birthday coincided with the holiday event. He evoked laughter when he told the crowd, “I just want you to know, it’s difficult turning 60.”  The president’s age has been raised by opponents and analysts as he seeks a second term.  During his speech Monday, Biden confused Britney Spears with Taylor Swift when referencing Swift’s Eras tour in Brazil.  

The president plans to celebrate his birthday with family this weekend in Nantucket. 

The birds will live on as agriculture models at the University of Minnesota.  Having been named after the Liberty Bell, the symbol of independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the president said his pardon gave the turkeys “a new appreciation for the words, ‘Let freedom ring.’”

 
…

your ad here

A divided federal appeals court Monday ruled that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision voting rights advocates say could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices such as racially gerrymandered districts.

The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue said but similar wording is not found in the voting law.

“When those details are missing, it is not our place to fill in the gaps, except when ‘text and structure’ require it,” U.S. Circuit Judge David R. Stras wrote for the majority in an opinion joined by Judge Raymond W. Gruender. Stras was nominated by former President Donald Trump and Gruender by former President George W. Bush.

The decision affirmed a lower judge’s decision to dismiss a case brought by the Arkansas State Conference NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel after giving U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland five days to join the lawsuit. Neither organization immediately returned messages seeking comment Monday.

Chief Judge Lavenski R. Smith noted in a dissenting opinion that federal courts across the country and the U.S. Supreme Court have considered numerous cases brought by private plaintiffs under Section 2. Smith said the court should follow “existing precedent that permits a judicial remedy” unless the Supreme Court or Congress decides differently.

“Rights so foundational to self-government and citizenship should not depend solely on the discretion or availability of the government’s agents for protection,” wrote Smith, another appointee of George W. Bush.

The ruling applies only to federal courts covered by the 8th Circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Meanwhile, several pending lawsuits by private groups challenge various political maps drawn by legislators across the country.

A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment.
…

your ad here

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump urged a federal appeals court on Monday to revoke a gag order in the federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“The order is unprecedented and it sets a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech,” Trump attorney John Sauer told a three-judge panel.

Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team, meanwhile, are urging the court to put back in place an order barring the Republican former president from making inflammatory statements about potential witnesses and lawyers in the case.

The prosecutors say those restrictions are necessary to prevent Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. Defense lawyers call the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of Trump’s free speech rights and say prosecutors have presented no evidence to support the idea that his words have caused harm or made anyone feel threatened.

During arguments Monday, Trump lawyer Sauer called the gag order a “heckler’s veto,” unfairly relying on the theory that Trump’s speech might someday inspire other people to harass or intimidate his targets.

The gag order is one of multiple contentious issues being argued ahead of the landmark March 2024 trial. Defense lawyers are also trying to get the case dismissed by arguing that Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution and protected by the First Amendment from being charged. The outcome of Monday’s arguments won’t affect those constitutional claims, but it will set parameters on what Trump as both a criminal defendant and leading presidential candidate can and cannot say ahead of the trial.

The order has had a whirlwind trajectory through the courts since U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed it last month in response to a request from prosecutors, who cited among other comments Trump’s repeated disparagement of Smith as “deranged.”

The judge lifted it days after entering it, giving Trump’s lawyers time to prove why his words should not be restricted. But after Trump took advantage of that pause by posting on social media comments that prosecutors said were meant to sway his former chief of staff against giving unfavorable testimony, Chutkan put it back in place.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit later lifted it as it considered Trump’s appeal.

The judges hearing the case include Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett, both appointees of President Barack Obama, and Brad Garcia, who joined the bench earlier this year after being nominated by President Joe Biden. Obama and Biden are Democrats.

The panel is not expected to immediately rule on Monday. Should the judges rule against Trump, he’ll have the option of asking the entire court to take up the matter. His lawyers have also signaled that they’ll ask the Supreme Court to get involved.

The four-count indictment in Washington is one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.

He’s been charged in Florida, also by Smith’s team, with illegally hoarding dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He’s also been charged in state court in New York in connection with hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged an extramarital affair with him, and in Georgia with scheming to subvert the 2020 presidential election in that state. He has denied doing anything wrong.
…

your ad here

A tornado that hit the town of Star Valley prompted the National Weather Service’s Flagstaff branch to survey damage to the area, the organization said Sunday.

Officials from the town located about 95 miles northeast of Phoenix said at least 10 homes were damaged due to the wind, according to ABC15 Arizona.

Nobody was hurt in the tornado, but the gusts killed a dog, according to the TV station.

National Weather Service staff arrived in Star Valley around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Tony Merriman, a meteorologist for the organization, said in a brief interview. Additional updates will be posted later in the evening, the National Weather Service said in an emailed statement.
…

your ad here

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is meeting with senior U.S. military leaders and members of Hawaii’s large Filipino community this weekend in a visit steeped in geopolitical and personal significance for the leader, but also drawing small protests from a younger generation of Filipinos who point to the actions of his dictator father who died in exile in Hawaii.

Marcos, who stopped in Hawaii on his way home from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, connected Saturday evening with members of Hawaii’s large Filipino-American community before a planned Sunday meeting with Adm. John Aquilino, the top U.S. military commander in the Indo-Pacific region.

Marcos is then due to deliver a talk about his nation’s security challenges and the role of the Philippines-U.S. alliance.

A small number of protesters gathered outside the community meeting and at the airport where he landed.

Marcos’ trip comes at a time when the U.S. and the Philippines have been deepening their long-standing alliance in a shift after Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia.

The Philippines this year agreed to give the U.S. access to four more bases as America looks to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea. In April, the two countries held their largest military exercises in decades.

But the trip also likely has personal resonance for the leader of the Philippines. His father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, died in exile in Honolulu after he was ousted in a 1986 army-backed “people power” uprising.

Many Filipino immigrants in Hawaii also hail from the same part of the Philippines as Marcos and revere him and his family. Filipinos are the largest single ethnic group in Hawaii, accounting for 26% of the state’s population as of the 2020 census.

Winfred Damo, who immigrated to Honolulu from Marcos’ province of Ilocos Norte in 1999, said being Ilocano means “we always support the Marcoses.”

The 58-year-old helped campaign for Marcos Jr. in Hawaii and said the president is a different person than his father and from a different era. Philippine nationals living abroad can vote in elections back home.

“We have a better government now in the Philippines,” he said. “Marcoses are good people. They did a lot in our country, and they are the best.”

Not all are Marcos fans. Arcy Imasa organized a protest outside the convention center where Marcos met with community members Saturday. Her aim was to help younger Filipinos learn his family’s history.

Marcos’ father placed the Philippines under martial rule in 1972, a year before his term was to expire. He also padlocked Congress, ordered the arrest of political rivals and left-wing activists and ruled by decree.

A Hawaii court found the senior Marcos liable for human rights violations and awarded $2 billion from his estate to compensate more than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit against him for torture, incarceration, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.

Imasa, 40, who is part of Hawaii Filipinos for Truth, Justice and Democracy and grew up in the Ilocos province of Pangasinan, said the mindset of many Filipinos in Hawaii is fixed, especially those of older generations.

“They’re not on the right side of history. They’re not fully aware of the crimes that transpired,” she said.

Satu Limaye, the vice president of the East-West Center, noted the U.S. and the Philippines have a long, complicated relationship. He pointed to years when the U.S. ruled the archipelago as a colony, when the two nations signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951 and when the U.S. military withdrew from major bases in the country in the 1990s.

Duterte was often critical of the U.S., at times questioning the value of the alliance and demanding more military aid to preserve the pact. Under Marcos there has been a “180-degree turn” and a massive change in cooperation and coordination with the U.S., Limaye said.

China has laid sweeping territorial claims over virtually the entire South China Sea, areas also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

China has clashed with its smaller neighbors and subsequently drawn in the U.S., which is Manila’s treaty ally and China’s main rival in the Asia-Pacific region. Washington and its allies have deployed navy ships and fighter aircraft to promote freedom of navigation and overflight, to build up deterrence and reassure allies.

Earlier this month, dozens of Chinese coast guard and accompanying ships chased and encircled Philippine vessels during a four-hour faceoff.

Marcos in September said his country does not want a confrontation but will defend its waters after its coast guard dismantled a floating barrier placed by China at a disputed shoal.

Limaye said it’s important to watch how the U.S. and the Philippines manage their nations’ long and complex relationship while facing their common concern, China.

 
…

your ad here

Landmarks and notable events in the life of former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter:

— Aug. 18, 1927: Eleanor Rosalynn Smith is born at her family home in Plains, Georgia. She is the daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a mechanic, and Allie Murray Smith, a seamstress and postal worker.

— Late August 1927: “Miss Lillian” Carter, a neighbor and nurse who delivered Rosalynn, brings her son, Jimmy, nearly 3 years old, to meet the new baby.

— 1940: Rosalynn’s father dies, leaving her to help her mother raise her younger siblings.

— 1945: She begins dating Jimmy Carter, now a Naval Academy midshipman and the brother of her close friend, Ruth Carter.

— Spring 1946: She graduates from Georgia Southwestern College.

— July 7, 1946: She marries Jimmy at Plains Methodist Church, her childhood congregation. They would have four children: John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl III (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey, 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967.

— 1946-1953: Rosalynn manages the Carter household while Jimmy serves in the Navy’s nuclear submarine program, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

— 1955: She begins helping Jimmy in the farm warehouse; she soon “knew more on paper about the business than he did,” she recalled ahead of their 75th anniversary.

— 1962: She helps Jimmy campaign for state Senate, an office he would win in a contested election that was ultimately settled in court.

— 1966: Rosalynn begins campaigning on her own for the first-time during Jimmy’s first run for Georgia governor, a race he loses. But their model of campaigning separately would be key to winning four years later and to capturing the presidency in 1976.

— 1975-76: She leads the “Peanut Brigade” of Carter family, friends and supporters from Georgia who spread out across Iowa and other key nominating states to widen the campaign’s person-to-person reach. The same model they used in Georgia revolutionizes presidential campaigning, with Rosalynn as Jimmy’s top surrogate.

— Jan. 20, 1977: Rosalynn, the newly sworn-in 39th president and their family draw special attention on Inauguration Day by walking down Pennsylvania Avenue rather than riding in an armored limousine. The Carters enroll their daughter Amy in a Washington, D.C., public school that is majority-Black. In Atlanta, when Carter was governor, Amy attended private school.

— Summer 1977: Rosalynn makes a 13-day diplomatic trip to seven Latin American nations and Caribbean islands. She also urges Jimmy to delay action on treaties yielding control of the Panama Canal, arguing it is too politically costly for a first term. He proceeds with the treaties.

— September 1978: Rosalynn is with Jimmy at Camp David for much of the intense negotiations with Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. She listens to and advises the president daily before the three leaders reach the Camp David Accords. Begin and Sadat both warm to the first lady, and Sadat becomes especially close to the Carters.

— November 1979: Rosalynn leads a delegation to Cambodian refugee camps, bringing international media attention to the humanitarian crisis. She convinces the president to admit more refugees to the U.S.

— Summer and fall 1980: She campaigns nearly daily on Jimmy’s behalf, while he stays at the White House working to win the release of American hostages in Iran.

— 1980: She helps win congressional approval for the Mental Health Systems Act, dedicating more federal money to local centers for treating mental health; Republican Ronald Reagan would later reverse course as president.

— November 1980: Jimmy Carter is denied a second term by Reagan, who wins 51.6 percent of the popular vote to 41.7% for Carter and 6.7% for independent John Anderson.

— 1982: The Carters co-founded The Carter Center in Atlanta with a mission of resolving conflicts, protecting human rights, advocating democracy and preventing disease around the world.

— 1984: Rosalynn releases her memoir, “First Lady from Plains,” in which she admits to missing Washington. It is the first of her five books.

— September 1984: She travels to New York City, where the Carters volunteer building homes for Habitat for Humanity; this would become their annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

— 1987: She establishes the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, located at her collegiate alma mater, to advocate for Americans who are unpaid caregivers.

— Summer 1989: Rosalynn travels with Jimmy on a weeklong Africa tour that includes an international conference on Guinea worm eradication, perhaps The Carter Center’s most ambitious public health initiative.

— 1996: She establishes the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, based at The Carter Center, to help working journalists produce better reporting on the topic.

— 1999: She is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

— July 10, 2007: She testifies before a U.S. House subcommittee, urging Congress to require that health insurance policies cover mental health treatment on par with treatment for other illness.

— November 2016: She hosts the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy for the 32nd time.

— October 2019: In Nashville, the Carters participate in person for the last time in their Habitat for Humanity work project; the program would continue.

— April 30, 2021: The Carters receive President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at their home in Plains. The couples were friends since the 1976 campaign, when Biden, then a young lawmaker from Delaware, became the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter for president.

— July 7, 2021: The Carters celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Offering advice for a successful marriage, she says, “each (person) should have some space. That’s really important.”

— Feb. 18, 2023: The Carter family announces that Jimmy is entering home hospice care. They would later say they thought he would live only days but rebounded to celebrate their 77th wedding anniversary and his 99th birthday later in the year.

— May 30, 2023: The family announces that Rosalynn has dementia.

— Sept. 23, 2023: The Carters make a surprise appearance in the Plains Peanut Festival parade, riding in a Secret Service vehicle with the windows down for what would be her last public appearance.

— Nov. 17, 2023: The Carter family announces that she has entered home hospice care.

— Nov. 19, 2023. Rosalynn Carter dies at home in Plains, Georgia, in the same house where the Carters lived when Jimmy was elected to the state Senate in 1962.
…

your ad here