Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

It’s a stark image in 2023: Police in riot gear flooding a village, pulling people out of houses and tearing down structures to make way for the arrival of excavating machines to access the rich seam of coal beneath the ground.

Since Wednesday, as rain and winds lashed the tiny west German village of Lützerath, police have removed hundreds of activists. Some have been in Lützerath for more than two years, occupying the homes abandoned by former residents after they were evicted, most by 2017, to make way for the mine.

More than 1,000 police officers are involved in the eviction operation. Most of the buildings have now been cleared, but some activists remained in treehouses or huddled in a hole dug into the ground as of Friday, according to Aachen city police.

Protest organizers expect thousands more people to pour into the area on Saturday to demonstrate against its destruction, though they ultimately may not be able to access the village. After the eviction is complete, RWE plans to complete a 1.5-kilometer perimeter fence to snake around Lützerath, sealing off the village’s buildings, streets and sewers before they are demolished.

Still, activists vow to continue to fight for the village.

“We are taking action against this destruction by putting our bodies in the way of the excavator,” said Ronni Zeppelin, from campaign group Lützerath Lebt (Lützerath Lives).

Lützerath, about 20 miles west of Dusseldorf, has long been a climate flashpoint in Germany because of its position on the edge of the open-cast lignite coal mine, Garzweiler II.

The mine sprawls across around 14 square miles (35 square kilometers) in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) – a huge, jagged gouge in the landscape.

Its slow creep outwards over the years has already swallowed villages where families have lived for generations. It has prompted the destruction of centuries-old buildings and even a wind farm.

RWE has long planned to expand the mine further, in the face of criticism from climate groups. Lignite is the most polluting form of coal, which itself is the most polluting fossil fuel.

As far back as 2013, the German courts ruled the company was able to expand, even at the expense of nearby villages.

Following the Greens’ successes in the 2021 federal elections, some hoped the expansion would be canceled, said David Dresen, part of the climate group Aller Dörfer bleiben (All Villages Stay), who lives in Kuckum, a village that had been slated for destruction.

But in October 2022, the government struck a deal with RWE that saved several villages – including Kuckum – but allowed Lützerath to be demolished to give RWE access to the coal beneath it.

In return, RWE agreed to bring forward its coal phase-out from 2038 to 2030.

The Greens pitch it as a win.

“We were able to save five villages and three farms from being destroyed, spare 500 people a forced resettlement and bring forward the coal phase-out by eight years,” Martin Lechtape, a spokesperson for the North Rhine Westphalia Green Party, said in an email to CNN.

The Greens and RWE also say the expansion will help relieve the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, which has curtailed gas supplies.

It “is not a renaissance of lignite or coal, but only a side-step – helping Germany to cope with the energy crisis,” RWE spokesperson Guido Steffen, told CNN in an email.

Climate groups fiercely oppose the deal. Continuing to burn coal for energy will belch out planet-warming emissions and violate the Paris Climate Agreement’s ambition to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

RWE and the Greens both reject the claim the mine expansion will increase overall emissions, saying European caps mean extra carbon emissions can be offset.

Many feel betrayed by the Green Party, including people who voted for them.

“It’s such an absurd and catastrophic scenario that Germany, the country where everyone else thinks we have green [policies], is destroying a village to burn coal in the middle of the climate crisis,” said Dresen, who has voted Green in recent elections.

Fabian Huebner, campaigner on energy and coal at Europe Beyond Coal, said: “I think the Greens, faced by very difficult decisions, took the wrong turn and de-prioritized climate policy.”

Germany should accelerate the clean-energy transition instead, he added, including a faster roll out of renewables and energy efficiency measures: “You can’t solve the crisis with the energy source that basically created this crisis.”

Some studies suggest Germany may not even need the extra coal. An August report by international research platform Coal Transitions found that even if coal plants operate at very high capacity until the end of this decade, they already have more coal available than needed from existing supplies.

It’s a deeply uncomfortable moment for the Greens and an unfathomable catastrophe for those who want to save the village.

“The pictures from Lützerath are of course painful, as we have always fought against the continued burning of coal,” said Lechtape, on behalf of the NRW Greens. “We know the importance of Lützerath as a symbol in the climate movement. However, this should not obscure what has been achieved,” he added.

The party’s discomfort may deepen on Saturday when a protest, organized by a coalition of climate groups, is expected to draw thousands of people to Lützerath – including Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

“It is now up to us to stop the wrecking balls and coal excavators. We will not make this eviction easy,” said Pauline Brünger from the climate group Fridays for Future.

Even if the village is completely evicted before Saturday and access is blocked off, climate groups say the protest will still go ahead.

Dina Hamid, a recently evicted activist with Lützerath Lebt, told CNN, “in the end, it’s not about the village, it’s about the coal staying in the ground and we’re going to fight for that as long as it takes.”

CNN
 — 

Attorney General Merrick Garland and Steve Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), announced new regulations Friday that would subject pistol-stabilizing braces to additional regulations, including higher taxes, longer waiting periods and registration.

Gun control proponents argue that stabilizing braces – which can be attached to pistols – effectively transform a pistol into a short-barreled rifle, which are heavily regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). The rule will go into effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register.

The proposal was given new life in 2021 after shooters in Boulder, Colorado, and in Dayton, Ohio, used pistols with stabilizing braces. At the time, Garland unveiled several proposals aimed at curbing gun violence, including reupping the restriction on pistol braces.

“Almost a century ago, Congress determined that short-barreled rifles must be subject to stricter legal requirements,” Garland said Friday during a call with reporters to outline the new rule. “Policy makers understood then what we know is still true today. Short-barreled rifles present a deadly combination: They are easier to conceal than rifles, but they are more powerful and lethal than pistols.”

The rule, he said, “makes clear that firearm manufacturers, dealers and individuals cannot evade the important public safety protections passed by Congress simply by adding accessories to pistols that transform them into short-barreled rifles.”

The DOJ announcement sparked immediate backlash from some Republicans, including West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey argued in a statement that the “egregious” rule makes it “harder for senior citizens and people with disabilities to defend themselves,” adding that his office was “evaluating our legal options.”

According to the Justice Department, manufacturers, dealers and individual gun owners have 120 days to register tax-free any existing short-barreled rifles covered by the rule. They can also remove the stabilizing brace or surrender covered short-barreled rifles to the ATF, the department said.

“This rule enhances public safety … and helps ensure compliance with the firearms laws that Congress passed almost a century ago,” Dettelbach said on the call. The rule makes clear, Dettelbach said, that “when pistols are accessorized with certain stabilizing braces, those pistols are converted into rifles” and should be treated as short-barreled rifles under the law.

Restrictions on stabilizing braces have been hotly debated after they were proposed by the ATF in 2020, when the bureau suggested a new rule that would regulate pistol braces under the NFA. The 2020 proposal sparked a major backlash from the groups such as the National Rifle Association.

Republican lawmakers also spoke out against the proposal and sent a letter to then-Attorney General William Barr saying that the proposed regulation was “alarming and jeopardizes law abiding gun owners across the country.” The ATF withdrew the proposed regulation after the letter was released.

“These requirements are important public safety measures because they regulate the transfer of these dangerous weapons and help ensure they do not end up in wrong hands,” the Justice Department said at the time. “The proposed rule would clarify when these attached accessories convert pistols into weapons covered by these heightened regulations.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

New York
CNN
 — 

A spike in egg prices has squeezed customers. But even with rising costs of its own, the leading US egg supplier has found that it can make even more money out of every egg.

The egg shortage has enabled record quarterly profits and sales at Cal-Maine Foods

(CALM), the largest producer and distributor of eggs in the United States. The company produces brands such as Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, Egg-Land’s Best and Land O’ Lakes eggs.

Cal-Maine’s profit increased 65% to $198 million during the three months ended Nov. 26 from a year ago.

A supply shock triggered by the deadliest outbreak of a highly pathogenic avian influenza in US history has driven up prices. Avian flu has killed more than 50 million birds in the United States since the start of 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been no positive tests of the avian flu at any Cal-Maine Foods’ facilities.

As a result, retail egg prices have increased more than any other item at the supermarket in recent months, climbing 11.1% from November to December and 59.9% annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And as supply remains tight and its profits surge, Cal-Maine said it expects the outbreak to continue to affect the overall supply of eggs this year.

Cal-Maine on December 28 reported record quarterly sales of $801.7 million, a 110% increase compared with the same quarter last year.

The company said it was “driven by record average conventional egg selling price” to its retail customers. (Walmart is its largest customer.)

Cal-Maine’s net average selling price per dozen conventional eggs for the quarter was $2.88, more than double from a year earlier, the company said.

The company’s selling prices for specialty eggs, which include enhanced, cage-free, organic, free-range, pasture-raised and brown eggs, rose 24.9% during the quarter to $2.37 per dozen.

“The significantly higher selling prices, our enduring focus on cost control, and our ability to adapt to inflationary market pressures led to improved profitability overall,” Max Bowman, Cal-Maine’s finance chief, said in a statement.

Cal-Maine’s stock increased 47% last year, hitting record highs. So far this year, the company’s stock is flat.

CNN
 — 

Russia said Friday its forces had captured Soledar, a salt mine town in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv rejected the claims.

Should Russian troops indeed take the town, it would mark Moscow’s first gain in the Donbas for months – potentially offering President Vladimir Putin some welcome news after a recent string of humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal and largely symbolic. However, its capture, if confirmed, would allow Russian forces, and especially the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

Taking Soledar would also represent a PR win for the man who runs Wagner – oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has frequently criticized the Russian Defense Ministry’s management of the “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

Here’s what you need to know about Soledar.

As has often been the case with battlefield gains and losses, there are conflicting reports from Russian and Ukrainian sides about the success of Russia’s advance into the town.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the capture of Soledar “became possible due to the constant destruction of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of a group of Russian forces.” 

“They continuously inflicted concentrated strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city, forbidding the transfer of reserves, the supply of ammunition, as well as attempts by the enemy to retreat to other lines of defense,” a statement read.

The Russian MOD made no reference to Wagner claims that the private military company had conducted the operation exclusively themselves.  

“The complex of measures implemented by the Russian group of troops ensured the successful offensive operations of the assault detachments to liberate Soledar. Over the past three days alone, more than 700 Ukrainian servicemen and over 300 units of weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been destroyed near the city of Soledar,” the ministry added.

Alexander Shatov, the head of the Russia-backed administration in Shakhtyorsk, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said Moscow’s forces had evacuated about 100 people from Soledar to the town. He told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that 110 more people were expected to arrive Friday.

However, Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesman for the Eastern Group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN that “Russian troops do not control Soledar.”

A Ukrainian solider stationed in the city of Bakhmut told CNN that Kyiv’s units are still at the “western outskirts” of Soledar.

Taras Berezovets, a captain in the Ukrainian Special Forces First Brigade, said remaining in Soledar made no military sense, because it was “completely destroyed.” He said he believed a decision to withdraw would be made in the coming days, but said it would be up to the General Staff to make any such decision. He added that morale among frontline units was high.

He said his comrades in other units understood that the mission was to hold on as long as they could and kill as many fighters of the Wagner group as possible, and that much of the fighting over the last two weeks had involved street fighting in Soledar between small units of four to eight fighters.

Berezovets said that Ukrainian forces continued to inflict heavy casualties on the Russians. He claimed that a captured Wagner fighter had told interrogators that only three out of 35 men in his platoon had survived.

He had no knowledge of any Ukrainian troops being trapped in Soledar and said units had been successfully withdrawn to the western outskirts, close to the railway station.

A CNN team just outside of Soledar reported ongoing mortar and rocket fire on Friday afternoon, after Russia claimed it had captured the town.

Soledar lies at the center of the Donbas region, the vast expanse of eastern Ukraine whose capture Russia has prized above all other regions since last summer. Indeed, Moscow regards it as Russian territory since claiming (illegally) that it had annexed all of the Donetsk region – including the approximately 40% that lies outside Russian control.

It is just a few miles northeast of the larger city of Bakhmut, which has become perhaps the most contested and kinetic part of the 1,300-kilometer (800 mile) front line in Ukraine and the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Soledar has therefore been a target for Russian forces since last May. With a pre-war population of about 10,000, it has little strategic value in itself, but is a waypoint in the Russians’ attritional slog westwards. Moscow has struggled for months to attack Bakhmut from the east, but were it to capture Soledar, Moscow would at least be able to approach the city from a different path.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that the capture of the town is “important for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk region.”

The ministry added that “establishing control over Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes for Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut.”

The area around Soledar includes large salt mines, which belong to state enterprise Artemsil, the biggest producer of salt in Europe, which halted production shortly after Russia’s invasion last February. The area surrounding the town hosts “extensive reserves of very pure salt that have only been exploited on an industrial scale since 1881,” according to the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

Some have speculated that the Russians – and Wagner’s leader Prigozhin – have eyed Soledar for its huge resources of gypsum. Prigozhin has used Wagner in Africa and Syria as a mercenary force to leverage access to resources including diamonds and oil.

But exploiting Soledar’s famed salt mines would require heavy investment and a more tranquil environment than at present. Prigozhin has said the vast network of tunnels created by the mining offers “unique and historic defenses,” and a “network of underground cities.”

The Russian armed forces have had nothing to celebrate since the beginning of July, and have had to retreat in both Kharkiv to the north and Kherson in southern Ukraine.

The capture of Soledar, despite its now-ruined state, would therefore be rare progress. But it would be symbolic rather than substantive. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says control of Soledar “will not necessarily allow Russian forces to exert control over critical Ukrainian ground lines of communication into Bakhmut,” the larger prize.

“Even taking the most generous Russian claims at face value, the capture of Soledar would not portend an immediate encirclement of Bakhmut,” the think tank added.

But Soledar is of outsize significance to one man: Prigozhin. His Wagner fighters, many of them former prison inmates, have taken heavy casualties with one wave after another of ground assaults across what has become a battlefield of trenches and mud, reminiscent of World War I. After months in which the Russian Ministry of Defense has delivered nothing but retreat, Prigozhin is keen to show that his men deliver.

Late Tuesday, Prigozhin said “Wagner PMC detachments have taken control of the entire territory of Soledar. The city center is like a cauldron, where urban fighting is taking place.” And he added: “I would like to stress that no units other than Wagner PMC operatives were involved in the storming of Soledar.”

The subtext of Soledar is the battle for influence and resources between Prigozhin and his nemeses at the Defense Ministry, which is intensifying as Prigozhin continues to deride what he calls the corrupt and incompetent military hierarchy.

A top Ukrainian official on Friday characterized infighting among different factions of the Russian power establishment as a “good sign of the beginning of the stunning end.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Office of the Ukrainian President, tweeted that a “public rumble” had begun between the Russian Defense Ministry and “military-criminal ultras” like Progozhin and General Sergei Surovikin.

The Ukrainian tactic could be to invite wave after wave of infantry attacks, knowing they can inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, a tactic used with success in Vuhledar late last year. Ukraine’s command would then choose a moment to withdraw to Bakhmut.

Ukraine’s 46th Brigade alluded to this tactic in an online post on Tuesday, saying, “The situation is very difficult, but manageable: we only abandon what we consider inexpedient to keep.” Trying to hold Soledar – like trying to hold Lysychansk, the last holdout in the Luhansk region, last summer – becomes inexpedient when casualties rise and resupply becomes near impossible.

Ukraine has defense in depth throughout the parts of Donetsk it still holds – and has forced the Russians to expend huge amounts of munitions to make marginal progress.

This story has been updated.

CNN
 — 

Facebook-parent Meta is preparing to announce one of the most consequential decisions in the company’s history, a landmark move that will set a precedent for online speech and could affect the course of the 2024 US presidential election.

The decision, whether Meta should allow former President Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram, is being debated by a specially formed internal working group at the company, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told CNN Wednesday the decision is set to be announced in the coming weeks.

Facebook and other social media platforms banned Trump in the aftermath of the January 6 attack. The bans were seen as necessary by tech executives, and indeed many on Capitol Hill, believing Trump could use its platforms to incite further violence.

But the unilateral decision on the part of companies like Facebook and Twitter troubled free speech advocates and other world leaders, who worried about the precedent it might set. The office of then German chancellor Angela Merkel called the bans “problematic,” and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny described it as “an act of censorship.”

Now, two years later, Meta is contemplating giving Trump back his megaphone on Facebook and Instagram. The debate comes less than two months after Twitter restored Trump’s account, but Meta’s intention to reevaluate the decision predates Twitter’s reversal.

Facebook initially said its ban of Trump would be indefinite. But after a public consultation and deliberation with experts, the company announced in June 2021 that Trump’s ban would be reassessed in January 2023, two years after the initial decision.

Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill sent a letter to Meta last month urging the company to keep Trump off its platforms, arguing Trump continues to attack American democracy by repeating lies about the 2020 election. Republicans, free speech advocates, and others argue maintaining the ban is an undue act of censorship and could put Trump at a disadvantage as a 2024 candidate.

“It’s a judgment call,” acknowledges Katie Harbath, a former public policy director at Facebook. “It’s very important to recognize that both of these decisions are going to have a ton of impactful consequences. And it would be foolish to think that either way is an easy decision,” she told CNN.

Harbath, who worked in Republican politics before joining Facebook, said while she believed it was the right decision for Facebook to suspend Trump in January 2021, she has struggled with the issue.

“In the lead up to that moment, I was still defending keeping him on the platform, because as horrible as some of the things were that he posted, I still just couldn’t get myself past the point that I thought that people deserve to know what the people that are representing them have to say,” she said.

But Harbath said she believes Trump should be allowed back on the platform with a stringent set of rules outlining how he could be suspended if he once again breaks the company’s policies.

“I don’t think it should take another January 6th level event in order to do that,” she said.

Harbath, now the CEO of Anchor Change, a tech policy consulting firm, has published a proposal for how Trump could return to the platform.

The dilemma Harbath outlines – allowing politicians to remain on social platforms even if they are breaking the platforms’ rules, and the belief that voters should be able to see the good, bad, and ugly, from politicians so they can be held to account – is something Silicon Valley executives like Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey have long grappled with.

But others disagree, believing Trump’s reappearance on the platform could once again set the stage for a dangerous event.

Harbath’s former colleague Crystal Patterson, Facebook’s former head of global civic partnerships, said Trump should not be allowed back on the platform. Patterson, who previously worked in Democratic politics before joining Facebook, said Trump has shown he is willing to use the platform to cause harm.

“There’s been no shortage of hearing from him,” she said. “It’s not like because he hasn’t been on Facebook or Twitter that he’s had any trouble getting his message out or had any trouble making sure people know how he feels about things.”

Although Harbath’s and Patterson’s position on Trump’s possible return happen to match their political affiliations (Harbath points out that although she is a Republican she never voted for Trump), both cited past instances where they agreed with Facebook decisions that went against what their respective parties might have wanted. The former employees stressed how deliberative the decision-making was at Meta and that the company was always conscious of not appearing to put its finger on the scale to help or hinder one party — though leaders in both parties would probably argue they didn’t succeed.

The company has set up an internal working group with leaders from different parts of the organization, including Meta’s policy, communications, and content moderation teams, to help make the decision, according to a person familiar with the process.

In its deliberations, Meta said it is considering factors like “risks to public safety” and “imminent harm.”

Those parameters are too vague, said Nico Perrino, a free speech advocate and executive vice president at the civil liberties group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

“Determining who gets to speak or who gets to have an account on Facebook or any other social media platform based on the mood of the country is a policy or a prescription that is ripe for abuse,” Perrino told CNN. “I can’t think of what that rigorous standard would be that would make this policy be applied fairly, not just to former President Trump, but to any politician.”

A person familiar with Trump’s operation said the suspension of the former president’s Facebook page, which has more than 34 million followers, damaged his ability to find new donors, impacting his political movement and forcing him to use his Save America leadership PAC to run advertisements on the platform. Even those ads can’t be done in Trump’s voice, however.

“The advertising has been less efficient without his likeness,” this person said. Allowing Trump himself back on the platform “would allow him to communicate again with tens of millions of followers. It would allow him to prospect again for fundraising and lower his cost for fundraising overall.”

A current Trump adviser said the former president has never used Facebook in the way he used Twitter, which became his primary medium for communicating with his political base as president before he was removed from the platform in the wake of the January 6 attack. Still, this person said, the Trump campaign would leap at the opportunity to resume using his likeness in its Facebook advertisements.

“It is the most important vehicle for fundraising and for reaching a lot of people in the persuadable audience,” the adviser said.

The process Meta is undertaking – publishing detailed posts and policy documents transparently outlining how it plans to make the high-stakes decision – is in stark contrast to what is happening at Twitter.

In November, new Twitter owner Elon Musk restored Trump’s account after posting an unscientific poll of users on the platform. Trump, once arguably Twitter’s most influential user, has yet to post on the site since his account was restored.

But it may not be as simple as accepting Musk’s invitation. Trump now has his own rival social media platform, Truth Social, which he launched in February. While the platform initially saw a surge of interest from right-wing users, it has struggled to sustain that growth. Trump, by far the most-followed account on Truth Social, has fewer than 5 million followers on the platform, compared to almost 90 million on Twitter.

Despite his desire for a bigger megaphone and aides encouraging him to rejoin Twitter, Trump has said he is committed to Truth Social. Some in Trump’s orbit say he is bound by an exclusivity agreement with Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of Truth Social, that could create legal trouble if he abandons his own social media platform for Twitter, Facebook, or an alternative.  

That agreement, which first appeared in a May filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, was news to some of Trump’s senior aides who were left wondering why Trump didn’t jump at the opportunity to rejoin Twitter when Musk reinstated his account just before Thanksgiving, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The terms of the agreement require Trump to post first on Truth Social and wait at least six hours before sharing the same message to other social media platforms. There are exceptions, however, for posts related to “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the-vote efforts,” and it is unclear who would be responsible for enforcing the agreement – and whether they would be willing to – if Trump ever ran afoul of it.   

Advisers to Trump have pointed to the vague contract language as a potential loophole, particularly now that Trump has officially announced a third presidential run in 2024. Some in his orbit believe the language could open the door for him to claim that anything he posts counts as “political messaging” while he is an active presidential contender.  

“Ultimately, Trump is going to do what he wants to do,” said one source close to the former President. “He’ll figure out a way around any agreement.” 

Meta’s decision could act as a guidepost for other platforms that also suspended Trump in the wake of the January 6 attack, including Snapchat and YouTube. Those companies were already beginning to face pressure to reconsider their bans after Trump’s announced he’d seek reelection in 2024 and Musk gave him back his Twitter account.

Meta’s decision — regardless of where it comes down — could provide cover for other social media companies to make similar moves. 

“Usually these companies do fly in a flock and whoever makes the first movements, other companies do tend to try to, in succession, follow behind because the initial company takes the biggest media hit and then the rest of them don’t suffer the reputational hit of being the first technology company to make a decision,” said Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. 

Because of the scale and influence of Facebook and Instagram, “whatever decision Meta comes to … will inevitably be influential,” said Paul Barrett, NYU law professor and deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights. “The more explicit and the more persuasive Meta’s explanation for whatever’s decision is, the more likely it is to influence others, which is all the more reason why it would be good for them to try to make a clear and helpful statement [about the decision].” 

More broadly, Meta’s decision about Trump — and any new policies it articulates to explain the decision — could impact how it and other platforms handle politicians and other influential figures going forward. In the wake of Meta’s landmark decision to remove Trump,  many followers of the company  questioned why the company hadn’t taken more serious actions against his earlier rule violations, and how it would apply its thinking on Trump to potential future violations by other world leaders.  

Meta has previously said that if Trump’s accounts are restored, he could once again have them revoked if he breaks the platforms’ rules. “When the suspension is eventually lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post in 2021.

The rubric Meta could apply to Trump going forward — if his account is restored — would likely hinge on whether his actions reignite the possibility of physical violence, Clegg suggested at an event last fall in Washington. Trump likely would not face suspension for repeating false claims about election outcomes, he added.

“It’s not whether you say the truth or not, it’s whether what you say or do incites violence and can be clearly linked to developments in the real world which threaten real world harm,” Clegg said. “It’s not about truth or lies.

Now, the question will be whether that practice would be broadly applied to other leaders.  

“[Trump] is a newsworthy and historical figure that has not been convicted of any crime, and if Meta is dedicated to the same kind of free speech values that Twitter is, then they would likely let him back on,” Donovan said. “The big question is about network incitement … there’s no other technology in which a politician or political operative could incite such fervor as openly as they were able to do for January 6, and the technology hasn’t changed in any significant way that would prevent something like this from happening again.” 

Fiona Sinclair Scott is CNN Style’s global editor. This is an edited version of an article published in 2022.

It’s a ludicrous moment and something that wouldn’t happen now, or even back then, in most offices. But if you’re about to start a new job and worried about what to wear, this guide — with input from four fashion insiders — should help you navigate the tricky business of dressing for work.

One caveat: If your sartorial energy is akin to Julia Roberts playing Erin Brockovich (“As long as I’ve got one ass instead of two, I’ll wear what I like if that’s all right with you”), you don’t need me or this guide, you need a high five. Keep it up.

Formalities out of the way, read on for everything you need to know about dressing for the office.

The green tip: Shop your wardrobe

When in a sartorial panic, there’s a tendency to solve it with a shopping spree. But as we all wise up to the impact of our consumption habits on the planet, consider this sustainable alternative: Get your hand out of your pocket and dig deep inside your wardrobe instead.

“It’s a first step,” said Los Angeles-based stylist Cassandra Dittmer, who suggests you figure out what you have, what you love, what needs repair and what you might want to pass on. “Hopefully (you’ll) uncover some hidden gems.”

“At the end of the process, you should feel a deeper connection to your wardrobe, find the gaps that need filling and give yourself a great basis to work from each day when putting your outfits together with ease.”

I did this last month and rediscovered an old pair of trousers that I’m wearing again after re-dying them black. (Faded black jeans, trousers and sweaters really benefit from running them through a wash cycle with an at-home clothes dye capsule, such as the kind made by Dylon).

Model, size-inclusivity activist and Henning founder Lauren Chan. Credit: Melodie Jeng/Getty Images

Bonus tip: If you live in a country with hot and cold seasons, pack your summer clothes away when fall arrives. You’ll be surprised by the aura of newness they take on when you retrieve them from storage months later.

Dittmer, who has built her styling business around eco-conscious values, suggests you may want to go further and channel your inner Cher Horowitz (à la the movie “Clueless”): “Document your looks and take pictures of outfits you love and feel most confident in. A convenient folder on your phone will make a quick and handy reference point when you are scrambling to pack for a work trip or getting ready in the morning.”

The basics: Polished comfort

There’s a way to dress comfortably without looking bedraggled, and with many employers loosening up on the rules, it’s a great time to try a polished but casual look.

Joanna Dai, who left her job in finance to start her own eponymous fashion brand, has noticed a trend away from overly formal office fashion conventions like formal suits and restrictive pencil skirts.

“In the new normal things have gotten more casual in office,” said Dai, noting that, as companies recognize the importance of well-being at work, many have adopted more relaxed dress codes that allow for jeans and sneakers or done away with dress codes altogether.

Embracing more casual attire while also looking professional begins with understanding the importance of quality materials, fit and color.

“Never underestimate the power of a good fit,” Dittmer said. “I’m not talking expensive, Savile Row tailoring — but making sure your trousers are cut to the most flattering fit can be a huge improvement and make you feel really well put together. Most dry cleaners offer very accessible tailoring services.”

Model and the founder of size-inclusive fashion brand Henning, Lauren Chan, agreed a good tailor is important, adding, “Here’s a secret: Clothes aren’t actually meant to fit you. They’re built to fit an ‘average build’ which is — spoiler alert — no one. Buy clothes that fit you across your widest part (for me, it’s my waist) and tailor the rest inward.”

When it comes to materials, most linens, while beautiful, wrinkle easily and are not going to be your friend throughout an eight-hour day at a desk job. On the other hand, polyester is pretty wrinkle-resistant, but it’s a synthetic fabric that’s terrible for the planet and doesn’t breathe — putting you at risk of unsightly sweat patches and a guilty conscience. Check labels for organic and sustainably made cotton or new fabrics made with a high percentage of recycled materials.

Clockwise from left to right: White trouser menswear look courtesy Arket; Brown trouser menswear look courtesy Mr Porter; Layered blazer street style look via Getty Images; Yellow suit, Michael Kors, via Getty Images; Frame straight leg jeans courtesy Net-a-Porter; Red trouser look, Gabriela Hearst, via Getty Images; Slouchy street style look via Getty Images; Midi skirt look courtesy Dai.

Dai puts a lot of emphasis on what she calls “high-functioning” environmentally friendly materials, such as micromodal (made from the cellulose of natural beechwood trees in a closed-loop, carbon neutral process) or recycled polyamide (made from plastic waste like fishing nets and carpet). Many of the items in her lines are made from wrinkle-resistant, machine washable, stretch materials that are great for people with busy schedules who don’t have time to iron or make regular trips to the dry cleaner.

Olie Arnold, style director at menswear e-commerce site Mr Porter, suggests opting for unlined suits. “Go for suits and jackets which are unlined and deconstructed with a breathable fabric,” he said, “as they will give you a smart look with a comfortable fit.”

And, he advises, if you want to relax your suit further, don’t bother with a formal shirt. “If you can push the envelope a little at your workplace, a merino wool long-sleeve polo is a perfect companion, breaking up your outfit without losing that professional look.” Merino wool is naturally temperature regulating, too.

Personally, I also love an oversize jacket and slouchy suits, and there are many options out there right now at a range of price points. Brands like Arket (another Scandinavian label within the H&M group) offer some solid midrange casual suits. Keep the jacket unbuttoned always and wear a good quality cotton T-shirt underneath. Pair it with boots or sneakers (French brand Veja has good green credentials, offering many styles appropriate for the office).

Fashion designer Charlie Casely-Hayford wearing a Casely-Hayford suit T-shirt. Credit: Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images

The aside: A note for newbies

If you’re about to start your very first job, you might be looking at walking into your office without any prior reference for what people typically wear.

First off, just ask — it’s totally reasonable to ask your new manager what the vibe is. And if you’re still unsure, remember this sound advice from Arnold: “Be yourself, dress for the occasion and make sure you feel comfortable. If you don’t feel comfortable in what you wear, it can reflect on how you present yourself and your productivity.”

The golden rule: Create your own uniform and then build on it

Set yourself up by establishing some staple pieces that can form the basis of your work wardrobe. A great pair of black trousers, a blazer and some quality shirts can go a long way.

Drawing on her own closet as an example, Dai said, “I have a uniform or a capsule collection in my wardrobe. I’ve got a skinny-ankle trouser which is great for cycling into work because they won’t get caught on the chain. I also have a wide-leg just to add that difference in the week…And then one or two good blazers.”

Model Paloma Elsesser walks the runway during the Chloe 2022 show in a black dress for every day. Credit: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Every item in your collection of staples should be something you can imagine wearing multiple times in a week, and you should be able to style each item in at least three different outfits.

In cooler months, a well-tailored pair of trousers paired with quality knitwear and a boot is fuss-free, especially if you stick to classic colors like black, navy, grays and tans, which are very easy to interchange. The knitwear can be swapped out for a blouse or shirt in warmer weather for a similar effect.

Writer, activist and broadcaster Sinéad Burke in a classic Burberry trench coat. Credit: Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images

Skirts can play into this uniform, too. An A-line skirt cut an inch or two above the knee with a crisp white shirt with a French tuck (a more relaxed approach where the back of your shirt remains mostly untucked) could be added into your rotation in warmer months. Also, midlength skirts pair nicely with structured, thick cotton T-shirts or a thin wool sweater.

The twist: Accessorize

Mix up the uniform with jewelry and accessories. I’m a big fan of the workwear uniform, but I’ll mix it up with some form of accessory.

Arnold points to footwear as another way to elevate a simple look. “A classic hard shoe, such as a pair of Penny Loafers from John Lobb or George Cleverley, are a personal staple. You can’t go wrong with their practicality and long-lasting craftsmanship, whilst (they) can easily elevate an outfit if you go a little more casual.”

A pair of tan flats are also great if you don’t want to wear sneakers. Go for a sharp, pointed toe as opposed to anything rounded. Also, a beautiful silk scarf (worn folded into a triangle and draped over your shoulders), a watch or — my personal favorite — big earrings can be quite impactful.

If you’re looking for an investment piece, I’d always (much to my bank account’s horror) splash out on a bag. A beautifully crafted handbag or tote will last forever and immediately lift a look. If that sounds expensive, scroll down for tips on renting. Alternatively, the luxury resale market is booming. Use sites like Vestiaire or Resee to find deals on pre-vetted, secondhand luxury items.

Clockwise from left to right: Patent leather coat and scarf street style look via Getty Images; Totême scarf courtesy Net-a-Porter; Red Loewe bag photographed by Hannah Crosskey for Cocoon; Pink gingham jacket street style look and navy jacket with Chanel bag street style look via Getty Images; Statement earrings look via Getty Images; Black Balenciaga bag photographed by Charlie Gates for Cocoon; Tangerine jacket street style look via Getty Images; Cream Gucci bag photographed by Hannah Crosskey for Cocoon.

The debate: To denim or not to denim

A no-denim policy might be the last bastion of formal workwear culture at some corporate workplaces, but for many companies, denim is absolutely acceptable.

“I really do believe you can wear denim, even in more formal offices (or) at least on a Friday,” said Dai, who added that she preferred black denim when she still worked in a corporate setting. “If you’re not seeing clients or you have clients who are more casual than you are then I think (if you’re considering) a denim for a lunch meeting, go for it!”

Dittmer agrees. “To ease yourself in, start with dark, straight-leg denim which can look really polished. Denim can be a great base layer for crisp shirting, beautiful blouses, and is a great way to break out of your classic work uniform style and branch out into more playful looks.”

Look for darker denim washes, and a classic straight or wide leg. Gen Z ruled out skinny jeans last year, much to the despair of many millennials, and — while I don’t live and die by trends — I think they might have a point. Also, keep your ankles away at work (a tiny hint is fine but avoid a cropped jean). And while we’re seeing a lot of low-slung options on the runway as the fashion world continues to be inspired by Y2K style, high-waisted options are the best bet for the office (they’re also the most flattering).

The pep talk: Don’t forget to have fun

Starting a new job can be daunting — you’ll be meeting new people, spending time in a new environment and taking in a lot of new information. What you wear shouldn’t add to the stress. Lean into the chance to express yourself and play with fashion. Use clothes to set the mood for your day, depending on what’s on the agenda.

Influencer Darja Barannik playing with color in Copenhagen. Credit: Christian Vierig/Getty Images

Renting is an excellent way to experiment and add some fun pieces to your wardrobe. For Dittmer, “It’s a great low-commitment, low-cost way to try out new styles and brands.”

It’s also a great way to inject a little bit of luxury into your life. I pay for a monthly subscription to a rental company called Cocoon that allows me to select one designer bag every four weeks to be delivered to my door. The one I’m sporting this month retails around $2,000, but it cost me $130. Renting is also a great option should you need to dress up for a work event. More and more online styling services are popping up with plenty of partywear.

Above all, remember that fashion is supposed to be fun. Don’t take it too seriously; wear clothes that make you feel confident and happy. It’s horribly cheesy, but a smile really is the best accessory.

Top image credits: Clockwise from left to right: Yellow skirt and shirt look courtesy Arket; Navy suit street style look via Getty Images; Brown suit courtesy Mr Porter; Maxi dress and blazer street style look via Getty Images; White shirt look courtesy Dai; Black trousers and oversize white shirt look courtesy Dai; trench coat look courtesy Arket.

CNN
 — 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled the state of the city’s economic outlook as part of a $102.7 billion budget proposal for 2024 on Thursday, highlighting slow economic growth despite spikes in tourism and jobs.

Adams touted investments that will be made into public safety and affordable housing while promoting what he called “strong fiscal management.”

The budget proposal will be voted on by the city council later this year.

“We crafted this budget in the environment of economic and fiscal uncertainty. While our country has made an amazing recovery since the darkest days of the pandemic, the national economy has slowed as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to tamp down inflation,” Adams said on Thursday.

Office vacancy rates are now at a record high as the Adams administration points to the continuing slow pace of workers returning to the office since the pandemic shut down in 2020. The increase in vacancies weakens the commercial office market, according to analysis from the preliminary budget.

The Adams administration has also pointed to substantial fiscal challenges due to the migrant crisis, which they estimate is now at roughly 40,000 asylum seekers that have come into New York City since last April.

New York City’s share from a pot of $785 million earmarked for major cities struggling to deal with the migrant crisis won’t cover all the costs from dealing with the situation, according to the preliminary budget.

Rising health care costs and settling expired labor contracts are also listed as hurdles, according to the preliminary budget.

Despite the challenges, employment in New York City has grown 4.8% -— outpacing the state, which is at 3.3% and the United States as a whole, which is at 3.2%, according to the preliminary budget.

Adams said that 88% of jobs lost during the pandemic have been recovered, according to the preliminary budget.

The Adams administration also boasts $8.3 billion in budget reserves, according to the preliminary budget, which also looks ahead to investments in affordable housing addressing and environmental concerns.

Over the next 10 years, the city plans to invest $153 million into the development of Willets Point, transforming it from a gritty industrial zone in Queens into a bustling community with 2,500 affordable homes, a soccer stadium, a hotel and public space, according to the preliminary budget.

The city will also aim to enhance security measures at schools, investing $47.5 million on top of the already $30 million in capital funding to make technological upgrades to doors and entryways, Adams said.

The city has also earmarked $228 million for high-priority street reconstruction projects, $77 million for signal installation and $46 million to upgrade marine infrastructure in Manhattan and Staten Island.

“We are focused on governing efficiently and measuring success, not by how much we spend but by our achievements,” Adams said.

CNN
 — 

Joe Biden is facing the worst political crisis of his presidency after a failed attempt at damage control over his classified documents controversy landed him with what all White Houses dread – the naming of a special counsel.

Biden was doomed to face a political furor the moment his lawyers found the first secret vice presidential file in his former Washington office last fall. But by swiftly cooperating with the National Archives, his legal team may have spared him criminal exposure from the discovery – like that potentially facing ex-President Donald Trump over his document haul in Florida.

But then the botched messaging strategy became more clear – when Americans learned that a second batch of classified material, also dating to Biden’s time as vice president, had been found in a search of his home in Delaware. This detail was communicated to the Justice Department on December 20. And yet the White House didn’t disclose that this week when it spoke about the initial documents found last year in an office Biden previously used at the Penn-Biden center in Washington. This made it look like it was willing to come clean to the DOJ but not the public.

Not only did this make it look like Biden had something to hide, it set up the kind of drip, drip of disclosures guaranteed to supercharge a Washington scandal. And Biden’s bid Thursday to minimize the discovery of secret material in his garage – by saying it was locked to protect his beloved Corvette – didn’t exactly back up his earlier claim that Americans know he takes classified documents seriously.

The result is that the White House has offered a huge opening for a new Republican House majority feverishly committed to proving its own conspiracy theories that a liberal deep state has politicized justice to attack Trump and to cover up wrongdoing by Democratic presidents. And it has also made the prospect of any future prosecution of Trump over his Mar-a-Lago document stash, which may pose his greatest risk of criminal charges, even more politically explosive.

Trump, as he showed in his laceration of 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her emails, is merciless in exploiting a whiff of scandal against an opponent. He is now certain to leap on an impression of compromised transparency to mold a campaign-trail assault over Biden’s classified documents troubles designed to blur his culpability in a far more serious case.

Trump’s ally Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican speaker of the House, laid out what could be an effective case – at least for conservatives voters on Thursday.

“Here’s an individual that said on ’60 Minutes’ that was so concerned about President Trump’s documents. … And now, we find… just as a vice president, keeping it for years out in the open in different locations,” McCarthy said.

The White House is now facing the familiar and dizzying atmospherics of a Washington scandal – including demands for transparency, inquisitions from the press in a tense White House briefing room, questions about what the president knew and when he knew it, and the spectacle of his political enemies piling on.

And there is the haunting fear that grips 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue whenever a special counsel sweeps into view – along with the dreaded possibility that they could uncover some unrelated, but damning area of wrongdoing. Former Biden vice presidential aides – many of whom are now serving in his close-knit White House inner circle – will face the always distracting prospect of testifying under oath.

And there could be more unflattering details to come out, since CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Phil Mattingly, Jeff Zeleny and Arlette Saenz revealed on Thursday a chaotic administrative process at the end of the Obama administration, which may have allowed vice presidential documents to go astray.

And from a practical political perspective, the deepening controversy has halted what many Democrats saw as a White House winning streak after Republicans fared more poorly than expected in November’s midterm elections. On Tuesday, Biden’s attempt to show he was serious about the southern border crisis was overwhelmed when the documents flap followed him to Mexico. Two days later, his attempt to take credit for a slowdown in inflation – the economic crisis that bedeviled the White House last year – degenerated into a back-and-forth over the documents issue.

The White House’s public relations performance so far offers little confidence that Democrats will be able to hammer home their message as the storm rages – or that Biden’s expected announcement soon that he will run for reelection will not also face serious competition for attention.

Still, from everything publicly known about the controversy so far, it appears there are clear differences between the Biden case and the Trump one. There is no reason yet to doubt the statement by senior White House lawyer Richard Sauber that the documents were inadvertently misplaced and that this did not amount to a case of mishandling classified documents. Still, the White House’s selective transparency this week does raise some questions of credibility.

These doubts, however, pale in comparison to the behavior of Trump.

Whereas the president appears to have quickly cooperated with the National Archives, after the discovery of the first of a small number of documents, Trump apparently spent months stonewalling requests for the return of hundreds of pages of classified material. Biden, unlike Trump, never claimed the documents were his personal property or made fantastical claims they had been declassified by a private thought. That’s why there is, therefore, no sign Biden is being investigated for obstruction – as is the case for the former commander-in-chief. There is reason to think the White House claims that the affair can be quickly cleared up and the president will be exonerated could be borne out.

But the glaring vulnerability for Biden is that while the two cases can be separated legally, they are politically intertwined. Any conclusion after twin special counsel probes that cleared Biden but accused Trump of wrongdoing would cause uproar among Republicans whatever the relative facts of each case.

To a voter not following every twist of the drama, it will be easy for Republicans to argue that Biden’s Justice Department is pursuing Trump for a transgression of which the president is also guilty.

The intense political sensitivity of investigating a former president and current presidential candidate prompted Attorney General Merrick Garland to name Jack Smith as special counsel for the Trump investigations late last year.

When Biden then also had a classified documents problem, it was therefore almost inevitable – given suggestions of double standards – that a second special counsel would also be named.

Garland, clearly taking steps to protect the Justice Department after it was repeatedly drawn into politicized investigations in recent years, picked a former Trump administration Justice Department appointee Robert Hur to investigate the “possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records.” Hur will also have the authority to probe “any matters that arose from the initial investigation” handled by the US attorney in Chicago, and anything that “may arise directly from” his own investigation.

Democrats may hope that the choice of a lawyer with clear credentials who was a Trump appointee may insulate Hur against political attacks.

But McCarthy has already signaled to his conference in the House that there can be open season on the White House – and past experience suggests Hur should brace for a political backlash.

The transactional nature of political outrage is already in evidence.

The spectacle of Republicans who repeatedly downplayed Trump’s far more problematic retention of classified documents now gravely talking about the sanctity of intelligence information is extraordinary. GOP lawmakers, goaded by conservative television, are already trying to suggest that Biden may have endangered US national security with the way the documents were stored.

The White House is going to need to up its communications game.

CNN
 — 

Brazilian police searching the house of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister found a draft decree proposing the introduction of a state of defense to overturn the result of the country’s presidential election, the ministry’s spokeswoman told CNN.

Justice Ministry spokeswoman Lorena Ribeiro said Federal Police found the document while carrying out a search and arrest warrant at the house of Anderson Torres on Tuesday.

She said it proposed implementing a “state of defense” in the Superior Electoral Court while Bolsonaro was still leader in order to overturn the victory of his rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the October election. The draft had not been signed by Bolsonaro, Ribeiro said.

A state of defense is a legal measure that allows the sitting President to intervene in other areas of government to secure public order. While Bolsonaro lost the October election, he remained president until the end of December.

CNN has not viewed the document and Torres – who served as justice minister until the Bolsonaro administration left office – has issued a statement on social media denying he was the author of the decree.

“As Minister of Justice, we are faced with hearings, suggestions, and proposals of the most diverse types,” he wrote. “In my house there was a pile of documents to be discarded, where most likely the material described in the article was found,” he added. “Everything would be taken to be shredded at the Ministry of Justice in due course.”

Torres suggested that the decree draft had been deliberately leaked to media to discredit him.

“The cited document was picked up when I wasn’t there and leaked out of context, helping to fuel fallacious narratives against me. We were the first ministry to deliver management reports for the transition (of power),” he said. “I respect Brazilian democracy. I have a clear conscience regarding my role as minister.”

After leaving government, Torres took office as the head of Security for the Federal District of Brasilia, but was fired on Sunday after protesters breached police barriers and broke into government buildings. He had traveled to Orlando, Florida, allegedly on holiday, just days before the riots and was there as events unfolded.

Torres vowed to cut his holiday short and face justice after search and arrest warrants were issued by the Brazilian Supreme Court, denying any wrongdoing.

Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court issued Torres a preventive detention order under an arrest warrant issued on Wednesday.

The draft documents were first reported by Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo on Thursday.

Brazil’s new Justice Minister Flavio Dino told CNN Brasil on Thursday the existence of the draft decree was “appalling” and said what it called for was “unconstitutional.”

“I didn’t have access to the document and according to the press reports, it was a decree for a coup d’état that emphasizes what we saw on January 8 (the day of the riots), which wasn’t an isolated case. It was an element of a chain, a link in a coup chain in Brazil that had preparatory and astonishing acts, such as a decree of military intervention in the Electoral Court, which is unconstitutional,” Dino said.

He also criticized Torres for keeping the document at his home. “A public agent, upon becoming aware of a crime, should not keep such a document at home. It is something that really shows the will of closing the Supreme Court, the Congress, of preventing the freedom of the Brazilian people to choose their rulers. And all attempts failed, including the one on January 8.”

“What can I say to the Brazilian nation is if someone gives me a document of that nature, they would be arrested, because it is criminal. I wouldn’t keep it, I wouldn’t grind it,” Dino said.