Category: US

The whirring of saws and hammering of nails filled the belly of the ferry, its silent parade of cars was replaced by a hive of midnight activity.

Above deck, seats of the cabin were empty and the tables bare except for the school books and toys that waited for unknown children. 

In Istanbul’s Yenikapı Port, a midnight transformation was underway Friday night, as city authorities raced to transform one of two ferryboats into a floating village, with enough showers, kitchens, and even school teachers to temporarily house 1,200 people left homeless by this week’s deadly earthquake.

With its departure set for Saturday morning, time was of the essence, with city workers and volunteers having only started the ship’s metamorphosis 24 hours earlier.

By midnight, a few dozen bunks stood upright, ready for the extra crew, and 14 hospital beds were being shrouded with sheets, for the injured evacuees, that the boat will pick up in Iskenderun port, in Turkey’s earthquake-stricken Hatay province. 

While Turkey’s president has promised to provide hotel rooms for homeless residents, this project was the product of Istanbul’s own initiative rather than any government edict.

It’s a much needed, if imperfect, solution to the impending housing crisis, with thousands of buildings destroyed, likely many more uninhabitable.

“People will be able to sleep,” Sinem Dedetaş, general manager of the Istanbul’s ferry lines, which owns the boat, said. “They will be able to wash and use toilets, to eat comfortably. We will have socialization and rehabilitation areas.” 

CNN
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Donald Trump attorney Evan Corcoran appeared last month to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, that’s looking at the former president’s handling of national security records at his Mar-a-Lago residence, a source confirmed to CNN.

He was there for roughly four hours.

Bloomberg first reported that he had appeared.

Prosecutors asked Corcoran about what had occurred up until the August 8, 2022, search of Mar-a-Lago, which came after investigators found evidence that made them believe classified records kept at the Florida resort were moved and concealed – including questions about his interactions with Trump, another person familiar with the situation said.

The disclosure of Corcoran’s testimony comes amid a steady drip of recent moves by special counsel Jack Smith to obtain grand jury testimony from very close contacts of Trump, in many cases about what Trump was told and what he said at the end of his presidency and afterward.

It also comes amid an escalation of activity in Smith’s other Trump probe, looking into January 6, 2021, and efforts to impede the transfer of power following the 2020 election. Smith issued a subpoena in that investigation to former Vice President Mike Pence in recent days, seeking documents and testimony. Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien also received a subpoena, as CNN first reported.

Corcoran declined to answer some questions in the grand jury that would have divulged his advice to Trump and their conversations, citing attorney-client privilege, the person familiar added. The Justice Department has repeatedly tried in the investigation to force witnesses to answer questions they declined to respond to in the grand jury, but the courts will ultimately have to decide if Corcoran must say more.

As one of Trump’s primary criminal defense lawyers since he left the presidency, Corcoran has been in touch with federal investigators and the National Archives for much of the course of the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation.

He had drafted a letter signed by another attorney last June that said Trump’s team had done a diligent search and turned over classified records in their possession. Even still, the DOJ believed its investigation was being obstructed, prompting investigators to obtain a search warrant from a court in August.

Hundreds more records with classified markings were found, with additional being turned over by Trump’s lawyers to the DOJ in the past few months.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN
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The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating a near miss incident on the JFK runway last month, has issued a subpoena for the testimony of the American Airlines pilots involved.

“American Airlines cleared the flight crew’s schedule to ensure their availability; however, the flight crew refused to be interviewed on the basis that their statements would be audio recorded for transcription,” the NTSB preliminary report says. “As a result of the flight crew’s repeated unwillingness to proceed with a recorded interview, subpoenas for their testimony have been issued.”

The NTSB report says the American Airlines 777 crossed an active runway without clearance from air traffic control, causing a Delta 737 to abort its takeoff.

The report says the two aircraft came within 1,400 feet of each other.

Following the report, the NTSB issued a statement saying investigators “frequently use recording devices in interviews, particularly with those who had roles in operating the equipment involved in the accident or incident.”

The agency says it attempted to interview the American crew on three separate occasions and issued a subpoena Friday to the three crew members involved in the incident. They have seven days to respond, the NTSB says.

The statement notes that the airline itself has cooperated with the investigation.

Investigators have accepted written statements from the Delta crew and determined that they contain “sufficient information.”

As CNN has previously reported, the American Airlines flight continued on to London’s Heathrow airport. The flight voice recorders on both aircraft were overwritten, meaning investigators can’t hear what was said in the cockpit at the time of the incident.

The NTSB says the American crew, through their union, the Allied Pilots Association, would not consent to the interview.

“NTSB has determined that this investigation requires that the flight crew interviews be audio recorded and transcribed by a court reporter to ensure the highest degree of accuracy, completeness, and efficiency,” the report says.

The APA said in a statement that historically these interviews have not been recorded.

“We join in the goal of creating an accurate record of all interviews conducted in the course of an investigation,” the statement said. “However, we firmly believe the introduction of electronic recording devices into witness interviews is more likely to hinder the investigation process than it is to improve it. Not only may the recording of interviews lead to less candid responses from those witnesses who may choose to proceed under such requirements, but the existence and potential availability of interview recordings upon conclusion of an investigation will tend to lead many otherwise willing crew members to elect not to participate in interviews at all. Either outcome would not serve to advance the goal of conducting effective investigations in order to promote aviation safety.”

The union says the interviews should be “fact-finding” and not adversarial.

“We are confident that an acceptable solution to this issue exists that would satisfy the needs and concerns of all parties involved in these investigatory interviews,” the union wrote.

New York
CNN
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the divisions in his country were no worse than the political split in the United States, in an exclusive CNN interview Friday ahead of his meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House.

“Here there’s also a split, much more, or as serious as Brazil – Democrats and Republicans are very split up. Love it or leave it, that’s more or less what’s going on,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in Washington, adding that Brazil does not have “a hatred culture.”

Both Lula and Biden saw government buildings sacked in the aftermath of their presidential elections by far-right elements that have posed huge tests for their respective democracies.

Exclusive: Christiane Amanpour speaks with Brazil’s President Lula

“Never could we imagine that in a country that was the symbol of democracy in the world – someone could try to invade the Capitol,” he said about the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot in the US.

The similarities between the January 8 attack on Brasilia and the US insurrection include former President Jair Bolsonaro’s close alignment with former US President Donald Trump.

Lula calls Bolsonaro a “faithful copycat of Trump,” saying both men “don’t enjoy trade unions… They don’t like workers, don’t like women. They don’t like Black people.”

Both ex-leaders were repeatedly criticized during their terms for using racist and misogynistic language.

Even so, Lula is not convinced all Bolsonaro supporters are adherents to his views. “I am convinced that not everybody that voted for Bolsonaro follows Bolsonarism,” he said.

After his election loss, Bolsonaro decamped for the United States. He has been living near Orlando, Florida, for more than a month, prompting some Democratic Party lawmakers to call for him to leave the country.

Will Lula ask Biden to help extradite Bolsonaro back to Brazil? “I don’t know, I’m not going to talk about President Biden about that, this will depend on courts,” he replied. “One day he has to come back to Brazil and face all the lawsuits against him.”

Bolsonaro faces “almost 12 lawsuits against him in Brazil, more cases will come in,” Lula said, adding that he believes his former rival will “be convicted in some international court because of the genocide with Covid (outbreak) because half of the people that died in Brazil during Covid was the responsibility of the federal government.”

He also alleged that Bolsonaro could be “punished” by courts for “the genocide against the Yanomami indigenous people” after illegal mining in their protected territory soared during his term.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered an investigation to determine whether the actions of the Bolsonaro government amounted to “genocide” of the Yanomami – who have seen disease and malnutrition tear through their community in the last four years.

Bolsonaro has previously called such accusation a “left-wing farce” on his official Telegram channel.

Lula’s talks with Biden on Friday are expected to center around combating climate change and tackling anti-democratic extremism.

While Lula believes “democracy will prevail” in Brazil, he worries about about the rise of extreme right groups around the world.

“It’s in Brazil, it’s in Spain, it’s in France, and they are in Hungary, in Germany. We have an organized extreme right in the world and if we’re not careful, this will be a Nazi attitude from there. This is a denial attitude we haven’t seen before,” he said.

He agrees there is much to be done in Brazil about the climate, saying the country’s commitment to “reduce greenhouse emissions” by 39% would have to include rewarding local “mayors and governors, who guarantee no more burning of the forests.”

By extending an early invitation to Lula to visit the White House, Biden hopes to cultivate closer ties and demonstrate his support for one of the Western Hemisphere’s key players.

Biden quickly called Lula following his victory late last year, hoping to demonstrate support after Bolsonaro had laid the groundwork to question the election results. The move was received well among Lula’s officials, who saw it as a sign Biden was looking to restore US-Brazil ties.

They have met previously – when Biden was vice president, he met Lula on the sidelines of a gathering in Chile. But as counterparts, they will look to deepen what has traditionally been a key bilateral relationship in the Western Hemisphere, strained in recent years by the diametrically opposed Biden and Bolsonaro.

While they have much in common, Lula – like many leaders in middle income and developing countries – has adopted a policy of non-intervention over the war in Ukraine.

He has rebuffed efforts led by Biden to unite the global community in opposition to Russia’s invasion.

Speaking to CNN, Lula said that Ukraine had the right to defend itself “because the invasion was a mistake on the part of Russia.”

He explained he refused to provide ammunition to Ukraine because, “I don’t want to go join the war. I want to end the war.”

Lula has sought be a global statesman who could broker a truce between Russia and Ukraine, telling CNN that he has begun this “work” by speaking to the German Chancellor, who visited Brazil in January.

“I want to talk about peace with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. I want to talk about peace with President Biden, I want to talk about peace with (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping. I want to talk about peace with India, with Indonesia… because for me the world will only develop itself if we have peace,” he said.

Another thing Lula shares with Biden is age. They are both elderly presidents: Biden is 80 years old, while Lula is 77.

When asked about it, Lula said aging only exists for those who don’t have a cause to fight for.

“I am 77 years of age, and … I have the energy and power of someone who is 30 years old,” he said. “I don’t sleep because my home is the Brazilian people – I have to improve the lives of my people.”

CNN
 — 

Florida lawmakers on Friday approved an expansion of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial program to relocate migrants, giving the Republican leader authority to transport individuals from anywhere in the country.

The measure, now headed to DeSantis’ desk after passing the GOP-led House on a 77-34 vote, would allow his administration to pick up where the governor left off last year when he sent two planes of migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The attention-grabbing act thrust DeSantis into the middle of the national debate on immigration, earning the potential 2024 hopeful praise from conservatives and widespread condemnation from migrant advocacy groups and the White House.

The program had stalled amid multiple legal challenges and questions as to whether the DeSantis administration had violated state law by rounding up migrants in Texas. The budget law that created the $12 million program specified that the money was set aside to relocate “unauthorized aliens from this state.”

At DeSantis’ urging, lawmakers meeting in a special session this week voted to remove the restriction on where the state could pick up migrants. The program would also come under the purview of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Because DeSantis has declared a state of emergency related to immigration, this would allow the administration to award millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to companies to move migrants across the country with little public disclosure.

The legislation comes as Florida has experienced a spike of migrants from Cuba and Haiti attempting to reach the state’s coast by boat. However, the bill’s sponsor, GOP state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, said giving the DeSantis administration freedom to conduct missions outside of Florida would help stem the flow of migrants into the state.

“The state of Florida is currently in a state of emergency because of the ineptness and the incompetence of the federal government when it comes to immigration policy,” Ingoglia said Tuesday during a committee hearing on the bill. “In fact, I would say that someone should declare the federal government itself its own disaster area.”

The bill passed the state House on Friday over the strong objections of Democrats, who said the state does not have a constitutional role in addressing the country’s immigration issues. It passed the state Senate on a 27-12 party-line vote Wednesday. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.

“There’s nobody at this table who honestly thinks that we have a good immigration policy right now,” state Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Miami Democrat, said at a news conference Monday. “There’s no one at this table who will say Joe Biden is doing a great job with immigration. However, it’s their authority.”

In September, individuals working on behalf of the DeSantis administration in San Antonio convinced 49 migrants – most if not all asylum-seekers from Venezuela – to board two flights headed to Martha’s Vineyard. As the migrants arrived in Massachusetts to the confusion of locals, DeSantis took credit for arranging the mission during an appearance on Fox News.

Public records have since shed light on the clandestine mission, which included hiring a company with close ties to a DeSantis administration official to arrange the flights and using a woman named “Perla” to help convince migrants to take the flights.

Attorneys for the migrants have filed a class-action lawsuit, saying their clients were misled into agreeing to the flights and had been told that they would arrive to find housing, jobs and help with the immigration process. In fact, nobody on Martha’s Vineyard even knew they were coming, local officials have said. A migrant who aided Perla told CNN that he was misled into helping her recruit migrants for the trip.

On Wednesday, Ingoglia said it was on the migrants to inform the federal government of their location. He insisted that the state would only transport people voluntarily and said that so-called sanctuary jurisdictions are better equipped to provide resources for migrants than Florida.

Under the legislation, $10 million would be reallocated to the program under the state Division of Emergency Management for use through June. DeSantis in his proposed budget set aside another $12 million to continue the program.

Democrats suggested that Republicans were retroactively cleaning up DeSantis’ missteps during the mission to Martha’s Vineyard and helping him raise his profile so he can run for president in 2024.

“What we’re doing right now is carrying the water for the governor, knowing that what he did was wrong, and you are holding your nose to vote for this and saying that it’s right,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones. “This is wrong. It is not becoming of us as a state. It is not becoming of us as human beings, and it’s definitely not becoming of our resources and how we are about to spend taxpayers’ dollars.”

State Sen. Debbie Mayfield, a Republican, bristled at that suggestion.

“If the federal government was doing their job and securing our border, we would not have to be addressing this issue in Florida,” she said. “To me, it’s just that simple.”

The governor’s controversial flights could resume between now and mid-March after Vertol Systems, the contractor for the program that flew migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, filed an extension to its proposals for two additional migrant flights through March 15, according to new documents obtained by CNN.

CNN previously reported that Vertol Systems was paid $950,000 by the Florida Department of Transportation to fly migrants from Texas to Illinois and Delaware, however, those flights were never conducted. In total, Vertol Systems has received $1,565,000 from the state under DeSantis’ program.

Vertol Systems has repeatedly refused to comment on the migrant flights, or answer any of CNN’s inquiries about their contract.

This story has been updated with additional details.