Aurelia Butler

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    Dozens of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Leaders Sentenced in Mass Trial

    The 45 defendants, including Joshua Wong, were at the forefront of the opposition movement crushed by Beijing. Many have already been in jail for years.A Hong Kong court on Tuesday sentenced 45 former politicians and activists in a mass trial that has decimated the city’s once vibrant pro-democracy opposition and served as a warning that resistance to Beijing can be costly.The landmark trial is the most forceful use of a national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 in response to months of large protests against Chinese rule. The prosecution of the activists, the vanguard of Hong Kong’s opposition, has delivered what experts described as a knockout blow to hopes for democracy in the city.Their offense, according to the authorities: holding or taking part in an unofficial primary election.In one fell swoop in 2021, the authorities arrested Benny Tai, 60, a legal scholar and opposition strategist; Joshua Wong, 28, a prominent pro-democracy activist; and dozens of others, including veteran former lawmakers and younger politicians who called for self-determination for Hong Kong. Mr. Tai was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years in prison. Several opposition politicians and activists, including Au Nok Hin, Andrew Chiu and Ben Chung, were handed terms of around six and seven years each. Mr. Wong was given a sentence of about four years and eight months.The trial made clear that any form of dissent or criticism, however moderate, carried significant risk, analysts said. “If you are being critical of the authorities both in Hong Kong and in China, then it’s open season,” Steve Tsang, a Hong Kong-born political scientist and director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said in an interview.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    New York City Drought Warning Declared for First Time in Over 20 Years

    The warning, which extends beyond the city to include 10 other counties in New York state, was announced as wildfires burned and residents continued to await meaningful rainfall.Mayor Eric Adams on Monday elevated New York City’s drought watch to a drought warning, the last step before declaring a drought emergency, which would come with mandatory water restrictions.The warning extends beyond the city to include 10 additional New York State counties, including much of the Hudson Valley. In the rest of the state, which is also experiencing abnormally dry conditions, Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a drought watch.Although no restrictions are required under a drought warning, officials are urging residents to voluntarily conserve water, while water suppliers focus on contingency plans. The city’s reservoirs, which are usually around 79 percent full at this time of year, are down to about 60 percent of their total capacity, and the inch of rain forecast in the coming days will not be enough to replenish them, officials said. New York City has received less than a quarter-inch of rain since Oct. 1, according to the National Weather Service.One such contingency plan involves the pause of the Delaware Aqueduct repair project, a $2 billion, eight-month initiative, planned for decades, that required the shutdown of a crucial tunnel responsible for transporting about half the city’s water supply. Since repairs began in early October, access to four major reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains has been cut off.Now, the mayor plans to halt the construction project and reopen the aqueduct so the water from those four reservoirs can flow into New York again.“The ongoing and historic lack of rainfall, both in the city and in the upstate watershed where our reservoirs are located, has become more critical,” said Rohit T. Aggarwala, the city’s climate chief and the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the city’s water supply system.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    N.Y.C. Helped Migrant Accused of Killing Laken Riley Move to Georgia, Witness Says

    In other testimony, law enforcement witnesses placed the suspect, José Ibarra, at the scene of Ms. Riley’s killing, mainly through cellphone and GPS tracking data.Details of how the Venezuelan migrant charged with killing Laken Riley ended up in Athens, Ga., came into sharper focus on Monday, the second day of a trial that is being closely followed by supporters of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s planned immigration crackdown.The migrant, José Ibarra, was apprehended by the Border Patrol when he entered the country illegally in 2022 near El Paso. Like many migrants, he was released with temporary permission to stay in the country, and he headed to New York.A former roommate of Mr. Ibarra’s testified that she met Mr. Ibarra last year in New York City and traveled with him to Athens in September 2023 after Mr. Ibarra’s brother told them they could find jobs there.They lived for a while with Mr. Ibarra’s wife and mother-in-law at a Crowne Plaza hotel in Queens that had been converted to a migrant shelter, the roommate, Rosbeli Flores-Bello, said. And for a few weeks, she added, she and Mr. Ibarra lived in a car parked on the street by the hotel.Ms. Flores-Bello said that Mr. Ibarra’s brother Diego had constantly called him in New York, telling him to move to Athens because there were good work opportunities.Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University in Georgia.Augusta University, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Lawyer Says His Client Testified That She Saw Gaetz Having Sex With Underage Girl

    A lawyer representing two women who testified that former Representative Matt Gaetz paid them for sex told multiple news outlets on Monday that one of the women described witnessing Mr. Gaetz having sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017.The lawyer, Joel Leppard, told CBS News, ABC News and CNN about his clients’ testimony to the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations about Mr. Gaetz and young women, as well as accusations of drug use.Mr. Gaetz resigned last week shortly after President-elect Donald J. Trump announced he planned to nominate the Florida lawmaker to be his attorney general, despite having been investigated by the Justice Department previously.After the resignation, Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he would not make public the committee’s report because Mr. Gaetz was no longer in office.Mr. Leppard, speaking to ABC News, said one of the women testified that “in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw” Mr. Gaetz “having sex with her friend, who was 17.”He told CNN that Mr. Gaetz later discovered the girl was underage.Both women also told the committee that they were paid for sex using Venmo, Mr. Leppard said.Mr. Gaetz has previously denied the allegations. Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Trump transition, said, “Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration.” Mr. Gaetz is one of several controversial nominees whom Mr. Trump has announced he will submit for Senate confirmation. But he is the one who has provoked the most negative reactions from Republican senators. More

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    Trump Picks Sean Duffy, Fox Business Host, for Transportation Secretary

    A former Wisconsin congressman and Fox Business host, Sean Duffy, was selected by President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday to lead the Transportation Department.In a statement announcing his choice, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Duffy as a “tremendous and well-liked public servant” with the experience needed to lead the department, which has an annual budget of more than $100 billion and a vast work force.“Sean will use his experience and the relationships he has built over many years in Congress to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and usher in a golden age of travel,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.Mr. Duffy served in Congress from 2011 to 2019 as a Republican. He resigned in September 2019 to help care for a newborn daughter with a birth defect, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Mr. Duffy resigned from Fox News Media on Monday, according to a spokeswoman for the network. He had joined as a contributor in 2020, offering political analysis across all Fox News Media platforms, and had hosted “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business with Dagen McDowell since 2023. He originally rose to fame on the MTV reality show “The Real World: Boston.”If confirmed, Mr. Duffy will oversee a Federal Aviation Administration struggling with air traffic control and a Federal Railroad Administration still pushing for safety reforms after a fiery derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023. He will also be in charge of assessing how to rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Menendez Brothers Clemency Decision Is on Hold, Newsom Says

    Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said he would hold off deciding whether to grant clemency to Lyle and Erik Menendez until after the incoming Los Angeles County district attorney reviewed the case.Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Monday that he would not make a decision on granting clemency to Lyle and Erik Menendez, who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, until after the incoming district attorney in Los Angeles County conducted his own review of the case.The current district attorney, George Gascón, asked a judge in October to resentence the brothers, who were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Around the same time, the brothers petitioned the governor for clemency, and Mr. Gascón wrote a letter in support of the request.But Mr. Gascón lost his re-election bid this month to Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who vowed to be tougher on crime, and the change in leadership has cast some doubt on whether the resentencing bid will move forward.“The governor respects the role of the district attorney in ensuring justice is served and recognizes that voters have entrusted District Attorney-elect Hochman to carry out this responsibility,” Mr. Newsom’s office said in a statement on Monday. “The governor will defer to the D.A.-elect’s review and analysis of the Menendez case prior to making any clemency decisions.”Mr. Hochman has said publicly that he will conduct his own review of the case after he is sworn into office on Dec. 3, and that he may ask the Los Angeles Superior Court judge overseeing the resentencing petition to delay a hearing scheduled for Dec. 11.“Once I take office on Dec. 3, I look forward to putting in the hard work to thoroughly review the facts and law of the Menendez case, including reviewing the confidential prison files, the transcripts of the two trials and the voluminous exhibits, as well as speaking with the prosecutors, defense attorneys and victim family members,” Mr. Hochman said in a statement on Monday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What a School Performance Shows Us About Japanese Education

    .fallbackimg:before { content: “”; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-image: url(”); opacity: 0.5; background-size: cover; background-position: center; } #bgvideo{ opacity: 0.5; } .mobile-only{ display:block; } .desktop-only{ display:none; } h1.headline.mobile-only{ margin-bottom: 0; } @media screen and (min-width: 740px){ .fallbackimg:before{ background-image: url(”); opacity: 0.5; } #bgvideo{ opacity: 0.5; } .mobile-only{ display:none; } […] More

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    Nearly 100 Aid Trucks in Gaza Convoy Are Lost to Looters, U.N. Agency Says

    UNRWA, the agency that helps Palestinians, said its drivers were forced to unload supplies at gunpoint, in what it called one of the worst such incidents of the war.A large convoy of trucks carrying aid was “violently looted” in the Gaza Strip over the weekend and its drivers forced at gunpoint to unload supplies, the main United Nations agency that helps Palestinians said on Monday, calling it one of the worst such incidents of the war.The agency, known as UNRWA, said on Monday that the convoy of 109 trucks had been driving from the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza when it was looted on Saturday. Nearly 100 of the trucks were lost, members of the convoy suffered unspecified injuries and other vehicles sustained extensive damage, the agency said.The convoy — carrying food supplies from UNRWA and the U.N. World Food Program — had been scheduled to enter Gaza on Sunday, UNRWA said, but the Israeli military instructed it to leave a day earlier “at short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route.” The agency said that the incident highlighted the “challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza” despite months of attempts by aid agencies to help it arrive safely.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the episode. It was not clear who was responsible for the looting. In the past, Israel has accused Hamas militants of robbing aid convoys to supply their own forces. UNRWA said that the frequent looting of humanitarian aid convoys was in part a result of the collapse of law and order in wartime Gaza, the growing desperation among Palestinians there and the policies of the Israeli authorities, who “continue to disregard their legal obligations under international law” to ensure that sufficient aid safely reached Palestinians in the territory.The humanitarian situation in Gaza has continued to deteriorate in the 14th month of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas, which attacked southern Israel in October 2023.Official Israeli government figures this month showed that Israel, which controls all the crossings into Gaza, was letting significantly less food and fewer supplies into the territory than in earlier months, even as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without a substantial improvement in conditions there. Israeli officials have denied creating obstacles to aid deliveries. They have blamed aid agencies for failing to deliver the aid that it has allowed into Gaza, and have said that raids on aid trucks by Palestinians have prevented proper distribution.Adam Rasgon More