Aurelia Butler

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    Trump Commutes Sentence of Imaad Zuberi, Major Donor to 2017 Inauguration

    Imaad Zuberi had been a major donor to Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Mr. Trump after his 2016 victory.President Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of a California venture capitalist and major political donor who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for violating lobbying, campaign finance and tax laws, and obstructing an investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee.The donor, Imaad Zuberi, 54, had been a major supporter of Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, before shifting his support to Mr. Trump after his 2016 victory.In the three months after the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Zuberi donated more than $1.1 million to committees associated with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, scoring coveted invitations to a pair of black-tie dinners celebrating Mr. Trump’s inauguration. In the process, he posted photos of himself with the president, as well as Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus and various cabinet nominees.In 2020, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the source of a $900,000 donation he made through his company to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in late December 2016.In 2019, Mr. Zuberi pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign donations during the Obama administration, including some funded by foreign sources, as part of a scheme to gain access to American politicians for foreign clients.He also pleaded guilty to falsifying records filed with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to conceal his lobbying work on behalf of Sri Lanka to help burnish the country’s reputation in Washington amid human rights concerns. And he pleaded guilty to failing to report and pay taxes on $5.65 million he was paid for the Sri Lankan lobbying campaign, much of which, prosecutors say, he diverted for personal use.During some of the criminal proceedings, Mr. Zuberi was represented by David Warrington, who is now Mr. Trump’s White House counsel.A senior White House official said Mr. Warrington recused himself from deliberations about the commutation.Part of Mr. Zuberi’s defense involved arguing that some of the activity with which he was charged stemmed from his work as a longtime intelligence source for the Central Intelligence Agency.Mr. Zuberi was sentenced in 2021. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to pay nearly $16 million in restitution and $1.75 million in fines. He had been held at a low-security federal correctional institution in California and was scheduled to be released in 2030, according to the Bureau of Prisons website. More

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    Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Writer Who Condemned Colonists and Elites, Dies at 87

    Mr. Ngugi composed the first modern novel in the Gikuyu language on prison toilet paper while being held by Kenyan authorities. He spent many prolific years in exile.Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a groundbreaking novelist, playwright and memoirist whose writings explored the iniquities and ambiguities of colonialism in his native Kenya as much as the misdoings of the postcolonial elite, and who led a passionate campaign for African authors to eschew the languages of foreign occupiers, died on Wednesday in a hospital in Buford, Ga. He was 87.His son Nducu confirmed the death.Often tipped as a potential Nobel laureate, Mr. Ngugi (pronounced GOO-ghee) spent many years in exile to avoid the wrath of a government he criticized. For several decades, he taught comparative literature and English as a professor at the University of California, Irvine. His work inspired successive generations of African writers along with contemporaries such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, both of Nigeria.His canon drew enthusiastic praise, including for his debut novel, “Weep Not, Child,” in 1964. It is the story of Kenyan brothers whose family must confront the challenges of the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule. The book has been described as the first major novel in English by an East African author.By contrast, “Devil on the Cross” in 1980, composed in his native tongue as “Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini,” was regarded as the first modern novel in the Gikuyu language, spoken by the country’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu. The book, about thieves who vie for supremacy by stealing from the people, sent him on a career writing in his own language and subsequently translating his work into English.Mr. Ngũgĩ began writing “Devil On the Cross” (1982) on prison toilet paper while he was detained by Kenyan authorities for a play that he wrote.HeinemannHe wrote “Devil on the Cross” on prison toilet paper while detained by Kenyan authorities for a year without trial because of a play he wrote. In a New York Times review in 2018, the writer Ariel Dorfman said the book was a “narrative of the devilish temptations he faced and the ruses used to thwart his jailers as he sat writing night after night in his cell.” The novel “shows Ngugi in full command of his craft,” Mr. Dorfman wrote.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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    Elon Musk, Distanced From Trump, Says He’s Exiting Washington and DOGE

    Elon Musk took a swipe at President Trump’s signature domestic policy legislation, saying it would add to the national deficit. He complained to administration officials about a lucrative deal that went to a rival company to build an artificial-intelligence data center in the Middle East. And he has yet to make good on a $100 million pledge to Trump’s political operation.Mr. Musk, who once called himself the president’s “first buddy,” is now operating with some distance from Mr. Trump as he says he is ending his government work to spend more time on his companies. Mr. Musk remains on good terms with Mr. Trump, according to White House officials. But he has also made it clear that he is disillusioned with Washington and frustrated with the obstacles he encountered as he upended the federal bureaucracy, raising questions about the strength of the alliance between the president and the world’s richest man.Mr. Musk was the biggest known political spender in the 2024 election, and he told Mr. Trump’s advisers this year that he would give $100 million to groups controlled by the president’s team before the 2026 midterms. As of this week, the money hasn’t come in yet, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the behind-the-scenes dynamic.Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. In a post on X, his social media site, on Wednesday night, he officially confirmed for the first time that his stint as a government employee was coming to an end and thanked Mr. Trump “for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” he added, referring to his Department of Government Efficiency team.The billionaire’s imprint is still firmly felt in official Washington through that effort, an initiative to drastically cut spending that has deployed staff across the government. But Mr. Musk has said in recent days that he spent too much time focused on politics and has lamented the reputational damage he and his companies have suffered because of his work in the Trump administration.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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    Leader of Smuggling Ring Gets 10 Years After Indian Family Froze to Death

    The family of four that used the network got disoriented and lost their way in 2022 while trying to reach the United States from Canada on foot in blizzard conditions.More than three years after a young Indian family froze to death trying to cross into the United States from Canada during a blizzard, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the convicted architect of the human smuggling network that they used to a decade in prison.Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, a 29-year-old Indian national who lived in Florida, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for his role in the operation that ferried Indians into the United States via Canada. He will be deported after serving time, the Justice Department said.His convicted co-conspirator, Steve Anthony Shand, 50, a U.S. citizen from Florida, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.Prosecutors said during the trial that the men were part of a large-scale criminal operation that arranged for dozens of Indians to enter Canada on fake student visas, and then smuggled them into the United States over land.Mr. Patel orchestrated the logistics with other co-conspirators. Mr. Shand was the driver who met the immigrants south of the Canadian border and transported them to Chicago, according to the Justice Department. It said in a news release that the smugglers had charged $100,000 for passage from India to the United States.Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, left, and Steve Anthony Shand were sentenced on Wednesday.Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, via Associated PressFor Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, and their 11-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, the journey in January 2022 ended in tragedy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their ice-encased bodies in the desolate borderland between Manitoba and Minnesota.The Patels were part of a group of 11 Indians who had set out from the tiny Canadian town of Emerson with instructions on how to cross the border on foot.They expected to meet on the American side a person who would deliver them to their destination, most likely Illinois, where they had family or friends. But the family was separated from the rest of the group and most likely struggled to stay on course in the dark, buffeted by winds that whipped up blinding snow.The wind chill temperature was minus 36 degrees and lower, and wind gusts were as high as 50 miles per hour during their trek, the Justice Department said. An autopsy determined that the family had died from exposure to the cold. The seven other passengers survived.The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, a specialized unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.“The callous disregard for life that led to the tragic deaths of an entire family will not be forgotten,” Jamie Holt, the special agent in charge in St. Paul, Minn., said in a statement on Wednesday.The sentencing took place in the northwestern Minnesota town of Fergus Falls, where a jury convicted the two men last fall of four counts each related to human smuggling, including causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. More

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    The Times Confirms More Names on Trump’s Crypto Dinner Guest List

    Some were identified through photos as they entered the event. Others posted about their evening on social media.They came from faraway spots, including Estonia and China, and closer locations, such as San Francisco and even Maryland, but one thing almost all of them had in common was some tie to the cryptocurrency industry.That is the common thread that emerges among the two dozen additional guests The New York Times has added to its list of those invited to President Trump’s dinner last Thursday at his golf club in Virginia.The Times obtained a partial list of all 220 invitees, along with email addresses and phone numbers for many of them. But in some cases the names were common enough or the contact information was so incomplete that The Times could not immediately confirm the attendees’ identities.Work toward confirming these details has continued since last week and The Times has now added another two dozen individuals invited to the dinner and in some cases also for a White House tour. Those additional names have been added to the more than 30 names that The Times published in the past week. More

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    Larry Hoover, Former Chicago Gang Leader, Wins Commutation From Trump

    Mr. Hoover was accused of directing the Gangster Disciples even after he went to prison in the 1970s. The federal commutation will not change his state prison sentence.When an Illinois judge sentenced Larry Hoover to up to 200 years in prison for murder in the 1970s, it was the sort of punishment that seemed destined to end his career as a Chicago gang leader.But in the decades that followed, prosecutors said, Mr. Hoover’s power only grew as he directed one of Chicago’s most powerful gangs, the Gangster Disciples, from behind prison walls.Young members would pledge allegiance to Mr. Hoover, whom they called their “king,” and those who broke Gangster Disciple rules, prosecutors said, would face bloody retribution “up to and including murder.” His influence continued to grow into the 1990s, when he was convicted of more crimes in federal court and shipped off to a supermax prison with a life sentence.On Wednesday, after years of lobbying from Mr. Hoover’s supporters, including celebrities, President Trump fully commuted the federal sentence of Mr. Hoover, according to a White House official familiar with the matter.The commutation was not likely to bring Mr. Hoover, who is now 74 and largely a memory in his hometown, back to Chicago’s streets. His state prison sentence remains in effect, with a projected parole date of 2062, when Mr. Hoover would be 111. But the president’s decision showed his willingness to extend leniency to some prisoners, despite his frequent rhetoric about the danger of violent criminal gangs.Jennifer Bonjean, a lawyer for Mr. Hoover, said that the process to commute Mr. Hoover’s sentence had been years in the making. The entertainer Ye, who was formerly known as Kanye West, lobbied Mr. Trump during his first term in office, she said, and others have joined the effort since then.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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    Trump’s Tariffs Turn Porsche’s Headwinds Into a ‘Violent Storm’

    The storied sports car maker, which was facing challenges from China and slumping demand for electric cars, now has to grapple with tariffs from the Trump administration.This year was already shaping up to be a tough one for Porsche. Chinese customers were losing interest in the luxury sports car, its bet on electric vehicles was failing with drivers long enamored by the rumble of its combustion engines and its stock price hovered near record lows.Then President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on all cars imported to the United States starting in April. Last week, he doubled down on that, threatening a 50 percent tariff for all products from the European Union, sending Porsche’s shares tumbling further and E.U. leaders and auto executives scrambling to make a deal.All of Europe’s leading carmakers have been hit by the tariff turbulence, at a time when they are already facing increasing competition from Chinese automakers. But unlike BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, Porsche manufactures its vehicles exclusively in Germany, leaving it more vulnerable to the combined threat of advancements from China’s rivals and tariff increases in the United States.“It is literally a perfect storm,” said Harald Hendrikse, a managing director covering the European auto sector at Citi Research. “You have a triple threat, which is China, an E.V. strategy that was wrong — despite being lauded at the time — and then Trump’s tariffs, which nobody had guessed would be as severe as they are.”That has led Porsche to scale back its forecast for the year, by about 2 billion euros, or $2.2 billion. Its profit margin range is also expected to drop between 6.5 percent and 8.5 percent, from 10 percent to 12 percent.“Our market in China has literally collapsed,” Porsche’s chief executive, Oliver Blume, told shareholders at the company’s annual conference on May 21. “U.S. import tariffs are weighing on our business.”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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    China to Launch Tianwen-2 Mission to Capture Pieces of Near-Earth Asteroid

    The robotic Tianwen-2 spacecraft will collect samples from Kamoʻoalewa, which some scientists suspect is a fragment of the moon.China has a space station and, in just a few short years, has landed robots on the moon and Mars. This week the country’s space agency is targeting new, far-flung destinations and setting off for an asteroid that could contain secrets that explain how Earth and the moon formed.The country’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft is set to lift off aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China some time on Thursday (it will be Wednesday in New York).After about a year, the robotic mission will arrive at 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, a near-Earth asteroid. There, it will perilously try to scoop up some rocky matter, and then swing back around to Earth. A capsule filled with geologic treasure would then plunge toward the planet for retrieval by scientists in late 2027.If Tianwen-2 pulls this off, China will become the third nation — after Japan and the United States — to retrieve pristine material from an asteroid.“All Chinese planetary scientists are now finger-crossed for this historic mission,” said Yuqi Qian, a lunar geologist at the University of Hong Kong.The spacecraft also has a secondary target, an unusual comet that it could study as part of an extended mission.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