Aurelia Butler

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    U.S. Sending $725 Million in Arms to Ukraine, Including More Land Mines

    The package, the largest since April, comes amid deep concerns in Ukraine that the Trump administration may cut off aid. The president-elect has vowed to end the war quickly, but has not said how.The Pentagon will send Ukraine an additional $725 million in military assistance from its stockpiles, including anti-personnel land mines, drones, portable antiaircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles.In a statement, the Pentagon said on Monday that the shipment was part of a surge in security aid as Ukraine battles a renewed Russian offensive.The new support comes amid deep concerns in Ukraine that the incoming Trump administration might cut off military aid to the country. President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to end the war quickly, though he has not said how. But Vice President-elect JD Vance has outlined a plan that would allow Russia to keep the Ukrainian territory it has seized.The new tranche will be the single largest that the United States has sent to Ukraine since a $1 billion shipment was announced April 24, just days after the House approved new aid to the country after a monthslong hold.The arms are provided under what is called presidential “drawdown” authority, which allows the administration to transfer Pentagon stocks to Ukraine instead of waiting the months or years it can take for defense contractors to manufacture weapons under new contracts.There had been 15 such drawdowns totaling $4.6 billion of arms, ammunition, vehicles and other supplies since the $1 billion package was announced.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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    NYT Crossword Answers for Dec. 3, 2024

    Henry Lin-David makes his New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — If Henry Lin-David’s Times debut is any indication of his puzzling prowess, I predict that he’ll enjoy a long career in crossword construction. I mean “career” in the figurative sense, of course — I have yet to meet a constructor whose puzzles pay the bills in toto.The grid is a treat to solve, but its theme is what I found utterly spectacular. I’m always delighted by the clever themes in early-week crosswords — it’s the rare one that makes me feel clever for having solved it, too. Did you experience a similar postpuzzle glow? Let me know your impressions in the comments.Today’s ThemeThe foods at 17-, 25-, 48- and 56-Across make for a strange smorgasbord, but there’s more than meets the eye (or stomach). MOOSE TRACKS ice cream, MAPO TOFU, MINI TWIX and something called a MEAT TORNADO — a [Fictional burrito on “Parks and Recreation” that “literally killed a guy last year”] — all share initials in common.Phonetically, these initials, M and T, represent [What many junk foods contain]: EMPTY (M.T.) CALORIES (34A).Tricky Clues20A. To have [Bathed, old-style] is to have LAVED. Now we just take showers.27A. Speaking of fancy words from the Middle Ages, this word for [Speaker’s platform] sounds like something from the Knights of the Round Table: DAIS (pronounced DAY-iss). Coincidentally, it may once have described a round table — DAIS is derived from the Latin word “discus.”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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    After Biden Pardons His Son Hunter, Prison Inmates Hope They’re Next

    President Biden has pardoned people convicted of some marijuana offenses, but advocates for prisoners say he has been slow to grant other requests.On Thanksgiving, Hunter Biden got the word from his father, President Biden, that he would be pardoned for tax and gun law violations, saving him from potentially spending a few years in federal prison.But Michael Montalvo, 78, a former cocaine ringleader who has spent nearly 40 years behind bars racking up course certifications, credits for good behavior and recommendations from his prison wardens, is still waiting to hear about his request for a pardon.So is Michelle West, who has spent more than 30 years in prison for her role in a drug conspiracy connected to a murder, while the gunman, who testified against her, has gone free. And Sara Gallegos, who is serving a 20-year sentence for being briefly involved in a drug ring after her husband was murdered when she was pregnant with her fourth child.“Everyone wants that chance,” said Lazara Serrano, who is waiting for her mother to win release from prison after more than 25 years, and who was stunned to hear that Hunter Biden’s criminal case was over. “For something just to be so sudden, and to happen right away, is crazy when there’s a line of people waiting.”Andrea James, who runs an organization that helps incarcerated women, said she did not begrudge Hunter Biden his pardon, but said she was hopeful that it would “move President Biden to consider other families who’ve endured what they have gone through for much longer periods of time.”Critics have complained that Mr. Biden has approved a smaller fraction of the requests for clemency that he has received than any other modern president. Of course, he still has time, and presidents have made a habit of waiting until the 11th hour to announce their clemency decisions.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 to Attend Notre-Dame Cathedral Reopening in Paris

    President-elect Donald J. Trump will travel to France on Saturday for the reopening of the historic Notre-Dame Cathedral five years after it was ravaged by a fire, his first foreign trip since last month’s election and a symbol of how quickly global leaders are turning the page on the Biden presidency.Mr. Trump announced the trip on his online platform, Truth Social, calling it “an honor” to make public his plans to visit the “Magnificent and Historic” building. He credited President Emmanuel Macron of France with doing “a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.”“It will be a very special day for all!” he wrote.The trip has been in the works for several days, according to people briefed on the planning. Mr. Trump and Mr. Macron have had at least one phone conversation, according to one of the people.President Biden is not expected to attend the reopening, but Dr. Jill Biden, the first lady, will be there, according to one of the people briefed.Mr. Trump has rarely left Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla., since he won a second term by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced President Biden on the Democratic ticket. The news of the trip was in some ways unsurprising. Mr. Trump loves ceremony and grandeur as it relates to construction sites, especially historic ones. And it marks his return to the world stage.But it is also the latest chapter in what has been a fraught relationship with European allies — and with Mr. Macron in particular.The French leader, who is facing domestic turbulence after a wave of anger from far-right and far-left forces, flattered Mr. Trump early in his first term as U.S. president. Mr. Macron invited Mr. Trump to attend the country’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris in 2017, and Mr. Trump went eagerly.But the relationship soured in 2018, when Mr. Macron endorsed the idea of a true European military defense, one that could counter Russia and China but also the United States. Mr. Macron’s approach chafed against Mr. Trump’s nationalism, at a time when far-right populists generally aligned with Trump were ascending in France and elsewhere in Europe. When the F.B.I. searched Mar-a-Lago for hidden classified documents in August 2022, some of the information federal agents took from the property related to Mr. Macron. More

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    U.S. Coast Guard Suspends Search for 5 People Missing in Alaska Waters

    The Coast Guard received a mayday call from a fishing boat on Sunday just after midnight. Search crews looked for its passengers for almost 24 hours.The U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday that it had suspended a search for five people who made a mayday call from a fishing boat off Alaska just after midnight on Sunday.The Coast Guard spent almost a full day covering over 100 square nautical miles searching for the 50-foot fishing vessel, which was called Wind Walker, and its crew, according to a news release from the military branch. Search crews reported finding seven cold-water immersion suits and two strobe lights but no remnants of the boat or anyone onboard. The boat reportedly capsized near Couverden Point, Alaska, in the Icy Strait, according to the Coast Guard.The crew said they were evacuating onto an emergency life raft during their mayday call, according to Travis Magee, assistant public affairs officer for the Coast Guard. Emergency marine responders who answered the call attempted to get more information from the crew but got no response, Mr. Magee said.A nearby ferry vessel, AMHS Hubbard, heard the emergency call over a broadcast and arrived first to help. A helicopter and a boat were also deployed from the Coast Guard.“We stand in sorrow and solidarity with the friends and family of the people we were not able to find over the past 24 hours,” Chief Warrant Officer James Koon, a search and rescue mission coordinator at Coast Guard Sector Southeast Alaska, said in a statement.There were six-foot seas, heavy snow and winds of up to 60 miles per hour when the boat was lost, officials said. Alaska was under winter weather warnings over the weekend, and some have been extended through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.The search was called off for now “pending the development of new information,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. The names of those missing have not been released. More

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    Pardoning Hunter Complicates the Legacy That Biden Envisioned

    President Biden is facing criticism for absolving his son after insisting he would not and, according to some critics in his own party, paving the way for Donald Trump’s return to office.There was a time, not that long ago, when President Biden imagined he would etch his place in history as the leader who ended the chaotic reign of Donald J. Trump, passed a raft of “Build Back Better” laws to transform the country and reestablished America’s place in the world.Now, in the desultory final days of his administration, Mr. Biden finds himself repudiated, even by some of his fellow Democrats, as the president who refused to step aside until it was too late, paved the way for Mr. Trump’s return to power and, in a final gesture of personal grievance over stated principle, pardoned his own son for multiple felony convictions.The disappointment and frustration expressed by his own supporters since Mr. Biden intervened to spare his son Hunter from prison and any future investigations captured the disenchantment of many Democrats with the outgoing president as the end draws near. How he will be remembered by posterity may be hard to predict at this point, but the past few weeks have not helped write the legacy he had once envisioned.The pardon came as Mr. Biden’s political stock was already at a low ebb after a stinging election defeat for his party that many allies blamed more on him than on the candidate who stepped up after he belatedly dropped out, Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision to attack the credibility of the justice system to safeguard a relative aggravated admirers who sympathized with his plight as a father yet were shocked that he would break his own promise to respect the courts’ decision.“I don’t think there is any doubt that our country would have been better off if President Biden had decided not to run for re-election,” said Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, reflecting a view that has been more commonly voiced privately by his fellow Democrats since Mr. Trump beat Ms. Harris last month. “Whether our nominee was the vice president or someone else, we would have had a much better chance to defeat Donald Trump.”Mr. Bennet, a low-key lawmaker not normally given to knee-jerk public criticism of the leader of his party, added that the clemency order fit the same pattern. “His decision to pardon his son, no matter how unconditional his love, feels like another instance of putting his personal interest ahead of his responsibility to the country,” he said. “It further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”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 Picks Warren Stephens, Billionaire Investment Banker, for U.K. Ambassador

    Warren Stephens, an investment banker and billionaire who donated to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s rivals before eventually supporting him in the 2024 race, was tapped as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Britain on Monday.The selection of Mr. Stephens for the ambassadorship, a plum posting that often goes to one of the largest donors to presidential campaigns, was in part a nod to the American Opportunity Alliance, a big-money network of Republican donors in which Mr. Stephens plays a leadership role. Mr. Trump and the alliance had a tense relationship at times over the course of his campaign.In 2016, Mr. Stephens, the chief executive of Stephens, Inc., an investment bank based in Little Rock, Ark., gave $2 million to a group dedicated to stop Mr. Trump from winning the Republican presidential nomination. During the most recent election cycle, he backed other Republican presidential candidates, including Asa Hutchinson, Chris Christie, Mike Pence and Nikki Haley.Beginning in April, after it became evident that Mr. Trump would be the Republican nominee, Mr. Stephens donated over $3 million to support his campaign, according to federal campaign finance reports. He also donated $3.5 million to Mr. Trump’s super PACs in 2019 and 2020 during his re-election campaign.During his first term, Mr. Trump named another financial backer of his campaign, Woody Johnson, as ambassador to Britain.In a statement posted on social media, Mr. Trump praised his new pick for “selflessly giving back to his community as a philanthropist.”“Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time,” the president-elect said. “I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies.”Theodore Schleifer More

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    How Biden Changed His Mind on Pardoning Hunter: ‘Time to End All of This’

    The threat of a retribution-focused Trump administration and his son’s looming sentencings prompted the president to abandon a promise not to get involved in Hunter Biden’s legal problems.A dark sky had fallen over Nantucket, Mass., on Saturday evening when President Biden left church alongside his family after his final Thanksgiving as president.Inside a borrowed vacation compound earlier in the week, with its views of the Nantucket Harbor, Mr. Biden had met with his wife, Jill Biden, and his son Hunter Biden to discuss a decision that had tormented him for months. The issue: a pardon that would clear Hunter of years of legal trouble, something the president had repeatedly insisted he would not do.Support for pardoning Hunter Biden had been building for months within the family, but external forces had more recently weighed on Mr. Biden, who watched warily as President-elect Donald J. Trump picked loyalists for his administration who promised to bring political and legal retribution to Mr. Trump’s enemies.Mr. Biden had even invited Mr. Trump to the White House, listening without responding as the president-elect aired familiar grievances about the Justice Department — then surprised his host by sympathizing with the Biden family’s own troubles with the department, according to three people briefed on the conversation.But it was Hunter Biden’s looming sentencings on federal gun and tax charges, scheduled for later this month, that gave Mr. Biden the final push. A pardon was one thing he could do for a troubled son, a recovering addict who he felt had been subjected to years of public pain.When the president returned to Washington late Saturday evening, he convened a call with several senior aides to tell them about his decision.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