Elections

With more than 700 people arrested after supporters of Jair Bolsonaro ransacked Brazil’s seats of government, the authorities began to search for those who funded and aided the rioters.A day after arresting hundreds of people over the riot at Brazil’s capital, the Brazilian authorities turned their focus on Tuesday to the political and business elites suspected of inspiring, organizing or funding the rioters, who seized the seats of government in support of the far-right former president.In the most dramatic example of that turn, prosecutors on Tuesday asked a federal court to freeze the assets of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, on Tuesday, citing “the accountability process and the vandalism that occurred” in the capital, Brasília, on Sunday, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices.The petition was one of several moves by the authorities that highlighting the scope of the hunt to identify the ideological, logistical and financial architects of Sunday’s chaos, the worst attack on Brazil’s institutions since a military dictatorship ended in 1985.A Supreme Court justice issued arrest warrants for two prominent security officials, stating that they were under investigation for terrorism, criminal association, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and coup. And the attorney general’s office was expected to take action against more than 100 companies thought to have helped the protesters.The request to freeze Mr. Bolsonaro’s assets is now in the hands of a judge, but it is unclear whether the court has the legal power to block his accounts. And freezing assets, even if it were not challenged in court, could prove to be a lengthy and complex process in its own right.The justice minister, Flavio Dino, said on Tuesday that the police were already seeking arrest warrants for “people who did not come to Brasília but participated in the crime, who are organizers, financiers.”Riot police on Monday in Brasília.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesA day earlier, he said the authorities had zeroed in on companies in at least 10 states that were suspected of providing financial aid for those who took part in the attack. The attorney general’s office is also expected to ask a federal court to freeze the financial assets of more than 100 companies believed to have transported rioters to the capital or provided them with free food and shelter, according to press reports.Both Mr. Dina and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have suggested that the country’s powerful agriculture industry, which largely backed Mr. Bolsonaro in the election, played a role.“These people were there today, the agribusiness,” Mr. Lula said after the attacks, adding that “all these people will be investigated, found out, and will be punished.”Supporters of Mr. Bolsonaro had camped out for weeks outside the army headquarters in Brasília, espousing the false claim that the presidential election in October was stolen, and some called for the military to step in. The military and independent experts found no credible evidence of voter fraud in the election, which was won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president who defeated Mr. Bolsonaro and took office on Jan. 1.Mr. Bolsonaro had for years asserted, without evidence, that Brazil’s election systems were plagued by fraud, but after the October election he authorized a transition of power to Mr. Lula. Mr. Bolsonaro, who has been in the United States since before the inauguration, criticized the rioters on Sunday, saying that peaceful demonstrations were part of democracy but the “destruction and invasions of public buildings” was not.In the wake of the riot, investigators also face difficult questions about why rioters were able to enter federal government buildings so easily — and whether the authorities were blindsided, negligent or somehow complicit.Some officials have been quick to place most of the blame on Anderson Torres, who served as Mr. Bolsonaro’s justice minister before becoming the public security secretary of the Federal District, which includes Brasília.Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued warrants for the arrest of Mr. Torres and Fabio Augusto Vieira, the chief of the military police in the Federal District, who was responsible for the police forces on Sunday. Justice de Moraes, who has been accused in the past of severe overreach, wrote in his order that there were “strong indications that those investigated were colluding with a criminal association.”.Ricardo Capelli, who is temporarily in charge of security in the Federal District under an emergency decree signed by Mr. Lula on Sunday, accused Mr. Torres of “sabotaging” security in the capital.Some 599 people who were detained for questioning were released from custody.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times“There is no security force without command,” Mr. Capelli told reporters on Tuesday. As soon as Mr. Torres took over on Jan. 2, Mr. Capelli said, “Chaos ensues. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”The attorney general has requested the arrest of Mr. Torres and prosecutors are asking a judge to freeze his assets, along with those of Mr. Bolsonaro and the district’s governor, Ibaneis Rocha, who was suspended from his post after the riot.As justice minister, Mr. Torres took part in attempts to undermine confidence in electronic voting machines. In a two-hour livestream on social media in July 2021, in which Mr. Bolsonaro claimed that the election process was rife with fraud, Mr. Torres stood by him and presented videos claiming to show how voting machines could be hacked.State officials have said they accepted responsibility, but have not explained why security was light, despite warnings of the possibility of violent protests.By Tuesday, the police had arrested 727 people in connection with the riots and were still questioning hundreds of others, the federal police said in a statement. Some 599 people who were detained for questioning had been released from custody.Hamilton Mourão, a former Army general who was Mr. Bolsonaro’s vice president, criticized what he called “indiscriminate detention.” The crackdown, he wrote on social media, “shows that the new government, consistent with its Marxist-Leninist roots, acts in an amateurish, inhumane and illegal manner.”Some of those who invaded federal buildings filmed themselves and each other during the riot, giving the authorities a body of evidence with which to build a case. Augusto de Arruda Botelho, national justice secretary, said police had also collected DNA samples and fingerprints from the buildings.But prosecuting many of those who took part could prove difficult, legal experts said, given the need to link defendants to specific crimes.A person’s presence at the protest camp in Brasília, or even on the avenue of the federal buildings, may not be enough to convict, said Bruno Baghin, a public defender and a law professor at the School of Public Defense of São Paulo State.“Without attributing specific conduct to each individual,” he said, prosecution cases could be “very fragile.”Flávia Milhorance More

“What happened yesterday was really a massacre,” said one human rights activist.LIMA, Peru — A young medical student in his work uniform, desperate, his family said, to help injured protesters. A 22-year old man who had finally saved up enough to study mechanics. An ice cream vendor returning home after a long day of work.None took part in the demonstrations that have consumed Peru for a month. But all were killed in southern Peru on Monday, casualties in what became the deadliest day of clashes between protesters and government forces since the country erupted in violence last month.In a matter of hours, at least 17 civilians and one police officer were killed in the chaos of demonstrations, according to the country’s ombudsman office, an extraordinary spasm of violence that complicated the new president’s attempt to stabilize the country.The killings, in the city of Juliaca, near the border with Bolivia, drew widespread condemnation of Peruvian security forces, which appear to be responsible for most of the deaths, and have been accused by protesters and human rights groups of using lethal force indiscriminately against civilians.“He was in uniform, like all the doctors, so that they would be recognized and not attacked,” said Milagros Samillan, 27, the sister of the dead medical resident, an aspiring neurosurgeon named Marco Samillan, 31. “But the police still attacked them to kill.”Marco Samillan, 31, a medical student killed in the protests in Juliaca, Peru.Milagros SamillanOn Tuesday, Jennie Dador, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Coordinator of Peru, an accountability group, blamed “indiscriminate use of force” by state security forces for Monday’s deaths.“What happened yesterday was really a massacre,’’ she said. “These were extrajudicial killings.”Peru, the fifth-most-populous nation in Latin America, has been the scene of violent demonstrations since early December, when the country’s leftist president, Pedro Castillo, who had promised to address longstanding issues of poverty and inequality, attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. The move was widely condemned as unconstitutional and Mr. Castillo was arrested and replaced by his vice president.Supporters of Mr. Castillo, many of them living in impoverished rural regions, quickly took to the streets to demand new general elections, with many claiming they had been stripped of the right to be governed by the man they had voted into office just one year earlier.The violence in Juliaca on Monday marked the deadliest single clash between civilians and armed actors in Peru in at least two decades, when the country emerged from a dictatorship as well as from a long and brutal fight with a violent guerrilla group, a conflict that left at least 70,000 people dead, many of them civilians.The political convulsion in Peru come as South America faces significant threats to many of its young democracies, with polls showing exceptionally low levels of trust in government institutions, politicians and the media.On Sunday, supporters of Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed Congress and other buildings in the capital, fueled by a belief that the election Mr. Bolsonaro lost in October had been rigged. And in nearby Bolivia, protests have erupted in the economic hub of Santa Cruz following the arrest of the opposition governor, whose supporters claim he is being persecuted by the ruling government.Peru’s interior minister, Victor Rojas, said that the protests in Juliaca had begun peacefully on Monday but turned violent around 3 p.m., when about 9,000 protesters tried to take control of the local airport and people armed with makeshift guns and explosives attacked police officers.The riot police clashing with protesters in Puno on Monday.Juan Carlos Cisneros/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAmid the unrest, local television images showed people vandalizing the offices of public prosecutors and a supermarket in Juliaca and setting fire to the house of a lawmaker from an opposition party.Mr. Rojas claimed that security forces had acted within legal limits to defend themselves. “It became impossible to control the mob,” he said.The clashes in Juliaca raise the death toll since Mr. Castillo’s ouster to at least 47 people, according to the nation’s ombudsman. Nearly all of the dead have been civilians, the office said, with 39 killed, along with one police officer, amid protests and seven killed in traffic accidents related to the unrest or as a result of protesters’ blockades.The country’s demonstrations began shortly after authorities arrested Mr. Castillo on charges of rebellion on Dec. 7. Over the last month, some protests have been peaceful; in other cases marchers have used slingshots to fling rocks, set up roadblocks on vital highways, burned government buildings and taken over airports.When the new president, Dina Boluarte, a former ally of Mr. Castillo’s, declared a state of emergency in December, the military took to the streets to maintain order.Hundreds of police officers and civilians have been injured.Demonstrators assisting a man injured during a clash with security forces on Monday in Juliaca.Hugo Courotto/ReutersThe most recent bloodshed occurred in the region of Puno, a heavily Indigenous part of Peru, after villagers from remote Aymara communities arrived by the thousands in the city of Juliaca.Many were calling for Mr. Castillo to be returned to office, a political nonstarter in the capital of Lima, and a move that would be illegal.The chief demand is new general elections, which the electoral authorities said could happen as early as late this year. Congress has rejected such a tight time frame, with many representatives reluctant to give up their seats, but has backed a proposal for a vote in April 2024.By Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Boluarte still had not commented on the unrest since confirming the first civilian killed a day earlier, when she sounded exasperated with protesters’ demands.“The only thing in my hands is bringing forward elections — and we’ve already proposed it,” Ms. Boluarte said at an event on Monday. “During peace, anything can be achieved, but amid violence and chaos it gets harder.”Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, at a news conference, blamed Mr. Castillo and his allies for the deaths of the protesters, saying that they had incited violent attacks meant to destabilize Ms. Boluarte’s government.“They are who is responsible,” he said, “not our police, and not citizens who have been terrorized to see how these hordes of criminals try to undermine our rights.”On Tuesday, Mr. Otárola said the region of Puno would be subject to three days of curfew beginning at 8 p.m.Demonstrators clashing with security forces on Monday in Juliaca, Peru.Hugo Courotto/ReutersIn the wake of the violence, the United Nations, the British ambassador in Peru and other international players issued statements explicitly calling on Peruvian security forces to respect human rights.The United States, which has repeatedly expressed support for Ms. Boluarte’s government and last week announced $8 million in new funding for Peru to support efforts to fight drug trafficking, was less direct.“It is urgent that measures are taken to stop this painful situation of violence and avoid the loss of more human lives,” the U.S. ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna, wrote on Twitter.After the first nine bodies arrived at a hospital in Juliaca on Monday afternoon, Dr. Enrique Sotomayor, a hospital official, told local media that all had been shot with projectiles from firearms strong enough to seriously damage internal organs.Mr. Samillan, the aspiring neurosurgeon, hoped to one day open a hospital that would serve people with few economic resources, his sister said. He was completing an internship at a hospital in Juliaca, and on Monday, he and other volunteers had gone to the streets to help wounded protesters, she said.Speaking on the phone as she stood in a courtyard outside the hospital morgue, Ms. Samillan said her brother had been shot twice.“Everything was so fast, so bloody that even now I can’t believe everything that’s happening,” she said.A family photo of Mr. Samillan, center.Milagros SamillanMs. Samillan said her brother was “a person who likes to help people. And many times he has said: ‘I am going to support the people. It doesn’t matter if I lose my life.’ Unfortunately that became real, didn’t it?”She called for the resignation of Ms. Boluarte.“The people don’t want her,” she said.Roger Cayo, 22, always wanted to study mechanics, but he couldn’t afford it, said his only brother, Mauro Cayo. This year he had finally saved up enough money to go. Those plans were dashed when he was shot in the head on Monday while passing by the protests.“Right now we are all mourners here,” said Mr. Cayo, who was waiting to collect his brother’s body. On the phone, the sound of crying was audible in the background.Gabriel Omar López, 35, was the first person reported dead by the police on Monday. His wife told a newspaper, La República, that he had been shot amid the chaos after a day selling ice cream in the streets.On Tuesday, the police identified the dead officer as José Luis Soncco, and the Interior Ministry said he had died after protesters attacked a police vehicle, seized weapons and set the vehicle on fire.Protesters have vowed to march to Lima in the coming days, while the government has promised to introduce new measures to restore order. Many Peruvians fear a fresh wave of violence.The government said a delegation of high-ranking officials was being deployed to Puno to establish dialogue. But it was unclear whom they would speak with. On Monday, the interior minister, Mr. Rojas, said he was unable to find anyone in Puno willing to talk with him.“In the executive branch, we want to do things right, we want to fix our mistakes,” but the protesters have “closed the door” to dialogue, he said.“Their purpose is to create chaos,” Mr. Rojas said. “They were seeking these deaths.” More

Also, the eight warmest years on record and a fragile political alliance in the Philippines.Even the lobby of this Shanghai hospital is crowded with patients. Qilai Shen for The New York TimesCovid rages in ShanghaiIn Shanghai last week, local health officials said that up to 70 percent of the city’s 26 million residents had been infected, and they expressed confidence that its Covid outbreak had peaked.But China’s Covid wave is still deluging its most populous city. The photographer Qilai Shen took pictures of the outbreak.Patients arrive at the emergency room.Qilai Shen for The New York TimesHospitals are overwhelmed. Staff members say they are overworked because many colleagues are absent after testing positive for the virus. Patients are being treated in every available space, including lobbies and hallways.Funeral homes are, too. Mourners grieve in the streets, holding the ashes of their loved ones.Mourners walked by a funeral home.Qilai Shen for The New York TimesContext: Shanghai endured one of China’s most grueling lockdowns last spring. Cots flooded dirty quarantine centers and residents were stuck at home for more than two months, fueling anger and anxiety.Global warming only continuesThe eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2014, European climate scientists said yesterday. Last year was the fifth-hottest year on record; 2016 remains the hottest ever.Despite a third year of La Niña, a climate pattern that tends to suppress global temperatures, Europe had its hottest summer ever in 2022. Eastern and Central China, Pakistan and India all experienced lengthy and extreme heat waves, and monsoon floods in Pakistan ravaged much of the country.Understand the Situation in ChinaThe Chinese government cast aside its restrictive “zero Covid” policy, which had set off mass protests that were a rare challenge to Communist Party leadership.Rapid Spread: Since China abandoned its strict Covid rules, the intensity and magnitude of the country’s outbreak has remained largely a mystery. But a picture is emerging of the virus spreading like wildfire.Rural Communities: As Lunar New Year approaches, millions are expected to travel home in January. They risk spreading Covid to areas where health care services are woefully underdeveloped.Economic Recovery: Years of Covid lockdowns took a brutal toll on Chinese businesses. Now, the rapid spread of the virus after a chaotic reopening has deprived them of workers and customers.A Failure to Govern: China’s leadership likes to brag about its governance of the country, but its absence in a moment of crisis has made the public question its credibility.Overall, the world is now 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.1 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than it was in the second half of the 19th century, when emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels became widespread.“If you draw a straight line through temperatures since 1970, 2022 lands almost exactly on where you’d expect temperatures to be,” one researcher said.The U.S.: Carbon emissions inched up last year, even as renewable energy surpassed coal power.Resources: Here’s a primer on the basic science behind climate change and photos of the crisis.Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the president of the Philippines, and Sara Duterte, the vice president.Ezra Acayan/Getty ImagesA strategic Marcos-Duterte allianceThe children of two former autocratic presidents lead the Philippines: Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is president, and Sara Duterte is the vice president.Critics say their partnership is designed to protect their two powerful political families and shape their fathers’ legacies. Both patriarchs were accused of rights abuses and corruption, and both families face multiple legal challenges.Marcos and Duterte are working to present a united front. Marcos defended Rodrigo Duterte’s vicious war on drugs, and Sara Duterte defended the use of a controversial phrase in a new textbook that refers to the years of martial law under the elder Ferdinand Marcos.But their balance of power is fragile. Duterte, a popular former mayor, has shown she will not serve in Marcos’s shadow. She has set up satellite offices in key cities and could be a strong candidate in 2028.Diplomacy: The stakes are high for the U.S. as it tries to deepen its ties to Southeast Asia, where China is increasingly trying to gain influence. The Philippines is a key security partner and its oldest treaty ally in the region.Families: Dynasties dominate national politics in the Philippines — just a few families constitute up to 70 percent of Congress.THE LATEST NEWSAround the WorldMillions of Brazilians believe that October’s presidential election was rigged, despite analyses finding nothing of the sort.Victor Moriyama for The New York TimesDeeply rooted conspiracy theories and mass delusion drove Brazilians to riot.Violent riots in Peru over the ouster of the former president are sweeping the country. At least 17 people were killed on Monday in what a rights activist called “a massacre” by security forces.President Biden is meeting with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in Mexico City. They are seeking to make headway on an immigration surge and the fight against drug trafficking.The War in UkraineSoledar, a small city in eastern Ukraine, is close to Bakhmut, Russia’s ultimate prize. Roman Chop/Associated PressThe fight for the small eastern city of Soledar has intensified, as Russia seeks to gain a foothold around Bakhmut, an eastern Ukraine city.The Wagner Group, a private military contracting company, has recruited prisoners and is leading the offensive for Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said he would send more troops and arms to the east.Ukrainian soldiers will travel to the U.S. to learn how to operate the Patriot missile system.More than 200 Russian doctors signed a letter urging President Vladimir Putin to give Aleksei Navalny, the imprisoned opposition politician, medical care. They signed with their full names, a rare example of public criticism.U.S. NewsPresident Biden’s lawyers found classified documents in his former office, White House officials said.A 6-year-old who shot his teacher in Virginia last week appeared to do so intentionally, the police said.Heavy rains caused flooding in California.Damar Hamlin, the football player who went into cardiac arrest during a game, was released from intensive care.A Morning ReadThe Sydney Modern is an extension of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.Petrina Tinslay for The New York TimesThe Sydney Modern, which opened last month, doubles the exhibition space of one of Australia’s most important institutions. The modern design, and a new curatorial focus, are an attempt to reframe Sydney as a cultural hub with Indigenous roots and close ties to Asia, instead of looking to Europe or the U.S. for validation.ARTS AND IDEASHarry, unbuttoned“Spare” at a bookstore in London yesterday.Andrew Testa for The New York Times“Spare,” Prince Harry’s memoir, is an emotional and embittered book, my colleague Alexandra Jacobs writes in her review.“Like its author, ‘Spare’ is all over the map — emotionally as well as physically,” Alexandra writes. The entire project is mired in a paradox, she writes: Harry is demanding attention, despite his stated effort to renounce his fame.Above all, “Spare” is a bridge-burner, our London bureau chief writes. Harry frames his family as complicit in a poisonous public-relations contest, dashing hopes for a reconciliation anytime soon. He is raunchy, joking about a frostbitten penis and how he lost his virginity. He’s vindictive: He details fights with Prince William, portraying his brother as ill-tempered, entitled and violent. And he grieves his mother, Princess Diana, his repressed recollections unlocked by therapy and a whiff of her perfume.The deepening rift could complicate King Charles III’s coronation, planned for May. And the memoir may also finally exhaust the public’s patience with the self-exiled couple, even in the U.S. Still, the ubiquitous coverage is unlikely to damage sales, at least in the short term. Here are 11 takeaways from the tell-all.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookDavid Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Yakisoba is a Japanese stir-fried noodle dish with a tangy-sweet sauce.What to WatchHere’s what Times staff think should win at the Oscars.What to ReadIn “The Half Known Life,” a secular seeker visits holy sites to study ideas of the world beyond.How to WorkFocus like it’s 1990.Now Time to PlayPlay the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Messy situation (five letters).Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. Tell us about your reading goals for 2023.“The Daily” is on the meltdown of Southwest Airlines over the holidays.Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]. More

EARLE, Ark. — The shoe factory closed and the supermarket pulled out. So did neighbors whose old homes were now falling apart, overtaken by weeds and trees. Likewise, the best students at Earle High School often left for college and decided their hometown did not have enough to lure them back.Jaylen Smith, 18, could have left, too. Instead, when he graduated from high school last spring he resolved to stay put in Earle, a small city surrounded by farmland in the Arkansas Delta, where his family has lived for generations. More

Ms. Porter is the first announced challenger to Senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, who has yet to declare her 2024 plans but is widely expected to not seek re-election.WASHINGTON — Representative Katie Porter, a third-term California Democrat who studied under Elizabeth Warren at Harvard University and became a social media darling of liberal Democrats, said Tuesday that she would run in 2024 for the Senate seat held by Dianne Feinstein.Ms. Porter, 49, is the first announced challenger to Ms. Feinstein, 89, who has not declared her intentions about 2024 but is widely expected to not seek re-election amid Democratic worries about her age and ability to serve. Last year, Ms. Feinstein declined to serve as president pro tem of the Senate and earlier relinquished her post as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee under immense pressure after the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.“It’s time for new leadership in the U.S. Senate,” Ms. Porter said in a video announcing her campaign. Ms. Feinstein, in a statement released by her office, said she would “make an announcement concerning my plans for 2024 at the appropriate time.” She said she was focused on addressing the deadly storms battering California. Ms. Porter’s early campaign announcement — which carries echoes of Ms. Warren’s entrance to the 2020 presidential contest, when she was the first major Democrat to embark on a bid — jump-starts a race that is certain to be among the most expensive intraparty contests in the country. A vaunted fund-raiser, Ms. Porter became widely known for her combative treatment of witnesses from the financial sector and Trump administration officials who appeared before her on the House Oversight Committee.More on CaliforniaStorms and Flooding: A barrage of powerful storms has surprised residents across Central and Northern California with an unrelenting period of extreme weather stretching over weeks.Facebook’s Bridge to Nowhere: The tech giant planned to restore a century-old railroad to help people in the Bay Area to get to work. Then it gave up.U.C. Employee Strike: Academic employees at the University of California voted to return to work, ending a historically large strike that had disrupted research and classes for nearly six weeks.Wildfires: California avoided a third year of catastrophic wildfires because of a combination of well-timed precipitation and favorable wind conditions — or “luck,” as experts put it.The Iowa-born Ms. Porter was a leading surrogate for Ms. Warren’s 2020 campaign and often hosted small events promoting her mentor. She worked as a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and in 2012 was appointed by Kamala Harris, then the California attorney general, to oversee a $9 billion settlement after the mortgage crisis. She was elected to Congress in 2018.Ms. Porter won re-election in November by 3.4 percentage points in a district made much more Republican in California’s redistricting process, after prevailing in 2020 by seven points. Her seat may be tougher for Democrats to hold in 2024 without a candidate on the ballot who has Ms. Porter’s fund-raising acumen. Other California Democrats who have not announced campaigns for Ms. Feinstein’s Senate seat but are believed to be considering bids include Representative Adam Schiff, who has already hired staff members in preparation for a statewide campaign; Representative Barbara Lee, who has told donors of her plans to run; and Representative Ro Khanna, an aide for whom said Mr. Khanna would decide on the Senate race “in the next few months.” “It’s going to be a very exciting race with fabulous people — several have already talked to me,” said former Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who served for four terms alongside Ms. Feinstein before retiring in 2016. “The fact that Katie Porter has announced, I think, is going to open the door for a lot of early announcements.” California, the nation’s most populous state with nearly 40 million residents, has not hosted a highly competitive contest for an open Senate seat since 1992, when Ms. Feinstein and Ms. Boxer were both elected for the first time.Ms. Feinstein, in her sixth term, has been dogged by questions about her fitness to serve. Issues with her short-term memory have become an open secret on Capitol Hill, though few Democrats have been willing to discuss the subject publicly.She has made no moves to suggest she will seek re-election in 2024. She has not hired a campaign staff and, in the latest campaign finance report for the period ending in September, had less than $10,000 in cash on hand, a paltry sum for a sitting senator. More

‘Stop the Steal’ campaign founder’s Twitter account reinstatedAli Alexander, who originated campaign based on lie that inspired the January 6 attack, was banned on 10 January 2021 The founder of the campaign that promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump has had his Twitter account reinstated.Ali Alexander, who originated the “Stop the Steal” campaign that inspired the January 6 insurrection, was permanently banned from Twitter on 10 January following the Capitol riot.Upon his account being reactivated, Alexander tweeted his thanks to the Twitter CEO, Elon Musk: “Thank you [Elon Musk]. Now, bring everyone else.”In a follow-up tweet, Alexander dedicated his account to “Jesus Christ, Love, @J6Families, YE, and beating up naughty Republicans”, reported the Daily Beast.Since being banned, Alexander posted on the far-right platform Truth Social and claimed credit for the Capitol riot as the “main organizer”.The Enemy made false promises to our opponents.Their murderous lust for our destruction made them greedy.As a result, they’ve destroyed faith in already failing institutions and forced Twitter to go private. Normalizing us.Thank you @elonmusk.Now, bring everyone else.— Ali Alexander (@ali) January 9, 2023
On the day of the insurrection, Alexander posted several tweets about the protest and subsequent riot, including a message at 4.13am reading: “First official day of the rebellion.”Alexander also posted an image of 6 January attendees marching to the US Capitol, captioned: “200,000 marching to the US Capitol.”While Alexander has not faced criminal charges for his role in the 6 January events, his name appeared more than 100 times in the House committee’s final report, most relating to his false claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate.Alexander also responded to a subpoena to be questioned for the Department of Justice’s criminal inquiry into the January 6 attack, among the first high-profile pro-Trump activists to do so.Shortly after his Twitter reinstatement, Alexander celebrated a similar riot that took place in Brazil by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In a series of posts on Truth Social, Alexander wrote that he “endorsed the real people of Brazil” and not the “fake CIA backed rigged election”, adding: “The National Supreme Court in Brazil is illegitimate and the most corrupt part of the country … Do whatever is necessary!”TopicsUS Capitol attackTwitternewsReuse this content More

Many Israelis fear that with Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power at the head of Israel’s most right-wing government, his family members will play an outsize role in his decision making.JERUSALEM — When voters in Israel chose to return Benjamin Netanyahu to power they also elevated two people they didn’t elect: his wife Sara and his son Yair, who have long been intertwined with his political career.Ms. Netanyahu and Yair, 31, have helped shape Mr. Netanyahu’s election campaigns and rallied his base. But they have also been accused by critics of wielding undue influence over Mr. Netanyahu by pressuring him over policy issues, weighing in on political appointments and, in his son’s case, even meddling in matters of national security.Their habitual appearances in both the news media, in often sensational and lurid stories, and the Israeli courts have also added to the reality show-like atmosphere around the family.Now, with Mr. Netanyahu, 73, in power again as prime minister of Israel’s most right-wing and religiously conservative government, even as he is standing trial on corruption charges, many Israelis fear that the unelected members of the family will play an outsize role in his political life and decision making.“They set the tone. Completely,” Ben Caspit, an Israeli political commentator for Al-Monitor, a news site, and a biographer of Mr. Netanyahu, said of the presence of Ms. Netanyahu and the couple’s son on the political stage.A retired general testified in court on Jan. 1 that a decade ago, Ms. Netanyahu, 64, an educational psychologist, interviewed him for 45 minutes for a job as her husband’s military secretary after Mr. Netanyahu left the room.Yair Netanyahu caused an uproar last month after publicly leveling treason accusations against the police and state prosecutors who he said had “framed” his father and suggesting that the proscribed punishment for that was execution.“It’s serious, and it’s not good,” Ariel Saad, 37, an advertising manager in Tel Aviv, said of the presence of Mr. Netanyahu’s family so close to the center of power. “Netanyahu is very pliable,” he added, expressing a common perception in Israel. “How can you run the country under such circumstances?”Ms. Netanyahu, center, arriving at the Magistrate’s Court in 2018 in Jerusalem.Amit Shabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Netanyahus and their backers say that the Israeli media has been nursing an obsession with the family that borders on persecution since the 1990s, during Mr. Netanyahu’s first term in office, when Ms. Netanyahu fired a nanny for burning soup.“I could stand here till tomorrow morning, your honor, and tell you what the news media has done to me,” Ms. Netanyahu told a judge last year in court during another defamation case. “But let’s save the time,” she said.What to Know About Israel’s New GovernmentNetanyahu’s Return: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, returned to power at the helm of the most right-wing administration in Israeli history.The Far Right’s Rise: To win election, Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right allies harnessed perceived threats to Israel’s Jewish identity after ethnic unrest and the subsequent inclusion of Arab lawmakers in the government.Ultra-Orthodox Parties: To preserve his new government, Mr. Netanyahu has made a string of promises to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties. Their push for greater autonomy has potentially broad-ranging implications.A Provocative Visit: In one of his first acts as Israel’s minister of national security, the ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir toured a volatile holy site in Jerusalem, drawing a furious reaction from Palestinian leaders.“I think that the media hides all the wonderful things that I do,” she added.But over the past year, a number of people once close to Mr. Netanyahu have lifted a veil on some of the family’s inner dealings, speaking openly on television and in court, under oath, about episodes that have raised alarms.Ms. Netanyahu has garnered many sensational headlines over the years after getting in trouble over household expenses and getting sued by domestic staff for abusive behavior. Now the perceived growing influence of Yair Netanyahu over his father and his strident voice on radio and social media are getting increased attention.In November, Yair Netanyahu joined a right-wing Twitter campaign berating the army’s top brass for suspending two soldiers from operational activity for physically and verbally abusing left-wing Israeli activists in the occupied West Bank.In October, within hours of a television report saying that Israel and Lebanon were near an agreement to demarcate their maritime economic border, he tweeted or retweeted almost 80 posts slamming the deal, reached by the last government, as a shameful surrender to Lebanon — a message that his father, as the opposition leader, quickly incorporated into his campaign.In June, Yair Netanyahu wrote a column for ICE, an Israeli online publication, detailing the various rulers and conquests of the Holy Land, starting from biblical times, concluding that the Jews were the sole rightful owners. His father made a similar case in his autobiography, “Bibi: My Story,” that was published this fall, and the new government’s guidelines began with a declaration of the Jewish people’s “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.”The younger Mr. Netanyahu has no official role in his father’s office and says he earns money as a right-wing radio and podcast host and as a social media influencer. A spokesman for the family declined a request to interview Ms. Netanyahu and Yair Netanyahu and a request for comment from the prime minister.A person close to the family, who was not authorized to speak about them publicly, said Yair Netanyahu acted independently and there was no coordination between father and son.Yair Netanyahu, center, during a Likud party campaign event in 2019 in Tel Aviv.Abir Sultan/EPA-EFE, via ShutterstockFormer and current aides to Mr. Netanyahu say the family is a loving and tight-knit one, and that Ms. Netanyahu and Yair Netanyahu provide critical support for the prime minister. A younger son, Avner, 28, appears less involved in politics but has openly expressed his admiration for his father. (Mr. Netanyahu’s daughter from a previous marriage remains in the background.)The staunch domestic support has contributed to Mr. Netanyahu’s political longevity and success, experts say.“Those are the people Bibi most trusts; they adore him,” said Mazal Mualem, also an Israeli political commentator for Al-Monitor and the author of a recent biography of Mr. Netanyahu, “Cracking the Netanyahu Code,” referring to him by his nickname.Mr. Netanyahu does not always go along with their demands, Ms. Mualem said, and often must juggle things at home.“But there’s no doubt they are influential,” she added of Sara and Yair Netanyahu, “for better and for worse.”Mr. Netanyahu’s corruption trial has also highlighted unflattering accusations about the family, with key witnesses testifying about demands made by the household to wealthy businesspeople for deliveries of crates of champagne, luxury cigars and jewelry.Mr. Netanyahu denies all wrongdoing and says the cases against him are collapsing in court.Some of the most sensational accounts of goings-on in the household and interference in decision-making came out during a libel suit that the Netanyahu family brought against Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister, after he described them as being “mentally ill.”Called to testify by the defense, Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu confidant and, from 2014 to 2018, a spokesman for the family who later turned state’s witness in the corruption trial, told the court that Yair Netanyahu once burst into a meeting that his father was holding with officials including Moshe Kahlon, the finance minister, about a plan to turn Israel’s broadcasting authority into a corporation.Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu confidant, in 2021 outside a Jerusalem courthouse.Pool photo by Jack Guez“Then begins a show that if I wasn’t up here on the witness stand, your honor, you would not believe,” Mr. Hefetz told the judge, describing how the younger Mr. Netanyahu got down on all fours, impersonating a dog, and crudely berated his father for listening to Mr. Kahlon. At some point, Mr. Hefetz added, Ms. Netanyahu came in and backed up her son’s demand to scrap the plan.Mr. Hefetz also described how Mr. Netanyahu considered canceling an official visit to India in 2017 after Yair Netanyahu had stopped eating, according to Ms. Netanyahu, because he was not being consulted about policy decisions.But the person close to the Netanyahu family said he had personally seen Mr. Netanyahu clear all non-relevant people, including his son, out of the room when he needed to make decisions.Mr. Hefetz is suing Yair Netanyahu in another case for an alleged breach of his privacy in several social media posts. Mr. Hefetz also sold his diaries and hours of tape recordings, including private conversations with Ms. Netanyahu, to an Israeli TV network, Channel 13, and gave a lengthy interview that ran before the election.He recounted how he was called by an aide of Mr. Netanyahu’s to intervene in 2017 when his son had urged him, against the advice of the security services, not to remove metal detectors at the entrances of the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem that had been the source of days of violent protests. That advice was ultimately ignored, and the detectors were removed.Mr. Hefetz also said that Yair Netanyahu persuaded his father to give a hero’s welcome to an Israeli security guard who had been involved in a confrontation at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan, that led to the deaths of two Jordanians, exacerbating a diplomatic crisis with the country.Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party responded to the Channel 13 program in a statement saying, “How many more times will we have to hear this recycled nonsense?” and describing it as biased and based on “old, moldy rumors and false gossip.”Mr. Netanyahu, his wife and their son Yair at a polling station in Jerusalem during the general election in 2013.Uriel Sinai/Getty ImagesYair Netanyahu is now involved in another defamation case in which he and a former left-wing lawmaker, Stav Shaffir, are suing each other. The younger Mr. Netanyahu was temporarily removed from the courtroom during a late-November hearing because of his constant interruptions and muttered a sexist slur against Ms. Shaffir on his way out, according to court reporters.“I thought nobody would hear,” Yair Netanyahu wrote in a subsequent Twitter thread, blaming the acoustics and complaining of “character assassination” by the news media. More

Worries about public safety, especially attacks against Asian Americans, caused some in the once-reliably Democratic bloc to vote Republican last year.Asian Americans have typically formed a crucial and reliable voting bloc for Democrats in recent years, helping the party maintain its political dominance in liberal states like New York.But Republicans shattered that presumption in November when they came within striking distance of winning the governor’s race in New York for the first time in 15 years, buoyed in part by a surge of support among Asian American voters in southern Brooklyn and eastern Queens.Now, Democrats are trying to determine how they can stem — and, if possible, reverse — the growing tide of Asian American voters drifting away from the party amid a feeling that their concerns are being overlooked.Interviews with more than 20 voters of Asian descent, many of them Chinese Americans who had historically voted for Democrats but did not in 2022, found that many went with the Republican candidate for governor, Lee Zeldin, even if begrudgingly, largely because of concerns about crime.One lifelong Democrat from Queens, Karen Wang, 48, who is Chinese American, said she had never felt as unsafe as she did these days. “Being Asian, I felt I had a bigger target on my back,” she said.“My vote,” she added, “was purely a message to Democrats: Don’t take my vote for granted.”Besides crime, Asian American voters expressed concern over a proposal by former Mayor Bill de Blasio to change the admissions process for the city’s specialized high schools.Democratic leaders, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, have acknowledged their party’s failure to offer an effective message about public safety to counter Republicans’ tough-on-crime platform, which resonated not just with Asian Americans, but with a constellation of voters statewide.In Flushing, Queens, home to one of New York City’s most vibrant Chinatowns, homespun leaflets posted on walls in English and Chinese encouraged passers-by to “Vote for Republicans” before the November election, blaming Democrats for illegal immigration and a rise in crime.One flier portrayed Ms. Hochul as anti-police and sought to link her to the death of Christina Yuna Lee, who was fatally stabbed more than 40 times by a homeless man inside her apartment in Manhattan’s Chinatown last February.Over Zoom, a group of 13 Chinese American friends, most of them retired union workers, met regularly to discuss the election before casting their ballots. A mix of Republicans, Democrats and political independents, they all voted for Mr. Zeldin.Gov. Kathy Hochul and other leading New York Democrats have acknowledged their party’s failure to offer an effective message about public safety.Johnny Milano for The New York TimesAlthough Mr. Zeldin lost, his support among Asian American voters helped lift other Republican candidates to surprise victories in down-ballot legislative races.In one of the southern Brooklyn districts with a majority of Asian American voters, Peter J. Abbate Jr., a 36-year Democratic incumbent, lost to Lester Chang, the first Asian American Republican to enter the State Legislature.Mr. Chang’s entrance, however, was clouded by questions about his legal residency, prompting the ruling Assembly Democrats to consider trying to expel him. They ultimately decided not to seek his expulsion, with one lawmaker, Assemblyman Ron Kim, noting that such a move would have provoked a “strong backlash from the Asian community.”For Democrats, repairing ties with Asian American voters, who account for about 15 percent of New York City’s population and make up the state’s fastest-growing ethnic group, may be a difficult yet critical challenge given the significant role such voters are poised to play in future elections.State Senator John Liu, a Queens Democrat, said that Mr. Zeldin’s campaign message on the crime issue “simply resonated better,” and that Democrats had to improve the way they communicated with Asian Americans, particularly on education policy.“Democrats can begin by understanding the Asian American perspective more deeply,” said Mr. Liu, who was born in Taiwan. “The broader issue is that many of the social justice issues in this country are still viewed from a Black and white lens, and Asian Americans are simply undetected by that lens and therefore feel completely marginalized.”Republicans performed well in parts of New York City with the largest Asian American populations, drawing voters who said they were concerned primarily with public safety, especially amid a spate of high-profile hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.In Assembly District 49 in Brooklyn, for example, which includes portions of Sunset Park and Dyker Heights, and is majority Asian, Mr. Zeldin won 61 percent of the vote, even though it appears white voters turned out to vote in higher numbers. Mr. Zeldin won by similar margins in a nearby Assembly district that is heavily Chinese and includes Bensonhurst and Gravesend.In Queens, Mr. Zeldin managed to obtain 51 percent of the vote in Assembly District 40, which includes Flushing and is about 70 percent Asian: mostly Chinese and Korean immigrants.Support for Mr. Zeldin, who came within six percentage points of beating Ms. Hochul, was palpable across those neighborhoods before Election Day, with much of the pro-Republican enthusiasm appearing to grow organically. And posts in support of Mr. Zeldin spread broadly across WeChat, a Chinese social media and messaging app widely used by Chinese Americans.Interviews with Asian American voters revealed that their discontent with the Democratic Party was, in many cases, deep-rooted and based on frustrations built over years. Many of them described becoming disillusioned with a party that they said had overlooked their support and veered too far to the left. They listed Democratic priorities related to education, criminal justice and illegal immigration as favoring other minority groups over Asian Americans, and blamed Democratic policies for a rise in certain crimes and for supporting safe injection sites.Voters traced their sense of betrayal in part to a divisive 2018 proposal by Mayor de Blasio, a Democrat, to alter the admissions process for the city’s elite high schools, several of which are dominated by Asian American students, to increase enrollment among Black and Hispanic students.The plan would have effectively reduced the number of Asian American students offered spots at the elite schools, which made some Asian Americans feel that Democrats were targeting them.Mayor Eric Adams, Mr. de Blasio’s successor, moved away from his predecessor’s plan to diversify the city’s top schools, but the effort galvanized Asian Americans politically, prompting parents to become more engaged and laying the groundwork for Republicans to make inroads among aggrieved voters. Indeed, one vocal political club that emerged from the education debate, the Asian Wave Alliance, actively campaigned for Mr. Zeldin.“Why should I support Democrats who discriminate against me?” said Lailing Yu, 59, a mother from Hong Kong whose son graduated from a specialized high school in 2018. “We see Democrats are working for the interest of African Americans and Latino communities against Asian communities.”After years as a registered Democrat, Ms. Lu switched her party registration to Republican last year and voted for Mr. Zeldin. She ticked off a litany of recent instances of street violence — including one involving a stranger who spit at her while she was taking out her trash — that she said made her feel less safe now than when she arrived in the United States 50 years ago.“I think what upset me to see Asian Americans veer right is that they were swayed by fear and fear alone,” said Representative Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat of Taiwanese descent. “It’s important that we are working with the Asian American community, but also with our leaders up and down the ballot to make sure they’re listening and responsive to our concerns, which is not just substance, but outreach, especially during campaigns.”Sam Ni at his Sunset Park computer store. He said his shift to the Republican Party was prompted by a proposal to alter the admissions process for the city’s specialized high schools. Janice Chung for The New York TimesSam Ni, a father of two high school students, began shifting to the right after the debate over high school admissions. He described the city’s diversification effort as an attempt to “punish” Asian American students.Mr. Ni said fears over subway crime had disrupted his daily life and further estranged him from the Democratic Party. His wife, he said, recently began to drive the couple’s son to school from southern Brooklyn to Upper Manhattan, forcing her to spend hours in traffic instead of working at the computer store the family owns in Sunset Park.“If I told my son to go to the subway, we will worry about it,” said Mr. Ni, 45, who was a Democrat since immigrating to the United States from China in 2001 but who switched parties and voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2020.This year, Mr. Ni decided to play an active role in getting other Asian Americans to the polls: He helped organize an effort that raised about $12,000 to print get-out-the-vote banners, fliers and bags in English and Chinese.“If you don’t vote, don’t complain,” read the signs, a slogan that also spread on WeChat and other social media platforms. The message did not explicitly urge voters to back Mr. Zeldin, whom Mr. Ni voted for, but the materials were passed out primarily at rallies for Mr. Zeldin in the city’s Chinese neighborhoods.Mr. Ni helped organize an effort that raised money to print banners and other materials in Chinese and English encouraging people to vote. Janice Chung for The New York TimesThere were also larger forces at play.A week before the election, Asian American voters in New York City received mailings that appeared to be race-based. They accused the Biden administration and left-wing officials of embracing policies related to job qualifications and college admissions that “engaged in widespread racial discrimination against white and Asian Americans.”The mailings, part of a national Republican-aligned campaign targeting Asian American voters, were distributed by America First Legal, a group founded by Stephen Miller, a former top adviser to Mr. Trump who helped craft the president’s hard-line immigration policies.Democratic officials said they believed that many Asian Americans that voted Republican tended to be East Asian, particularly Chinese voters who may be more culturally conservative. Republicans may have also found success among first-generation immigrants who may not be as attuned to the history of racial inequity that has led Democrats to enact policies that Republicans have targeted, such as reforms to New York’s bail laws.Mr. Zeldin also made a point of meeting with, and raising money from, Asian American leaders and activists. The approach helped him win — and, in some cases, run up the vote — in many districts dominated by Asian American voters and enabled him to chip into Ms. Hochul’s overwhelming support in the rest of the city.Even so, some Asian American leaders noted that Mr. Zeldin’s near singular focus on crime — his campaign framed the election in existential terms: “Vote like your life depends on it, because it does” — allowed him to run up his numbers across many voting groups, including white and suburban voters, not just Asian Americans.Mr. Zeldin at a campaign rally shortly before Election Day. His near-singular focus on the issue of crime won over many Asian American voters. Dave Sanders for The New York TimesMany Democratic officials noted Ms. Hochul’s effort to rally Asian American voters in the campaign’s closing weeks, but characterized the push as too little, too late.After the election, the governor acknowledged that Democrats had fallen short in communicating their message about public safety to Asian American voters, saying that “more could have been done to make sure that people know that this was a high priority of ours.”“Obviously, that was not successful in certain communities who were hearing other voices and seeing other messaging and seeing other advertising with a contrary message about our priorities,” Ms. Hochul said in November after signing two bills aimed at curbing hate crimes. More