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      in US Politics

      Samuel Alito accepted concert tickets from conservative German aristocrat

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      Samuel Alito, the US supreme court justice, accepted $900 concert tickets from a Catholic German aristocrat known for her unabashed conservative views and ties to rightwing activists, his latest financial disclosure form reveals.Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis reportedly gifted the tickets to Alito and his wife to allow them to attend the Regensburg castle festival, an annual summer music extravaganza hosted at her 500-room castle in Bavaria.The princess, a descendant of princes of the Holy Roman empire, is noted for ties with Steve Bannon, a key supporter and former aide of Donald Trump, and connections to figures in the Catholic hierarchy opposed to Pope Francis.Her donation to Alito is set out in the justice’s annual financial disclosure report, which he filed late after requesting an extension.The declaration follows a series of controversies over the ethics of supreme court justices amid revelations that some, including Alito himself and Justice Clarence Thomas, have accepted gifts from wealthy benefactors without disclosing on mandatory forms.Alito has been at the centre of reports that he accepted a private jet free travel gift for a luxury salmon fishing trip from a conservative billionaire who had cases pending before the supreme court.He previously met von Thurn und Taxis along with fellow justice Brett Kavanaugh when she visited the supreme court in 2019 along with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who was dismissed from his position as head of the Catholic’s church’s doctrinal body by Pope Francis, and Brian Brown, a leading anti-LGBTQ+ activist.Von Thurn und Taxis’s palatial castle in Regensburg – the venue for the concert attended by Alito and his wife – has been mooted by Bannon as a potential venue for a European network of finishing schools for rightwing conservatives.Once nicknamed Princess TNT by Vanity Fair for her supposedly combustible personality, the princess previously affected a less traditional persona and was known for associating with the likes of Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall and Michael Jackson.A Tatler profile featuring a 1980s photo of her sporting a luxuriantly punk hairstyle, described her as “equal parts Helena Bonham Carter and Princess Diana”, adding: “She struck the socialite community with her outgoing personality and her rambunctious punk aesthetic.”After he reinvention as a conservative Catholic activist, she drew criticism in 2001 after saying on a television talkshow that the high rate of Aids in Africa was due, not to a lack of safe sex, but because “the Blacks like to copulate a lot”. She later tried to amend her remarks, saying Africans had a lot of sex due to the continent’s hot climate. More

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      in Elections

      Former Volkswagen Chief Executive Faces Trial in Emissions Case

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      Nine years after the carmaker admitted to concealing emissions on a massive scale, Martin Winterkorn will be tried in a German court.Almost nine years after Volkswagen admitted that it had rigged millions of cars to cheat on emissions tests, the company’s former chief executive went on trial Tuesday on charges stemming from the fraud, a vast corporate conspiracy that changed the auto industry.Martin Winterkorn, 77, who led Volkswagen from 2007 until he resigned under pressure in September 2015, appeared at a court in Braunschweig, Germany, after a judge rejected his pleas to postpone the trial because he said he was in poor health. The trial will be a test of whether German authorities can hold top executives accountable for wrongdoing that cost Volkswagen tens of billions of dollars and contributed to poor air quality in Europe and the United States.Mr. Winterkorn, who was once Germany’s highest-paid executive, faces criminal charges including fraud, market manipulation and making false statements. Prosecutors accused him of failing to notify authorities and owners of Volkswagen cars when, in 2014, he became aware of software designed to illegally cloak emissions that exceeded limits imposed by European and U.S. regulators.With Mr. Winterkorn’s knowledge, prosecutors said, Volkswagen continued to sell such vehicles until the cheating was exposed by California regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2015. Over a decade, Volkswagen and its Audi, Skoda and Seat units sold nine million cars with the illicit software.Prosecutors have also accused Mr. Winterkorn of authorizing a recall of the affected vehicles in 2014 with the purpose of preventing regulators from learning about the forbidden software. And he is accused of lying under oath to a German parliamentary committee investigating the cheating.The market manipulation charge arises from allegations that Mr. Winterkorn failed to notify Volkswagen shareholders of the financial risk posed by the software as required by securities law.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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      in Elections

      Conclusiones de las elecciones estatales en el este de Alemania

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      El partido ultraderechista Alternativa para Alemania tuvo una noche muy exitosa en dos estados, a pesar de que sus capítulos estatales fueron clasificados como “extremistas” por la inteligencia alemana.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El partido de ultraderecha Alternativa para Alemania, o AfD, tuvo una noche muy exitosa en dos estados del este de Alemania el domingo. Casi un tercio de los electores votaron por el partido, cuyos capítulos estatales han sido clasificados como “extremistas confirmados” por la inteligencia nacional alemana.Pero aunque un partido de extrema derecha tenga tanto éxito en dos estados alemanes menos de ocho décadas después del final de la Alemania nazi es simbólicamente tenso, es probable que solo tenga un impacto limitado en la política nacional alemana. Aunque el domingo un número récord de votantes acudió a las urnas en los dos estados, solo alrededor del 7 por ciento de todos los alemanes podía votar.Tampoco se espera que la AfD encuentre aliados fácilmente. Todos los demás partidos que obtuvieron escaños en las cámaras estatales el domingo se han comprometido a no colaborar con la extrema derecha, en una estrategia que alienará aun más a los votantes de extrema derecha, pero que pretende garantizar la estabilidad democrática en el gobierno.Aun así, las elecciones tendrán efectos dominó difíciles de predecir, sobre todo en el éxito de un partido de extrema izquierda que no existía el año pasado. En Turingia, el más pequeño de los dos estados, casi la mitad de los votantes se decantaron por partidos extremistas, lo que obligará a los partidos a hacer difíciles concesiones en las próximas semanas si sus líderes quieren crear un gobierno estable y operativo.En Sajonia, donde la Unión Cristianodemócrata (CDU) obtuvo el primer puesto, las cosas son algo más sencillas, en parte porque los Verdes y los Socialdemócratas podrían conservar un papel en un gobierno minoritario.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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      in Elections

      Israelis Go on Strike After Hostage Deaths, and German Far Right Makes Election Gains

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      Listen to and follow “The Headlines”Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadioPatrick Kingsley and Jessica Metzger and On Today’s Episode:Workers Strike as Israelis Seethe Over Hostage Killings, by Patrick KingsleyTakeaways From East Germany’s State Elections, by Christopher F. SchuetzeHow a Leading Chain of Psychiatric Hospitals Traps Patients, by Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie ThomasA Funnel Cake Macchiato, Anyone? The Coffee Wars Are Heating Up, by Julie CreswellA protest outside a military compound in Tel Aviv on Sunday. Many demonstrators on Sunday demanded that Israel reach a cease-fire and hostage deal with Hamas.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York TimesTune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@nytimes.com. For corrections, email nytnews@nytimes.com.For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Special thanks to More

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      in Elections

      Solingen, Germany, Becomes Reluctant Symbol of Migration Battles

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      After a stabbing attack that prosecutors say was committed by a Syrian who was rejected for asylum, the city of Solingen finds itself at the center of a longstanding debate.Two days after a deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen, the youth wing of the far-right AfD party put out a call for supporters to stage a protest demanding the government do more to deport migrants denied asylum.The authorities had identified the suspect in the stabbing spree that killed three people and wounded eight others as a Syrian man who was in the country despite having been denied asylum and who prosecutors suspected had joined the Islamic State. The attack tore at the fabric of the ethnically diverse, working-class city in the country’s west.But even before the right-wing protests had begun on Sunday, scores of counterprotesters had gathered in front of the group home that housed the suspect and other refugees. They carried banners that read, “Welcome to refugees” and “Fascism is not an opinion, but a crime,” and railed against those who would use the attack to further inflame an already fraught national debate over immigration and refugees.The dueling protests — not unlike those recently in Britain — are emblematic of Germany’s longstanding tug of war over how to deal with a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years. The country needs immigration to bolster its work force, but the government often finds itself on the defensive against an increasingly powerful AfD.The party and its supporters are attempting to use the stabbing attack to bolster their broader anti-immigrant message, with some blaming the assault on “uncontrolled migration” even before the nationality of the suspect was known.“They are trying to use this tragedy to foment fear,” said Matthias Marsch, 67, a Solingen resident who was at Sunday’s counterprotest and worries about a rightward drift in society. “I’m here to stand against that.”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

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      German Prosecutors Say They Suspect Terrorist Link in Festival Stabbings

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      The police say they have arrested a man they believe killed three people and wounded eight others at a festival in the town of Solingen, in western Germany.An attack on a crowd by a man armed with a large knife at a festival that left three dead and eight wounded in the city of Solingen, in western Germany, is being treated as terrorism, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.The suspect is a 26-year-old man from Syria who was living in a refugee residence only a few hundred meters from where the attack took place, the police said on Sunday. The man, wearing bloodstained clothes, approached a police car and gave himself up after 11 p.m. Saturday, the police said.In the attack on Friday night, the assailant aimed for his victims’ necks to inflict as much damage as possible, the police said.Besides planning to bring murder and attempted murder charges in the case against the man, the federal prosecutor is looking into whether he was a member of a foreign terrorist organization, Ines Peterson, a spokeswoman for the office, said on Sunday in an emailed statement.The Islamic State extremist group praised the attacker as a “soldier of the Islamic state,” but it was unclear whether the group had any connection to this particular attack.The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has campaigned largely on an anti-foreigner platform and is poised to make significant gains in three state elections next month, jumped on the news. Even before the identity of the attacker was confirmed by the police, one of its leaders called for changes to “migration and security policy.”The authorities had earlier arrested two people who were later determined unlikely to have been the actual attackers, Herbert Reul, the state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Solingen is, said in an interview on Saturday with a German broadcaster, ARD.A 15-year-old boy, who was arrested early Saturday, is being investigated for not having alerted the police when he learned about imminent plans to attack, prosecutors said. A man arrested by a heavily armed police unit on Saturday evening in the refugee housing facility where the main suspect also lived is being treated as a witness, the police and Mr. Reul said.On Saturday, Solingen’s mayor, the state governor and other political leaders gathered on a downtown square several hundred yards from where the attack took place to mourn the victims. It was an eerie repeat of a similar impromptu service held in Mannheim, another town in western Germany, where only three months ago an Afghan refugee attacked an anti-immigrant rally with a knife and killed a police officer trying to intervene.On Sunday, which was supposed to be the final day of a festival celebrating a city best known for making knives and scissors, a group of mourners met at a service held in a church next to the site of the attack. More

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      in Elections

      What We Know About the Knife Attack in Germany That Killed 3

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      The police have launched a manhunt for the perpetrator, who stabbed people at a city festival before slipping away.German police are hunting for a man who on Friday night attacked nearly a dozen people with a knife, killing three, during a street festival in the western city of Solingen.At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, the authorities said they had not ruled out that it was a terrorist attack because no other explanation for the seemingly random violence made sense.The police said they had detained a 15-year-old boy for questioning whom they believed might have had prior knowledge of the attack. The state attorney is not treating the youth as a suspect.What happened?Shortly after 9:30 p.m., the attacker started stabbing people who had gathered at the festival to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary. The attack occurred during a live music performance, not far from a temporary stage set up for the event, which was billed as a “Festival of Diversity.”The police said it appeared that the attacker chose victims from the crowd at random and that he appeared to target at least one of the victims’ necks.The festival, which was planned to run through Sunday, was immediately canceled as emergency workers tended to the injured and the police tried to get a handle on the situation.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

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Knife Attack in Germany Kills at Least 3 at Solingen Festival

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      The attack took place in Solingen during a celebration of the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding.The attack took place in a central square in Solingen, Germany, during a festival celebrating the town’s 650th anniversary.Andreas Rentz/Getty ImagesA person armed with a knife killed at least three people at a city fair in the western German city of Solingen on Friday night, according to the police. The attacker, who escaped, also severely wounded five others. Officers were looking for a suspect.Local news outlets reported that a lone attacker had turned on the crowds during the fair celebrating the 650th anniversary of the city’s founding.“This evening, we are all in shock, horror and great sadness in Solingen,” Tim Kurzbach, the city’s mayor, said in a post on Facebook. “We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have to mourn the dead and injured.”So far, the motive for the attack is unclear. More