Pope Francis Says Europe Doesn’t Have a Migrant Emergency

MARSEILLE, France — Pope Francis challenged French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders to open their ports to people fleeing hardship and poverty, insisting Saturday that the continent isn’t facing a migration “emergency” but rather a long-term reality that governments must deal with humanely.

For a second straight day in the French port city of Marseille, Francis took aim at European countries that have used “alarmist propaganda” to justify closing their doors to migrants, and tried to shame them into responding with charity instead. He called for migrants to have legal pathways to citizenship, and for the Mediterranean Sea that so many cross to reach Europe to be a beacon of hope, not a graveyard of desperation.

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The Mediterranean, Francis told Macron and a gathering of regional bishops, “cries out for justice, with its shores that on the one hand exude affluence, consumerism and waste, while on the other there is poverty and instability.”

The pope’s visit to the city in southern France, which drew an estimated 150,000 well-wishers Saturday, comes as Italy’s far right-led government has reacted to a new wave of arriving migrants by threatening to organize a naval blockade of Tunisia and to step up repatriations. The French government, for its part, has beefed up patrols on its southern border to stop migrants in Italy from crossing over.

After the bishops’ meeting ended, Macron and Francis held a private, half-hour meeting. They spoke about migration issues and a series of other topics, the French presidency said, adding that both leaders share a “joint will” to bring human solutions to the situation.

France is a “host country” to migrants — especially to asylum seekers — and is supporting European solidarity policies, including through financing and fighting human trafficking, the French presidency said. The Vatican provided no readout of the meeting.

Macron’s centrist government has taken a harder line on migration and security issues after coming under criticism from French conservatives and the far right. With elections for the European Union’s parliament set for next year, Macron is pushing for the EU to strengthen its external borders and to be more efficient in deporting individuals who are denied entry.

Macron greeted Francis on a wind-swept promenade overlooking Marseille’s old port, and helped him walk into the Palais du Pharo for the Mediterranean bishops meeting. With his wife by his side, the French leader listened as a young Italian volunteer working in Greece and the bishop of Tirana, Albania, who fled to Italy during Albania’s communist rule, spoke of the welcomes they received in foreign countries.

“May we let ourselves be moved by the stories of so many of our unfortunate brothers and sisters who have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate, and not become closed in indifference,” Francis said. “In the face of the terrible scourge of the exploitation of human beings, the solution is not to reject but to ensure, according to the possibilities of each, an ample number of legal and regular entrances.”

Francis’ two-day trip was scheduled months ago, but it is taking place as mass migration to Europe is once again making headlines. Nearly 7,000 migrants who boarded smugglers boats in Tunisia came ashore on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa within a day last week, briefly outnumbering the resident population.

Nevertheless, Francis said talk of a migration “emergency” only fuels “alarmist propaganda” and stokes peoples’ fears.

“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome, for life” he said. “As for the emergency, the phenomenon of migration is not so much a short-term urgency, always good for fueling alarmist propaganda, but a reality of our times.”

In addition to Macron, the pope’s audience on Saturday included European Commission Vice President Margarítis Schinás, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who has said France would not take in new migrants from Lampedusa.

The French president and first lady Brigitte Macron later attended Francis’ final Mass at the Marseille Velodrome that drew an estimated 50,000 people and featured a giant banner of the pope hoisted up in the stands. The Vatican, citing local organizers, said 100,000 more lined Marseilles’ central Avenue du Prado to cheer as his popemobile passed by.

History’s first Latin American pope has made the plight of migrants a priority of his 10-year pontificate. For his first trip as pope, he traveled to Lampedusa to honor migrants who had drowned while attempting to cross the sea.

In the years since, he has celebrated Mass on the U.S.-Mexico border, met with Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees and, in a visible display of his commitment, brought home 12 Syrian Muslims on his plane after visiting a refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece.

Migrants and their advocates living in Marseille, which has a long tradition of multicultural hospitality, said Francis’ call for charity and paths to citizenship gave them hope that at least someone in Europe was sympathetic to their plight.

“It is a very beautiful opportunity for us,” said Francky Domingo, who is part of a Marseille-based association representing migrants seeking official identification documents. “We really want the pope to be our spokesperson to the politicians because the European policy on migration is very, very repressive for us migrants.”

Stephanie Tomasini, a 48-year-old Marseille resident who attended the mass, said the pope sent an important message. “We must be able to … extend a hand and share, all of us should do that. Today, we’re not faced with difficulties, but we could be tomorrow, and we will want someone to open the doors for us,” she said.

Many faithful came from across French regions to see the pope, who last visited the country almost a decade ago. Catherine Etienne, from Brest in western France, watched Francis’ parade with joy. “We are really happy to have seen the Pope. We’re very moved,” she said.

In his remarks, Francis also repeated his opposition to euthanasia, which he has long decried as a symptom of a “throwaway culture” which treats the elderly and infirm as dispensable. Listing euthanasia as a “social evil,” he criticized supporters of assisted suicide as providing “false pretenses of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death that is more ‘salty’ than the waters of the sea.”

The issue is current in France, where Macron is expected in the coming weeks to unveil a bill that would legalize end-of-life options in France. French media reported that he delayed the presentation of the measure until after the pope’s visit to keep the sensitive topic from interfering.

No details of the government’s proposal have been released, but several options are under consideration, including legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia for adult patients with incurable conditions under strict conditions that guarantee their free and informed consent.

The French presidency said Francis and Macron discussed the issue during their bilateral meeting but didn’t enter into the details.

source https://time.com/6316960/pope-francis-europe-migrant-emergency/

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Dismisses Idea of Military Manipulating Coming Elections

UNITED NATIONS — Pakistan’s interim prime minister said he expects parliamentary elections to take place in the new year, dismissing the possibility that the country’s powerful military would manipulate the results to ensure that jailed former premier Imran Khan’s party doesn’t win.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said it’s the Election Commission that is going to conduct the vote, not the military, and Khan appointed the commission’s chief at the time, so “why would he turn in any sense of the word against him?”

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Pakistan has been in deepening political turmoil since April 2022 when Khan was removed from office following a no-confidence vote in Parliament. He was arrested in early August on corruption charges and sentenced to three years in prison, later suspended though he still remains in jail. The country is also facing one of the worst economic crises in its history and recovering from last summer’s devastating floods that killed at least 1,700 people and destroyed millions of homes and farmland.

The commission announced Thursday that the elections would take place during the last week in January, delaying the vote which was to be held in November under the constitution.

Kakar resigned as a senator last month after outgoing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader Raza Riaz chose him as caretaker prime minister to oversee the elections and run the day-to-day affairs until a new government is elected.

He said that when the commission sets an exact election date, his government “will provide all the assistance, financial, security or other related requirements.”

Asked whether he would recommend judges overturn Khan’s conviction so he could run in the elections, the prime minister said he wouldn’t interfere with decisions by the judiciary. He stressed that the judiciary should not be used “as a tool for any political ends.”

“We are not pursuing anyone on a personal vendetta,” Kakar said. “But yes, we will ensure that the law is appropriate. Anyone, be it Imran Khan or any other politician who violates, in terms of their political behavior, the laws of the country, then the restoration of the law has to be ensured. We cannot equate that with … political discrimination.”

He said fair elections can take place without Khan or hundreds of members of his party who are jailed because they engaged in unlawful activities including vandalism and arson, in reference to the violence that rocked the country following Khan’s initial arrest in May. He added that the thousands of people in Khan’s party who didn’t engage in unlawful activities, “will be running the political process, they will be participating in the elections.”

The Pakistani military has been behind the rise and fall of governments, with some of Khan’s supporters suggesting there is de facto military rule in Pakistan and that democracy is under threat.

Kakar, who reportedly has close ties to the military, said those allegations are “part and parcel of our political culture,” to which he pays no attention. He called his government’s working relationship with the military “very smooth,” as well as “very open and candid.”

“We do have challenges of civil-military relationships, I’m not denying that,” he said, but there are very different reasons for the imbalance. He said he believes, after one month leading the government, that civil institutions in Pakistan have “deteriorated in terms of performance for the last many decades” while the military is disciplined, has organizational capabilities and has improved over the past four decades.

The solution, Kakar said, is to gradually improve the performance of the civilian institutions “rather than weakening the current military organization, because that’s not going to solve any of our problems.”

One major problem is Kashmir, which has been a flashpoint for India and Pakistan after the end of British colonial rule in 1947. They have fought two wars over its control.

In 2019, India’s Hindu nationalist government decided to end the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy, stripping it of statehood, its separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.

Kakar said India has sent 900,000 troops to Kashmir and its people are living in “a large imprisonment” with no political rights, in violation of the United Nations Charter’s right to self-determination and the resolution calling for a U.N. referendum.

While the world focuses on Ukraine, he said, Kashmir “is a crisis which primarily has a wrong geography.”

If Kashmir were in Europe or North America, would there still be what he called a “callous attitude” toward resolving it, he asked.

“The most important player in this dispute is the Kashmir people,” Kakar said. “It is neither India or Pakistan,” but the Kashmiri people who “have to decide about their identity” and their future.

India boasts of being the largest democracy, he said, but it “is denying the basic, democratic principle to have a plebiscite. … So what sort of a democracy they are boasting about?”

As for Pakistan’s relations with neighboring Afghanistan — under the Taliban rule since 2021 following U.S. and NATO withdrawal — Kakar said “there are some serious security challenges” from the Afghan side, pointing to the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, the Islamic State and other extremist groups, who at times vie for influence with each other.

When asked whether the government had requested the Taliban to extradite the leadership and fighters from the TTP, he said they are in contact with authorities in Kabul, “but there is nothing specific which I can share with you.”

The international community has withheld recognition of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan.

He said a meeting of regional leaders to discuss what incentives and changes of behavior the Taliban would need to make for recognition to be considered hasn’t been finalized, but “I think we’re heading toward that milestone.”

Kakar was a little-known first-time senator from Pakistan’s least-populated, least-developed province when he was tapped to be the caretaker prime minister.

“It’s a huge privilege,” he said. “I feel I never deserved it. It’s just a divine blessing.”

By law, he can’t contest the elections when he’s interim prime minister, but Kakar said in the future he hopes “to play a constructive political role in my society.”

source https://time.com/6316948/pakistan-prime-minister-election-manipulation-military/

Hunter Biden’s Controversies Explained

source https://time.com/6316738/hunter-biden-controversies-explained/

Gael García Bernal Plays a Charismatic Hero for Our Dismal Times in Cassandro

Delight is hard to come by in 2023. Social media is both a fantastic tool for self-expression and a convenient town square for public scolding—sometimes the noise of the latter cancels out the benefits of the former. Self-righteousness and preening selfies are everywhere; individuals with a sense of humor about themselves are few and far between. Into this somber arena steps a character—based on a real person—who’s so sure of himself that he doesn’t mind having a laugh at his own expense. In Roger Ross Williams’ Cassandro, now streaming on Prime Video, Gael García Bernal plays Saúl Armendáriz, the man who would become the lucha libre star Cassandro, a scrappy, glamorous, openly gay wrestler who carved a place for himself in a world of machismo. As Bernal plays him, Cassandro is a hero for our dismal times, not just because he crashes through norms, but because he makes it look fun, even when it most certainly isn’t. This is a performance filled with truthful joy, and it floods this modestly scaled but open-hearted movie with light.

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Before Saúl becomes Cassandro, he’s an amateur luchador living in El Paso but regularly crossing the border into Juarez for local matches. He hopes to make his mark in Mexican wrestling without resorting to adopting the identity of an exótico. An exótico is a fighter—possibly straight, possibly not—who dresses in drag as a way of drawing attention to the manly-man qualities of his opponent. The exótico’s job is to get the crowd hyped up, attracting their jeering epithets. He’s never supposed to win; in fact, the ugly homophobic subtext is that the audience ostensibly takes pleasure in seeing him beaten. (In lucha libre, the winners are generally predetermined.) Then Saúl meets a trainer, Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez), who thinks she can make him into a better wrestler. She also convinces him that an exótico isn’t a bad thing to be, and that embracing that role might end up being the very thing that sets him apart.

Read more: Director Roger Ross Williams Always Roots for the Underdog

Saúl has been raised solely by his mother, Yocasta (played, in a spirited performance, by Perla De La Rosa), whom he adores. Luckily, she has a closet well-stocked with leopard-print bodysuits and shiny going-out tops. Saül fashions a flamboyant costume and re-emerges onto the scene as Cassandro, the exótico with a difference. As Saúl says mischievously, “He wins.” Unlike most lucha libre wrestlers, Cassandro doesn’t wear a mask; makeup is his armor, and when he steps into the ring, he’s a vision in glittery metallic fabric and artfully applied eyeliner, his hair a punky bleached-blonde tousle. He teases and flirts with his opponents, which seems to infuriate them—their faces may be hidden by their stretchy patterned masks, but it’s not hard to read their body language. Yet the crowd, as it turns out, loves it. Cassandro’s fighting style is acrobatic and jubilant. He tumbles past his opponents in naughty elfin fake-outs, only to whirl around and grab them, sometimes with theatrical amorousness. He’s so wiry and fast they don’t know what’s hit them.

But there are times, too, when he’s pinned to the mat so brutally that it’s clear he’s in a world of pain. Cassandro is up for all of it—it’s part of the cost of being in this world—and with the help of an ambitious if somewhat sleazy promoter, Joaquín Cosio’s Lorenzo, he lands a high-profile Mexico City match that could make or break his career. His opponent is the silver-masked El Hijo del Santo (playing himself), who’s part of a lucha libre dynasty—and who must not, under any circumstances, be beaten.

Cassandro is a deeply affectionate film, tracing the highs and lows of Saúl’s career, with a focus on the highs. (Director Williams, who won an Oscar in 2010 for his documentary short Music By Prudence, also profiled Armendáriz in 2016 for Amazon’s New Yorker Presents series.) But Bernal, in this exuberant yet subtle performance, draws us into Saúl’s darker moments too. Right before his big match against El Hijo del Santo, Saúl has a breakdown of sorts, tumbling from a cocaine high into darkest despair; it’s Sabrina who draws him out of it. (In real life, Armendáriz was so distraught by the negative chatter preceding the match that he attempted suicide by slitting his wrists a week before. Another exótico and close friend saved him.) Saúl is grief-stricken when his mother dies suddenly, and he struggles to reconcile his feelings for his estranged, disapproving father, Eduardo (Robert Salas).

Saúl’s love life, too, is brushed with melancholy. He’s in love with another luchador, Gerardo (the wonderful Raúl Castillo), a married family man intent on protecting his hetero facade. Their furtive trysts are playful and erotically athletic, but it dawns on Saúl that Gerardo doesn’t want him to grow out of his assigned role. When Saúl playfully suggests that his more assertive alter ego Cassandro might be “a top,” Gerardo waves the joke off. Gerardo is happy to sleep with sexy, adorable, compliant Saùl; he’d rather not deal with the more self-assured Cassandro, who might make demands on him that he doesn’t want to fulfill.

Read more: Bad Bunny’s Next Move

As played by Bernal, both Saúl and Cassandro, two sides of the same man, are so charismatic that even straight guys (or, at least, guys who assert their straightness) are tempted. When Saúl flirts with Lorenzo’s young right-hand man, Felipe (played, charmingly, by Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also known as Bad Bunny), Felipe deflects this flirtatious seduction but doesn’t recoil from it—he accepts it as the compliment that it is.

Because to turn away from Bernal’s Saúl is to miss out on sunlight. The pleasure of Cassandro lies in watching Saúl learning to fill up every corner of his identity, as a gay man, as a performer and athlete, as a person who is always just yearning for more. To watch Cassandro bounce around that ring, sometimes kissing his opponents full on the mouth and drawing back with a grin, or miming sexual acts with the faux innocence of an ingenue, is to see a person reveling in the gifts he’s been given. He can laugh at himself, even when his world seems dark. At one point he assesses an opponent’s fighting style: “That guy has no poetry.” Cassandro, on the other hand, has plenty. It sings in every muscle, including his heart.

source https://time.com/6316358/cassandro/

Unpacking the Internet’s Obsession With Fall Aesthetics

Autumn doesn’t officially start until Sept. 23, but for TikToker Chasitey Pounds, it started back in June. 

Pounds, 26, is one of many content creators on social media who cultivate large followings by posting comforting autumn visuals like pumpkin spice lattes, candles, chunky sweaters, and cozy couch set-ups. The thriving online niche has amassed major traction, with fans eagerly anticipating blogger Caitlin Covington, better known as “Christian Girl Autumn,” posting photos from her annual fall Vermont photo shoot and hashtags like #autumnaesthetic and #fallaestetic collectively gaining over over 7 billion views on TikTok.

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@chasiteyy

missing autumn reeeeeaaalll bad, especially days like this one 🍂🎃 #autumn #fall #autumnaesthetic #autumnvibes #fallaesthetic #cozyaesthetic #cosyvibes #cozycore #rain #rainyday #cozycorevibes #cozycore #autumncore #fallcore #halloween #falltiktok #autumntok #aesthetic #aestheticvideos #cozytok #autumnal #autumnleaves #falltok #rainydayvibes #rainyweather

♬ original sound – Audrey🎃

“I want to create stuff that emulates the feeling of fall and coziness and just brings people some comfort in everyday life,” Pounds tells TIME.

Fall has been Pounds’ favorite season since she was a child in Ohio. Now, after previously having given up on trying to earn a following with flat-lay content, pivoting to cozy seasonal videos has enabled her to gain 100,000 TikTok followers and leave her job in the hospitality industry to do content creation full time. All it took was a simple fall-aesthetic video going viral on Instagram Reels. The video, in which she is simply sitting in a car, reading a book with tea and a blanket while rain falls outside the windows, racked up over 1 million views in a single day. The internet and its fall enthusiasts have played a big role in the commodification of the season: According to Fortune, NielsenIQ data shows that the pumpkin spice market produced more than $800 million from July 2022 to July 2023.

And as much as Pounds is entering the prime months for viewers eager to immerse themselves in the pumpkins and changing leaves featured in her current videos, the North Carolina-based creator doesn’t just post cozy content within the three-month bracket of the season. She’s realized that the internet is interested in cozy content year-round. “I’m really good at emulating that autumn feeling even if it’s like 90 degrees outside,” she says.

The history of fall content on the internet 

The fall obsession itself is nothing new. Many beloved films and TV shows are memorable for their crunching leaves and ties to the season (think: When Harry Met Sally; Good Will Hunting; Silver Lining Playbook). And the internet’s love of foliage content started long before the emergence of TikTok and vertical videos.

Covington remembers first coming across the content on the websites Pinterest and We Heart It. Pounds’ obsession started as early as 2011 on sites like Tumblr. “Consuming other people’s content gave me a really warm feeling in my chest,” she says. Images related to fall eventually manifested on platforms like Instagram, with influencers and their followers using “fall presets” and filter apps like VSCO whose colors imbued their images with the feeling of fall year round.

One of the most significant contributions to fall content on the internet came from lifestyle YouTubers. A pioneer in the space was influencer Bethany Mota (known to the chronically online as MacBarbie07). With nearly 10 million YouTube subscribers, Mota was the face of the video platform from the early to mid-2010s thanks to her seasonal content. Her second most-watched video (17 million views and still counting) was a morning fall routine video in which she makes herself tea, puts on plum-hued makeup and dresses in a thick cardigan sweater before heading out to Starbucks for a pumpkin spice frappuccino. 

Ten years since the video was uploaded, it’s still receiving thousands of new comments from viewers saying that they return to it for its cozy, fall nostalgia. Just last month a TikToker by the username @Gingeraleprincess99 uploaded a video with over 700,000 views pegged to the return of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte and was sure to include Mota’s famous get-ready-with-me video. She goes on to say that Mota’s cultural impact on the internet’s obsession with fall vibes has reverberated throughout time, calling the YouTuber’s casual sipping of the Starbucks drink the “fall vibes big bang theory.” 

@gingeraleprincess99

A crash course on the patron saint of Fall Vibes… Bethany Mota 🍂☕️ I know this isnt my normal content on this app but i had so much fun making this!!! I’ve been in such a rut since cutting back on movie content and i LOVED doing this hehehe #bethanymota #pumpkin #psl #pumpkinspice #fallvibes #christiangirlautumn

♬ Cooking, bossa nova, adults, light(950693) – Kids Sound

The phenomenon of “Christian Girl Autumn”

Fast forward to the present, and the reigning queen of fall content is Covington. Her dominance is thanks, in part, to her understanding that people look to her for fall content even during the long days of summer, as they dream ahead to cooler temperatures. With this in mind, she starts rolling out content as early as mid-July, sporadically posting a fall-themed video or outfit post, seemingly building hype for the main event: her yearly fall-themed photos. These pictures led to the creation of the meme “Christian Girl Autumn,” which she has embraced; even if it’s sometimes couched in a derisive tone, it has no doubt increased the amount of attention she receives on social media. 

The meme satirizes a certain type of content that (primarily white) women who are obsessed with autumn post on social media: wide brimmed hats, tall neutral colored riding boots, impeccably curled silken hair, and a cozy cardigan all set against a backdrop of peak fall foliage. In 2019, Covington became the unofficial face of the meme and her content–much like the annual Jason Derulo falling down the Met steps meme that returns every May–has become a constant fixture in the unofficial yearly meme calendar. 

The 33-year-old content creator has maintained her blog, Southern Curls & Pearls, since 2011. On it, she posts recipes as well as outfit photos with links to the pieces as well as lists of her favorite lifestyle and beauty products that can be purchased through affiliate links. Covington tells TIME that she noticed people’s fascination with fall content early on, somewhere around 2013 or 2014, especially when she posted photos of the fall foliage. She says she would drive around her hometown trying to find the most picturesque leaves. “There was a very clear distinction in engagement when I was standing next to a beautiful fall tree, or there were fall leaves on the ground,” Covington says. “So it became a thing where, every fall, I would try to find the best.”

For the past nine years, she has been venturing outside of North Carolina for the perfect fall scenery, including road-tripping to Vermont with her brother, an employee of her company. Her yearly pilgrimage to the Northeast has become an anticipated viral moment, akin to discussions around exactly when is the appropriate time to start listening to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in the run-up to the holiday season. The pop culture news account @popcrave recently posted an announcement on X that she was heading to Vermont soon to take her photos, and the tweet received over 120,000 likes and over 12,000 retweets. One user on X quoted the post with a video of a motorcade with the caption that reads, “Caitlin Covington arriving in Vermont.”

Caitlin Covington arriving in Vermont https://t.co/WLOOnXwQCQ pic.twitter.com/5ib09UZC2g

— Michael Benjamin (@mfbenji) September 19, 2023

Covington says she’s currently ordering outfits in anticipation of heading to Vermont in mid-October with her family for this year’s fall photoshoot. “I’m just already envisioning having a cup of coffee, it being chilly and fall leaves everywhere,” she says. “I am so excited about it.”

The craze for perfect fall content hasn’t been welcomed by all. Other influencers have emulated Covington’s fall aesthetic by making their own journeys to picturesque towns. The Boston Globe recently reported that the Vermont town of Pomfret has been overwhelmed with visitors attempting to take pictures. The number of content creators has led to an increase of traffic from tour buses and cars, with reports of people trespassing on private property, littering, and urinating in bushes. This has led the town to bar tourists from one of its most photogenic roads between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15. 

Why fall content resonates with audiences 

The appeal of fall is multifaceted, but for Pounds and Covington, it all boils down to a sense of inherent comfort that radiates through the screen.

“I know for myself, I deal with a lot of anxiety, and life is stressful and so busy,” says Covington. “I think fall is all about embracing moments of comfort, whether a hot coffee, a really soft cardigan, or a new book. Everybody can relate to that.”

Pounds adds that fall also reminds people of their childhoods. “It reminds them of going back to school and those happy memories that we connected with as a child,” she tells TIME. “It allows us to kind of live through that energy that we had when we were younger because it was always so exciting.”

There is a psychological element viewers are potentially experiencing when consuming the neutral tones of the fall aesthetic. “Colors that are very low in saturation, not bright and and not vibrant are typically seen as being very soothing, therefore it can also soothe our emotions,” says Karen Haller, a color psychology specialist and author of The Little Book of Colour.

“The world does this crazy thing where all the leaves turn from green to these beautiful vibrant colors,” says Covington. “I think everyone, no matter who you are, can appreciate the beauty in that.”

source https://time.com/6316524/fall-aesthetics-tiktok/

New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and His Wife Indicted on Bribery Charges

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and his wife have been indicted on charges of bribery.

Federal prosecutors on Friday announced the charges against the 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury. The latest indictment is unrelated to the earlier charges that alleged Menendez accepted lavish gifts to pressure government officials on behalf of a Florida doctor.

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The Senate Historical Office says Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations. Menendez faces reelection next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington, and as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

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A lawyer for Menendez’s wife hasn’t responded to a message seeking comment. Messages were left for Menendez’s Senate spokesperson and his political consultant.

The first time Menendez was indicted, he had been accused of using his political influence to help a Florida eye doctor who had lavished him with gifts and campaign contributions. Menendez appears to be the first sitting senator in U.S. history to have been indicted on two unrelated criminal allegations, according to a list maintained by the Senate Historical Office.

The new charges follow a yearslong investigation that examined, among other things, the dealings of a New Jersey businessman — a friend of Menendez’s wife — who secured sole authorization from the Egyptian government to certify that meat imported into that country meets Islamic dietary requirements. Investigators also asked questions about the Menendez family’s interactions with a New Jersey developer.

Menendez faces re-election next year in a bid to extend his three-decade career in Washington, and as Democrats hold a narrow majority in the Senate.

Menendez’s political career had looked as though it might be over in 2015, when a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted him on multiple charges over favors he did for a friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen.

Menendez was accused of pressuring government officials to resolve a Medicare billing dispute in Melgen’s favor, securing visas for the doctor’s girlfriends and helping protect a contract the doctor had to provide port-screening equipment to the Dominican Republic.

Menendez has always maintained his innocence. His lawyers said campaign contributions and gifts from Melgen — which included trips on his private jet to a resort in the Dominican Republic and a vacation in Paris — were tokens of their longtime friendship, not bribes.

Prosecutors dropped the case after a jury deadlocked in November 2017 on charges including bribery, fraud and conspiracy, and a judge dismissed some counts.

The Senate Ethics Committee later rebuked Menendez, finding that he had improperly accepted gifts, failed to disclose them and then used his influence to advance Melgen’s personal interests.

But months later, New Jersey voters returned Menendez to the Senate. He defeated a well-financed challenger in a midterm election that broke a Republican lock on power in Washington.

Melgen was convicted of health care fraud in 2017 but former President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence.

Menendez is widely expected to run for reelection next year.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Menendez has held public office continuously since 1986, when he was elected mayor of Union City, New Jersey. He was a state legislator and spent 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, Gov. Jon Corzine appointed Menendez to the Senate seat he vacated when he became governor.

At least two other senators — Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas; Richard Kenney, D-Delaware — were indicted on multiple occasions while still in office, but each senator’s indictments covered overlapping allegations, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Neither Kenney nor Hutchinson were ultimately convicted, and both went on to serve their full terms. In total, 13 senators have been indicted throughout history, of which six have been convicted, according to the Senate Historical Office. Two of those convictions were overturned.

Menendez first publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a new federal investigation last October. Prosecutors declined at the time to comment, but some details of their investigation emerged in news reports and court records.

In 2019, federal agents seized electronic devices and records from the offices of IS EG Halal, a New Jersey company that had been named by the Egyptian government as the sole company to certify that imported meat met religious requirements.

The designation surprised U.S. agriculture officials. Previously, several other companies had been doing that certification, but they were dismissed by Egyptian agriculture officials in favor of IS EG Halal, which had no previous experience in the field.

The switch happened the same year that Menendez became engaged to Nadine Arslanian, an acquaintance of the new halal certification company’s owner, Wael Hana, of Edgewater, New Jersey.

Records show Arslanian, 56, was battling foreclosure on her Bergen County property in 2018. When she and Menendez got engaged it began a period of financial turnaround for Arslanian, a former marketer for a medical company.

Within weeks of their engagement, she incorporated a business, Strategic International Business Consultants LLC, according to state records. Her foreclosure case was dismissed soon after. The following year, her assets included gold bars valued between $100,000 to $250,000, according to a Senate disclosure form amended by Menendez in March of 2022.

Between April and June of 2022, the couple cashed out at least part of their precious metal holdings, forms show, selling between $200,000 and $400,000 worth of gold bars, while keeping at least $250,000 worth of them.

An attorney for Arslanian, David Schertler, did not respond to a request for comment about his client’s international business work or how she acquired the gold bars.

After news reports last May that federal prosecutors were examining whether Menendez or his wife had received unreported gifts from the business, Hana’s spokesperson denied that any U.S. official had assisted the company.

“Nor is there any evidence that the contract was awarded based upon bribery or corruption in Egypt or any other purportedly suspicious activity — and nothing like that has ever even been alleged,” a spokesperson for Hana, Steven Goldberg, said in a recent email to The Associated Press.

“Any allegations about cars, apartments, cash, and jewelry being provided by anyone associated with IS EG Halal to Senator Menendez or his wife at all, let alone in exchange for any kind of favorable treatment, are totally without basis. Events that occurred years ago are being taken out of context.”

Federal prosecutors last year interviewed a lawyer close to Hana. The attorney, Antranig “Andy” Aslanian, told the AP he was asked about Hana and Nadine Arslanian, who he described as a longtime friend.

“They’re trying to establish that Menendez helped Hana in Egypt,” Aslanian said. He described such suspicions as “bull,” adding that he once accompanied Hana to Egypt and found him to be well-connected with officials.

“He walks into every government office, they all knew him,” he said. “Hana did not need Menendez at all. He’d be more of a hindrance than a help.”

U.S. investigators also issued at least one subpoena last spring seeking correspondence from Menendez, his wife, or an Edgewater developer, Fred Daibes, whose company owns the building where IS EG Halal has offices. The subpoena, which was sent to state Sen. Nicholas Sacco, referenced a state bill that would have limited development in certain areas along the Hudson River, including where Daibes owns property.

source https://time.com/6316669/bob-menendez-new-jersey-wife-indicted-bribery-senator/

Tropical Storm Warning Issued for U.S. East Coast Ahead of Potential Cyclone

MIAMI — A tropical storm warning was issued Thursday from coastal North Carolina to Delaware ahead of a potential tropical cyclone that’s headed toward the East Coast.

The National Hurricane Center announced “Potential Tropical Cyclone Sixteen” on Thursday morning. The disturbance was located about 370 miles (595 kilometers) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, forecasters said, and moving north at 9 mph (15 kph). Maximum sustained winds were 35 mph (55 kph).

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

The hurricane center defines a potential tropical cyclone as a disturbance that poses a threat for tropical storm or hurricane conditions to land within 48 hours. The current system could reach the North Carolina coast around Friday night or early Saturday.

The tropical storm warning is in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Fenwick Island, Delaware. It also includes the Chesapeake Bay south of Smith Point, and Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.

A storm surge watch was also issued from Surf City, North Carolina, to Chincoteague, Virginia. The hurricane center said storm surge between 2 and 4 feet (.6 to 1.2 meters) was expected.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Nigel was still moving quickly over the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 1 storm. The hurricane center said Nigel’s maximum sustained winds were 85 mph (140 kph). The system was centered about 505 miles (815 kilometers) southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and moving northeast at 30 mph (48 kph).

Forecasters expected Nigel would weaken over the next couple of days. It could become a post-tropical cyclone on Thursday night or early Friday.

source https://time.com/6316479/tropical-storm-warning-u-s-east-coast/