May 2, 2018
Google leadership coach: The best way to attract high-performing employees doesn't cost a dime
Zameena Mejia
GOOGLE CANADA OFFICE
Free meals, dog-friendly workplaces and other fun perks are becoming increasingly common at companies trying to attract top talent.
But according to Google leadership development advisor Fred Kofman, there is still one thing that more companies need to offer — and it doesn't cost a dime.
"Any company that can provide a sense of meaning, purpose and happiness will be able to attract great talent," Kofman tells CNBC Make It.
Kofman, who previously worked in executive development at LinkedIn and is the author of new book "The Meaning Revolution," coaches Google executives on being more adaptable, innovative and inspiring for the teams they lead.
In his book, Kofman says people "need to be inspired to contribute their best toward the organizational goals," yet over two-thirds of workers are disengaged at work. He argues that people don't just want bigger paychecks; they want to feel their work has purpose.
Although most employers help their workers meet their basic human needs — food, shelter, safety and health — Kofman says they need to do more, for both their employees' sake and their investors' sake.
"If you just pay [workers], you're going to get the minimum discretionary effort; they'll just work for the pay," Kofman said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday. "But if you want them to pour their hearts and souls, you need to give them more."
More workers search for ‘meaning’ rather than higher pay, author says
Today's professionals in the U.S. are "generally doing economically okay," Kofman says. But as they make more money and material benefits become more commonplace — such as medical insurance, 401k matching contributions and paid time off — workers want companies to invest in non-material benefits as well.
"We're talking about better colleagues, better work culture, more autonomy, more camaraderie around the office, not just a cool recreational room or free snacks," Kofman says. "At some point, even great material benefits will get to the point of satiation, but the desire to grow professionally, find meaning in your life and feel happier can be limitless."
Other non-material benefits that don't have a price tag include creating an inspiring workplace for employees, offering personal development and ensuring growth opportunities.
"That all adds up to a sense of purpose and a sense of pride for working in a place that is recognized for its goodness," Kofman says.
Companies that are already succeeding at providing their employees with a greater sense of purpose include Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, Kofman notes, but you don't need to work at a big company to seek out meaning and purpose through your work.
"Demand that your company provide a meaningful project for you to engage in and don't compromise," Kofman says. "You have the right to work at a place where you can grow, find meaning and have a significant impact on the world."
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
David Goodall: Scientist, 104, begins trip to end his life - BBC News
May 2, 2018
David Goodall: Scientist, 104, begins trip to end his life
By Frances Mao
BBC News, Sydney
David Goodall says he wants to end his life with dignity
On Wednesday, 104-year-old scientist David Goodall bid farewell to his home in Australia to fly across the world to end his life.
The lauded ecologist and botanist is not suffering from a serious illness but wishes to bring forward his death. Key to his decision, he says, has been his diminishing independence.
"I greatly regret having reached that age," Dr Goodall said on his birthday last month, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I'm not happy. I want to die. It's not sad particularly. What is sad is if one is prevented."
Assisted dying was legalised by one Australian state last year following a divisive debate, but eligibility requires a person be terminally ill. It is illegal in other states.
Dr Goodall says he will travel to a clinic in Switzerland to voluntarily end his life. However, he says he resents having to leave Australia to do so.
Active life
The London-born academic had lived on his own in a small flat in Perth, Western Australia, until only a few weeks ago.
He stepped back from full-time employment in 1979, but remained heavily involved in his field of work.
Among his achievements in recent years, Dr Goodall edited a 30-volume book series called Ecosystems of the World and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his scientific work.
In 2016, aged 102, he won a battle to keeping working on campus at Perth's Edith Cowan University, where he was an unpaid honorary research associate.
Accompanying Dr Goodall on his journey out of Australia on Wednesday was his friend, Carol O'Neill, a representative from assisted dying advocacy group Exit International.
Image copyrightEXIT INTERNATIONAL
Image caption
Carol O'Neill is accompanying Dr Goodall on his trip to Europe
Mrs O'Neill said the dispute in 2016 over Dr Goodall's working space had affected him greatly. The row began when the university raised concerns about his safety, including his ability to commute.
Although Dr Goodall ultimately prevailed, he was forced to work in a location closer to home. It came at a time when he was also forced to give up driving and performing in theatre, Mrs O'Neill said.
"It was just the beginning of the end," she told the BBC.
"He didn't get to see the same colleagues and friends any more at the old office. He just didn't have the same spirit and he was packing up all his books. It was the beginning of not being happy any more."
Dr Goodall's decision to end his life was hastened by a serious fall in his apartment last month. He was not found for two days. Later, doctors said he needed to engage 24-hour care or be moved into a nursing home.
"He's an independent man. He doesn't want people around him all the time, a stranger acting as a carer. He doesn't want that," Mrs O'Neill said.
"He wants to have intelligent conversation and still be able to do the same things like catching the bus into town."
Divisive debate
Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1942. Other countries and jurisdictions have passed laws allowing people to voluntarily end their life, but many state terminal illness as a condition of eligibility.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) remains strongly opposed to assisted dying, which it sees as an unethical practice of medicine.
Where else is assisted dying allowed?
Assisted suicide describes any act that intentionally helps another person kill themselves, for example by providing them with the means to do so, most commonly by prescribing a lethal medication.
It differs from euthanasia, which is a third-party intervention to end a life to relieve suffering, such as when a doctor administers the lethal dose.
In Switzerland, assisted suicide is allowed only if the person assisting acts unselfishly. It is the only country with centres offering assisted suicide to foreign nationals
The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg permit euthanasia and assisted suicide. In the Netherlands and Belgium, euthanasia is available to minors in specific instances
Colombia allows euthanasia
Six US states - Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, California and Colorado - permit assisted dying for terminally ill patients. The US capital Washington DC implemented a similar law for the city's residents in 2017
Canada followed the province of Quebec in permitting euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2016
"Doctors are not trained to kill people. It is deep within our ethics, deep within our training that that's not appropriate," president Dr Michael Gannon said during last year's legislative debate in the state of Victoria.
"Now, not every doctor agrees with that," he added. Indeed, a survey of the AMA - Australia's most influential medical association - found four in 10 members supported right-to-die policies.
What different countries say about assisted dying
Man 'best judge' of 'undignified death'
Mrs O'Neill said Dr Goodall's main desire was to die peacefully and with dignity.
"He's not depressed or miserable, but there's just not that little spark that was there a couple of years ago," she said.
Dr Goodall will be joined in Switzerland by close relatives
An online petition raised $A20,000 (£11,000; $15,000) for the scientist to fly in business class to Europe. He will visit family in France before heading to Switzerland with his closest relatives.
"They [my family] realise how unsatisfactory my life here is, unsatisfactory in almost every respect," Dr Goodall told the ABC. "The sooner it comes to an end, the better."
Mrs O'Neill said he had spent recent days revising his final letters and holding conversations with his extended family, including his many grandchildren.
Dr Goodall's story has gained attention locally at a time when his home state, Western Australia, considers whether to debate assisted dying legislation.
The state government has publicly expressed sympathy for Dr Goodall, but said any proposed legislation would cover only terminally ill patients.
"My feeling is that an old person like myself should have full citizenship rights including the right of assisted suicide," Dr Goodall said last month.
He told ABC he hoped the public would understand his decision, saying: "If one chooses to kill oneself then that's fair enough. I don't think anyone else should interfere."
David Goodall: Scientist, 104, begins trip to end his life
By Frances Mao
BBC News, Sydney
David Goodall says he wants to end his life with dignity
On Wednesday, 104-year-old scientist David Goodall bid farewell to his home in Australia to fly across the world to end his life.
The lauded ecologist and botanist is not suffering from a serious illness but wishes to bring forward his death. Key to his decision, he says, has been his diminishing independence.
"I greatly regret having reached that age," Dr Goodall said on his birthday last month, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I'm not happy. I want to die. It's not sad particularly. What is sad is if one is prevented."
Assisted dying was legalised by one Australian state last year following a divisive debate, but eligibility requires a person be terminally ill. It is illegal in other states.
Dr Goodall says he will travel to a clinic in Switzerland to voluntarily end his life. However, he says he resents having to leave Australia to do so.
Active life
The London-born academic had lived on his own in a small flat in Perth, Western Australia, until only a few weeks ago.
He stepped back from full-time employment in 1979, but remained heavily involved in his field of work.
Among his achievements in recent years, Dr Goodall edited a 30-volume book series called Ecosystems of the World and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his scientific work.
In 2016, aged 102, he won a battle to keeping working on campus at Perth's Edith Cowan University, where he was an unpaid honorary research associate.
Accompanying Dr Goodall on his journey out of Australia on Wednesday was his friend, Carol O'Neill, a representative from assisted dying advocacy group Exit International.
Image copyrightEXIT INTERNATIONAL
Image caption
Carol O'Neill is accompanying Dr Goodall on his trip to Europe
Mrs O'Neill said the dispute in 2016 over Dr Goodall's working space had affected him greatly. The row began when the university raised concerns about his safety, including his ability to commute.
Although Dr Goodall ultimately prevailed, he was forced to work in a location closer to home. It came at a time when he was also forced to give up driving and performing in theatre, Mrs O'Neill said.
"It was just the beginning of the end," she told the BBC.
"He didn't get to see the same colleagues and friends any more at the old office. He just didn't have the same spirit and he was packing up all his books. It was the beginning of not being happy any more."
Dr Goodall's decision to end his life was hastened by a serious fall in his apartment last month. He was not found for two days. Later, doctors said he needed to engage 24-hour care or be moved into a nursing home.
"He's an independent man. He doesn't want people around him all the time, a stranger acting as a carer. He doesn't want that," Mrs O'Neill said.
"He wants to have intelligent conversation and still be able to do the same things like catching the bus into town."
Divisive debate
Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1942. Other countries and jurisdictions have passed laws allowing people to voluntarily end their life, but many state terminal illness as a condition of eligibility.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) remains strongly opposed to assisted dying, which it sees as an unethical practice of medicine.
Where else is assisted dying allowed?
Assisted suicide describes any act that intentionally helps another person kill themselves, for example by providing them with the means to do so, most commonly by prescribing a lethal medication.
It differs from euthanasia, which is a third-party intervention to end a life to relieve suffering, such as when a doctor administers the lethal dose.
In Switzerland, assisted suicide is allowed only if the person assisting acts unselfishly. It is the only country with centres offering assisted suicide to foreign nationals
The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg permit euthanasia and assisted suicide. In the Netherlands and Belgium, euthanasia is available to minors in specific instances
Colombia allows euthanasia
Six US states - Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana, California and Colorado - permit assisted dying for terminally ill patients. The US capital Washington DC implemented a similar law for the city's residents in 2017
Canada followed the province of Quebec in permitting euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2016
"Doctors are not trained to kill people. It is deep within our ethics, deep within our training that that's not appropriate," president Dr Michael Gannon said during last year's legislative debate in the state of Victoria.
"Now, not every doctor agrees with that," he added. Indeed, a survey of the AMA - Australia's most influential medical association - found four in 10 members supported right-to-die policies.
What different countries say about assisted dying
Man 'best judge' of 'undignified death'
Mrs O'Neill said Dr Goodall's main desire was to die peacefully and with dignity.
"He's not depressed or miserable, but there's just not that little spark that was there a couple of years ago," she said.
Dr Goodall will be joined in Switzerland by close relatives
An online petition raised $A20,000 (£11,000; $15,000) for the scientist to fly in business class to Europe. He will visit family in France before heading to Switzerland with his closest relatives.
"They [my family] realise how unsatisfactory my life here is, unsatisfactory in almost every respect," Dr Goodall told the ABC. "The sooner it comes to an end, the better."
Mrs O'Neill said he had spent recent days revising his final letters and holding conversations with his extended family, including his many grandchildren.
Dr Goodall's story has gained attention locally at a time when his home state, Western Australia, considers whether to debate assisted dying legislation.
The state government has publicly expressed sympathy for Dr Goodall, but said any proposed legislation would cover only terminally ill patients.
"My feeling is that an old person like myself should have full citizenship rights including the right of assisted suicide," Dr Goodall said last month.
He told ABC he hoped the public would understand his decision, saying: "If one chooses to kill oneself then that's fair enough. I don't think anyone else should interfere."
Fatal encounters: 97 deaths point to pattern of border agent violence across America - Guardian
Fatal encounters: 97 deaths point to pattern of border agent violence across America
In the last 15 years, agents with Customs and Border Protection have used deadly force in states up to 160 miles from the border, from Maine to California
by Sarah Macaraeg
Wed 2 May 2018 15.00 AEST
For six long years the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez have been caught in a legal saga seeking justice for the 16-year-old who was killed by a US border patrol agent who fired 16 times from Arizona into Mexico.
Ending criminal proceedings that have dragged on since 2012, a jury last week cleared agent Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder and could not agree on a verdict for two lesser charges of manslaughter. The shooting has compelled judges up to the US supreme court to deliberate whether the American government can be sued in civil court for wrongful deaths on Mexican soil – placing the incident, and eight other cross-border fatal shootings, at the center of scrutiny surrounding the use of force by agents in response to allegedly thrown rocks.
However, lesser known are similar shootings which have occurred inside the US. Such as that of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, who was shot and killed “execution-style”, in the language of a wrongful death complaint the government paid $850,000 to settle. An Arizona agent responding to an alert from the National Guard in 2007 alleged Rivera threatened him with a rock.
Ten years later, the Department of Justice settled another wrongful death claim involving a rock-throwing allegation in California for $500,000.
The shootings are only part of a larger litany of Customs and Border Protection agency-related violence inside the US. Encounters have proven deadly for at least 97 people – citizens and non-citizens – since 2003, a count drawn from settlement payment data, court records, use of force logs, incident reports and news articles.
From Maine to Washington state and California to Florida, the deaths stem from all manner of CBP activity. Border agents manning land crossings and a checkpoint have used deadly force, as have agents conducting roving patrols – up to 160 miles inland from the border.
Sign up for Guardian Today US edition: the day's must-reads sent directly to you
Read more
Pedestrians were run over by agents. Car chases culminated in crashes. Some have drowned, others died after they were pepper-sprayed, stunned with tasers or beaten.
But the majority of victims died from bullet wounds, including shots in the back. The bullets were fired not only by agents conducting border enforcement operations, but also those acting in a local law enforcement capacity and by agents off-duty, who’ve shot burglary suspects, intimate partners and friends.
Among the incidents, one agent also died following an exchange of gunfire with a family member who was found dead. Another agent was killed by friendly fire. Border agents sustained non-deadly shots in two incidents.
The picture compiled from official documents and news reports is incomplete, but indicates that at least 28 people who died were US citizens. Six children, between the ages of 12 and 16, were among the victims whose ages were disclosed.
The federal government has paid more than $9m to settle a fraction of the incidents thus far. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not comment on those cases but pointed to the agency’s National Use of Force Review Board, which has investigated 30 significant incidents since June 2015. Each of its 17 reports made public have found the use of force to be compliant with agency policy in effect at the time. Local boards also review incidents, but only those that do not result in serious injury or death.
Here, the Guardian looks at eight fatal encounters with CBP agents that happened inside the United States and the larger patterns of incidents to which they relate.
Agents getting in harm’s way
Valeria Tachiquin Alvarado
Valeria Tachiquin Alvarado Composite: Southern Border Communities Coalition
A US citizen and mother of five, 32-year-old Valeria Munique Tachiquin Alvarado was shot and killed by Justin Tackett, a border patrol agent and former police officer, in a suburb of San Diego, California in the fall of 2012. At the time of press, a wrongful death suit filed by Alvarado’s family was nearing judgement after four years of litigation. According to court records Alvarado attempted to drive away from an apartment where Tackett and six other plainclothes agents had begun questioning her and others without a warrant.
After Tackett climbed on and then off the hood of Alvarado’s car, her family’s suit alleges, she attempted to reverse away from the agent, who fired at Alvarado 10 times, hitting her nine.
“A part of me was taken away and there hasn’t been justice,” Alvarado’s mother Annabell Gomez told Guardian. “Everyday I wish it was a dream, but I wake up and she’s not here. Life is not the same without her smile,” said Gomez. “She loved her kids and life.”
As a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Imperial county in the years prior, Tackett was suspended four times following a string of incidents that took place in the span of 19 months, involving unlawful searches, illegal detentions and reckless behavior, before he resigned upon receiving a termination notice, court documents detail.
A review of 15 CBP shootings, each targeting the drivers of moving vehicles over the course of two years, was conducted the year after Alvarado’s death by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). A nonprofit overseen by a board of police chiefs, that was commissioned by CBP to study its use of force policy, PERF found that in many cases, border agents “intentionally put themselves in the exit path of the vehicle”, thereby “creating justification for the use of deadly force”, with some shots “taken out of frustration”.
Unreasonable force
Settled by the Department of Justice under attorney general Jeff Sessions for $500,000 in 2017, the shooting of 41-year-old unarmed father of two Julian Ramirez Galindo took place near the California border in February 2014. Agent Daniel Bassinger alleged that Galindo, who was a street musician in Tijuana, hurled a basketball-sized rock at him from above. But according to the family’s lawyer Scott Hughes, the medical examiner’s report is at odds with the agent’s version of events, detailing a man of slight stature who died from two downward trajectory bullet wounds.
PERF’s review of CBP’s use of force policy the year prior recommended a revision prohibiting deadly force against “subjects throwing objects not capable of causing serious physical injury or death”, citing that in some cases, “agents put themselves in harm’s way” instead of moving out of range. “Too many cases do not appear to meet the test of objective reasonableness,” the report notes, recommending corrective action be taken if agents use deadly force when alternative responses are possible.
Bassinger was back at work within six days, NBC San Diego reported. One month later, then CBP chief Michael Fisher enacted PERF’s recommendations. But the lawyer Hughes, a former military police officer, thinks the problem runs far deeper.
“We can no longer tolerate shooting unarmed people in the United States,” he told The Guardian. “These officers are woefully under-trained,” he said. “They find themselves in situations they don’t know how to react in and they resort to shooting their way out. When in fact, they really don’t need to.”
Shootings found to be justified
Jose Luis Arambula
Jose Luis Arambula Composite: Jose Luis Arambula/Eduardo Silva
In May 2014, unarmed 31-year-old Jose Luis Arambula died in a pecan grove in his native Arizona, shot behind his left ear. After bailing from a car later found to be filled with marijuana, Arambula ran from agents before one fired at him multiple times from a distance of 60-70ft, according to the local Pima county sheriff’s office, which investigated the shooting. That office, citing the agents’ account that Arambula made a “punching out” motion towards them, found deadly force to be justified. But in the view of lawyer Jesus Romo Vejar, who filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Arambula’s mother, the scenario was quite different. “It was a bad shooting,” he said.
The case is among a set of shootings that have been dismissed on technicalities or in favor of the defendant agents, including suits filed by the family of unarmed 18-year-old citizen Juan Mendez, who was shot in the back from a distance while running from an agent in Texas in 2010; unarmed 20-year-old Gerardo Lozano Rico, who was also shot in Texas in a fleeing car in 2011; unarmed 19-year-old citizen Carlos Lamadrid, who was shot in the back while climbing a ladder at the border fence in Arizona in 2011.
In many cases, “the facts are favorable”, said the lawyer Vejar. “But the judges are not favorably deposed.”
Northern states
In one of at least eight fatal encounters in northern border states, 30-year-old Alex Martinez, a US citizen from Washington state who had a mental illness, was shot 13 times after his Spanish-speaking father called 911 in 2011, according to a complaint sent to the attorney general and secretary of homeland security in 2013. Describing the border patrol’s arrival alongside local law enforcement officers, Martinez’s father told local community organizers: “The first thing they asked was, ‘Is he from here or is he from Mexico?’” Local law enforcement alleged that Martinez hit a sheriff’s deputy with a hammer, reported a Washington newspaper. But his family disputed that account, saying that Martinez held a flashlight and tripped. “We saw it with our own eyes and without there being any need for it,” said his father. “They did something unjust. Something that should not be taken lightly,” he said. “And border patrol did it all.” The local sheriff’s office found the shooting to be justified.
An agent stationed in Michigan shot and killed a person at a card game while off duty. In Minnesota, a pedestrian died after a fatal accident involving a car driven by a border agent.
On-duty border agents serving as back-up to local law enforcement have shot and killed two people in separate incidents in Maine, both involving armed men of whom one fired at agents, according to the state’s attorney general which found the shootings to be justified.
In Montana, agents on patrol shot Jeff Suddeth, a US citizen who they said had a stun gun. At the inquest which cleared agents of wrongdoing, Suddeth’s mother, who described her son as bipolar, told local media: “He lived 36 years, and in 15 minutes they took his life. I guess that’s the law.”
Mural
Mural Photograph: c/o Border Patrol Victims Network
Unrelated to border enforcement
Steven Edward Martin
Steven Edward Martin Composite: Steven Edward Martin/Bobbi Felix
In an incident unrelated to immigration enforcement, 21-year-old US citizen Steven Martin was shot and killed in Yuma, Arizona in 2008. An agent was driving by the gas station, where Martin was parked, when a friend, who was black, allegedly ran out of the store holding two cases of beer. The agent fired on Martin’s car, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his mother. The suit also alleged that the agent did not subsequently request medical help for Martin, who was bleeding on the scene and died four hours later, on Christmas Eve. The case settled for $350,000 in 2013.
With the exception of “regulations prescribed by the attorney general”, border agents with reasonable grounds have the authority to make non-immigration arrests, “for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States”, under the Immigration and Nationality Act. No such regulations can be readily identified however, and the Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Every year over Memorial Day weekend, Martin’s family gathers to celebrate his memory. “My son was an amazing person who had a heart of gold,” his mother said. “He would give his last dollar to help someone out. He was a hard worker, spent his money on his cousins and sister and brother. He loved being around his nephew and would have loved to meet his nieces. There are still times I don’t know how I can go on without him.”
‘Non-lethal’ force
Picked up by agents more than 70 miles from the border, in Orange county, California, Tomas Orzuna was denied medical care after agents beat, pepper-sprayed and then handcuffed him in a suffocating, face-down position, according to a lawsuit brought by Orzuna’s parents, which does not specify his age.
Force considered non-lethal has proven otherwise in a variety of circumstances. A man was pepper-sprayed at the Rio Grande river and then drowned. A man was hit with a stun gun inside a rental car and it immediately exploded. Four men were Tasered or beaten in separate incidents and then died. Agents fired explosives at a boat filled with migrants and one woman drowned.
Deaths have also occurred through alleged neglect or malice. A mother and her 16-year-old daughter drowned after agents ordered them to swim back across the Rio Grande river. Another 16-year-old was compelled to drink liquid meth by agents, after telling them it was juice, and died. An on-site paramedic at a border patrol station assessed that a man in custody was faking a seizure, a report by the San Diego medical examiner’s office detailed, but he had ingested a packet of drugs and died after being left alone in his cell.
Among cases which have settled, payments vary widely. Orzuna’s parents received $15,000 in 2012. The family of Anastacio Hernandez-Rojas received a $1m settlement in 2017. Beaten and Tasered five times, at a land crossing in California, Hernandez-Rojas’ cries for help were captured on video.
High-speed crashes
Israel Caballero
Israel Caballero Composite: Israel Caballero/Bound Boxing Academy
In August 2017, 18-year-old Israel Caballero, a US citizen, was among three people killed in a crash following a high-speed border patrol pursuit outside of San Diego, California. Initially stating that a license plate check linked the car to a homicide, the border patrol has since said no one in the vehicle was wanted of any crimes. The father of a one-year-old, Caballero worked as a landscaper, following a stint of competitive boxing throughout his youth. “What happened to him was totally devastating,” coach Juan Medina said of the former champion. “Israel was a very respectful young man.”
The incident is the latest among a string of fatal crashes that raise questions about CBP’s stated vehicle pursuit policy, which dictates that agents can commence and continue emergency driving only as long as the benefits outweigh the immediate danger posed.
In an Arizona crash resulting in a $350,000 wrongful death settlement, a car flipped when agents in pursuit threw a tire deflation device in the road, killing a 40-year-old mother of three. In a Texas crash, an eyewitness testified in court that a CBP vehicle bumped into the van they were pursuing. The crash left bodies and personal belongings strewn across a highway, resulting in nine fatalities. “When it comes to human smuggling it becomes tough,” a Texas police chief told the AP regarding pursuits. “You do look at it in a way that these people were just trying to come here to have a better life,” he said.
Off-duty shootings
Shot by an off-duty CBP agent using his service weapon, 15-year-old Darius Smith died near a train station in a suburb of Los Angeles in May 2015. The Los Angeles county sheriff’s office said it would not release video of the incident, but that the video backed up the agent’s account that Smith and two other teens attempted to rob him. Conflicting details swirl around a bb gun investigators say they found “close by” Smith’s body – but was not spotted by a man who held the teen’s hand until paramedics arrived, the Los Angeles Times reported. A football player at his high school, Smith dreamed of making it to the NFL his mother told local media. “He always had a smile on his face,” said a friend who now plays college football, dedicating his games in Smith’s honor.
Border patrol violence: US paid $60m to cover claims against the agency
The incident is among ten off-duty shootings by CBP agents since 2005 identified by the Guardian.
Since early 2018, a Texas border patrol supervisor was charged with murdering his romantic partner and her one-year-old son. A CBP officer in Miami shot and killed a man who entered her home, suspected of burglary, and a Texas agent shot a man described as a childhood friend.
Previous years have seen the federal government pay a $750,000 settlement to the family of Bassim Chmait, a 20-year-old Arab American; and an agent was incarcerated after shooting 27-year-old Adam Thomas, a father of two. Both men were the neighbors of agents, while a number of other off-duty fatal shootings have involved intimate partner violence and domestic disputes.
The Guardian’s list of fatal encounters with CBP agents can be accessed here. This story is published in collaboration with the CJ Project. Reporter Sarah Macaraeg can be contacted at sarah.macaraeg@gmail.com.
In the last 15 years, agents with Customs and Border Protection have used deadly force in states up to 160 miles from the border, from Maine to California
by Sarah Macaraeg
Wed 2 May 2018 15.00 AEST
For six long years the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez have been caught in a legal saga seeking justice for the 16-year-old who was killed by a US border patrol agent who fired 16 times from Arizona into Mexico.
Ending criminal proceedings that have dragged on since 2012, a jury last week cleared agent Lonnie Swartz of second-degree murder and could not agree on a verdict for two lesser charges of manslaughter. The shooting has compelled judges up to the US supreme court to deliberate whether the American government can be sued in civil court for wrongful deaths on Mexican soil – placing the incident, and eight other cross-border fatal shootings, at the center of scrutiny surrounding the use of force by agents in response to allegedly thrown rocks.
However, lesser known are similar shootings which have occurred inside the US. Such as that of Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, who was shot and killed “execution-style”, in the language of a wrongful death complaint the government paid $850,000 to settle. An Arizona agent responding to an alert from the National Guard in 2007 alleged Rivera threatened him with a rock.
Ten years later, the Department of Justice settled another wrongful death claim involving a rock-throwing allegation in California for $500,000.
The shootings are only part of a larger litany of Customs and Border Protection agency-related violence inside the US. Encounters have proven deadly for at least 97 people – citizens and non-citizens – since 2003, a count drawn from settlement payment data, court records, use of force logs, incident reports and news articles.
From Maine to Washington state and California to Florida, the deaths stem from all manner of CBP activity. Border agents manning land crossings and a checkpoint have used deadly force, as have agents conducting roving patrols – up to 160 miles inland from the border.
Sign up for Guardian Today US edition: the day's must-reads sent directly to you
Read more
Pedestrians were run over by agents. Car chases culminated in crashes. Some have drowned, others died after they were pepper-sprayed, stunned with tasers or beaten.
But the majority of victims died from bullet wounds, including shots in the back. The bullets were fired not only by agents conducting border enforcement operations, but also those acting in a local law enforcement capacity and by agents off-duty, who’ve shot burglary suspects, intimate partners and friends.
Among the incidents, one agent also died following an exchange of gunfire with a family member who was found dead. Another agent was killed by friendly fire. Border agents sustained non-deadly shots in two incidents.
The picture compiled from official documents and news reports is incomplete, but indicates that at least 28 people who died were US citizens. Six children, between the ages of 12 and 16, were among the victims whose ages were disclosed.
The federal government has paid more than $9m to settle a fraction of the incidents thus far. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not comment on those cases but pointed to the agency’s National Use of Force Review Board, which has investigated 30 significant incidents since June 2015. Each of its 17 reports made public have found the use of force to be compliant with agency policy in effect at the time. Local boards also review incidents, but only those that do not result in serious injury or death.
Here, the Guardian looks at eight fatal encounters with CBP agents that happened inside the United States and the larger patterns of incidents to which they relate.
Agents getting in harm’s way
Valeria Tachiquin Alvarado
Valeria Tachiquin Alvarado Composite: Southern Border Communities Coalition
A US citizen and mother of five, 32-year-old Valeria Munique Tachiquin Alvarado was shot and killed by Justin Tackett, a border patrol agent and former police officer, in a suburb of San Diego, California in the fall of 2012. At the time of press, a wrongful death suit filed by Alvarado’s family was nearing judgement after four years of litigation. According to court records Alvarado attempted to drive away from an apartment where Tackett and six other plainclothes agents had begun questioning her and others without a warrant.
After Tackett climbed on and then off the hood of Alvarado’s car, her family’s suit alleges, she attempted to reverse away from the agent, who fired at Alvarado 10 times, hitting her nine.
“A part of me was taken away and there hasn’t been justice,” Alvarado’s mother Annabell Gomez told Guardian. “Everyday I wish it was a dream, but I wake up and she’s not here. Life is not the same without her smile,” said Gomez. “She loved her kids and life.”
As a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Imperial county in the years prior, Tackett was suspended four times following a string of incidents that took place in the span of 19 months, involving unlawful searches, illegal detentions and reckless behavior, before he resigned upon receiving a termination notice, court documents detail.
A review of 15 CBP shootings, each targeting the drivers of moving vehicles over the course of two years, was conducted the year after Alvarado’s death by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). A nonprofit overseen by a board of police chiefs, that was commissioned by CBP to study its use of force policy, PERF found that in many cases, border agents “intentionally put themselves in the exit path of the vehicle”, thereby “creating justification for the use of deadly force”, with some shots “taken out of frustration”.
Unreasonable force
Settled by the Department of Justice under attorney general Jeff Sessions for $500,000 in 2017, the shooting of 41-year-old unarmed father of two Julian Ramirez Galindo took place near the California border in February 2014. Agent Daniel Bassinger alleged that Galindo, who was a street musician in Tijuana, hurled a basketball-sized rock at him from above. But according to the family’s lawyer Scott Hughes, the medical examiner’s report is at odds with the agent’s version of events, detailing a man of slight stature who died from two downward trajectory bullet wounds.
PERF’s review of CBP’s use of force policy the year prior recommended a revision prohibiting deadly force against “subjects throwing objects not capable of causing serious physical injury or death”, citing that in some cases, “agents put themselves in harm’s way” instead of moving out of range. “Too many cases do not appear to meet the test of objective reasonableness,” the report notes, recommending corrective action be taken if agents use deadly force when alternative responses are possible.
Bassinger was back at work within six days, NBC San Diego reported. One month later, then CBP chief Michael Fisher enacted PERF’s recommendations. But the lawyer Hughes, a former military police officer, thinks the problem runs far deeper.
“We can no longer tolerate shooting unarmed people in the United States,” he told The Guardian. “These officers are woefully under-trained,” he said. “They find themselves in situations they don’t know how to react in and they resort to shooting their way out. When in fact, they really don’t need to.”
Shootings found to be justified
Jose Luis Arambula
Jose Luis Arambula Composite: Jose Luis Arambula/Eduardo Silva
In May 2014, unarmed 31-year-old Jose Luis Arambula died in a pecan grove in his native Arizona, shot behind his left ear. After bailing from a car later found to be filled with marijuana, Arambula ran from agents before one fired at him multiple times from a distance of 60-70ft, according to the local Pima county sheriff’s office, which investigated the shooting. That office, citing the agents’ account that Arambula made a “punching out” motion towards them, found deadly force to be justified. But in the view of lawyer Jesus Romo Vejar, who filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of Arambula’s mother, the scenario was quite different. “It was a bad shooting,” he said.
The case is among a set of shootings that have been dismissed on technicalities or in favor of the defendant agents, including suits filed by the family of unarmed 18-year-old citizen Juan Mendez, who was shot in the back from a distance while running from an agent in Texas in 2010; unarmed 20-year-old Gerardo Lozano Rico, who was also shot in Texas in a fleeing car in 2011; unarmed 19-year-old citizen Carlos Lamadrid, who was shot in the back while climbing a ladder at the border fence in Arizona in 2011.
In many cases, “the facts are favorable”, said the lawyer Vejar. “But the judges are not favorably deposed.”
Northern states
In one of at least eight fatal encounters in northern border states, 30-year-old Alex Martinez, a US citizen from Washington state who had a mental illness, was shot 13 times after his Spanish-speaking father called 911 in 2011, according to a complaint sent to the attorney general and secretary of homeland security in 2013. Describing the border patrol’s arrival alongside local law enforcement officers, Martinez’s father told local community organizers: “The first thing they asked was, ‘Is he from here or is he from Mexico?’” Local law enforcement alleged that Martinez hit a sheriff’s deputy with a hammer, reported a Washington newspaper. But his family disputed that account, saying that Martinez held a flashlight and tripped. “We saw it with our own eyes and without there being any need for it,” said his father. “They did something unjust. Something that should not be taken lightly,” he said. “And border patrol did it all.” The local sheriff’s office found the shooting to be justified.
An agent stationed in Michigan shot and killed a person at a card game while off duty. In Minnesota, a pedestrian died after a fatal accident involving a car driven by a border agent.
On-duty border agents serving as back-up to local law enforcement have shot and killed two people in separate incidents in Maine, both involving armed men of whom one fired at agents, according to the state’s attorney general which found the shootings to be justified.
In Montana, agents on patrol shot Jeff Suddeth, a US citizen who they said had a stun gun. At the inquest which cleared agents of wrongdoing, Suddeth’s mother, who described her son as bipolar, told local media: “He lived 36 years, and in 15 minutes they took his life. I guess that’s the law.”
Mural
Mural Photograph: c/o Border Patrol Victims Network
Unrelated to border enforcement
Steven Edward Martin
Steven Edward Martin Composite: Steven Edward Martin/Bobbi Felix
In an incident unrelated to immigration enforcement, 21-year-old US citizen Steven Martin was shot and killed in Yuma, Arizona in 2008. An agent was driving by the gas station, where Martin was parked, when a friend, who was black, allegedly ran out of the store holding two cases of beer. The agent fired on Martin’s car, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his mother. The suit also alleged that the agent did not subsequently request medical help for Martin, who was bleeding on the scene and died four hours later, on Christmas Eve. The case settled for $350,000 in 2013.
With the exception of “regulations prescribed by the attorney general”, border agents with reasonable grounds have the authority to make non-immigration arrests, “for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States”, under the Immigration and Nationality Act. No such regulations can be readily identified however, and the Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Every year over Memorial Day weekend, Martin’s family gathers to celebrate his memory. “My son was an amazing person who had a heart of gold,” his mother said. “He would give his last dollar to help someone out. He was a hard worker, spent his money on his cousins and sister and brother. He loved being around his nephew and would have loved to meet his nieces. There are still times I don’t know how I can go on without him.”
‘Non-lethal’ force
Picked up by agents more than 70 miles from the border, in Orange county, California, Tomas Orzuna was denied medical care after agents beat, pepper-sprayed and then handcuffed him in a suffocating, face-down position, according to a lawsuit brought by Orzuna’s parents, which does not specify his age.
Force considered non-lethal has proven otherwise in a variety of circumstances. A man was pepper-sprayed at the Rio Grande river and then drowned. A man was hit with a stun gun inside a rental car and it immediately exploded. Four men were Tasered or beaten in separate incidents and then died. Agents fired explosives at a boat filled with migrants and one woman drowned.
Deaths have also occurred through alleged neglect or malice. A mother and her 16-year-old daughter drowned after agents ordered them to swim back across the Rio Grande river. Another 16-year-old was compelled to drink liquid meth by agents, after telling them it was juice, and died. An on-site paramedic at a border patrol station assessed that a man in custody was faking a seizure, a report by the San Diego medical examiner’s office detailed, but he had ingested a packet of drugs and died after being left alone in his cell.
Among cases which have settled, payments vary widely. Orzuna’s parents received $15,000 in 2012. The family of Anastacio Hernandez-Rojas received a $1m settlement in 2017. Beaten and Tasered five times, at a land crossing in California, Hernandez-Rojas’ cries for help were captured on video.
High-speed crashes
Israel Caballero
Israel Caballero Composite: Israel Caballero/Bound Boxing Academy
In August 2017, 18-year-old Israel Caballero, a US citizen, was among three people killed in a crash following a high-speed border patrol pursuit outside of San Diego, California. Initially stating that a license plate check linked the car to a homicide, the border patrol has since said no one in the vehicle was wanted of any crimes. The father of a one-year-old, Caballero worked as a landscaper, following a stint of competitive boxing throughout his youth. “What happened to him was totally devastating,” coach Juan Medina said of the former champion. “Israel was a very respectful young man.”
The incident is the latest among a string of fatal crashes that raise questions about CBP’s stated vehicle pursuit policy, which dictates that agents can commence and continue emergency driving only as long as the benefits outweigh the immediate danger posed.
In an Arizona crash resulting in a $350,000 wrongful death settlement, a car flipped when agents in pursuit threw a tire deflation device in the road, killing a 40-year-old mother of three. In a Texas crash, an eyewitness testified in court that a CBP vehicle bumped into the van they were pursuing. The crash left bodies and personal belongings strewn across a highway, resulting in nine fatalities. “When it comes to human smuggling it becomes tough,” a Texas police chief told the AP regarding pursuits. “You do look at it in a way that these people were just trying to come here to have a better life,” he said.
Off-duty shootings
Shot by an off-duty CBP agent using his service weapon, 15-year-old Darius Smith died near a train station in a suburb of Los Angeles in May 2015. The Los Angeles county sheriff’s office said it would not release video of the incident, but that the video backed up the agent’s account that Smith and two other teens attempted to rob him. Conflicting details swirl around a bb gun investigators say they found “close by” Smith’s body – but was not spotted by a man who held the teen’s hand until paramedics arrived, the Los Angeles Times reported. A football player at his high school, Smith dreamed of making it to the NFL his mother told local media. “He always had a smile on his face,” said a friend who now plays college football, dedicating his games in Smith’s honor.
Border patrol violence: US paid $60m to cover claims against the agency
The incident is among ten off-duty shootings by CBP agents since 2005 identified by the Guardian.
Since early 2018, a Texas border patrol supervisor was charged with murdering his romantic partner and her one-year-old son. A CBP officer in Miami shot and killed a man who entered her home, suspected of burglary, and a Texas agent shot a man described as a childhood friend.
Previous years have seen the federal government pay a $750,000 settlement to the family of Bassim Chmait, a 20-year-old Arab American; and an agent was incarcerated after shooting 27-year-old Adam Thomas, a father of two. Both men were the neighbors of agents, while a number of other off-duty fatal shootings have involved intimate partner violence and domestic disputes.
The Guardian’s list of fatal encounters with CBP agents can be accessed here. This story is published in collaboration with the CJ Project. Reporter Sarah Macaraeg can be contacted at sarah.macaraeg@gmail.com.
Raoul Peck: I Am Not Your Negro director on his new film The Young Karl Marx and why The Communist Manifesto is 'more relevant than ever' - Independent
May 2, 2018
Raoul Peck: I Am Not Your Negro director on his new film The Young Karl Marx and why The Communist Manifesto is 'more relevant than ever'
The award-winning director's new film explores the friendship between Marx and Engels – but he insists it's no period piece
Kaleem Aftab @aftabamon
On 5 May, it will be 200 years to the day since the birth of Karl Marx. To coincide with the anniversary a new film by Raoul Peck, The Young Karl Marx, looks at how Marx and his collaborator on The Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels, came to meet and form such a strong bond in Germany in 1844.
The Young Karl Marx is a kindred spirit to Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, about another Communist icon, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, in that it’s as interested in the youthful antics and personal shenanigans of the protagonists as it is the work that would make them remembered in history.
Director Peck claimed the Best Documentary Film BAFTA this year for his incredible I Am Not Your Negro, a look at the battles that black people have had to fight for equality in America told entirely through the words of the novelist James Baldwin.
Born in Haiti in 1953, Peck’s parents fled the country with him and his two younger brothers when he was just eight years old. They escaped the Duvalier dictatorship and Peck grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Stefan Konarske as Friedrich Engels and August Diehl as Karl Marx in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
Peck attended schools in New York, where his mother worked at the UN, and in France, earning a baccalaureate before studying engineering and economics at Berlin’s Humboldt University, where he became enamoured with the work of Marx.
“All I am today is because of the structure that I got when I was young studying the work of Marx,” says the director. “At that time, in the 1970s and 1980s, you needed to confront yourself with those books, because it’s your past, it’s your present, it’s part of your general knowledge to understand the society that you are living in and in which you are an actor.”
I Am Not Your Negro captures the searing brilliance of James Baldwin
Peck is an impressively built man, who looks much younger than his 64 years, but he also has the vernacular of an academic. He talks like he’s delivering a lecture, which he often is. Peck is the President of La Fémis, the prestigious Paris film school. He speaks with that mastery of his subject matter that can at times be unnerving but is always enthralling.
He argues that to understand society “Marx is the key.” He’s a man who backs up his analysis with numbers, with history, and with philosophy.
The film starts in 1843 at a time when Europe was dominated by absolute monarchies. It credits the industrial revolution in England as transforming the world’s order, in which a new proletarian class are creating workers’ organisations founded on the Communist notion that all men are brothers.
Vicky Krieps, August Diehl and Stefan Konarske in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
The film posits that two young Germans, Marx and Engels, will disrupt this notion and transform the struggle and future of the world.
“Marx never wrote any utopia,” says Peck, disparaging the commonly held perception. “In the film you see the people who wrote this utopia were [Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon and [Wilhelm] Weitling. Marx told them, both of them: ‘Let's stick to reality, let's develop something from reality.’ Marx never prophesied anything, except sometimes just as a joke or as a conversation.”
Peck argues that that today, Marx’s writing is more relevant than ever: “You sum up the articles and it is exactly the description of the 2008 crisis. It's like the children's book of the history of capitalism and you can trace it until today. So what other proof do you need?”
Peck’s driving ambition was to make a film that would explain the socio-political context of the friendship between Marx (played by August Diehl) and Engels (Stefan Konarske). It starts with Engels witnessing revolts at his dad’s factory in Manchester, the Ermens and Engel Mill. At the same time, Marx is undertaking a more philosophical interpretation of the changes in society, whilst struggling with his journalistic deadlines.
Stefan Konarske and August Diehl in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
Their spouses are also key characters. Marx’s wife Jenny (played by Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps) and Engel’s spouse Mary Burns (Hannah Steele) are both as rebellious as their beaus.
He argues that this is not a period film, despite the era and the costumes. “I didn’t make a film about the past. I’m not interested in the past in that way.”
“I wanted to go back to that moment of creation in the film… to go back to the fundamentals, because the book he left is the most important [thing],” states Peck. “How do we utilise this instrument to analyse society at a precise moment?”
And it’s this desire to connect to the present that has led to him make a movie that at times seems like an overly theoretical political analysis, and in other moments like a fun bromance, capturing the hijinks of ordinary young men.
“I hope that young people will recognise themselves in the film,” he says. “For me that would be the best thing. Because that's what it's about: How do I see or find a way to fight back [against] whatever is happening right now?”
What does need to be fought against right now? His response, unsurprisingly, includes President Trump and the widening gap between rich and poor.
James Baldwin in 'I Am Not Your Negro' (Magnolia Pictures)
I ask Peck how Marx ties in with the arguments that we see Baldwin making in I Am Not Your Negro. “When Baldwin says in my film ‘White is a metaphor for power,’ it’s another way of saying 'Chase Manhattan Bank'. That’s Marx’s analysis. So there are some similar perspectives in the way to see society.
"Race is just one emanation of capitalism – like the whole thing about the refugees today. It's not about the colour of the refugees – it's about capitalism doing its job, separating people, dividing, and maintaining the status quo of those who want to protect their privilege.”
Peck believes that people can do more to change society, especially in the west where a kind of lethargy has crept in.
His childhood experiences have taught him that human rights and democracy are something that must constantly be fought for: “Democracy is not something that is fixed once and for all. I came from a country that had a dictatorship and I fought a lot for the restoration of democracy. I know the price of being able to vote.
“In the west, people use voting as a consumer good,” he adds, “you can sit down on your couch and watch a reality show. This is not democracy. Democracy is to be an active citizen, to question every day what you do in your job.”
'The Young Karl Marx' is out 4 March
Raoul Peck: I Am Not Your Negro director on his new film The Young Karl Marx and why The Communist Manifesto is 'more relevant than ever'
The award-winning director's new film explores the friendship between Marx and Engels – but he insists it's no period piece
Kaleem Aftab @aftabamon
On 5 May, it will be 200 years to the day since the birth of Karl Marx. To coincide with the anniversary a new film by Raoul Peck, The Young Karl Marx, looks at how Marx and his collaborator on The Communist Manifesto, Friedrich Engels, came to meet and form such a strong bond in Germany in 1844.
The Young Karl Marx is a kindred spirit to Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, about another Communist icon, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, in that it’s as interested in the youthful antics and personal shenanigans of the protagonists as it is the work that would make them remembered in history.
Director Peck claimed the Best Documentary Film BAFTA this year for his incredible I Am Not Your Negro, a look at the battles that black people have had to fight for equality in America told entirely through the words of the novelist James Baldwin.
Born in Haiti in 1953, Peck’s parents fled the country with him and his two younger brothers when he was just eight years old. They escaped the Duvalier dictatorship and Peck grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Stefan Konarske as Friedrich Engels and August Diehl as Karl Marx in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
Peck attended schools in New York, where his mother worked at the UN, and in France, earning a baccalaureate before studying engineering and economics at Berlin’s Humboldt University, where he became enamoured with the work of Marx.
“All I am today is because of the structure that I got when I was young studying the work of Marx,” says the director. “At that time, in the 1970s and 1980s, you needed to confront yourself with those books, because it’s your past, it’s your present, it’s part of your general knowledge to understand the society that you are living in and in which you are an actor.”
I Am Not Your Negro captures the searing brilliance of James Baldwin
Peck is an impressively built man, who looks much younger than his 64 years, but he also has the vernacular of an academic. He talks like he’s delivering a lecture, which he often is. Peck is the President of La Fémis, the prestigious Paris film school. He speaks with that mastery of his subject matter that can at times be unnerving but is always enthralling.
He argues that to understand society “Marx is the key.” He’s a man who backs up his analysis with numbers, with history, and with philosophy.
The film starts in 1843 at a time when Europe was dominated by absolute monarchies. It credits the industrial revolution in England as transforming the world’s order, in which a new proletarian class are creating workers’ organisations founded on the Communist notion that all men are brothers.
Vicky Krieps, August Diehl and Stefan Konarske in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
The film posits that two young Germans, Marx and Engels, will disrupt this notion and transform the struggle and future of the world.
“Marx never wrote any utopia,” says Peck, disparaging the commonly held perception. “In the film you see the people who wrote this utopia were [Pierre-Joseph] Proudhon and [Wilhelm] Weitling. Marx told them, both of them: ‘Let's stick to reality, let's develop something from reality.’ Marx never prophesied anything, except sometimes just as a joke or as a conversation.”
Peck argues that that today, Marx’s writing is more relevant than ever: “You sum up the articles and it is exactly the description of the 2008 crisis. It's like the children's book of the history of capitalism and you can trace it until today. So what other proof do you need?”
Peck’s driving ambition was to make a film that would explain the socio-political context of the friendship between Marx (played by August Diehl) and Engels (Stefan Konarske). It starts with Engels witnessing revolts at his dad’s factory in Manchester, the Ermens and Engel Mill. At the same time, Marx is undertaking a more philosophical interpretation of the changes in society, whilst struggling with his journalistic deadlines.
Stefan Konarske and August Diehl in 'The Young Karl Marx' (Velvet Film )
Their spouses are also key characters. Marx’s wife Jenny (played by Phantom Thread star Vicky Krieps) and Engel’s spouse Mary Burns (Hannah Steele) are both as rebellious as their beaus.
He argues that this is not a period film, despite the era and the costumes. “I didn’t make a film about the past. I’m not interested in the past in that way.”
“I wanted to go back to that moment of creation in the film… to go back to the fundamentals, because the book he left is the most important [thing],” states Peck. “How do we utilise this instrument to analyse society at a precise moment?”
And it’s this desire to connect to the present that has led to him make a movie that at times seems like an overly theoretical political analysis, and in other moments like a fun bromance, capturing the hijinks of ordinary young men.
“I hope that young people will recognise themselves in the film,” he says. “For me that would be the best thing. Because that's what it's about: How do I see or find a way to fight back [against] whatever is happening right now?”
What does need to be fought against right now? His response, unsurprisingly, includes President Trump and the widening gap between rich and poor.
James Baldwin in 'I Am Not Your Negro' (Magnolia Pictures)
I ask Peck how Marx ties in with the arguments that we see Baldwin making in I Am Not Your Negro. “When Baldwin says in my film ‘White is a metaphor for power,’ it’s another way of saying 'Chase Manhattan Bank'. That’s Marx’s analysis. So there are some similar perspectives in the way to see society.
"Race is just one emanation of capitalism – like the whole thing about the refugees today. It's not about the colour of the refugees – it's about capitalism doing its job, separating people, dividing, and maintaining the status quo of those who want to protect their privilege.”
Peck believes that people can do more to change society, especially in the west where a kind of lethargy has crept in.
His childhood experiences have taught him that human rights and democracy are something that must constantly be fought for: “Democracy is not something that is fixed once and for all. I came from a country that had a dictatorship and I fought a lot for the restoration of democracy. I know the price of being able to vote.
“In the west, people use voting as a consumer good,” he adds, “you can sit down on your couch and watch a reality show. This is not democracy. Democracy is to be an active citizen, to question every day what you do in your job.”
'The Young Karl Marx' is out 4 March
'That's Not a Good Use of My Time:' Bill Gates Says He Turned Down a Job Offer From Donald Trump - Fortune
'That's Not a Good Use of My Time:' Bill Gates Says He Turned Down a Job Offer From Donald Trump
Bill Gates Could Become the World’s First Trillionaire
When he turns 86.
By DAVID MEYER May 1, 2018
The White House has not had a science advisor since the end of the Obama administration, but President Donald Trump is apparently open to filling the role. In fact, Microsoft founder Bill Gates says he was offered the role.
It’s not clear whether or not Trump was serious, but Gates revealed the offer in an interview with health and medicine site Stat.
Gates, who these days chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife, visited Trump in the Oval Office in March. At some point in the discussion, Gates suggested: “Hey, maybe we should have a science advisor.”
“[Trump] said: Did I want to be the science adviser?” he told Stat. Gates’s reply? “That’s not a good use of my time.”
Gates said he did not know whether the offer was genuine. “He probably himself didn’t know if he was serious,” Gates said.
The last director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was John Holdren, a passionate advocate in the fight against climate change.
The post’s vacancy since Holdren’s resignation at the end of President Barack Obama’s tenure is the longest since in position was created. Indeed, the office of science advisor, which once had 135 staffers, had only 45 as of late last year.
“Trump is a science and technology talent repellent,” Holdren told CBS News in November.
Bill Gates Could Become the World’s First Trillionaire
When he turns 86.
By DAVID MEYER May 1, 2018
The White House has not had a science advisor since the end of the Obama administration, but President Donald Trump is apparently open to filling the role. In fact, Microsoft founder Bill Gates says he was offered the role.
It’s not clear whether or not Trump was serious, but Gates revealed the offer in an interview with health and medicine site Stat.
Gates, who these days chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife, visited Trump in the Oval Office in March. At some point in the discussion, Gates suggested: “Hey, maybe we should have a science advisor.”
“[Trump] said: Did I want to be the science adviser?” he told Stat. Gates’s reply? “That’s not a good use of my time.”
Gates said he did not know whether the offer was genuine. “He probably himself didn’t know if he was serious,” Gates said.
The last director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was John Holdren, a passionate advocate in the fight against climate change.
The post’s vacancy since Holdren’s resignation at the end of President Barack Obama’s tenure is the longest since in position was created. Indeed, the office of science advisor, which once had 135 staffers, had only 45 as of late last year.
“Trump is a science and technology talent repellent,” Holdren told CBS News in November.
Ethiopia, Djibouti May Swap Stakes in Airlines, Ports, Telecoms - Bloomberg
Ethiopia, Djibouti May Swap Stakes in Airlines, Ports, Telecoms
By Nizar Manek
May 2, 2018, 8:01 PM GMT+10
Deal politically endorsed while details pending, minister says
Landlocked Ethiopia views tiny Red Sea state as key partner
Photographer: Jenny Vaughan/AFP via Getty Images
Ethiopia and Djibouti agreed to swap stakes in strategic public enterprises including airlines, ports and telecommunications companies, as the Horn of Africa neighbors pursue deeper economic integration.
The deal would include exchanges of shares in Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise, Africa’s biggest carrier by revenue, Djiboutian Finance Minister Ilyas Dawaleh said in an interview. Shareholdings in companies such as Djibouti’s Horizon Oil Terminal and the Doraleh Container Terminal, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp. and Djibouti Telecom SA will also be swapped, he said.
While the deal has been politically “endorsed,” the two countries will form a committee to work out the details, Dawaleh said by phone April 30. Ethiopian Information Minister Ahmed Shide confirmed the agreement in a text message.
The pact came as Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, made his first foreign visit at the weekend to Djibouti, the tiny state located where the Indian Ocean meets the Red Sea and that’s become a strategic hub for the U.S. and China. Landlocked Ethiopia -- which the International Monetary Fund ranks as the fastest-growing economy on the continent -- is trying to boost its export-oriented manufacturing, making it reliant on neighboring nations with ports.
Dawaleh said Abiy told Djiboutian officials that both countries should start referring to their state-owned enterprises as belonging to all, rather than one nation.
Abiy said in a statement on his Facebook page that officials from both countries “underlined the importance of working towards the realization of complete economic integration of the two economies.” He didn’t elaborate.
By Nizar Manek
May 2, 2018, 8:01 PM GMT+10
Deal politically endorsed while details pending, minister says
Landlocked Ethiopia views tiny Red Sea state as key partner
Photographer: Jenny Vaughan/AFP via Getty Images
Ethiopia and Djibouti agreed to swap stakes in strategic public enterprises including airlines, ports and telecommunications companies, as the Horn of Africa neighbors pursue deeper economic integration.
The deal would include exchanges of shares in Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise, Africa’s biggest carrier by revenue, Djiboutian Finance Minister Ilyas Dawaleh said in an interview. Shareholdings in companies such as Djibouti’s Horizon Oil Terminal and the Doraleh Container Terminal, Ethiopian Telecommunications Corp. and Djibouti Telecom SA will also be swapped, he said.
While the deal has been politically “endorsed,” the two countries will form a committee to work out the details, Dawaleh said by phone April 30. Ethiopian Information Minister Ahmed Shide confirmed the agreement in a text message.
The pact came as Ethiopia’s new prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, made his first foreign visit at the weekend to Djibouti, the tiny state located where the Indian Ocean meets the Red Sea and that’s become a strategic hub for the U.S. and China. Landlocked Ethiopia -- which the International Monetary Fund ranks as the fastest-growing economy on the continent -- is trying to boost its export-oriented manufacturing, making it reliant on neighboring nations with ports.
Dawaleh said Abiy told Djiboutian officials that both countries should start referring to their state-owned enterprises as belonging to all, rather than one nation.
Abiy said in a statement on his Facebook page that officials from both countries “underlined the importance of working towards the realization of complete economic integration of the two economies.” He didn’t elaborate.
Nearly 80 Percent of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un - Bloomberg
Nearly 80 Percent of South Koreans Say They Trust Kim Jong Un
By Kanga Kong
May 2, 2018, 12:55 PM GMT+10
Last week’s summit with Moon Jae-in has changed perceptions
President Moon scored an 86 percent rating in the MBC poll
80% of South Koreans Now Trust Kim
One summit has changed the perceptions of a nation.
Friday’s meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un prompted 78 percent of respondents to a Korea Research Center poll published this week to say they trusted the North Korean leader. That’s a far cry from the 10 percent of South Koreans who said they approved of Kim in a Gallup Korea poll conducted just a month-and-a-half ago.
The summit was filled with unprecedented scenes: Kim’s step over the ankle-high concrete slab dividing the Korean Peninsula -- and then his walk back across the border hand-in-hand with Moon; a 30-minute private chat in the woods in front of television cameras; the first ever live remarks to reporters by a North Korean leader; Kim’s sense of humor and his deferential manner toward Moon, who is more than 30 years his senior.
And that’s just the optics. More significantly, the two leaders signed a declaration to finally end a seven-decade war this year, and pursue the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. Kim also called for frequent meetings between the leaders -- a major shift given only three summits have taken place since the war.
Border Hop
More than 35 percent of respondents to the poll conducted earlier this week on behalf of national broadcaster MBC said the biggest accomplishment was the pledge to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons. Nearly 30 percent said Moon’s hop over the border at Kim’s impromptu suggestion was the most impressive moment of the summit.
Support for Kim is now nearly as high as it is for Moon, who scored an 86 percent rating. The South Korean president has been enjoying the highest popularity among all South Korean presidents in history since his inauguration a year ago .
The question now is whether this positive perception of Kim will continue through and beyond a planned summit between the North Korean leader and U.S. President Donald Trump, possibly later this month.
By Kanga Kong
May 2, 2018, 12:55 PM GMT+10
Last week’s summit with Moon Jae-in has changed perceptions
President Moon scored an 86 percent rating in the MBC poll
80% of South Koreans Now Trust Kim
One summit has changed the perceptions of a nation.
Friday’s meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un prompted 78 percent of respondents to a Korea Research Center poll published this week to say they trusted the North Korean leader. That’s a far cry from the 10 percent of South Koreans who said they approved of Kim in a Gallup Korea poll conducted just a month-and-a-half ago.
The summit was filled with unprecedented scenes: Kim’s step over the ankle-high concrete slab dividing the Korean Peninsula -- and then his walk back across the border hand-in-hand with Moon; a 30-minute private chat in the woods in front of television cameras; the first ever live remarks to reporters by a North Korean leader; Kim’s sense of humor and his deferential manner toward Moon, who is more than 30 years his senior.
And that’s just the optics. More significantly, the two leaders signed a declaration to finally end a seven-decade war this year, and pursue the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. Kim also called for frequent meetings between the leaders -- a major shift given only three summits have taken place since the war.
Border Hop
More than 35 percent of respondents to the poll conducted earlier this week on behalf of national broadcaster MBC said the biggest accomplishment was the pledge to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons. Nearly 30 percent said Moon’s hop over the border at Kim’s impromptu suggestion was the most impressive moment of the summit.
Support for Kim is now nearly as high as it is for Moon, who scored an 86 percent rating. The South Korean president has been enjoying the highest popularity among all South Korean presidents in history since his inauguration a year ago .
The question now is whether this positive perception of Kim will continue through and beyond a planned summit between the North Korean leader and U.S. President Donald Trump, possibly later this month.
South Korea says it wants U.S. troops to stay regardless of any treaty with North Korea - Reuters
MAY 2, 2018 / 11:22 AM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
South Korea says it wants U.S. troops to stay regardless of any treaty with North Korea
Christine Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday the issue of U.S. troops stationed in the South is unrelated to any future peace treaty with North Korea and that American forces should stay even if such an agreement is signed.
“U.S. troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has nothing to do with signing peace treaties,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, citing President Moon Jae-in.
The Blue House was responding to media questions about a column written by South Korean presidential adviser and academic Moon Chung-in that was published earlier this week.
Moon Chung-in said it would be difficult to justify the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea if a peace treaty was signed after the two Koreas agreed at an historic summit last week to put an end to the Korean conflict.
However, Seoul wants the troops to stay because U.S. forces in South Korea play the role of a mediator in military confrontations between neighboring superpowers like China and Japan, another presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity earlier on Wednesday.
Presidential adviser Moon Chung-in was asked not to create confusion regarding the president’s stance, Kim said.
The United States currently has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, which North Korea has long demanded be removed as one of the conditions for giving up its nuclear and missile programs.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. army soldiers take part in a U.S.-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
However, there was no mention in last week’s declaration by Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea. Kim and Moon Jae-in pledged to work for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula.
U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea since the Korean War, which ended in 1953 in an armistice that left the two Koreas technically still at war.
Moon Jae-in and Kim have said they want to put an end to the Korean conflict, promising there will be “no more war” on the Korean peninsula.
Reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Paul Tait
South Korea says it wants U.S. troops to stay regardless of any treaty with North Korea
Christine Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday the issue of U.S. troops stationed in the South is unrelated to any future peace treaty with North Korea and that American forces should stay even if such an agreement is signed.
“U.S. troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States. It has nothing to do with signing peace treaties,” said Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House, citing President Moon Jae-in.
The Blue House was responding to media questions about a column written by South Korean presidential adviser and academic Moon Chung-in that was published earlier this week.
Moon Chung-in said it would be difficult to justify the presence of U.S. forces in South Korea if a peace treaty was signed after the two Koreas agreed at an historic summit last week to put an end to the Korean conflict.
However, Seoul wants the troops to stay because U.S. forces in South Korea play the role of a mediator in military confrontations between neighboring superpowers like China and Japan, another presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity earlier on Wednesday.
Presidential adviser Moon Chung-in was asked not to create confusion regarding the president’s stance, Kim said.
The United States currently has around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, which North Korea has long demanded be removed as one of the conditions for giving up its nuclear and missile programs.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. army soldiers take part in a U.S.-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea, April 8, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
However, there was no mention in last week’s declaration by Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea. Kim and Moon Jae-in pledged to work for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula.
U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea since the Korean War, which ended in 1953 in an armistice that left the two Koreas technically still at war.
Moon Jae-in and Kim have said they want to put an end to the Korean conflict, promising there will be “no more war” on the Korean peninsula.
Reporting by Christine Kim; Editing by Paul Tait
Kanye West says slavery for 400 years was 'a choice' - BBC News
May 2, 2018
Kanye West says slavery for 400 years was 'a choice'
Rapper under fire for series of tweets and comments, including praise for Donald Trump
Clark Mindock New York @ClarkMindock
Kanye was recently seen wearing President Donald Trump's signature campaign hat BACKGRID
Kanye West has suggested that slavery in the United States was a choice by those enslaved, prompting a black TMZ reporter to challenge him in a heated exchange for his recent comments.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice!” Kanye said during an interview before the confrontation.
“Like, you was there for 400 years, and it’s all y’all? You know, it’s like, we’re mentally in prison. I like the word prison because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks,” Kanye continued.
Kanye West talks about Jay-Z and Beyonce not coming to his wedding
“Prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race," he continued. "That we’re the human race.”
The comments followed after the hip-hop artist reactivated his Twitter account and began posting a series of tweets that drew heavy criticism. In some of the tweets he praised President Donald Trump, and went so far as to post a picture of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
“Do you feel that I’m being free, and I’m thinking free?” Kanye is shown in a TMZ video before the confrontation.
“I actually don’t think you’re thinking anything. I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought,” the TMZ reporter, Van, responded from across the room.
“And the reason why I feel like that is because, Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion, you’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is real life consequence behind everything that you just said.”
Kanye admits that he was 'hurt' that Jay Z and Beyonce didn't come to his wedding
Westworld season 2 features Kanye West song week after Trump comments
Questlove spotted in 'Kanye doesn't care about black people' T-shirt
Kanye West and John Legend put aside differences: 'Agree to disagree'
Kanye West trolls fans with new song 'Lift Yourself'
Van argued that Kanye is able to say whatever he wants in part because he is removed from the dangers that face people of lesser means in America, where the ugly history of racism still casts a shadow over the lives of many in black and minority communities.
“While you are making music and being an artist, and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives,” he said. “We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed. I’m appalled. And, brother, I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that, for me, is not real."
Kanye West says slavery for 400 years was 'a choice'
Rapper under fire for series of tweets and comments, including praise for Donald Trump
Clark Mindock New York @ClarkMindock
Kanye was recently seen wearing President Donald Trump's signature campaign hat BACKGRID
Kanye West has suggested that slavery in the United States was a choice by those enslaved, prompting a black TMZ reporter to challenge him in a heated exchange for his recent comments.
“When you hear about slavery for 400 years. For 400 years? That sounds like a choice!” Kanye said during an interview before the confrontation.
“Like, you was there for 400 years, and it’s all y’all? You know, it’s like, we’re mentally in prison. I like the word prison because slavery goes too direct to the idea of blacks,” Kanye continued.
Kanye West talks about Jay-Z and Beyonce not coming to his wedding
“Prison is something that unites us as one race. Blacks and whites being one race," he continued. "That we’re the human race.”
The comments followed after the hip-hop artist reactivated his Twitter account and began posting a series of tweets that drew heavy criticism. In some of the tweets he praised President Donald Trump, and went so far as to post a picture of himself wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
“Do you feel that I’m being free, and I’m thinking free?” Kanye is shown in a TMZ video before the confrontation.
“I actually don’t think you’re thinking anything. I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought,” the TMZ reporter, Van, responded from across the room.
“And the reason why I feel like that is because, Kanye, you’re entitled to your opinion, you’re entitled to believe whatever you want, but there is real life consequence behind everything that you just said.”
Kanye admits that he was 'hurt' that Jay Z and Beyonce didn't come to his wedding
Westworld season 2 features Kanye West song week after Trump comments
Questlove spotted in 'Kanye doesn't care about black people' T-shirt
Kanye West and John Legend put aside differences: 'Agree to disagree'
Kanye West trolls fans with new song 'Lift Yourself'
Van argued that Kanye is able to say whatever he wants in part because he is removed from the dangers that face people of lesser means in America, where the ugly history of racism still casts a shadow over the lives of many in black and minority communities.
“While you are making music and being an artist, and living the life that you’ve earned by being a genius, the rest of us in society have to deal with these threats to our lives,” he said. “We have to deal with the marginalization that has come from 400 years of slavery that you said for our people was a choice. Frankly, I’m disappointed. I’m appalled. And, brother, I’m unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something that, for me, is not real."
Donald Trump wrote own health letter, says physician Harold Bornstein - BBC News
May 2, 2018
Donald Trump wrote own health letter, says physician Harold Bornstein
The letter signed by Mr Bornstein described Mr Trump's stamina as "extraordinary"
Donald Trump's former doctor has said he did not write a 2015 letter declaring the then-Republican presidential candidate's "astonishingly excellent" health, US media report.
"[Mr Trump] dictated that whole letter," Harold Bornstein told CNN.
The White House has not yet commented on the physician's allegation.
Mr Bornstein also said that Mr Trump's bodyguard had carried out a "raid" on his offices in February 2017, removing all of Mr Trump's medical records.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Bornstein said the 2015 letter suggesting that Mr Trump would be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency" was not his professional assessment.
"[Mr Trump] dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there," he said.
It is not clear why Mr Bornstein is making these allegations now.
Skip Twitter post by @atrupar
Aaron Rupar
✔
@atrupar
Trump's doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, tells NBC that Trump's bodyguard & lawyer spent 30 minutes raiding his office.
"I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal about a drug that's to grow his hair, which seemed to be so important... what's the matter with that?"
2:15 AM - May 2, 2018
What was in the letter?
The letter's contents included statements on Mr Trump's physical strength and stamina, which were described as "extraordinary".
His blood pressure and laboratory tests were described as "astonishingly excellent" and he was said to have lost 15 pounds (7kg) over the course of a year.
It added that Mr Trump had no forms of cancer or joint surgery.
Quiz: Could you pass Trump's brain test?
A few weeks ahead of its release, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Bornstein's medical report would show "perfection".
"I am fortunate to have been blessed with great genes," Mr Trump, who became the oldest president to be elected in US history, wrote on Facebook at the time.
In January this year Mr Trump had a three-hour examination amid speculation over his mental health.
Media captionDr Jackson on President Trump: "He has incredible genes"
His White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, said at the time: "I have no concerns about his cognitive ability or neurological functions."
What about Mr Bornstein's office 'raid'?
The New York City-based physician said he was visited by one of Mr Trump's personal bodyguards and two other men at his office on 3 February 2017.
"They must have been here for 25 or 30 minutes, it created a lot of chaos," Mr Bornstein told NBC News, adding that the incident made him feel "raped, frightened and sad".
He said the original and only copy of Mr Trump's medical charts, including lab reports, were taken by his aides.
The incident took place shortly after The New York Times published a report in which Mr Bornstein said he had prescribed Mr Trump with Propecia, an anti-baldness drug.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later insisted that the incident was not a raid and that it was "standard procedure" for the White House Medical Unit to take possession of the president's medical records.
Donald Trump wrote own health letter, says physician Harold Bornstein
The letter signed by Mr Bornstein described Mr Trump's stamina as "extraordinary"
Donald Trump's former doctor has said he did not write a 2015 letter declaring the then-Republican presidential candidate's "astonishingly excellent" health, US media report.
"[Mr Trump] dictated that whole letter," Harold Bornstein told CNN.
The White House has not yet commented on the physician's allegation.
Mr Bornstein also said that Mr Trump's bodyguard had carried out a "raid" on his offices in February 2017, removing all of Mr Trump's medical records.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Bornstein said the 2015 letter suggesting that Mr Trump would be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency" was not his professional assessment.
"[Mr Trump] dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there," he said.
It is not clear why Mr Bornstein is making these allegations now.
Skip Twitter post by @atrupar
Aaron Rupar
✔
@atrupar
Trump's doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, tells NBC that Trump's bodyguard & lawyer spent 30 minutes raiding his office.
"I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal about a drug that's to grow his hair, which seemed to be so important... what's the matter with that?"
2:15 AM - May 2, 2018
What was in the letter?
The letter's contents included statements on Mr Trump's physical strength and stamina, which were described as "extraordinary".
His blood pressure and laboratory tests were described as "astonishingly excellent" and he was said to have lost 15 pounds (7kg) over the course of a year.
It added that Mr Trump had no forms of cancer or joint surgery.
Quiz: Could you pass Trump's brain test?
A few weeks ahead of its release, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Bornstein's medical report would show "perfection".
"I am fortunate to have been blessed with great genes," Mr Trump, who became the oldest president to be elected in US history, wrote on Facebook at the time.
In January this year Mr Trump had a three-hour examination amid speculation over his mental health.
Media captionDr Jackson on President Trump: "He has incredible genes"
His White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, said at the time: "I have no concerns about his cognitive ability or neurological functions."
What about Mr Bornstein's office 'raid'?
The New York City-based physician said he was visited by one of Mr Trump's personal bodyguards and two other men at his office on 3 February 2017.
"They must have been here for 25 or 30 minutes, it created a lot of chaos," Mr Bornstein told NBC News, adding that the incident made him feel "raped, frightened and sad".
He said the original and only copy of Mr Trump's medical charts, including lab reports, were taken by his aides.
The incident took place shortly after The New York Times published a report in which Mr Bornstein said he had prescribed Mr Trump with Propecia, an anti-baldness drug.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders later insisted that the incident was not a raid and that it was "standard procedure" for the White House Medical Unit to take possession of the president's medical records.
Armenia crisis: Protesters bring cities to standstill after vote - BBC News
May 2, 2018
Armenia crisis: Protesters bring cities to standstill after vote
Protesters of all ages returned to Republic Square in the capital as Armenians responded to a call for a general strike
Tens of thousands of supporters of Armenia's protest leader, Nikol Pashinyan, have responded to his call for civil disobedience, blocking key roads and government buildings.
Mr Pashinyan has led weeks of anti-government protests that forced former PM Serzh Sargsyan to resign.
He called for a general strike after ruling party MPs refused to back him as interim prime minister on Tuesday.
Protests broke out across the capital Yerevan and other main cities.
Cars and lorries blocked intersections in the capital, while demonstrators stopped traffic on the route to the main airport. Tourists had to abandon vehicles and carry their luggage. Metro stations in Yerevan were closed as part of the campaign of disobedience.
rayhan demytrie
@rayhandemytrie
#yerevan #Armenia protesters started blocking major roads including one leading to international airport. Just saw a group of young medics chanting “republican’s go” one protesters said they won’t stop until their leader #pashinyan is elected PM
3:30 PM - May 2, 2018 · Armenia
Teachers and school students were among those taking part in the protests in the landlocked former Soviet state of 2.9 million people, a close ally of Russia. The southern Caucasus country shares borders with Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Entrances to several ministry buildings were blockaded and rail services were also disrupted. Trains were not running between Yerevan and the second city, Gyumri, and checkpoints near the Georgian border were affected.
There was further disruption in Gyumri itself and in the third city Vanadzor, where a large crowd of protesters blockaded the mayor's office and other civic buildings. Three thousand workers from a local sewing factory walked out and cut off some of Vanadzor's biggest roads, reports said.
Some protesters blocked roads with rubbish bins while others parked cars across junctions and sat on benches in the middle of the road
The demonstrators took to the streets after Mr Pashinyan addressed crowds on Tuesday night in Yerevan's Republic Square, close to parliament, saying that police should also join the protests.
He told the BBC on Wednesday that protesters were fighting for their own rights and dignity. "I want to be clear, it isn't a fight for Nikol Pashinyan becoming prime minister, it's a fight for human rights, for democracy, for rule of law and that is why our people aren't tired and won't be tired."
During the day he posted a message on social media urging protesters to halt disruption at the airport, while other opposition politicians appealed to people not to impede emergency services. Police tried to move protesters off the roads but there was no sign of violence.
Why Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution' won without a shot fired
Armenia: History and politics
Mr Pashinyan fell eight votes short of the 53 he needed to secure a majority in the 105-seat chamber on Tuesday, when he failed to persuade the ruling Republican party to back him.
He warned them during a marathon nine-hour question-and-answer session of what would happen if they rejected his candidacy. "Your behaviour, treating the tolerance of the people as a weakness, could become the cause of a tsunami."
Parliament is expected to try again to elect a prime minister on 8 May.
Republican MPs had reportedly given assurances they would not block Mr Pashinyan's bid for office and did not put up their own candidate in a bid to ease tensions. But some MPs accused him of bringing chaos to the streets and questioned whether he was up to the job.
"Mr Pashinyan, I don't see you at the post of prime minister, I don't see you at the post of commander-in-chief," said Eduard Sharmazanov, deputy speaker of parliament and Republican spokesman.
Mr Pashinyan's supporters shouted "shame" when the result of the parliamentary vote was shown on two huge screens in Republic Square.
The opposition leader, accompanied by his wife, arrived in the square soon after, with the crowd chanting "Nikol, Nikol".
How did we get here?
Mr Sargsyan, who had served 10 years as president, stepped down last month, days after being sworn in as prime minister.
Demonstrators had poured onto the streets of Yerevan in protest at the move, accusing him of trying to cling to power.
Mr Pashinyan then met his rival for talks, which broke down within minutes when he called for the prime minister's resignation and Mr Sargsyan accused protesters of blackmail.
Media captionSupporters mob Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinyan after the PM resigns
Mr Pashinyan and about 200 protesters were then arrested.
However, Mr Pashinyan was soon released and the prime minister resigned, admitting he had "got it wrong".
Mr Pashinyan has said he will rid Armenia of corruption, poverty and nepotism and has promised snap elections.
Who is Nikol Pashinyan?
The son of a sports teacher, Mr Pashinyan came to prominence in 1995 when he began writing about government corruption. He founded a newspaper three years later and went on to take the role of editor at a best-selling daily, which criticised the government of President Robert Kocharyan and then of President Sargsyan.
Nikol Pashinyan said the Republican Party had "declared war" on the Armenian people
When Mr Sargsyan was elected president in 2008, Mr Pashinyan was among the leaders of protests that turned violent and left 10 people dead. At that point he went into hiding, surrendering to authorities the following year.
Jailed the following year on charges of murder and organising mass unrest, he was eventually released under an amnesty in 2011.
In 2012, he was first elected to Armenia's parliament. He argues that only he can steer Armenia to free and fair elections.
Armenia crisis: Protesters bring cities to standstill after vote
Protesters of all ages returned to Republic Square in the capital as Armenians responded to a call for a general strike
Tens of thousands of supporters of Armenia's protest leader, Nikol Pashinyan, have responded to his call for civil disobedience, blocking key roads and government buildings.
Mr Pashinyan has led weeks of anti-government protests that forced former PM Serzh Sargsyan to resign.
He called for a general strike after ruling party MPs refused to back him as interim prime minister on Tuesday.
Protests broke out across the capital Yerevan and other main cities.
Cars and lorries blocked intersections in the capital, while demonstrators stopped traffic on the route to the main airport. Tourists had to abandon vehicles and carry their luggage. Metro stations in Yerevan were closed as part of the campaign of disobedience.
rayhan demytrie
@rayhandemytrie
#yerevan #Armenia protesters started blocking major roads including one leading to international airport. Just saw a group of young medics chanting “republican’s go” one protesters said they won’t stop until their leader #pashinyan is elected PM
3:30 PM - May 2, 2018 · Armenia
Teachers and school students were among those taking part in the protests in the landlocked former Soviet state of 2.9 million people, a close ally of Russia. The southern Caucasus country shares borders with Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Entrances to several ministry buildings were blockaded and rail services were also disrupted. Trains were not running between Yerevan and the second city, Gyumri, and checkpoints near the Georgian border were affected.
There was further disruption in Gyumri itself and in the third city Vanadzor, where a large crowd of protesters blockaded the mayor's office and other civic buildings. Three thousand workers from a local sewing factory walked out and cut off some of Vanadzor's biggest roads, reports said.
Some protesters blocked roads with rubbish bins while others parked cars across junctions and sat on benches in the middle of the road
The demonstrators took to the streets after Mr Pashinyan addressed crowds on Tuesday night in Yerevan's Republic Square, close to parliament, saying that police should also join the protests.
He told the BBC on Wednesday that protesters were fighting for their own rights and dignity. "I want to be clear, it isn't a fight for Nikol Pashinyan becoming prime minister, it's a fight for human rights, for democracy, for rule of law and that is why our people aren't tired and won't be tired."
During the day he posted a message on social media urging protesters to halt disruption at the airport, while other opposition politicians appealed to people not to impede emergency services. Police tried to move protesters off the roads but there was no sign of violence.
Why Armenia's 'Velvet Revolution' won without a shot fired
Armenia: History and politics
Mr Pashinyan fell eight votes short of the 53 he needed to secure a majority in the 105-seat chamber on Tuesday, when he failed to persuade the ruling Republican party to back him.
He warned them during a marathon nine-hour question-and-answer session of what would happen if they rejected his candidacy. "Your behaviour, treating the tolerance of the people as a weakness, could become the cause of a tsunami."
Parliament is expected to try again to elect a prime minister on 8 May.
Republican MPs had reportedly given assurances they would not block Mr Pashinyan's bid for office and did not put up their own candidate in a bid to ease tensions. But some MPs accused him of bringing chaos to the streets and questioned whether he was up to the job.
"Mr Pashinyan, I don't see you at the post of prime minister, I don't see you at the post of commander-in-chief," said Eduard Sharmazanov, deputy speaker of parliament and Republican spokesman.
Mr Pashinyan's supporters shouted "shame" when the result of the parliamentary vote was shown on two huge screens in Republic Square.
The opposition leader, accompanied by his wife, arrived in the square soon after, with the crowd chanting "Nikol, Nikol".
How did we get here?
Mr Sargsyan, who had served 10 years as president, stepped down last month, days after being sworn in as prime minister.
Demonstrators had poured onto the streets of Yerevan in protest at the move, accusing him of trying to cling to power.
Mr Pashinyan then met his rival for talks, which broke down within minutes when he called for the prime minister's resignation and Mr Sargsyan accused protesters of blackmail.
Media captionSupporters mob Armenian protest leader Nikol Pashinyan after the PM resigns
Mr Pashinyan and about 200 protesters were then arrested.
However, Mr Pashinyan was soon released and the prime minister resigned, admitting he had "got it wrong".
Mr Pashinyan has said he will rid Armenia of corruption, poverty and nepotism and has promised snap elections.
Who is Nikol Pashinyan?
The son of a sports teacher, Mr Pashinyan came to prominence in 1995 when he began writing about government corruption. He founded a newspaper three years later and went on to take the role of editor at a best-selling daily, which criticised the government of President Robert Kocharyan and then of President Sargsyan.
Nikol Pashinyan said the Republican Party had "declared war" on the Armenian people
When Mr Sargsyan was elected president in 2008, Mr Pashinyan was among the leaders of protests that turned violent and left 10 people dead. At that point he went into hiding, surrendering to authorities the following year.
Jailed the following year on charges of murder and organising mass unrest, he was eventually released under an amnesty in 2011.
In 2012, he was first elected to Armenia's parliament. He argues that only he can steer Armenia to free and fair elections.
Mueller 'threatened Trump with subpoena' amid Russia probe - BBC News
May 2, 2018
Mueller 'threatened Trump with subpoena' amid Russia probe
Mr Mueller (right) threatened to force Mr Trump to answer investigators' questions
Special Counsel Robert Mueller warned he could order Donald Trump to testify as part of a probe into alleged Russian election meddling, US media report.
Mr Mueller suggested the move during talks with Mr Trump's lawyers in March.
The threat to issue a subpoena, as it is known, was reportedly met with a sharp response from one of Mr Trump's former lawyers.
It is believed to be the first time the special counsel has raised such a possibility.
Mr Trump's lawyers insisted during the meeting that the president was under no obligation to face questions by federal investigators in relation to the Russia inquiry, the Washington Post reported.
However Mr Mueller's team reportedly responded by suggesting they would issue a subpoena if Mr Trump declined. They agreed to provide the president's lawyers with more specific information about the questions they wished to ask Mr Trump.
The president's former lawyer, John Dowd, has also said that Mr Mueller mentioned the possibility of forcing Mr Trump to face questions.
Mr Dowd, who resigned about a week and a half after the meeting, said he told investigators that the probe was not "some game", adding: "You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States."
The list of possible questions has since been published in the New York Times, and it reportedly covers the president's motivations in dismissing former FBI director James Comey last May and his campaign's contacts with Russia.
Mr Trump has called the leak "disgraceful", repeating his claim that the Russia inquiry is a "witch hunt".
Skip Twitter post by @realDonaldTrump
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were “leaked” to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!
8:47 PM - May 1, 2018
So will Mr Trump talk?
The US president himself has said he is willing to speak to Mr Mueller, but CNN reports that his enthusiasm has cooled after the offices of his personal attorney were raided.
The network cites sources close to Mr Trump as saying they are yet to make a recommendation about whether he agrees to an interview with Mr Mueller. Some advisers reportedly believe Mr Mueller would not go so far as to issue a subpoena.
If one was issued, Mr Trump's lawyers could fight it in court, or he could refuse to answer questions by pleading the Fifth Amendment, a constitutional protection against potential self-incrimination.
Prominent US lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who has expressed support for Mr Trump in his legal battles, advised against the US president speaking to the special counsel.
"The strategy is to throw him softballs so that he will go on and on with his answers," he told the Washington Post.
"Instead of sharp questions designed to elicit yes or no, they make him feel very comfortable and let him ramble."
What is Robert Mueller investigating?
The special counsel is looking into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election, whether there was any collusion between the Kremlin and Mr Trump's election campaign and whether the president unlawfully tried to obstruct the inquiry.
Media captionAll you need to know about the Trump-Russia investigation
Mr Mueller was appointed special counsel following Mr Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey last May.
What does the special counsel do?
The president insists there was no collusion between his election campaign and the Russians.
US media reported that sources familiar with the case said Mr Mueller informed Mr Trump's attorneys in March that he is a subject of the investigations, but not a criminal target.
It remains unclear when Mr Mueller will request a meeting with the president.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
