CNN

Trump’s crushing fraud trial defeat is a microcosm of a life defined

by breaking all the rules.
Published 12:00 AM EST, Sat February 17, 2024

Former President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate, February 16, 2024, in
Palm Beach, Florida.

(CNN) – Donald Trump’s way of doing business is a window into his soul.
So his devastating loss Friday in a New York fraud case that threatens the empire on
which he built his art of the deal mythology encapsulates more than a legal defeat.
It offers a character study of the behavior, beliefs and worldview that define the DNA of
an irrepressible figure and unchained force who is again tearing at American unity,
institutions, democracy and the rule of law as another contentious election looms.
A trial, which Trump tainted with histrionics and contempt for the judicial system, and
Judge Arthur Engoro’s final, stinging judgment, revealed four foundational codes that
explain Trump’s tumultuous path through a life that he simply sees as an endless stream
of business and political deal he must close.
- Trump thinks rules are for other people. He will always break them in seeking
more wealth, more attention, or more votes.
- If reality doesn’t get the ex-president what he wants, he conjures a new one.
- Trump is compelled always to fight – even when stepping back would be smarter.
- And when accountability finally arrives, he sees justice as an act of persecution by
his enemies.
These Trump traits leap out of a staggering 92-page ruling handed down by Engoron,
which left Trump facing a half-billion-dollar hole in his finances because of penalties
and obligations in this and other cases.
The judge encapsulated the former president’s brazen refusal to play by the same rules
under wich everyone else must live – and that in this case are the key to a functioning
banking and economic system – with the words: “The frauds found here leap off the
page and shock the conscience.”
But evidence never swayed Trump before and will not now, despite his crushing
defeat. Whenever he loses, he just doubles down with a bigger falsehood – in this case
that a fair legal process was a simply a political attack by President Joe Biden.
“All comes out of the DOJ, it all comes out of Biden,” Trump said. “It’s a witch hunt
against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen.”
The climax of the case deepened the extraordinary legal morass facing Trump who is
embroiled in multiple cases and faces the first of his criminal trials next month. The
judgment portrays Trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization, flouting
business ethics, rules and laws to pull valuations for their property assets out of the air
to get favorable loans, and then even more remarkably, refusing to accept the facts of
their conduct when confronted with the evidence.
Practically, Engoron’s decision will impose severe financial and personal strain on
Trump as he’s emerging as the almost certain Republican presidential nominee. While
Trump boasts of being a billionaire many times over, it’s unclear if he has the liquidity
to pay what he owes or if some of the “beautiful buildings” and golf resorts over
which he often waxes fondly in campaign speeches are at risk. An emperor has no
clothes moment that reveals the ex-president as less wealthy than he claims could
threaten the mogul’s mystique on which he built his political brand and his self-
identity.
Warnings signs for Trump
Perhaps most concerning for Trump, Friday’s defeat suggests the shield of impunity
that has allowed his rampaging political and business career is fraying. It comes only
three weeks after a jury in a defamation case in Manhattan awarded the writer E. Jean
Carroll $83 million in compensatory damages for public statements he made in 2019
disparaging her and denying her rape allegations.
While the ex-president's strategy of basing his legal defenses on a political argument
that he’s a victim of persecution from the Biden administration may be working in the
campaign – at least for now – it is no match for the exacting standards of a court of
law. At a defining moment of Trump’s fraud trial, when he was effectively making a
campaign speech from the stand, Engoron asked Trump’s lawyer: “Can you control
your client?” Of course, no one has ever been able to do so. But Engoron’s ruling
shows that the legal system has the power to constrain Trump and impose
consequences that the political system lacks, despite two impeachments and a lost
presidential election. This must be a worry for Trump as he faces four criminal trials,
and may partly explain his desire to win back power since presidential authority could
help him block or reverse convictions – at least in federal cases.
Trump is also absorbing a double blow from New York, the larger-than-life city and
state where he built towering skyscrapers and an outrageous personality based on an
all-publicity-is-good-publicity attitude to 1980s tabloids. On Thursday, another New
York judge locked in March 25 as the start date for this first criminal trial – over hush
money payments to a former adult film star. The next day, the real estate empire that
literally changed Manhattan’s skyline was rocked by Engoron’s verdict.
Trump has long since decamped to Florida, but Engoron’s ban on him running a New
York corporation for three years will still sting. New York brashness and high stakes
made Trump who he is. But his outlandishness has also repeatedly made him a
Manhattan outsider. And now the city is rejecting him again, as part of a longterm
trend that surely shaped Trump’s political super skill - his capacity to identify and
harness the frustration of Americans who feel themselves rejected and condescended
to by East Coast political, economic and media elites.
It’s too early to tell how Trump’s loss on Friday will affect his political campaign. The
dizzying lune-up of cases against him has only cemented his bond with Make
American Great Again voter who bought into his expertly crafted narrative of
persecution that rescued an initially lackluster 2024 election campaign and has him on
the verge of capturing his third straight Republican nomination. The advantage of
Trump’s sense of victimization is that every reverse further fuels it. One of his closest
allies, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, therefore was able to ignore the
overwhelming evidence revealed in the case of his malfeasance to declare: “The
American people will not stand for this; they will elect President Trumps as our 47 th
President of the United States. “
But for all of Biden’s political vulnerabilities, it’s hard to see how Trump’s increasing
list of legal losses will improve his standing with the suburban moderate, swing state
voters who paved the way to his loss in 2020. His remaining GOP foe Nikki Haley is
making this point in her rallies. “March and April, he’s in one case court case. May
and June, he’s in another,” Haley said while campaigning on Thursday ahead of the
South Carolina primary. “He’s already said he’s going to spend most of this year in a
courtroom, not on a campaign trail. That’s not a way you win.”
Friday’s ruling may turn out to be another blow to Republicans in a week in which
they lost a key special election in New York and the GOP House majority bolted
Washington in disarray. Biden, after a rough trot dominated by questions about his
age, had a better week, as Tom Suozzi’s election win cooled panic among Democrats
over their 2024 prospects and after the FBI charged and ex-informant with lying, in a
move that eviscerated the GOP’s impeachment inquiry against him.
Flouted rules, new realities and a busted legal strategy
Trump’s belief that the rules are for others defines his business and political life. It’s
essential, for example, to his claim now before the Supreme Court that presidents
enjoy absolute immunity and cannot be prosecuted for their actions after they leave
office.
Engoron, meanwhile, marveled at the ex-president’s audacity in flouting business
ethics in inflating the values of his real estate and then his refusal to accept the truth of
his actions when confronted with evidence. “Defendants are incapable of admitting
the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’
posture that the evidence belies,” he wrote. Engoron explained that such a crushing
verdict was necessary to account for Trumps ill-gotten gains – because he believes
 they will continue in the absence of a painful price: “Donald Trump testified that, even
today, he does not believe the Trump Organization needed to make any changes based
on the facts that came out during this trial.”
Trump’s willingness to create a convenient reality is also at the heart of the case filed
against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James, which rested on accusations
that he serially inflated the values of his holdings to obtain better terms from banks
and financial firms and to ultimately make more money. The ex-president claims that
there were no victims from his behavior and that everyone made money. Yet regular
Americans wouldn’t get away with such conduct in their far less lucrative financial
lives and investments. And Engoron argued that he was obligated to “protect the
integrity of the financial marketplace and, thus, the public as a whole.”

[Link]
Kissing Jacob Elordi, dancing with Julia Stiles and becoming Timothée Chalamet:
Chloe Fineman’s buzziest ‘SNL’ sketches

(CNN) – Chloe Fineman might be known by some as the chief impressionist at ‘SNL’,
but she says that she might walk away from the 49th season with a new moniker.
“I’m ‘Girl who’s hoisted by hunky men’ this year, and I’m really not mad about it,” she
joked to CNN recently, making reference to two memorable sketches that had her
jumping into the arms of “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa and “Euphoria” star Jacob
Elordi, respectively.
Indeed, it has been quite the season for Fineman, who has been on the long-running
sketch show since 2019. It’s seen her do street ballet with Julia Stiles and come face-to-
face with Timothée Chalamet after doing an uncanny impression of him.
In the midst of promoting her new campaign with NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer, Fineman spoke
to CNN about some of her buzziest sketches from what has arguably been her best
season yet.

Scrambling to ‘Save the Last Dance’

It wasn’t until roughly 11:30 p.m. on the Friday night before the live taping of a
December episode of “SNL” that Fineman got word from a producer that the “Save the
Last Dance” sketch she had pitched was a go.
And as the clock struck midnight, the first call was made to the 2001 movie’s star Julia
Stiles to see if she was available to make a cameo in the sketch that paid homage to the
film. Luckily, Stiles was not only put at that hour, but she was down to rally.
“She just happened to be in New York and was like, ‘Sure, yeah, I’ll get a sitter!’”
Fineman said.
The last-minute decision to move forward with the sketch left little time to prepare before
showtime.
Reading cue cards while simultaneously performing choreography on a live show was a
new challenge for Fineman, so she worked hard with a choreographer to learn the dance
on the day of the live show “in this weird gym we have in 30 Rock that supposedly only
Seth Meyers works out at.”
Stiles arrived around 5 p.m. to rehearse with Fineman, and she came ready to “practice
and get it right.”
The sketch features Stiles and Fineman demonstrating that her idea of the perfect
“intimate” holiday gift is the pivotal Juilliard audition dance that Stiles’ character
performs at the end of the movie. Fineman explains the plot while performing her
hilarious spin on the routine.
At the end, Stiles was met with raucous cheers and applause when she took the “SNL”
stage to perform with Fineman in the surprise cameo.
“For the audience to freak out the way they did,” Fineman said, “I thought it was so
special and so cool.”
While the sketch was a success, the final product wasn’t how it was initially intended.
According to Fineman, it was originally written for Adam Driver, who hosted the episode
and would’ve been the recipient of her steamy holiday “gift” until the sketch changed
direction to include Stiles instead.
“I did a table read and Adam Driver’s just looking at me and I’m like, ‘Another day at
the office making a fool out of myself with, like, the greatest actor of our generation.
Cool, cool, cool,’” she recalled, laughing.
[Link]
[Link]
HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON FACES A DEFINING DILEMMA ON
UKRAINE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters during a news conference at
the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center on February 14, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(CNN) – House Speaker Mike Johnson had the fate of a democracy and a people in his
hands.
It’s not the United States, which will survive – even if the coming general election results
in another existential test for the constitutional system.
The country Johnson has the power to save is Ukraine, two years after Russian President
Vladimir Putin invaded, decreeing that it didn’t have the right to exist.
Ukraine’s soldiers – trapped in a World War I-style hellscape of trench warfare – are
running out of bullets. There are signs that Russia may be about to break a stalemate and
tip the war its way.
Johnson, a backbencher who was the last-ditch choice to lead the mutinous House GOP
majority last year, could relieve Ukraine’s agony and help ensure its survival as an
independent nation in the coming days. He could allow a vote on a bill that includes $60
billion in aid that the Pentagon says is needed to allow Kyiv to continue to effectively
fight. It would likely pass with a comfortable bipartisan majority.
The Lousiana Republican’s reluctance to do so is a commentary on the growing power of
GOP front-runner Donald Trump, the sharp turn of his party away from its globalist pro-
democracy heritage and perhaps even his own ambition since borrowing Democratic
votes to finance Ukraine’s defense could cost him the speakership.
The speaker is coming under extreme pressure on multiple fronts, at home and abroad, as
coinciding crises that he’s postponed over his young speakership come to the boil at once.
Most immediately, without a budget deal with the Democratic Senate, the government
could hurtle into a partial shutdown by the weekend.
His predicament will be highlighted at a meeting of the top four congressional leaders at
the White House on Tuesday called by President Joe Biden.
The quiet Louisianan is besieged by intensifying calls among Republicans opposed to
more Ukraine aid, especially from the pro-Trump wing of his conference, as he seeks to
cling to his job longer than his ill-fated predecessor Kevin MacCarthy. But Johnson’s
lonely dilemma is being sharpened as the administration singles him out as the one man
who can thwart or enable Putin’s attempt to wipe Ukraine off the map. President
Volodymyr Zelensky starkly warned in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that his
country could not succeed in repelling Russia without the aid. Foreign governments that
fear the Western coalition against Moscow could crumble without US cash and influence
have been calling on the speaker to act. And the pressure of Zelensky’s forces facing
battlefield defeats threatens to hand Republicans the blame if desperately needed arms are
not soon rushed to the front.
It is daunting picture for a speaker who rose from obscurity only months ago, and who
lacks the experience, vote-counting nous and leverage needed to cajole a Republican
majority into shape.
So far, Johnson has offered little evidence that he has the political dexterity to navigate
himself out of his dicey spot. But even a master of parliamentary muscle flexing might
struggle with such a weak hand. His minute majority means he can afford to lose only a
handful of votes among GOP members to pass a bill – a reality that gives extremist
members outsize influence. The fate of MacCarthy, ousted last year by his own side, casts
daily doubt on Johnson’s ability to survive. The threat comes the speaker’s own far-right
flank of a party that is increasingly nationalist, populist and isolationist after being
transformed by Trump. A $60 billion aid package to a foreign democracy is incompatible
with the “Make America Great Again” creed of the ex-president’s movement – and is
largely opposed by GOP voters at the grassroots.
So even if Johnson wants to rescue Ukraine, it may be politically impossible to do so.
Nothing can be guaranteed in a fractious Congress, with a House GOP majority that has
rendered the United States close to ungovernable and is threatening America’s global
leadership role.
A TENSE WHITE HOUSE MEETING IN PROSPECT.
Johnson will find himself outnumbered Tuesday. Joining him on the Oval Office sofas
will be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Republican leader Mitch
McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer – all of whom support the
swift and significant dispatch of funds for Ukraine.
“There is a strong bipartisan majority in the House standing ready to pass his bill if it
comes to the floor,” Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan Said on CNN’s “State
of the Union” on Sunday. “And that decision rests on the shoulders of one person. And
history is watching whether Speaker Johnson will put that bill on the floor. If he does, it
will pass, we will get Ukraine what it needs for Ukraine to succeed.” Sullivan added: “If
he doesn’t, then we will not be able to give Ukraine the tools required for it to stand up to
Russia, and Putin will be the major beneficiary of that.”
[Link]
ballot-dispute/[Link]
<<write it>>

Al Pacino’s best picture presentation at the Oscars left some

viewers confused.

(CNN) –

[Link]
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China Says US TikTok ban ‘an act of bullying’ that would backfire.

Hong Kong/Beijing (CNN) – China has described a potential TikTok ban as

“an act of Bullying” that would backfire on America.
The comments, made by China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday, came hours
before a House of Representatives vote on legislation that would force
TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular short video app to an
American company – or face being barred in the US, where it boasts over 170
million users.
“Even though the US has not found evidence on how TikTok endangers its
national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok,” Wang Wenbin, a
spokesperson for the ministry, told CNN Wednesday at a news conference in
Beijing.
Wang accused the US of “resorting to acts of bullying” when it could not
succeed in fair competition, saying such practice would disrupt market
operations, undermine investor confidence and sabotage the global economic
order.
“This will eventually backfire on the Us itself,” he said.
US officials and lawmakers have long voiced concerns that the Chinese
government could compel TikTok’s parent ByteDance to hand over data
collected from US users. They also fear that the app could serve as a tool for
Beijing to spread propaganda, misinformation or influence Americans.
Cybersecurity experts say that the national security concerns surrounding
TikTok remain a hypothetical – albeit troubling – scenario. US officials have
not pu.
[Link]
congress-vote-intl-hnk/[Link]

Taiwan needs more babies. But conservative traditions are holding back
some fertility solutions.
Taipei, Taiwan (CNN) – for married Taiwanese men Alan Hung and Danny
Huang, the process of having a biological child together was never easy.
The couple dreamed of starting a family soon after tying the knot in 2019,
around the time Taiwan became the first Asian jurisdiction to legalize same-
sex marriage.
“Many of our friends already had their own children, and we also hoped we
could show our parental love,” Huang said.
But gay men are not allowed to access artificial reproduction tools in Taiwan,
so the couple – both university professors in their mid-40s -had to look
abroad.
First, they spent more than a week at a fertility clinic in Russia, only to find
out the procedure couldn’t be completed due to regulatory changes. Later,
they found success with a surrogate in the United States – but with a hefty
cost in excess of $160,000.
Cases like this are troubling to Chen Ching-hui, who last month became the
first fertility specialist to win a seat in Taiwan’s parliament.
“Taiwan’s medical technology is well ahead of many other countries, so why
are we making people spend large sums of money to travel overseas?” she
said in an interview with CNN.
[Link]
hnk-intl/[Link]

Millions Go Hungry, Yet World Wastes 19% of Food, UN Says.

The world wasted an estimated 19% of the food produced globally in 2022, or
about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to a new United Nations report.
The UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index Report tracks the
progress of countries to reduce food waste by half by 2030.
The report is co-authored by UNEP and the charity Waste and Resources
Action Programme (WRAP).
Researchers analyzed country data on households, food service and retailers.
They found that each person wastes about 79 kilograms of food annually,
equal to at least 1 billion meals wasted worldwide daily.
Most of the waste – 60% - came in households. About 28% came from food
service, or restaurants, with about 12% from retailers.
The report comes at a time when 783 million people around the world face
chronic hunger.
Food waste is also a global concern because of the environmental cost of
production, including the land and water required to raise crops and animals
and the greenhouse gas emissions it produces.
Food loss and waste generates 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas
emissions.
Brian Roe, a food waste researcher at Ohio State University, said the report is
important to tackling food waste.
“The key takeaway is that reducing the amount of food that is wasted is an
avenue that can lead to many desirable outcomes – resource conservation,
fewer environmental damages, greater food security, and more land for uses
other than as landfills and food production,” said Roe, who wasn’t involved in
the report.
The report said donating surplus food to food banks and charities – is
significant in tackling food waste among retailers.
The report also said that the differences in individual household food waste
between high-income and lower-income countries were surprisingly small.
Richard Swannel, a co-author, said that shows food waste “is not a rich world
problem. It’s a global problem.”
“The data is really clear on this point: that here is a problem right around the
world and one that we could all tackle tomorrow to save ourselves money and
reduce environmental impact,” he said.
[Link]
19-of-food-un-says/kc_5_OzFEe6Dy7f58nh5yg

Tech Company Shows Off Laptop with Transparent Screen.

If you’re working from home, you might have some other things that you need
to keep an eye on. It could be your kids, a pet, or something you are cooking.
You may find that you have to keep looking up from your work to check that
everything is ok.
Now though, Chinese tech company Lenovo has created something that could
help you check other things without looking up from your work!
Lenovo has been showing off what it says is the world’s first laptop with a
transparent, borderless screen.
You can look right through it, so you’ll be able to see your tea cup or the TV
on the other side.
The detachable keyboard is transparent too. The keys are actually projected
onto the surface, which can also become a drawing surface when a pen, that
comes with the laptop, is moved close.
But the company probably didn’t design its ThinkBook prototype, which it
showed off at an event in Barcelona this February, just for people who work
from home.
Lenovo suggests that it could be useful for artist or designers who want to use
the drawing surface and be able to see and draw objects that would otherwise
be blocked by the screen.
This all sounds like a lot of fun but some reviewers have said it’s quite a niche
market that the ThinkBook is designed to appeal to, and they might be right.
You may also have to spend more time looking at colleagues!
Others think it’s a cool idea but Lenovo hasn’t said if or when it might be
available.
[Link]
transparent-screen/9HGAuOXQEe6anMeJGZBrtw
How a store manager from India ended up killed on the battlefields of
Ukraine fighting for Russia.
New Delhi (CNN) – They opened the bow on a Sunday in late March, getting
their first look at Asfan Mohammed since he departed India for Russia four
months earlier.
He was better dressed than when he’d left – a black suit, white shirt, tie and
shoes replacing the causal attire he’d worn when family and friends saw him
off.
But he had to be buried in line with his Muslin beliefs, so his body would
need to be prepared; the neat clothes removed.
It was then Imran Mohammed, 41, saw the extent of what had happened to his
31-year-old brother while fighting for the Russian armed forces in Vladimir
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“There were six to seven holes caused by a drone attack. It ripped through his
body. There was internal damage. Two teeth were broken.”
And now this tight-knit family in Hyderabad, southern India was broken too.
A husband, father and provider gone.
Imra’s business was also in ruins, rotted by neglect as he’d focused all his
energies on finding out what happened to his brother on the battlefield of
Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
Imran noted the time.
“I opened the box at 11 a.m. Sunday. When I saw his body for the first time, it
hit me that he’s no more,” he said.
“My efforts to look for my brother, my two-month fight for my brother, came
to a painful end. I wanted to react looking at his corpse, but I just couldn’t. I
went totally numb.”
A dream lost
Asfan met an unlikely fate – one his family could never have imagined when
Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
At the time, the father of two managed a clothing store, one of almost 300
across India in the homegrown Allen Solly chai, selling kids’ clothes, wedding
tuxedos and just about everything in between.
He’d been there eight years, his brother said.
It wasn’t the worst job, but Asfan wanted more for his wife and two children,
ages 2 and 8 months. And he dreamed of taking them out Hyderabad.
“He wanted to work in Australia,” where his sister-in-law and her family
lived, Imran said. “They were calling him and his family there.”
But that meant Asfan would need a high score on the International English
Language Testing System (IELTS), wich gauges proficiency of non-native
speakers.
“He wrote his IELTS. He didn’t do well,” Imran said. “He felt demotivated.
He tried again.”
It didn’t work, Imran said.
But videos on YouTube about job opportunities in Russia gave Asfan new
hope, and he contacted an employment agency, his brother said.
“He was going to work as a taxi driver or delivery boy in Russia – that process
was on,” Imran said.
“Then a couple of days later the agents said there are vacancied for helper and
security jobs in the Russian army. The agents assured him that this was the
best job. They said he could get a Russian passport and national card within a
year through which you could move around neighboring countries.”
Asfan thought that could be a stepping stone to his family’s dream life in
Australia, his brother said.
Instead, his choice took him to the frigid, battle-scarred landscape of Ukraine.
Brainwashed
Asfan kept his plans secret from family and friends until it was too late to turn
back, according to Imran, who said he only learned his brother was leaving
three days before he set off for Russia on November 9 last year.
By that time, Asfan had paid more than $1,800 to the recruiters, who asked
him not to speak to anyone, even his family, about his intention to travel.
“They had brainwashed him so much … They warned him he could be
deported from Russia, from the airport,” Imran said. “I tried my level besto to
stop him.”
After a multi-stop route that took him through other Indian cities and the
United Arab Emirates, Asfan arrived in Moscow on November 12.
A day later, he signed papers – in Russian, which he couldn’t read –
committing him to the work, his brother said.
“He trusted the agents a bit too much,” Imran said.
Foreign fighters in Putin’s war
By some estimates, Russia has been sending thousands of foreign men to fight
in Ukraine since Putin ordered the invasion.
Many of them are young men from South Asia, enticed by the prospect of
steady employment and higher salaries in Russia. In Nepal, prominent
opposition lawmaker and former foreign minister Bimala Rai Paudyal told
parliament earlier this year that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis were
fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from Ukraine.
The Russian government last year announced a lucrative package for foreign
fighters to join the country’s military, including a monthly salary of at least
$2,000 and a fast track to Russian citizenship – but the Kremlin has not said
how many foreigners it has recruited under the plan.
New Delhi has strong ties with Moscow dating back to the Cold War and has
largely steered clear of condemning outright the invasion by Russia, which
remains India’s biggest arms supplier.
India has also become a major purchaser of Russian energy, bolstering
Moscow’s coffers by a record $37 billion of crude oil purchases last year
alone and providing Russia’s sanctions hit economy with vital revenue.
Meanwhile, India, which has no law preventing its citizens from serving in a
foreign state’s military, has acknowledged that a number of its nationals have
been fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
In a statement in February, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said getting
those Indians an early discharge from the Russian military was a “top
priority.” The ministry told CNN last month it has been in continuous contact
with Russian authorities to make that happen.
But for some, those efforts would come too late. A ministry spokesperson told
CNN at least two Indians have died in the conflict.
In early March, India’s Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) said had busted
major human trafficking networks that were duping men into Russian military
jobs, with 35 such cases identified.
“The trafficked Indian Nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at
front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their whises,” the CBI
statement said.
To the front line
Asfan didn’t tell his brother when he was going to be sent to Ukraine, Imran
said, but he did get in contact on December 1, just as he was heading to the
battlefield.
Asfan was seeking a way out, Imran said.
“He asked me to speak to the agents,” Imran said. “I did promise him that I’d
try my bes.”
It was the last time they spoke to each other.
“The military personnel were not in touch with these agents,” Imran said.
“These brokers duped the boys and put their lives in danger,” he said,
referring to Asfan and other Indians sent to war.
Weeks of uncertainty, then disbelief
On January 23, Imran received a voice message from one of those Indian men
deployed alongside Asfan.
The man, who said he had been injured in combat, told Imran he had found
Asfan, who’d also been injured, inside a house in Ukraine a day earlier.
Imran said the man told him he couldn’t pick his brother up “because of the
drones around them,” but had passed word of Asfan’s condition to a Russian
medical team.
Ukrainian forces hace used converted commercial drones against their
Russian opponents with devastating effect on the frontlines, either by
dropping grenades from above or by using them as remote controlled bombs.
Two days later, Imran said he visited his member of parliament to try to get
Indian officials to help his injured brother. But pleas to the government went
unanswered, he said.
The Indian Embassy in Moscow eventually replied that it was looking into the
case.
On a March 6 visit to his MP’s office, Imran got the news he had dreaded.
“We called the emergency number at the Indian Embassy (in Moscow). As
soon as I mentioned Asfan’s name on the phone, they told me he’d dead. I
didn’t have the strength to talk to them,” he said.
“I didn’t want to believe what they were saying.”
He still had no visual proof of Asfan’s death, but he had to pass on what he’d
learned to the rest of the family.
Asfan’s wife “was unconscious for three hours,” Imran said. “She cried
through the night.”
Asfan’s family has buried his body, but they are scarred by a war far away.
Imran says it pains him to look at his brother’s young children, who will never
know their dad. And he says his own future feels uncertain.
“This has been on for four months, for 24 hours a day,” he said. “This has
been the worst phase I’ve ever been through. There’s no personal life
anymore. No friendship left. I’ve only been taking care of my family.”
And one of them, his brother, is forever gone.
[Link]
death-intl-hnk-ml/[Link]

Justice Dept plans to reschedule marijuana as a lower-risk drug

(CNN) – the Biden administration moved Tuesday to reclassify marijuana as a
lower-risk substance, a person familiar with the plans told CNN, a historic
move that acknowledges the medical benefits of the long-criminalized drug
and carries broad implications for cannabis-related research and the industry
at large.
The US Department of Justice recommended that marijuana be rescheduled as
a Schedule III controlled substance, a classification shared by prescription
drugs such as ketamine and Tylenol codeine.
“Today, (Attorney General Merrick Garland) circulated a proposal to tr