Page 1862 – Texas Weekly Online

The government wants to buy their flood-prone homes. But these Texans aren’t moving.

In Harris County, the flood control district wants to buy properties along the San Jacinto River that have flooded repeatedly. Some residents aren’t leaving.

Auto industry experts warn Biden’s EV mandate may limit gas car options in the future

When President Biden said that Americans can “buy any kind of car they want,” he failed to factor in new emissions standards his administration is putting in place that will reduce consumer choice, industry experts say. During a speech delivered on Tuesday outside the Rose Garden, Biden focused on protecting U.S. jobs from unfair foreign trade practices and promised to not allow China to control the market for internal combustion engines or electric vehicles (EVs). “I want to make this clear, notwithstanding what the other guy is saying – can buy any kind of car they want… but we’re never going to allow China to unfairly control the market for these cars, period,” he said, as “the other guy” appeared to be a reference to former President Trump, who made waves for predicting an auto industry “bloodbath” if Democrats continue their EV push. Geoff Moody is senior vice president of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a trade association representing companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, Koch and others. He said that Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation “is functionally a ban on sales of most new gas cars by 2032.” BIDEN CRACKS DOWN ON DIESEL TRUCKS IN BID TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, REDUCE EMISSIONS “The policy is going to both limit the availability of new gas cars and push the cost of remaining gasoline-powered vehicles out of reach for most Americans,” he said, adding that EPA compliance scenarios he has viewed project new internal-combustion-engine car sales to fall drastically from 84% at present to below 30% in 2032. “The whole point of the rule is to push American drivers toward electric vehicles by limiting their other options,” Moody said. American Petroleum Institute executive Will Hupman echoed some of that sentiment, predicting that it could effectively eliminate most new gas-powered vehicles in the future. In April, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. launched an effort to stymie the new restrictions via the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to make an expedited attempt to invalidate new agency rules. Marshall told Fox News Digital on Thursday the president’s comment sounded like a “political-showboating” response to such objections. “Now that he’s facing backlash, Biden is trying to walk back his irresponsible EV mandates that drive American jobs and our auto-manufacturing overseas,” Marshall said. “He hopes he can buy some political goodwill from the unions by flip-flopping on these tariffs while simultaneously stabbing them in the back with unrealistic goals of an all-electric transportation system.” Meanwhile, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who co-sponsored a similar effort, told Fox News Digital the president is either “being dishonest or he is unaware that his administration has been hijacked by far-left extremists trying to regulate combustion engines out of existence by finalizing regulations that amount to an EV mandate.” GREEN GOVERNANCE THE NEW GUISE FOR MERCANTILISM, WILL LEAD TO GLOBAL INSTABILITY: EXPERT Sullivan, whose state has pushed back often against many Biden-era environmental rules, added that if Biden remains serious about a transition to electric vehicles, then he should reverse an administration move that restricted access to the Last Frontier’s Ambler Mining District, where rare earth minerals required for EV batteries can be extracted. “The United States desperately needs [those minerals] not only if the president wants companies to build more EVs, but for important defense projects,” Sullivan said, arguing against continuing to import them instead. While Biden’s EPA’s emissions standards do not constitute a blanket prohibition on internal combustion engines, automobile and fossil fuel trade organizations claim that to them, they may as well have. Delving into the specifics of the new regulations, the AFPM wrote in a fact sheet that the average car tailpipe emission would have to be 85 grams per mile, which it described as unrealistic. It claimed that under a carbon credit-based system within the new rules, not every buyer who wants a new gas-powered car can get one if a dealer has not sold enough EVs. When asked about Biden’s comments and consumer choice concerns in regard to the new mandates, a spokesperson for General Motors said it is continuing to grow its electric vehicle fleet while retaining a broad suite of gas-powered options for customers. The spokesperson also called it “challenging.” “The flatter curve approach will allow for the continued development of the EV market and the necessary support like infrastructure and supply chain. We are still awaiting final rules from the Department of Transportation on CAFE regulation[s] to fully understand how [they] will impact our portfolio of products.” The EPA pushed back on the criticisms and characterizations of its new standards, telling Fox News Digital the new rules actually expand consumer choice and pass on cost savings to drivers in the area of $62 billion worth of reduced yearly fuel and maintenance costs. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “By encouraging continued development of more efficient vehicles, EPA’s standards are also projected to save Americans on average about $6,000 over the lifetime of a new model year 2032 light-duty vehicle, compared to a vehicle meeting the 2026 standards, by accelerating adoption of technologies that reduce fuel and maintenance costs as well as pollution,” an EPA spokesperson said. They denied the new regulations constitute a mandatory transition from internal combustion to electric power. A White House spokesperson echoed much of the EPA’s sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that Biden is “investing in a future that is made in America by American workers as we position the United States to lead the clean energy future.” They credited the Inflation Reduction Act with making electric cars more affordable and claimed more American drivers are purchasing EV cars every day. Several congressional Democrats who publicly voiced support for Biden’s new regulations did not return requests for comment on the president’s recent remarks.

NY v. Trump to resume with continued cross-examination of Michael Cohen as trial nears conclusion

Former President Trump’s criminal trial is expected to resume Monday with Michael Cohen on the stand for the third day of cross-examination by defense attorneys. Cohen, who previously served as Trump’s lawyer and described himself as the former president’s “fixer,” is set to take the stand again at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Lower Manhattan. NY V TRUMP: AS ‘STAR WITNESS’ MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES, TRUMP ALLIES FLOCK TO COURT TO ‘SUPPORT THEIR FRIEND’ Cohen, who is said to be Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “star witness,” first took the stand last week, answering questions from New York prosecutors as they seek to make their case against the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence. “I didn’t violate any law,” Trump said after court on Thursday. “This is a scam.” Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, began his cross-examination of Cohen on Tuesday, which continued through the day Thursday. Court did not meet Friday so the former president could attend his youngest son Barron Trump’s high school graduation in Palm Beach, Florida. MICHAEL COHEN ONCE SWORE TRUMP WASN’T INVOLVED IN STORMY DANIELS PAYMENT, HIS EX-ATTORNEY TESTIFIES Court does not meet on Wednesdays. So far, Cohen has testified that he personally made the $130,000 payment to Daniels using a home equity line of credit in an effort to conceal the payment from his wife. Cohen said he did this because Trump told him to “handle it” and prevent a negative story from coming out ahead of the election. Cohen testified that he was “reimbursed $420,000” for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels. Cohen said former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg suggested he “gross up” the payments and claimed that Trump knew the details of that reimbursement. The prosecution presented Cohen with 11 checks totaling $420,000. Cohen confirmed that they were all received and deposited. The checks had a description of a “retainer,” which Cohen said was false. Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche was able to get Cohen to testify about the non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels in October 2016. Cohen confirmed that the contract, which Trump never signed, was lawful, and he admitted that non-disclosure agreements are not unusual. The contract was signed using pseudonyms. Cohen also testified that he sent statements to reporters declaring that Trump was not a party to the Daniels payment. Blanche also has highlighted Cohen’s history of lying under oath dating back to 2017, including to Congress about a Trump Tower Moscow project and federal investigators from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office. Under oath last October, Cohen said he lied under oath more than once in front of Judge William H. Pauley, who sentenced Cohen to three years in prison in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to charges that included campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. Cohen agreed again Thursday that he did indeed lie under oath to Pauley. Blanche’s questioning also led Cohen to admit that he believes he shouldn’t have been charged with some federal crimes in 2018, including tax evasion, related to his investments in New York City taxi medallions. “You felt that you did not engage in tax fraud, but you had to plead guilty to protect your wife and family?” Blanche asked. “Correct,” Cohen responded. Blanche also said Cohen lied about speaking to Trump on Oct. 24, 2016. Cohen claimed he spoke to then-candidate Trump about the Daniels payment. MICHAEL COHEN TESTIFIES HE SECRETLY RECORDED TRUMP IN LEAD-UP TO 2016 ELECTION Blanche again accused Cohen of lying and insists he never spoke with Trump that day. Cohen responded, “I always ran everything by the boss immediately.” “That was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump,” Blanche said. “I’m not certain that’s accurate,” Cohen responded. Cohen maintains, based on the records that he was able to review, that he spoke with Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller – but also believes he spoke with Trump about the Daniels deal. “We’re not asking what you believe,” Blanche responded. Cohen also admitted that he “took some credit” for Bragg’s indictment of Trump last year, which led to the historic and unprecedented criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Blanche played a clip in court of Cohen saying during a 2020 podcast interview, “I absolutely hope he ends up in prison…” Asked by Blanche whether he believes he played a role in Trump’s indictment from New York prosecutors, Cohen responded, “I took some credit.” Cohen also testified that he wanted to be considered for a top role in the Trump administration, like attorney general or chief of staff, for “ego purposes.” Blanche said the defense expects to wrap up cross-examination on Monday. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said she will have less than an hour on redirect questioning of Cohen. The defense anticipates reaching a decision on other witnesses soon, and said it’s reasonable that they could “get on and off” the stand on Monday. It is unclear, at this point, if Trump will testify in his own defense.

Advocates for IRS whistleblowers accuse Special Counsel Weiss of retaliation, misleading: ‘Smear campaign’

Lawyers for two IRS whistleblowers who informed Congress about the Hunter Biden criminal probe are seeking an inspector general investigation into Special Counsel David Weiss, alleging he “hid and twisted” information – prompting more angst on Capitol Hill amid inquiries into Biden family conduct and alleged politicization of the Justice Department. Empower Oversight, the legal group representing IRS special agents Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, allege that Weiss’ team – in a March 11 federal court filing – deliberately misled the public by suggesting an unnamed federal agency was investigating the two whistleblowers for misconduct. However, the vague reference to the “potential investigation(s)” is a reference to a probe the whistleblowers sought, alleging the Justice Department and IRS were retaliating against them for their disclosures. Shapley and Ziegler testified last year to Congress alleging political considerations led the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service to go soft on its probe of Hunter Biden’s finances. Now, they have taken fire from both the defense and prosecution, noted House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. “Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, the two brave IRS whistleblowers who made legally protected disclosures to Congress about misconduct within the Justice Department, have been attacked by Hunter Biden’s legal team,” Comer told Fox News Digital. DOJ TAX OFFICIAL SAYS WEISS NEEDED APPROVAL FROM HIS DIVISION BEFORE BRINGING HUNTER BIDEN CHARGES: TRANSCRIPT “Special Counsel Weiss has been part of this smear campaign as he misled the public that the IRS whistleblowers were under investigation when in fact they were not,” Comer continued. “Ever since Special Counsel Weiss got caught trying to give Hunter Biden a sweetheart plea deal, he’s been trying to cover his tracks. There must be accountability for this misconduct.” Empower Oversight wants two Justice Department agencies – the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility – to investigate the conduct by Weiss’ office. “David Weiss has been retaliating against Gary Shapley ever since Shapley objected a year and a half ago to letting the statute of limitations lapse on 2014 felony tax charges against Hunter Biden,” Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, told Fox News Digital. “Weiss then learned from internal IRS communications that Shapley had been telling his IRS chain of command about Weiss’ office pulling punches in the Hunter Biden probe.” In a letter this week, representatives for the two whistleblowers also asked the Office of Special Counsel – an independent whistleblower protection agency known as OSC, not to be confused with Weiss’s office – to clarify for the record that the two agents are not under investigation. “Weiss’ response is exactly why Shapley filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with OSC in the first place,” Leavitt continued. “DOJ OIG or OPR need to investigate to see whether Weiss’ office intentionally misled the public in order to further retaliate against the IRS whistleblowers.” Reached by Fox News Digital, Weiss spokesperson Kim Reeves declined to comment for this story. HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATORS LIMITED QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘DAD,’ ‘BIG GUY’ DESPITE FBI, IRS OBJECTIONS: WHISTLEBLOWER In 2023, Hunter Biden entered a plea deal with Delaware U.S. Attorney Weiss’ office. However, Shapley and Ziegler – who worked on the investigation – presented the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight Committee with new information about the case. Shortly thereafter, a federal judge rejected the agreement. After that, Attorney General Merrick Garland gave Weiss special counsel status, allowing him to bring charges outside his jurisdiction. Weiss secured an indictment on a gun charge in Delaware and a tax evasion case in California. In February, Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the tax case in California, arguing in part that Shapley and Ziegler made disclosures that put political pressure on prosecutors. The March 11 filing by Weiss’ office in federal court in the Central District of California was in opposition to the motion to dismiss the case, and attempted to rebut that claim about the influence of whistleblowers – though in doing so, suggested they were under investigation. The Weiss response to the motion to dismiss said Shapley and Ziegler “made unsubstantiated claims that prosecutors’ decision-making in this investigation was infected by politics.” It adds the “IRS has taken responsible steps to address Shapley and Ziegler’s conduct.” It directs the court to Exhibit 2, redacted from the public. The Weiss team explains redactions in Exhibit 2 are because, “Here, the potential investigation(s) may involve allegations of wrongdoing, and the potential investigation(s) could be frustrated, not served, if the public were allowed access to these materials in the midst of the potential investigation(s).” On May 14, the advocates for the IRS whistleblowers wrote a letter to the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Office of Professional Responsibility Counsel Jeffrey Ragsdale. “Weiss’ office hid and twisted the significance of OSC’s investigation into the whistleblowers’ own allegations that the IRS and Special Counsel Weiss retaliated against them,” the letter to DOJ internal watchdog officials says. “Rather than acknowledging the truth that OSC is investigating the reprisal against the whistleblowers, the DOJ filing falsely suggested to the public that some unnamed agency was investigating the conduct of the whistleblowers themselves.” The letter was signed by Leavitt, Empower Oversight founder Jason Foster, as well as attorneys Marke Lytle and Justin Gelfand. The same day, the four signed a lengthier letter to the OSC acting principal deputy counsel, Karen Gorman. The letter notes the vague reference to investigations in Exhibit 2 was an OSC probe of the IRS and Justice Department initiated by Shapley and Ziegler. Whereas, the Weiss filing suggested the investigation is targeting Shapley and Ziegler. CIA DENIES WHISTLEBLOWER ALLEGATION THAT AGENCY ‘STONEWALLED’ IRS INTERVIEW WITH HUNTER BIDEN ‘SUGAR BROTHER’ The letter to Gorman says the OSC should “not allow the Justice Department to mischaracterize your work for the purposes of a retaliatory attack on the reputation of whistleblowers who have done nothing wrong.” An OSC spokesperson acknowledged receipt of the letter to Fox News Digital, but could not confirm

‘Troublemaker’ William Lai Ching-te to take oath as Taiwan’s new president

Taipei, Taiwan – William Lai Ching-te will be sworn in on Monday as Taiwan’s sixth democratically-elected president, a role where he is expected to continue steering Taiwan in the same direction as set by his predecessor Tsai Ing-Wen. Lai’s victory at the polls in January marked a narrow but unprecedented win for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since Taiwan transitioned to democracy in 1996, the DPP and its more Beijing-friendly rival the Kuomintang (KMT) have switched power every eight years, but Lai’s victory broke with that tradition as the DPP won a third term in office. Tsai’s vice president, Lai will have big shoes to fill. During her eight years in office, Tsai dramatically raised Taiwan’s profile abroad while treading a fine line around its disputed political status, lest it upset China or the United States. Tsai’s tenure coincided with a new wave of Taiwanese nationalism, as well as a vision of Taiwan as distinct from China despite its deep historical and cultural ties. She also oversaw major changes for the island, including the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2019 and the introduction of same-sex adoption in 2022. About 50 foreign delegations, including leaders from allied nations and a contingent of former US officials, will attend Monday’s inauguration [Ritchie B Tongo/EPA] Lai is expected to continue steering the East Asian democracy largely in the same direction, a point he hammered home during the campaign. “William Lai has spent the past two and half years trying to convince the world he is going to be a Tsai Ing-Wen 2.0 figure,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. “There’s reason to believe him, even though there is a lot of scepticism about what he in his heart of hearts truly feels, there’s enough structural constraints that are going to stop him from being able to do anything drastic,” he said Lai’s cabinet, named in April, includes several former members of the Tsai administration while his charismatic vice president, Hsiao Bi-khim, 52, was once Taiwan’s top official in the US and is also aligned with the former president. At home, Lai is likely to be constrained by a hung parliament after the DPP lost its small parliamentary majority to the KMT. Abroad, he faces a challenge from the US presidential election in November, whose outcome will dictate regional stability more than anything Lai can do as president, according to Nachman. The US is Taiwan’s chief security guarantor, but it does not want to see a proxy war break out in the Taiwan Strait between itself, Taiwan and China. Neither does Taiwan, where most people support maintaining the island’s ongoing “status quo.” The term is deliberately vague, but it encompasses the viewpoint that Taiwan is already de facto independent despite its lack of formal diplomatic recognition. The island, officially known as the Republic of China, is only recognised by a handful of countries, primarily in the Pacific and the Caribbean. Taiwan is claimed by China’s Communist Party (CCP), which has long threatened to bring it into the fold by force if necessary. Everyday Taiwanese reject that goal, but most do not wish to make a formal declaration of independence because they fear it would lead to a certain war with Beijing. ‘Worker for independence’ or ‘troublemaker’ As innocuous as the term may sound, supporting the “status quo” marks a major ideological shift for Lai, who once upon a time described himself as a “pragmatic worker for Taiwan independence.” Originally trained as a doctor, Lai was compelled to enter politics in 1996 in the wake of the Third Strait Crisis, according to his official biography. The incident saw China conduct missile tests in the Taiwan Strait for several months between 1995 and 1996 as Taiwan geared up for its first direct presidential elections. Lai has come in for sharp criticism from China which claims he is a ‘separatist’ [File: Daniel Piris/EPA] He later served as a legislator, mayor and premier of Taiwan, before he made an unsuccessful bid to challenge Tsai as the DPP presidential candidate ahead of her 2020 re-election. Instead, he became vice president after Tsai won a second term in the presidential office in a landslide. “If you think about Lai now in comparison to the past, you just couldn’t imagine that he is the same person,” said Sanho Chung, a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Arizona whose work includes Taiwan. “If you look at Lai as a mayor back in the day or as a lawmaker, he was kind of radical.” Both Chung and Nachman said they expected a relatively muted response from Beijing ahead of inauguration day, despite a flare-up earlier this month around Taiwan’s outlying island of Kinmen when more than a dozen Chinese vessels entered the island’s restricted waters to carry out “maritime exercises” on May 9. Beijing has continued to send military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, an area of land and sea monitored by the military, but the numbers are consistent with past activity, according to defence analyst Ben Lewis, who tracks Beijing’s activity. Their predictions contrast with Beijing’s belligerent response to a visit by then-US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022, when it staged several days of military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing repeated the move a year later when Tsai met Kevin McCarthy, another former House speaker, during an unofficial stopover in California on her way home from meeting allies in Central America. NCCU’s Nachman said China may keep a lower profile as it appears to be attempting to semi-normalise relations with the KMT. Beijing does not recognise Taiwan’s government and has cut off official communication since the DPP’s victory in 2016, but it has kept up unofficial contact touch with the KMT over the past eight years. Tsai Ing-wen raised Taiwan’s international profile and held several high-profile meetings with senior US officials, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April 2023 [Frederic J Brown/AFP] The KMT and the

‘Bring Julian home’: the Australian campaign to free Assange

Melbourne, Australia – At home in Australia, Julian Assange’s family and friends are preparing for his possible extradition to the United States, ahead of what could be his final hearing in the United Kingdom on Monday. Assange’s half-brother Gabriel Shipton, who spoke to Al Jazeera from Melbourne before flying to London, said he had already booked a flight to the US. A filmmaker who worked on blockbusters like Mad Max before producing a documentary on his brother, Shipton has travelled the world advocating for Assange’s release, from Mexico City to London and Washington, DC. Earlier this year, he was a guest of cross-bench supporters of Assange at US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. The invitation reflected interest in his brother’s case both in Washington, DC and back home in Australia. Biden told journalists last month he was “considering” a request from Australia to drop the US prosecution. Assange rose to prominence with the launch of Wikileaks in 2006, creating an online whistleblower platform for people to submit classified material such as documents and videos anonymously. Footage of a US Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, which killed a dozen people, including two journalists, raised the platform’s profile, while the 2010 release of thousands of classified US documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a trove of diplomatic cables, cemented its reputation. Shipton told Al Jazeera the recent attention from Washington, DC had been notable, even as his brother’s options to fight extradition in the UK appeared close to running out. “To get attention there on a case of a single person is very significant, particularly after Julian’s been fighting this extradition for five years,” Shipton told Al Jazeera, adding that he hoped the Australian prime minister was following up with Biden. “We’re always trying to encourage the Australian government to do more.” A test for US democracy Assange’s possible extradition to the US could see freedom of expression thrown into the spotlight during an election year that has already seen mass arrests at student antiwar protests. Shipton told Al Jazeera the pro-Palestinian protests had helped bring “freedom of speech, freedom to assembly, particularly in the United States, front of mind again”, issues he notes have parallels with his brother’s story. While Wikileaks published material about many countries, it was the administration of former US President Donald Trump that charged Assange in 2019 with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act. US lawyers argue Assange is guilty of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, a former army intelligence analyst, who spent seven years in prison for leaking material to WikiLeaks before former US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence. “It’s an invaluable resource that remains utterly essential to understand how power works, not just US power, but global power,” Antony Loewenstein, an independent Australian journalist and author, said of the Wikileaks archive. “I always quote and detail [Wikileaks’s] work on a range of issues from the drug war, to Israel/Palestine, to the US war on terror, to Afghanistan,” Loewenstein said, noting that Wikileaks also published materials on Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “It’s just an incredible historical resource,” he said. Loewenstein’s most recent book, the Palestine Laboratory, explores Israel’s role in spreading mass surveillance around the world, another issue Loewenstein notes, that Assange often spoke about. “One thing that Julian has often said, and he’s correct, is that the internet is on the one hand an incredibly powerful information tool… but it’s also the biggest mass surveillance tool ever designed in history,” said Loewenstein. Emma Shortis, a senior researcher in international and security affairs at the Canberra-based think tank The Australia Institute, told Al Jazeera that while she hoped Assange would not be extradited, if he was, his case might come to trial around November’s US election when Biden is hoping to beat off a challenge from presumptive Republican candidate Trump. Prosecuting a First Amendment case against an Australian while presenting the election as “an existential test for American democracy” would be “politically irreconcilable” for Biden, Shortis said. As the Biden administration struggles to attract young voters disenchanted over its support for Israel’s war on Gaza, Shortis noted that younger generations were aware of the underlying issues Assange’s case could bring up. “I think young people, in particular, are deeply aware of those contradictions and the way that American power functions and the way it selectively bestows rights on people,” she said. For Loewenstein, pursuing Assange would set “an incredibly dangerous precedent at a time where in so many countries freedom of the press is under attack”. “This is not by any means a defence of Biden, I’ve been critical of him for 20 years, but a second Trump term would be a real acceleration of that authoritarian turn, including against the press and journalists and freedom of information,” Loewenstein added. Demonstrators gather outside Australia House to protest against the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in London [Alberto Pezzali/AP] At home in Australia Assange’s supporters include the national journalist association the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and a cross-bench alliance of parliamentarians, including independent Andrew Wilkie. “Surely this man has suffered enough,” Wilkie implored the Australian parliament earlier this year. “Who could possibly forget the grainy image, provided to WikiLeaks by a brave whistleblower, that subsequently was released under the title ‘collateral murder‘?”, Wilkie said. “It was footage of a US attack helicopter gunning down and killing innocent civilians and Reuters journalists in a street in Iraq,” he added. Many of Assange’s supporters fear his possible extradition to the US could come with serious personal consequences. He was first arrested in London in 2010 on a Swedish warrant accusing him of sexual assault. Allowed bail pending the extradition case, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London Embassy in 2012 after a court ruled he could be sent to Sweden for trial. He spent the next seven years in the tiny embassy – during which Swedish police withdrew the rape charges – before UK police arrested

Who is Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi?

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has disappeared after the helicopter he was in went down in the country’s East Azerbaijan province. The 63-year-old political heavyweight has long been regarded as the natural successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran. An established presence with deep connections in the judiciary and religious elite, Raisi – a hardline and religiously conservative politician – first ran for the presidency in 2017 but failed. He was eventually elected in 2021. Early years Raisi began studying at the renowned Qom religious seminary at the young age of 15, and proceeded to learn under several of the top clerics of the time. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi went missing after a day in the country’s east where he visited the Qiz-Qalasi dam with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev [West Asia News Agency via Reuters] In his early 20s, he was appointed prosecutor in successive cities until he went to the capital Tehran to work as a deputy prosecutor. In 1983, he married Jamileh Alamolhoda, the daughter of Mashhad’s Friday Prayer Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda. They went on to have two daughters. For five months in 1988, he was part of a committee overseeing a series of executions of political prisoners, a past that has made him unpopular among the Iranian opposition and led to the United States imposing sanctions on him. In 1989, he was appointed prosecutor of Tehran after the death of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Raisi continued to rise through the ranks under Khomeini’s replacement, Ayatollah Khamenei, becoming chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi, the biggest religious endowment in Mashhad, on March 7, 2016, which cemented his status in Iran’s establishment. Running for president Raisi first ran for president in 2017 against Hassan Rouhani, who was running for reelection. Rouhani had overseen the negotiation of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, restricting its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. A critic of the 2015 deal – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – Raisi came from a more hardline bloc than Rouhani, who was seen as a political moderate within Iran’s political system. After his defeat, Raisi began planning for his next presidential campaign. In June 2021, he won 62 percent of the vote, but the election was marred by a low turnout – 48.8 percent – after several reformists and moderates were prevented from standing. By then, the JCPOA was in shambles after the US – under former President Donald Trump – unilaterally withdrew and reimposed sanctions on Iran, severely affecting its economy. The COVID-19 pandemic made matters worse, with the death toll exceeding 97,000 by August 2021. Connections Raisi’s credentials in the religious establishment are strong, with solid relationships with the late Khomeini as well as with Khamenei, who has appointed him to several senior positions. He has also managed to maintain good relations with all branches of government, military and legislative as well as the powerful theocratic ruling class. However, Raisi has led Iran during a time of public anger over a deteriorating standard of living, partly due to sanctions and what critics say has been the prioritisation of defence over domestic issues. In late 2022, public anger erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, who had arrested the 22-year-old as she left a metro station in Tehran with members of her family for alleged non-compliance with the country’s mandatory hijab rules. Protests roiled Iran for months, with women taking off or burning their hijabs and cutting their hair off in protest. The rallies came to an end in mid-2023 after some 500 people were killed when security forces moved in to break up the protests, according to foreign human rights organisations. Seven people were executed for their roles in the unrest. A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded in March this year that Iran committed crimes against humanity in the crackdown, including murder, torture and rape. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in late 2022 led to months of protests in Iran, which eventually ended in a violent crackdown [West Asia News Agency via Reuters] Stand-offs Raisi has not shied away from confrontation internationally either. Angered by the US’s stance towards the JCPOA and the inability of other signatories to save the pact, a defiant Raisi announced that Iran was stepping up its nuclear programme, but that it was not interested in a bomb. More recently, he led Iran through a standoff with Israel as the two countries squared off over Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza, now approaching its eighth month. Iran has been outspoken in its condemnation of Israel’s brutal attacks on Palestinian civilians, as have its regional allies in the so-called “axis of resistance” to Israel and its Western allies. In early April, the Iranian consular building in Damascus was attacked in a strike blamed on Israel, killing seven people including a top commander and his deputy. For almost two weeks, Raisi’s every utterance was the subject of intense scrutiny as the world awaited Tehran’s response. On April 15, Iran launched a well-telegraphed attack that Israel’s chief military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said involved more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles with most intercepted outside Israel’s borders. Minor damage was reported in some areas of Israel, and the attack led to a token response. The regional rivalry between Iran and Israel could also be seen in Syria, where Israel has launched multiple attacks over the years, ostensibly targeting Iranian military capabilities there. People pray for Raisi’s wellbeing as news of the helicopter’s disappearance spreads [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters] Iran has maintained a close relationship with Syria for years, backing President Bashar al-Assad since he ordered a violent response to peaceful protests in 2011, which led to 13 years of civil war. With military and tactical support, Iran has expanded its influence in Syria while the allied Lebanese group Hezbollah has also bolstered Assad’s forces. Between

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