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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. 47 months.
That was the sentence meted out to Paul Manafort for financial fraud at a federal court in Alexandria, Va., in a hearing that stretched past 7 p.m. Eastern.
The judge, T.S. Ellis III, said that 19 to 24 years, the recommended sentence, would be “excessive” for a man who’d lived an “otherwise blameless life.” Above, Mr. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, in February 2018. In court today, he was dressed in a green prison jumpsuit and sat in a wheelchair.
Separately, Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer and fixer, sued the Trump Organization, saying it refused to pay him $1.9 million in legal fees after he began cooperating with prosecutors.
2. The House passed a sweeping resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry, as Democrats hoped to put an internal uproar behind them.
The vote capped an emotional week for Democrats, who divided along racial, religious and generational lines after Representative Ilhan Omar insinuated that backers of Israel exhibit dual loyalty. The resolution started off as a pointed rebuke to Ms. Omar but was rewritten into what one Democratic aide called a “kitchen sink resolution.”
And today’s 2020 developments: Former Vice President Joe Biden appears to be 95 percent sure he is running for president. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on the other hand, is out.
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The effort was an attempt to determine who was behind the caravans bringing large numbers of migrants from Central America to the southwest border, according to a leaked internal government document. Above, a caravan of migrants in November en route to the United States, captured in a photo by Go Nakamura, a freelance photographer who was on the government list.
The activists and journalists — including the photographer who took the picture above — were singled out for extra screening by U.S. and Mexican border officials.
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4. Efforts to end the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are failing because of growing distrust among residents, the leader of Doctors Without Border said.
Dr. Joanne Liu said outside organizations, including her own, had alienated Congo residents, leading them to avoid medical care and even to attack treatment centers. The outbreak is now the second largest Ebola epidemic ever. Above, a mother of a child suspected of dying from Ebola.
She called on medical teams to treat patients “as humans and not as a biothreat.”
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5. Elsewhere abroad:
President Xi Jinping, above left, is breaking the rules and longstanding traditions of Chinese politics — by letting his hair go gray. For decades, Chinese leaders have sported unnaturally black heads of hair, a look that symbolized unity and gave the party a youthful veneer. The graying is part of his efforts to soften his hard-line policies.
On a far more serious note, insulting the government online could land Russians in jail after lawmakers passed bills to further control information. The bills reflect a nearly two-decade-long project by President Vladimir V. Putin to put information flow under state control.
And in a surprise move, the normally cautious European Central Bank revived stimulus measures designed for times of crisis, a sign of how trade tensions are reverberating through a slowing world economy.
6. Several thousand (more) millionaires are about to flood San Francisco.
Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and Pinterest are all about to go public. Now, seemingly the whole city — and not just the financial planners and the real estate agents — is scrambling to prepare.
“Even if just half the I.P.O.s happen, there’s going to be 10,000 millionaires overnight,” one real estate agent said. “People are like, ‘I’m not going to sell till next year, because there are going to be bajillionaries everywhere left and right.’”
7. Alex Trebek, the longtime game show host, revealed that he was seriously ill in a way true to his more than three decades leading “Jeopardy!” — on screen, on the “Jeopardy!” set and with a touch of humor. Above, on set this week.
Sharing his Stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he said: “I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease. Truth told, I have to. Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host ‘Jeopardy!’ for three more years.”
It is an aggressive cancer, with few good treatment options. It usually has no symptoms until it is advanced. There is, however, a rising survival rate, compared to what patients faced 10 years ago.
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8. High school and university boxing programs are a dying breed. One old trainer in Nekoosa, Wis. — population 2,500 — is trying to keep the hopes of small-town boxers alive.
Ken Hilgers, 69, pictured above, is a retired paper mill powerhouse operator who teaches the art of boxing to any child who walks through the door. We visited with Mr. Hilgers and the members of his Wisconsin Rapids Boxing Club.
“You have to go to the little towns that have these gyms with three or four guys in it, and those are the clubs that are molding boxers into national champions,” one of his boxers said.
We also have a different kind of underdog story: a certain kind of nonelite runner is finding a way to endorsements.
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9. What makes a song matter in 2019?
The Times Magazine’s annual music issue includes blockbuster singles, critical darlings and conversation pieces. We picked the tracks and artists that capture a moment mismatched to usual joys of pop.
Our writers explore Bruce Springsteen’s latest performance of “Born in the U.S.A.,” the playfully morose “Bugs Life” from Tierra Whack, and how Beyoncé and Jay-Z challenge institutions that barely recognize them in “Apeshit.”
There’s also good news for fans of VHS: The world’s last Blockbuster has no plans to close. The store in Bend, Ore., has 4,000 account holders and adds a few new ones every day.
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10. Finally, an Instagram post fit for a queen.
Queen Elizabeth II made her debut on the social network, taking the opportunity to share a letter written in 1843 by Charles Babbage, one of the world’s first computer pioneers, to Prince Albert. He talked about his invention the “Analytical Engine,” used by Ada Lovelace to create the first computer programs. The post was displayed alongside the letter during the Queen’s visit to the Science Museum in London, above.
“You rock,” one user commented on the post. “Long live the Queen!” said another. Some were more skeptical: “I really hope she doesn’t use social media platforms anymore,” wrote Hairo Aguilera. “She needs to be kept pure.”
Have a regal evening.
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Source : Nytimes
