Tag Archives: Regional Politics

World

More Than 130 People Dead in Cable Bridge Collapse in India’s Gujarat State

Leave a comment

The Indian state government of Gujarat opened a criminal inquiry into the agency tasked with maintaining a historic cable bridge after the popular attraction collapsed on Sunday under the weight of hundreds of visitors, killing more than 130 people.

Harsh Sanghavi, the state’s home minister, told reporters that an inquiry under criminal provisions relating to manslaughter was opened into a local company. The bridge, which was built in the late 19th century, reopened to the public last week after months for repairs.

Mr. Sanghavi didn’t name the company. Several Indian news outlets reported that a local industrial company known as Oreva was in charge of the bridge’s maintenance and repairs.

Ashok Yadav, a senior official with the Gujarat state police, told reporters late Monday that nine people had been arrested in connection with the probe into the bridge’s collapse. The arrested people included two managers of the Oreva company, two ticket clerks at the bridge that collapsed, two bridge-repair contractors and three security guards tasked with regulating the entry of people on the bridge, according to Mr. Yadav.

Calls to Oreva weren’t answered on Monday and it didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

Mr. Yadav said police could make more arrests as the inquiry continues.

“Our effort is to set a strong example through this whole process,” he said.

Rescue operations continued into Monday, with 170 people pulled from the waters of the Machchhu river that the bridge spanned, the state disaster management agency said.

Videos shared by television channels and on social media showed people in the water clinging to portions of the collapsed bridge and trying to climb out.

The death toll could continue to rise after a suspension bridge collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat, killing more than 130 people. The popular tourist attraction was crowded as hundreds of people visited the area to celebrate holidays including Diwali. Photo: AP Photo/Ajit Solanki

Tushar Daftary, a local member of Lions Clubs International community service group, who was among those helping with rescue operations last night, said many people were visiting family in the area due public holidays in the past week, including Diwali and Gujarati new year. That meant more people than usual visited the bridge over the weekend, according to Mr. Daftary.

A local news report said some visitors expressed concerns to ticket agents that some people were shaking the overcrowded bridge.

Videos posted on social media platform Twitter showed the bridge—which sways when people walk on it—thronged with visitors, some of whom appeared to be vigorously shaking its suspension cables. Users of

Meta Platforms Inc.’s

Facebook in India and outside the country, however, were unable to view posts with the Gujarat hashtag for several hours on Monday.

“Keeping our community safe,” a message said, when users clicked through to a page that would normally display a stream of videos, photos and news reports related to the state or the bridge collapse. It added that the posts were temporarily hidden as “some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.”

“The hashtag was blocked in error,” a Meta spokeswoman said Tuesday, adding that it has since been restored.

She declined to say what material may have violated the platform’s standards, which don’t allow violent and graphic content, hate speech, and other types of material. India is Facebook’s largest market by users. Meanwhile, videos of Halloween revelers being crushed in South Korea over the weekend remained visible throughout Monday via a hashtag for the world Seoul.

After The Wall Street Journal sought comment from Facebook Monday, posts with the Gujarat hashtag became visible again, with the top post a video from an Indian TV network showing the moment the bridge collapsed.

The state has said it would award the equivalent of nearly $4,900 to families of those who died in the disaster, as well as give compensation to the injured. Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi,

who governed the state for more than a decade as he cemented his political rise, also unveiled compensation for victims and expressed his sorrow.

The tragedy cast a shadow over Mr. Modi’s three-day visit to the state that started Sunday, which is intended to showcase development projects ahead of elections there that are due later this year. The prime minister has been leading a renewed push to draw more factories to India and to create more jobs. In the hours before the bridge collapse, Mr. Modi presided over the start of construction on an aircraft manufacturing facility in the state in partnership with Europe’s Airbus SE, hailing it as a step forward for the country’s goal of becoming a global manufacturing hub.

But India’s efforts to attract more manufacturing and create more jobs have often faced challenges from concerns over the country’s dilapidated infrastructure and safety lapses, a worry that is likely to be made worse by Sunday’s disaster.

—Newley Purnell contributed to this article.

Write to Krishna Pokharel at krishna.pokharel@wsj.com and Tripti Lahiri at tripti.lahiri@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Harsh Sanghavi is the home minister for India’s Gujarat state. An earlier version of this article misspelled his surname as Sanghvi on second reference. (Corrected on Nov. 1)

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

US

Debate on Police in Jackson, Miss., Adds Tension to City Divided by Water Crisis

Leave a comment

JACKSON, Miss.—State officials and some residents in Mississippi’s capital are at odds over how to address rampant violent crime, causing tensions to escalate in a city already rife with arguments over who was responsible for a breakdown that left many without clean drinking water.

Mississippi officials are planning to more than double the size of the police force that protects the Capitol and state office buildings to 170 officers by the end of next year. They gave the police force power to patrol a larger area of Jackson, which has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the U.S. The Jackson Police Department, which has about 250 officers, will continue to oversee the remaining 92% of the city.

Officials in the state government, dominated by Republicans, say the move will make state buildings and the areas around them safer for workers and visitors. Some residents in the predominantly Black city say the mostly white Mississippi leadership is essentially creating a bubble around where they work and neglecting poorer communities with more violence.

“It’s like poor people are left out when it comes to fighting crime,” said

Willa Womack,

the president of the Battlefield Park Neighborhood Association, representing an area that isn’t part of the Capitol Police expansion plan.

Memorial murals in Jackson, Miss., which has one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the U.S.

Sean Tindell,

commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Capitol Police, said he has started meeting with local residents to hear their concerns. 

“Sometimes it can be tense,” he said. “But really all we are trying to do is make the city of Jackson safer.”

Jackson, population 150,000, reported 154 homicides last year, up from 128 in 2020 and 82 in 2019. As of Oct. 26 this year, 114 homicides were reported—a rate of 76 per 100,000 residents. That compares with a homicide rate in Chicago of about 21 per 100,000 for the same period.

State and local officials in Jackson have been divided for years, often over the city’s failing water infrastructure, which left many residents without drinking water in late August and early September. The two sides have argued over whether the problems were caused by local mismanagement or inadequate state funding. The Environmental Protection Agency recently said it was investigating a complaint that state agencies discriminated against the city, which is more than 80% Black. 

A spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said that the complaint filed by the NAACP contains inaccuracies, but that she couldn’t provide details for legal reasons.

State leaders have raised the possibility in recent years of taking over city operations including the airport. 

While Mississippi’s Republican-led legislature and GOP Gov.

Tate Reeves

gave the Capitol Police expanded authority last year, the department is still adding officers. Its budget grew to $11 million in the current fiscal year from $6.6 million in the fiscal year that ended in June, according to a spokeswoman. 

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves at a press conference last month.



Photo:

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

New areas the Capitol Police are patrolling include downtown, universities and the affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods of Belhaven and Fondren. Before the expansion plan, the department was primarily responsible for the Capitol and other state office buildings. 

Andy Frame

of the nonprofit Jackson Association of Neighborhoods said he has seen little cooperation between the city and state on law enforcement.

“There’s no real coordinating effort,” said Mr. Frame. “The state has a negative view of how the city runs things, and neither side trusts the other.”

Jackson Democratic Mayor

Chokwe Antar Lumumba

declined to be interviewed through a spokeswoman, as did the city’s police chief.

In May, Mr. Lumumba said at a press conference that his administration was working to reduce violent crime, but that requests for state funding to supplement Jackson’s approximately $37 million police budget to add technology and new programs were rejected.

“We’ve asked for millions and millions of dollars, and the city of Jackson’s police department has not received any of it,” he said.

A spokesman for the governor said that the state has worked to support Jackson in its fight against crime and that the Capitol Police expansion is a one way it is doing that.

Maati Jone Primm, a Jackson bookstore owner, says she believes white Republican state politicians want to take over the city.

Jackson’s police department, like many across the country, is struggling with staffing shortages. It currently has about 100 fewer officers than its budget allows. The City Council recently voted to increase starting salaries for officers, but pay remains below that of nearby departments.

Lacey Glencora Loftin,

who analyzes crime statistics for the Jackson Police Department, provided data showing that the area to be overseen by the Capitol Police is wealthier and has less violent crime than other sections of the city.

Mr. Tindell, the state public-safety official, said the Capitol Police expansion is intended to protect the areas around state buildings better and make it safer for people to visit them. He said he hoped his department’s expansion would allow Jackson police to focus on more- troubled neighborhoods.

Maati Jone Primm,

a 61-year-old Jackson bookstore owner, said she believes white Republican state politicians want to take over the city, rather than cooperating with its leaders and Black residents.

“The message is, ‘I’m going to command all of your resources,’” she said.

Dane Lott,

29 years old, saw a shooting in 2019 near the coffee shop and bookstore she manages, which is located in the new Capitol Police zone. She said Jackson needs additional officers, and she doesn’t care whether they work for the city or state. 

“More presence is the most helpful thing,” she said.

Dane Lott, who manages a coffee shop and bookstore in Jackson, says she doesn’t care whether additional officers work for the city or the state.



Photo:

Timothy Ivy for The Wall Street Journal

Write to Cameron McWhirter at Cameron.McWhirter@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

Business

Home buyers are backing out of contracts in the Sun Belt, especially in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa and Texas

Leave a comment

The tide has turned, and buyers are now backing out of deals in the Sun Belt as rates rise and home prices remain unaffordable.

Once pandemic boomtowns, 15.2% of homes in cities in the Sun Belt that went under contract in August fell through, or roughly 64,000 homes nationwide saw deals dropped, a new report from real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp.
RDFN,
-5.33%
said.

A year ago, only 12.1% of home buyers were backing out of deals. Typically 12% of deals fell through prior to the pandemic, Redfin said. But the last time this number spiked — prior to this fall — was at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March/April 2020.

Buyers were most likely to back out of deals in the Sun Belt, the company added, in cities such as Phoenix, Tampa, and Las Vegas. Buyers were least likely to back out of purchases in big cities, including San Francisco and New York.

“A slowing housing market is allowing buyers to renege on deals because it often means they don’t need to waive important contract contingencies in order to compete like they did during last year’s home-buying frenzy,” Redfin noted.

Contingencies can include inspections to see if there’s any issues with the home, or whether they can get the mortgage required, or whether the appraisal is different from the agreed-upon amount.

“‘A slowing housing market is allowing buyers to renege on deals.’”


— Redfin

And “some buyers may also be backing out of deals because they’re waiting to see if home prices fall,” the company added.

More than a quarter of buyers looking to buy a home in Jacksonville, Fla. backed off in August, Redfin said, which is the highest percentage among the major 50 metro areas in the U.S. Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Orlando followed. (Top 10 list below)

These destinations were hotspots during the pandemic for buyers as they were affordable and in the era of remote-work.

But that’s changed.

“Sun Belt cities including Phoenix, Tampa and Las Vegas attracted scores of house hunters during the pandemic, driving up home prices,” Redfin said.

“Now their housing markets are among the fastest-cooling in the nation, giving buyers the flexibility to bow out,” they added.

Redfin analyzed Multiple Listing Services data going back to 2017 to analyze the drop-outs.

The share of buyers backing out of deals was the lowest in Newark, N.J., at 2.7%, followed by San Francisco, Nassau County, N.Y., New York City, and Montgomery County, Pa.

A big reason for the cancellations is high rates. The 30-year is at 6.29% as of Sept. 15. That’s up from 2.88% a year ago.

Homes are also still expensive. While existing-home prices are coming down, the median price of an existing home in the U.S. is still $389,500 in August, up 7.7% from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors said.

“‘I advise sellers to price their homes competitively based on the current market.’”


— Sam Chute, a Miami-based real-estate agent at Redfin

With this tough backdrop of nervous buyers, “I advise sellers to price their homes competitively based on the current market,” Sam Chute, a Miami-based real-estate agent at Redfin said, “because deals are falling through and buyers are no longer willing to pay pie-in-the-sky prices.”

To be clear, the indigestion in the real-estate market was deliberately constructed: Home prices coming down as a result of higher rates and sellers reacting to lower demand is a “good thing,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said during a Wednesday press conference when they announced the rate hikes. 

“Housing prices were going up at an unsustainably fast level,” Powell said. 

“For the longer term, what we need is supply and demand to get better aligned, so that housing prices go up at a reasonable level …and that people can afford houses again,” he added. “The housing market may have to go through a correction to get back to that place.”

These are the top 10 cities where deals are falling through:

City Percentage of pending sales that fell out of contract
Jacksonville, Fla. 26.1%
Las Vegas, Nev. 23%
Atlanta, Ga. 22.6%
Orlando, Fla. 21.9%
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 21.7%
Phoenix, Ariz. 21.6%
Tampa, Fla. 21.5%
Fort Worth, Tex. 21.5%
San Antonio, Tex. 21.1%
Houston, Tex. 20.6%

Got thoughts on the housing market? Write to MarketWatch reporter Aarthi Swaminathan at aarthi@marketwatch.com

Read original article here

World

Italy’s Mario Draghi Likely to Resign Despite Winning Confidence Vote

Leave a comment

Italian Prime Minister

Mario Draghi

will likely resign despite winning a confidence vote in the Senate on Wednesday, putting an end to a national unity government that lasted almost 1½ years.

Mr. Draghi won the vote, but mass abstentions by three large parties indicated he no longer has the support of a majority of Parliament. Mr. Draghi could resign in the coming days after meeting with Italian President

Sergio Mattarella.

The vote came after Mr. Draghi made an appeal to senators to back him so he could continue with his reform-minded agenda until the next scheduled national election in the spring. Now, elections could be held as soon as late September.

Mr. Draghi initially tendered his resignation late last week after a key party in his coalition boycotted a vote in the Senate. Mr. Mattarella didn’t accept the resignation and told Mr. Draghi to determine whether there was sufficient support in Parliament for him to pull together a majority.

The political upheaval comes at a crucial time for Italy, which like the rest of Europe is facing surging inflation and other effects of the war in Ukraine. The government was in the process of approving and implementing measures to help companies and families deal with surging energy costs when the political crisis started.

In another challenge, Italy is likely soon to be facing higher costs to refinance its debt. Mr. Draghi’s successor at the European Central Bank,

Christine Lagarde,

is expected this week to present the central bank’s first interest-rate increase in more than a decade. The long period of low interest rates has allowed Italy to cheaply roll over its debt, which is more than 150% of the country’s yearly economic output.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi received several rounds of long applause during his speech to the Senate on Wednesday, but some senators heckled him.



Photo:

GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE/REUTERS

If Mr. Draghi resigns, Mr. Mattarella could appeal to party leaders to see if they can put together a new parliamentary majority so the country can avoid early elections. On Wednesday, that appeared unlikely, based on comments from party leaders. It would be the first time since the end of World War II that Italy has held a national election in the fall, a period in which Parliament is called to approve the budget for the following year.

Mr. Draghi’s initial resignation last week and its rejection set off a flurry of meetings between the prime minister and party leaders in recent days.

When Mr. Draghi took up his post early last year, Parliament confirmed him with a majority that included parties ranging from far-right populists to a mainstream center-left party. Keeping the eclectic group together has proved challenging for Mr. Draghi.

While the prime minister received several rounds of long applause during his speech, some senators heckled him, earning a rebuke from the president of the Senate.

Dozens of Italian senators took turns responding to Mr. Draghi’s speech on Wednesday. One senator told him it was his duty to remain at his post, while others said he should have resigned long ago because he has never faced the voters in an election.

Mr. Draghi read a list of what he said were the accomplishments achieved during his 17 months as prime minister. He noted Italy’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign, which had been languishing before he arrived. He also mentioned reforms he is pushing through in Italy’s judicial and tax systems.

Italy must pass those reforms to continue getting the money the European Union has earmarked to help countries recover from the pandemic fallout. Italy has already received €46 billion, equivalent to $47 billion, with another €21 billion due to come in the coming weeks.

The parties choosing not to vote on Wednesday include

Matteo Salvini’s

far-right League, which has often wavered in its support for the prime minister and has seen its consensus among voters shrink since it joined Mr. Draghi’s government.

Most senators from the 5 Star Movement, a populist group that set off the crisis last week by not voting for Mr. Draghi, also didn’t vote on Wednesday. 5 Star was the largest party in Parliament, but since the last election in 2018 its support has evaporated and many senators have defected, with a large chunk breaking off to form a new party.

Senators from Forza Italia, which is headed by

Silvio Berlusconi,

the media mogul and former prime minister, also didn’t vote on Wednesday.

The difference in how much interest Italy and Germany pay on their newly issued government bonds initially narrowed after Mr. Draghi’s speech when it seemed he might manage to get a majority of Parliament to support him. That indicated investors were more bullish on Italy’s economic prospects with him at the helm. As the day progressed and it became clear Mr. Draghi was losing support, the difference shot up to above where it had started the day.

Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

World

Ukraine Quietly Receives Tanks From Czech Republic to Support War Effort

Leave a comment

The Czech Republic has been sending old Soviet-designed tanks into Ukraine, providing badly needed heavy weapons to outgunned Ukrainian troops that are battling a much better-equipped Russian invasion force.

The efforts, described by three Czech and Slovak officials, mark the first time a foreign country has provided tanks to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24. In a potentially even more important development, both the Czech Republic and neighboring Slovakia, which shares a border with Ukraine, are considering opening their military industrial installations to repair and refit damaged Ukrainian military equipment.

Read original article here

Business

Fed official doesn’t think housing market is headed for a crash: ‘I am trying to buy a house here in Washington and the market is crazy’

Leave a comment

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller has no doubt about how competitive today’s housing market is.

“Trust me, I know it is red hot because I am trying to buy a house here in Washington and the market is crazy,” Waller said in a speech at a housing conference.

But even as home and rental prices have soared over the past couple years, he is not concerned that the housing market is poised for a repeat of the crash that occurred in the mid-2000s and ultimately triggered the Great Recession.

His reasoning has to do with the forces that are contributing to the run-up in housing costs. “My short answer is that unlike the housing bubble and crash of mid 2000s, the recent increase seems to be sustained by the substantive supply and demand issues,” he said, and “not by excessive leverage, looser underwriting standards or financial speculation.”

Waller also noted that mortgage borrowers’ balance sheets were stronger heading into the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning they were more resilient. And banks have proved capable of withstanding downturns in recent stress tests from regulators.

In his speech, Waller outlined the many forces he believes are contributing to the rising cost of housing across the country. On the demand side of the equation, many households sought out larger homes to accommodate remote work and school. There has also been an increase in household formations over the course of the pandemic, reducing vacancy rates across the country for both renter- and owner-occupied homes.

“‘Unlike the housing bubble and crash of mid 2000s, the recent increase seems to be sustained by the substantive supply and demand issues.’”


— Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller

Those pandemic-era changes further magnified the demand-related issues that were pushing housing costs higher before the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, there was a shift toward urban living, as people sought high-paying jobs in major cities. While the pandemic may have prompted some of these people to flock to the suburbs and exurbs, it’s too soon to tell whether people will return to their offices and reinvigorate demand for city living.

“The supply side has been pushing in the same direction — towards tighter housing markets and more expensive shelter, Waller said. Home builders face multiple challenges, including the rising cost of materials such as lumber, a tight labor market and strenuous land-use regulations. These have slowed the pace of home building, worsening the supply-demand imbalance.

Though Waller may not be concerned about the potential for a burst housing bubble, he did signal that the cost of housing is becoming a bigger concern for monetary policy.

“With housing costs gaining an ever-larger weight in the inflation Americans experience, I will be looking even more closely at real estate to judge the appropriate stance of monetary policy,” Waller said. At the same time, he echoed recent research that has suggested that measures such as the consumer price index likely underestimate the true scale of housing inflation.

Economists have suggested that housing inflation will only continue to grow in the coming months, given that there is typically a lag between when housing and rental costs rise and when those increases are recorded in the surveys that are used to produce inflation measures.

The recent run-up in interest rates could change the equation, though. February data on new and existing home sales showed some weakness, and many economists believe that higher mortgage rates will begin to constrain home-buying demand as affordability challenges mount.

On that front, Waller said that he was “hopeful that at least some of the pandemic-specific factors pushing up home prices and rents could begin to ease in the next year or so.”

Read original article here

World

Ukrainian Forces Try to Hold Mariupol as Combat Reaches City Streets

Leave a comment

KYIV, Ukraine—Russian and Ukrainian forces are battling on the city streets of Mariupol, officials said Saturday, as Moscow aims to create a corridor between Russia and its annexed region of Crimea.

During three weeks of bombardment and attack, Ukrainians said they had kept Russian forces at bay on the outskirts of the southern port city, but that has changed. “The fighting is already in the city itself,” an official from the mayor’s office said via text message. “But Mariupol remains a Ukrainian city.”

Government forces in Ukraine said they kept up the resistance Saturday. “Fierce battles between the defenders of Mariupol and the occupier continue, including on the city streets,” said a report on the Telegram channel of the volunteer group Azov Battalion, whose members have been fighting alongside regular government forces inside the city.

“The military repulses the enemy, who does not stop the attack on Mariupol with his artillery and aircraft,” the report said.

The capture of Mariupol would be a key victory for Russia, which has so far failed to take any major Ukrainian cities. It would free up its forces to encircle Ukrainian army units in eastern regions and push further toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian missile strikes hit the headquarters of the Ukrainian army’s 79th brigade, including the quarters where officers’ families live. Several buildings collapsed and footage from the scene, broadcast on Ukrainian television channels, showed a small child being dug out from the rubble. Ukrainian officials say 40 people, and possibly more, have been killed.

A resident sheltering in a basement in Mariupol.



Photo:

ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS

Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said in a video recording that the “cowardly” Russian strike targeted sleeping soldiers, and that rescue operations at the site are under way. The Ukrainian military counteroffensive in the region is pressing ahead, he added.

As Russian forces have pounded Mariupol with airstrikes and artillery, the city has emerged as a symbol of tough Ukrainian resistance, as well as civilian suffering. Thousands of the city’s 400,000 have fled, and thousands have been killed, some dumped into mass graves, officials said.

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Convtrolled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Primary refugee crossing locations

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Kyiv has tried to relieve Mariupol, so far unsuccessfully. Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said there was no way for Ukrainian forces to break Russia’s siege, addressing criticism the government isn’t doing enough.

Mariupol’s proximity to the Russian border means Moscow could easily bring massive air power to bear on it from nearby military hubs, such as Crimea and the southern Russian city of Rostov, he said.

Local residents carry water on the outskirts of Mariupol.



Photo:

Alexei Alexandrov/Associated Press

The closest Ukrainian units to Mariupol are more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, he said, and the terrain around the city provides no cover from Russian attacks.

“No army in the world—even the U.S.—would make it that distance with the forces that we currently have there, unfortunately,” Mr. Arestovych said.

Ukraine’s President

Volodymyr Zelensky

said in his overnight address that 9,000 people have been evacuated from the city. Rescuers in Mariupol evacuated 130 people from the wreckage of a theater hit by an airstrike this week and searched for more survivors.

About 1,300 people remained trapped in the basement of the theater Friday, where residents had sought shelter from Russian shelling, said Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human-rights commissioner, adding that it was difficult to be certain of the number of survivors. She didn’t confirm any casualties.

Russian President

Vladimir Putin

pledged to press on with his invasion of Ukraine in a rare public appearance Friday in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters in a Moscow stadium.

A Ukrainian soldier in a military trench in Mykolaiv, Ukraine.



Photo:

bulent kilic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

A Ukrainian soldier is rescued from the debris of a military school hit by a Russian strike in Mykolaiv.



Photo:

bulent kilic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Parts of the Russian offensive have been bogged down by poor planning and logistics, and forces have encountered fierce Ukrainian counterattacks. Some of Russia’s ground advances stalled this week amid mounting casualties. Four Russian generals have died, the Ukrainian government says. Some U.S. government calculations estimate as many as 7,000 Russian troops have been killed in action, though officials caution those are uncertain estimates.

Yet, Moscow has been showcasing some of its high-tech weaponry with long-distance missile strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday it fired an air-launched ballistic missile on Ukraine in what might have been the first use of the system Mr. Putin announced several years ago.

The weapon struck a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition near Deliatyn in western Ukraine, the ministry said. Russian state media, RIA Novosti, said it was the first use of the new weapon.

Ukrainian refugees line up to enter Poland via the Medyka border crossing in Shehyni, Ukraine.



Photo:

Angel Garcia/Bloomberg News

Ukraine’s military confirmed a strike on the facility and that ammunition stored there was detonated. There was no information yet on the number of casualties or the type of weapon used, said Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, Ukraine has become a testing ground for Russia’s entire arsenal of missiles,” said Mr. Ignat. “They use missiles that fly 2,000 kilometers, 5,500 kilometers.”

Mr. Zelensky said Russian forces “continue to block the supply of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities in most areas,” aside from the seven open humanitarian corridors. He added that more than 180,000 Ukrainians have been rescued and tons of essential supplies have been delivered. He also dropped all taxes and customs duties in an effort to expedite cargo entering the nation.

Mr. Zelensky called on Russia to negotiate and said that in the coming days he will address other nations like Switzerland, Israel, Italy and Japan, just like he did the U.S., Canada and Germany. “It’s time to meet. Time to talk. It is time to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine,” he said. “Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be so huge that several generations won’t be enough to rebound…Ukraine’s proposals are on the table.”

Russian missiles targeted the Ukrainian region closest to the Polish border, hitting an airfield near Lviv; Kyiv firefighters put out flames as shelling left residential areas in ruins; President Biden and Xi Jinping held talks about Ukraine. Photo: Associated Press

President Biden spoke with Chinese leader

Xi Jinping

in a nearly two-hour videoconference on Friday, in an attempt to deter Beijing from deeper involvement with Moscow on its war effort.

“President Biden made clear the implication and consequences of China providing material support” to Russia, a senior U.S. official said after the call.

Mr. Xi sought to present China as a peacemaker. “The Ukraine crisis is something we don’t want to see,” he told Mr. Biden, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. “Conflict and confrontation are not in the interests of anyone.”

—Yaroslav Trofimov and Brett Forrest contributed to this article.

Write to Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com and Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

World

Russia Bombards Kyiv as European Leaders Head to Ukraine’s Capital

Leave a comment

KYIV, Ukraine—A delegation of European heads of state headed to Kyiv to meet with President

Volodymyr Zelensky

as Russia lobbed more missiles at the embattled Ukrainian capital amid heightened fighting in the city’s outskirts.

One missile destroyed a building associated with an arms maker in central Kyiv in a predawn strike, blowing the windows out of buildings in a one-block radius. Separately, two apartment buildings were hit, setting fire to one of them.

At least two residents died and dozens were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. There were no fatalities at the arms facility, officials said.

With Russian forces pushing to the city’s limits, Kyiv’s mayor said he was imposing a 36-hour curfew from late Tuesday and that the capital faced a “difficult and dangerous moment.” Heavy artillery barrages again shook the city early Tuesday and a firefight overnight lit up the western horizon with tracer bullets. There was shelling and sporadic attacks on other cities and towns.

A woman rescued from a shelled apartment building in Kyiv on Tuesday.



Photo:

THOMAS PETER/REUTERS

Another survivor of the shelling in Kyiv on Wednesday received a hug after she was rescued from a residential building.



Photo:

THOMAS PETER/REUTERS

The group of Central European leaders visiting Kyiv—all from NATO member states—plan to offer a broad package of support for Ukraine, the Polish government said. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Deputy Prime Minister

Jarosław Kaczyński,

Czech Prime Minister

Petr Fiala

and Prime Minister of Slovenia

Janez Janša

were set to meet with Mr. Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as representatives of the European Council. The delegation headed to Kyiv jointly by train.

“Europe must guarantee Ukraine’s independence and ensure that it is ready to help in Ukraine’s reconstruction,” Mr. Morawiecki said.

The European Union also agreed on a fourth sanctions package targeting Russia, including a broad ban on energy-sector investment and high-value luxury goods and new targeted sanctions against Russian business executives and oligarchs, diplomats said.

Russian forces overnight fired two missiles at the airport in Dnipro, in central-eastern Ukraine, destroying the runway and damaging the terminal, said regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko. Shelling on the northeastern city of Kharkiv late on Monday damaged a warehouse and residential buildings in the Kholodnohirskyi district.

The overnight attacks occurred as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were gearing up for more talks that had paused Monday.

A woman identified as a Russian state TV employee interrupted a live broadcast brandishing a poster against the war in Ukraine; attacks on Kyiv intensify, hitting a tram and residential areas; some EU leaders travel to Kyiv as diplomatic efforts continue. Photo: Reuters

Mykhailo Podolyak,

an adviser to Ukraine’s president, has previously said Ukraine’s negotiators would focus on achieving a cease-fire, the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and security guarantees for the country. “A technical pause has been taken in the negotiations until tomorrow,” Mr. Podolyak wrote on Twitter. “Negotiations continue.”

Kremlin aide

Vladimir Medinsky,

who is leading the Russian delegation at the talks, said that negotiations with the Ukrainian side would continue “every day, seven days a week” via videoconference, he wrote on his Telegram messenger channel following Monday’s talks. He said the format saved time and money.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “the work is difficult” but the fact that talks are continuing was positive.

Twenty days into the war, Russia has seized territory in the south of Ukraine but has been stopped short around Kyiv and elsewhere. Increasingly, its forces have resorted to bombing residential areas and civilian infrastructure in an effort to wear down Ukrainian resistance. The death toll from a rocket attack on the western city of Rivne on Monday rose to 19, the local military administration said.

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Controlled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Primary refugee crossing locations

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Areas no longer controlled by Ukraine as of Friday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Ukraine’s military also said it had detected a Russian surveillance drone crossing the border into neighboring Poland. The drone was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses after it crossed back into Ukraine’s airspace, the air force said overnight.

The Polish Defense Ministry declined to comment beyond saying it was “monitoring the situation and taking necessary measures to ensure the security of the country.”

The drone appeared to be surveilling a Ukrainian military training center close to the Polish border struck by Russian missiles on Sunday, killing at least 35 people.

It was the latest incident in recent days of a drone from the war zone passing into the airspace of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member.

Romania said it was investigating a drone crash on its territory. Another drone, suspected to be of Ukrainian origin, crashed days earlier in Croatia, prompting the government there to ask the French military to conduct a surveillance flight of its airspace. That flight showed nothing suspicious, the French military said.

Civilian casualties are likely to climb sharply, officials warn, as fighting moves further into cities from outlying suburbs, and Russian heavy weaponry is brought to bear on buildings to destroy Ukrainian resistance.

A still from footage released Monday by Ukraine’s Azov battalion shows destruction in the southeastern city of Mariupol.



Photo:

/Associated Press

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister

Iryna Vereshchuk

said there were plans to evacuate civilians through nine humanitarian corridors on Tuesday, including a humanitarian aid convoy heading to the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Civilians in the northeastern city of Izyum are trapped there without water or food, unable to leave because Russian forces control the road leading north to Kharkiv and are shelling the road going south. “Those who survived the shelling are dying of disease and lack of medicine,” said Deputy Mayor Volodymyr Matsokin. “There is no one to bury the dead.”

The national police said Russian forces on Monday fired mortars on a convoy of buses evacuating civilians from Hostomel, northwest of Kyiv. The driver of one of the buses was injured in the shelling, and a woman traveling in a civilian vehicle was killed. The rest made it to safety.

The number of people fleeing the fighting in Ukraine is now roughly 3 million, according to United Nations data.

Mr. Zelensky is scheduled to deliver a virtual address to members of Congress on Wednesday. The Ukrainian president has called for more assistance from Western allies, and many U.S. lawmakers have pressed the Biden administration to take further action.

Residents of Odessa used sandbags to bolster the Ukrainian port city’s defenses Monday.



Photo:

NACHO DOCE/REUTERS

Municipal services in Kyiv’s Obolon district on Monday removed a car destroyed by shelling.



Photo:

Maxym Marusenko/Zuma Press

The White House is discussing a possible trip by Mr. Biden to Europe in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Armaments supplied to Ukraine by the U.S. and its European allies—especially antitank and antiaircraft weapons—have played an important role in checking the advance of Russian ground troops, who have suffered heavy casualties in the north as they have tried to encircle Kyiv.

Early Tuesday local time, Mr. Zelensky, citing the heavy losses, urged Russian troops to stop fighting. “If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently. In a way you were not treated in your army,” he said in a statement.

He thanked those Russians voicing their opposition to the war, singling out an antiwar protester who ran onto the set of an evening news program on Russian state television’s flagship Channel One on Monday holding a poster reading: “No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe propaganda. They lie to you here. Russians against war.” She yelled: “Stop the war, no to war” before the camera cut away.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday said its forces seized “a stronghold of nationalists and foreign mercenaries” north of Kyiv, taking 10 Javelin missile systems and other weapons supplied by Western countries to Ukraine.

Russia’s ground offensives around Kyiv and the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv appear to be bogged down while Moscow’s troops switch to targeting civilian infrastructure and residential areas from afar. In the south, Russia has made faster headway, helped by its prior military presence on the Crimean Peninsula it annexed in 2014 and by a more favorable terrain.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that it has taken control of the entire Kherson region in the south of Ukraine.

—Georgi Kantchev and Bojan Pancevski contributed to this article.

A woman cried as she was evacuated Monday in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv.



Photo:

MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS

Write to Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com and Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

US

UC Berkeley Enrollment Case Fuels Wider Battle for Student Housing

Leave a comment

California universities are turning dormitory lounges into bedrooms, putting students in hotel rooms, and leasing entire apartment buildings to deal with a housing shortage that recently led to a judge ordering UC Berkeley to freeze its on-campus enrollment.

The state’s public higher learning institutions have added tens of thousands fewer beds than students in recent years, as a problem across the state—a lack of affordable homes caused in large part by restraints on construction—hits college towns particularly hard.

Spurred by a national outcry over the Berkeley decision, California legislators have proposed measures to delay its impact or spur more construction at colleges. On Monday, Democratic Gov.

Gavin Newsom

signed a measure passed unanimously by the state legislature that will render the judge’s decision unenforceable and give Berkeley and other public colleges and universities 18 months to address challenges to campus population growth before a judge can enforce any changes.

State Sen.

Scott Wiener

has introduced a broader proposal that would exempt many student housing projects from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, which was at the heart of the Berkeley suit.

“We are making it so hard for the next generation of students to access this education because of the lack of housing,” Mr. Wiener, a Democrat, said.

McKenzie Carling in August of 2020. She says UC Berkeley is her dream school.



Photo:

Sara Carling

UC Berkeley, the crown jewel of California’s public higher education system, had been preparing to cut its on-campus enrollment by at least 2,500 students this fall, after the state’s highest court overruled its request to reverse an enrollment cap instituted by a trial judge. The University said Monday that under the law signed by Mr. Newsom, it will instead proceed with its original admissions plan, offering spots to more than 15,000 incoming freshmen and 4,500 transfers for in-person enrollment this year.

Mr. Wiener will still push to pass his proposal, while Republicans in the Democratic-controlled legislature have called for more sweeping CEQA reform.

In their lawsuit, local groups have accused the university of violating CEQA by admitting more students than it had projected without fully considering negative impacts on traffic, noise and housing availability.

Both sides agree there aren’t enough homes for the students who are already there.

Signed into law in 1970 by then-Gov.

Ronald Reagan,

CEQA requires local governments to study the potential environmental impacts of building projects before approving them. Over the years, the law has been wielded by groups that oppose developments for numerous reasons, going far beyond its original intent, according to housing advocates.

California has added 3.2 times more people than housing units over the past 10 years, according to an analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California. Its median home price of $765,580 is more than twice the national average, and the state has the second-lowest homeownership rate in the nation behind New York.

“The student housing affordability crisis is essentially the broader California housing affordability crisis turned up to 11,” said M. Nolan Gray, an urban-planning researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.

UC Berkeley had been preparing to cut its on-campus enrollment by at least 2,500 students this fall.



Photo:

Stephen Reiss/The Wall Street Journal

Since 2015, UC campuses have added 21,700 beds while enrollment grew by about 43,000, according to a report last year by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. More than 16,000 California college students at UC and California State University campuses were wait-listed for university-provided housing last fall.

Those who find housing they can afford off-campus often crowd into small apartments or face long commutes to classes. Rachel Forgash, a Ph.D. student at UCLA, said she spends about half of her $2,580 monthly stipend to split a 600-square-foot apartment and commute an hour to campus. “I feel extremely stressed perpetually about housing,” she said.

McKenzie Carling, who is waiting to find out if she has been accepted to UC Berkeley, said she worries that the court fight will hurt her chances of attending what she says is her dream school.

“I don’t think they’re thinking of the kids who’ve had to work through a pandemic, whose graduations were in cars, whose blood, sweat and tears were in Zoom meetings,” said Ms. Carling, 19, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her mother and shares a room with her 18-year-old brother in Rocklin, outside Sacramento.

Phil Bokovoy says university officials have expanded enrollment too quickly without considering the impact on affordable housing.



Photo:

Stephen Reiss/The Wall Street Journal

Many Berkeley residents and city leaders are alumni of the university who now find themselves at odds over whether to give priority to expanding educational access or maintain the look and feel of a low-rise city full of single-family homes. “The most obvious and important thing you can do is build dense student housing right next to campus,” said City Councilmember Rigel Robinson, a 2018 graduate who supports increased construction.

Phil Bokovoy, a local resident who is leading the lawsuit against UC Berkeley, said university officials have expanded enrollment too quickly without considering the impact on residents and students looking for an affordable place to live.

In the fall of 2001, the median rent for a studio apartment for new leases was $900, according to data from the city of Berkeley. Last fall, it was nearly $1,800.

“They’ve created a housing crisis that makes it almost impossible for low-income students in any greater numbers to come to Berkeley,” said Mr. Bokovoy, who received a master’s degree from the university in 1989. He said the bill Mr. Newsom signed doesn’t address the underlying issue.

UC Santa Cruz says lawsuits from local residents stalled a 3,000-bed student housing development approved by university officials years ago.



Photo:

Clara Mokri for The Wall Street Journal

He said he would like UC Berkeley to follow the path of UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz, which have said they would provide housing to accommodate any increase in on-campus student enrollment.

UC Santa Cruz has struggled to make good on that pledge. Cynthia Larive, the school’s chancellor, told state legislators in November that lawsuits from local residents stalled a 3,000-bed student housing development approved by university officials nearly three years ago.

“We can’t move forward even though students need housing now,” Ms. Larive said in an interview.

In the interim, UC Santa Cruz has increased capacity by placing as many as six students in converted lounges, and has rented dozens of hotel rooms to provide overflow housing for some graduate students.

UC Santa Cruz student Louise Edwards says she has slept in her car.



Photo:

Clara Mokri for The Wall Street Journal

Louise Edwards often studied and slept in her car alongside her dog, Thelma, while she attended community college in the Bay Area.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

What steps should states take to accommodate affordable student housing? Join the conversation below.

The 53-year-old was admitted to UC Santa Cruz last year, but has struggled to find a reliable place to live with her Section 8 housing voucher. She signed a lease on a one-bedroom unit 9 miles from campus last fall for $2,216 a month—the maximum she could afford with her voucher—but now her landlord is trying to sell the property, she said.

She is hoping to live closer to campus because of rising gas prices, but hasn’t found anything yet. She opted to enroll in online classes next quarter because of the uncertainty.

“The only thing I know how to do is go into a shelter,” Ms. Edwards said of her options when she loses her current dwelling. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Tuition at America’s public universities has nearly tripled since 1990. With President Biden looking to ease the burden for some students, experts explain how federal financial aid programs can actually contribute to rising costs. Photo: Storyblocks

Write to Christine Mai-Duc at christine.maiduc@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

US

Andrew Cuomo Plans Comeback Months After Resigning Amid Sexual-Harassment Claims

Leave a comment

Former New York Gov.

Andrew Cuomo

and his aides are intensifying an effort to revive his public standing, including discussing how to make his first public appearance since resigning in August, according to people close to him.

Mr. Cuomo and his remaining aides have been calling former allies and political operatives to complain about New York Attorney General Letitia James, who oversaw an investigation that concluded Mr. Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees. The former Democratic governor has denied touching anybody inappropriately and said the investigation was politically motivated.

The former governor’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, has held press briefings to release information about his accusers that she says undermines their credibility. Mr. Cuomo has been attempting to determine the right forum for a speech or appearance that would mark his return to public life, according to the people close to him.

“If you were in his position, you wouldn’t let it go either. The truth is important to him,” Ms. Glavin said. She has asked Ms. James’s office to amend the report to include information she said is favorable to the governor’s defense. Ms. Glavin said Mr. Cuomo was considering his available legal options.

New York Attorney General Letitia James oversaw a state investigation into claims about Andrew Cuomo.



Photo:

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

Ms. James, also a Democrat, has said the report was corroborated by district attorneys who called the accusers credible and is based on 74,000 pieces of evidence. “Mr. Cuomo’s relentless attacks on these brave women will not mask the truth—he is a serial sexual harasser,” said Delaney Kempner, a spokeswoman for Ms. James.

The sexual-harassment allegations against Mr. Cuomo and his response to them have engulfed others. Last week, CNN President

Jeff Zucker

resigned for failing to disclose a personal relationship that was revealed to the network by lawyers for Chris Cuomo, the former governor’s brother.

Chris Cuomo was fired as an anchor by CNN in December after failing to disclose the extent to which he was advising his brother’s response to the harassment charges. Leaders of the state university system and several advocacy groups also resigned or were fired due to their roles in responding to the harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo.

Some political operatives who have spoken with Mr. Cuomo or his aides said they think he is considering a run for attorney general this year against Ms. James. The people said Mr. Cuomo, who was attorney general from 2007 to 2010, never explicitly mentioned a campaign, but they inferred his interest based on the points he made about Ms. James and questions he asked about the state’s political climate. It is the former governor’s style to ask questions about his options as part of his decision making, the people said.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, denied that he is interested in running for Attorney General. “There are a lot of silly rumors running around this town, and we can’t help it if some people are still fixated on us,” Mr. Azzopardi said.

Lawyer Rita Glavin has held press briefings to release information that she says undermines the credibility of some of Andrew Cuomo’s accusers.



Photo:

Associated Press

Mr. Cuomo has spent more than $1 million from his campaign account since leaving office and has $16 million on hand, according to the state Board of Elections. Nearly $900,000 went to his lawyer, Ms. Glavin, with additional outlays to Mr. Azzopardi’s firm and for letters sent to voters, according to board records.

Mr. Cuomo’s public presence since leaving office has been limited to photos released on social-media accounts—including fishing in warmer weather and sporting a mustache while posing with his daughters for Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo dined for two hours with New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a private room at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan, said a person familiar with the meal, which was reported by the New York Post. Mr. Adams said Thursday on radio station WCBS that he was soliciting input from a variety of people and would be foolish not to seek advice from Mr. Cuomo.

New York State Democratic Chairman

Jay Jacobs

said he last spoke with Mr. Cuomo around Thanksgiving.

“He’s most interested in clearing his name,” Mr. Jacobs said. “My advice would be, he needs time to pass before any moves to re-enter public life. But is that possible in the future? In America, anything’s possible.”

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and ex-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, both Democrats, campaigned for office in New York City after they resigned amid sex scandals. Neither of their comeback bids was successful.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you think Andrew Cuomo has a political future? Join the conversation below.

Mr. Cuomo appeared alongside his attorneys on Jan. 7 when he was arraigned virtually in Albany City Court on a charge of forcibly touching Brittany Commisso, his former executive assistant, which he denied. Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares said he couldn’t meet his burden of proof at trial and dropped the charge.

In subsequent days, Ms. Glavin held a press conference to release information that was obtained in the pretrial process about several women who accused Mr. Cuomo of harassment, which she said Ms. James intentionally left out of her report. The attorney general’s office denied that accusation.

The material included a threatening message sent by

Lindsey Boylan

to her former boss,

Howard Zemsky,

after he signed on to a statement disputing her allegation that the governor suggested they play strip poker.

Mr. Zemsky later testified that he did hear Mr. Cuomo make the strip poker comment. A lawyer for Ms. Boylan said releasing the digital message was “just another attempt by Mr. Cuomo to deflect blame and evade accountability.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned Tuesday, one week after a state report found he had sexually harassed multiple women. His resignation cuts short a third term as governor that was marred by controversy. Cuomo has denied all allegations of sexual harassment. Photo: Office of the Governor of New York

Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here