Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA’s work was recognized with Deutsche Welle’s “Freedom of Speech Award.” Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA’s “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure” award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists’ “Breaking News” award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.
World
As Trump indicted, Biden hits fish restaurant, ‘Oppenheimer’ showing
REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware, Aug 1 (Reuters) – As Donald Trump was being indicted on Tuesday evening for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, the third criminal case against him, U.S. President Joe Biden enjoyed a day at the beach.
Biden rode his bike, ate at a seafood restaurant, saw a movie and took a moonlit stroll on Rehoboth Beach near his Delaware vacation home, while studiously not commenting on the trials and tribulations of his predecessor.
As the indictment was being unsealed, Biden and his wife Jill were headed to Matt’s Fish Camp, a chowder and fried fish restaurant, for an early supper. The pool of reporters who travel with Biden were kept far from the president, allowing Biden to avoid questions and neatly maintain his long, deliberate silence about his top Republican political opponent’s mounting legal problems.
After dinner, Biden and his wife saw the movie ‘Oppenheimer’ at a local theater and then went for a moonlit walk.
As special counsel Jack Smith spoke on Trump’s four criminal counts of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, the White House and the Biden re-election campaign declined comment on Tuesday.
“We would refer you to the Justice Department, which conducts its criminal investigations independently,” said Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson.
Trump’s mounting legal woes, and Biden’s silence, come as the two combatants in the 2020 presidential election inch closer to a rematch in November 2024. From a political horse race point of view, Biden is following a well-worn playbook: When your opponent is in trouble, stand clear and avoid any backlash.
The White House under most presidents has historically tried to avoid any appearance that it is influencing the Justice Department, and the Biden administration has taken special pains to try to separate the two.
“The Department of Justice is independent,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last Friday. “You hear us say this all the time: We believe in the rule of law. The president has been very consistent on that.”
The charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election are the latest jolt for Trump, the first president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
Trump was charged in June with unlawful retention of classified government documents after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing justice, and in March was indicted in New York on charges related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Biden spoke passionately about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol on its one year anniversary, accusing Trump of spinning a “web of lies.” But he’s limited his comments to policy differences and the direction he feels Trump and his “MAGA Republicans” would take the country as the DOJ investigation progressed.
His silent approach may be tested in months to come, as Trump loudly accuses what he calls “the Biden Crime Family” of using the Justice Department to prosecute him. Trump was summoned to appear in federal court in Washington on Thursday.
The “Biden Crime Family” reference is one Trump uses to highlight the legal travails faced by Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who has been facing tax evasion charges and a gun charge.
Polls show a tight race between Biden, 80, and Trump, 77, with 15 months to go before Election Day.
Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Michael Perry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
World
Italian state railways plans 1.3 bln euro investment in solar plant
World
Christmas in Puerto Rico is a 45-day celebration with caroling, festive decorations, family feasts and more
Christmas, Navidad in Puerto Rico, extends far beyond Dec. 25.
The island proudly proclaims itself as having the “longest holiday season in the world,” according to the website Discover Puerto Rico.
On average, the holiday festivities in Puerto Rico last about 45 days, per the source, commencing right after Thanksgiving, and stretching all the way through mid-January.
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The holiday season in Puerto Rico is full of rich traditions beloved by families.
One tradition those who visit Puerto Rico will immediately notice during the holiday season is decorations.
In Puerto Rico, decorations are typically put up by Thanksgiving, and kept up until the season concludes in mid-January, with opportune picture moments at every corner.
Parrandas, Christmas caroling, is a holiday staple.
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Carolers choose houses of family and friends to visit, typically starting around 10 p.m., performing aguinaldos (traditional Christmas songs), with not only their voices, but often with instruments as well, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
The group you begin caroling with is likely not the same group you end with.
In Puerto Rico, when carolers visit a house, they’ll often stop inside for conversation, food and drink before moving to the next residence.
Usually, the residences of the house visited will join the group for the next house, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
CHRISTMAS TREES IN GERMANY WERE DECORATED WITH APPLES INSTEAD OF ORNAMENTS IN THE 1600S FOR ‘ADAM AND EVE DAY’
A night of serenading loved ones can last quite a while, often stretching into the early morning hours of the following day, according to the source.
The biggest day of the holiday season in Puerto Rico actually isn’t Christmas, but instead, the night before.
In Puerto Rico, Dec. 24 is Nochebuena. On that day, loved ones gather for the exchange of gifts, caroling and a large feast.
Many families will also attend a midnight Mass on the day, known as Misa de Gallo.
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After Christmas passes, the festivities go on in Puerto Rico.
Another big event in the holiday lineup is Three Kings Day on Jan. 6, a holiday that “commemorates the visit that the Three Wise Men paid to Jesus after his birth,” according to Discover Puerto Rico.
On the eve of the day, children fill up a shoebox with grass to be left for camels to munch on while the Three Kings leave behind gifts for them, according to PuertoRico.com.
For a particularly festive Three Kings Day, Juana Díaz is the place to go, as it hosts the largest celebration in Puerto Rico for the holiday. In Juana Díaz, there is an annual festival and parade in honor of Three Kings Day that brings together over 25,000 people every year, according to Discover Puerto Rico.
Then, eight days later is Octavitas, a post-holiday celebration where families get together and celebrate one last time for the season.
The end of the holiday season is marked with the San Sebastián Street Festival.
This festival, spanning over multiple days, takes place in Old San Juan, and is filled with live music, dancing, shopping and parades.
World
Small plane crashes into Brazil town popular with tourists, killing 10
Twin-engine plane crashed in largely residential neighborhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff, authorities say.
A small plane has crashed into a tourist hotspot in southern Brazil, killing all 10 people on board and injuring more than a dozen people on the ground, officials have said.
The twin-engine Piper PA-42-1000 hit the chimney of a home and the second floor of a different house before crashing into a shop in a largely residential neighbourhood of Gramado shortly after takeoff from Canela, Brazil’s Civil Defense agency said on Sunday.
Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite told a news conference that the aircraft’s owner and pilot, Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, was killed along with nine members of his family.
Leite said that 17 people on the ground were injured, 12 of whom were still receiving treatment in hospital.
Galeazzi’s company, Galeazzi & Associados, confirmed that its CEO and Galeazzi’s wife and three daughters had died in the crash.
“Luiz Galeazzi will be forever remembered for his dedication to his family and for his remarkable career as a leader of Galeazzi & Associados,” the company said in a post on LinkedIn.
“In this moment of immense pain, Galeazzi & Associados is deeply grateful for the expressions of solidarity and affection received from friends, colleagues and the community. We also sympathize with all those affected by the accident in the region.”
Gramado, located in the Serra Gaucha mountains, is a popular destination for vacationers, especially during the Christmas season.
The crash comes a little more than a year after Brazil suffered its worst air disaster in nearly two decades when a twin-engine plane crashed in the southeastern city of Vinhedo, killing all 62 people on board.
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