FEMA senior officials exit en masse as Trump targets agency

FEMA senior officials exit en masse as Trump targets agency

By Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the departure of 16 senior executives on Wednesday, a significant shakeup of its leadership ranks less than two weeks before the start of what is expected to be a busy hurricane season. Those leaving include MaryAnn Tierney, a 26-year emergency management veteran who until May 9 had been the agency's acting No. 2, as well as key people in finance and disaster response, according to internal emails seen by Reuters. The agency, which coordinates the federal response to natural disasters, has been roiled by the loss of hundreds of staff and low morale since finding itself targeted by President Donald Trump. Trump wants FEMA to be shrunk or even abolished, arguing that many of its functions can be carried out by the states. The changes have, however, disrupted the agency's planning for the hurricane season, stoking concern that it will be ill-equipped to deal with any disaster. The departures unveiled on Wednesday follow the abrupt firing of FEMA's then-acting administrator Cameron Hamilton earlier this month. The agency's new leader, David Richardson, has vowed to "run right over" staff who resist reforms. In emails to staff, acting FEMA chief of staff Julia Moline thanked the departing executives and announced several replacements, including the appointment of Cynthia Spishak as acting deputy administrator, the role Tierney held. FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The mass departure of senior talent represents a significant loss of institutional knowledge that will further degrade FEMA's capacity to respond to disasters, said Michael Coen, former FEMA chief of staff under the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Coen called Tierney, a regional administrator who has managed over 100 disaster and emergency declarations for an area that includes Pennsylvania and Delaware, a "leader of leaders" and said she "will be the most significant loss." Tierney said her decision to resign was not easy. "FEMA is not a job, it's a calling," Tierney said in a statement to Reuters. "It was a privilege to serve alongside a team of people who dedicate themselves to helping their fellow Americans on their worst day." Other departing executives include acting chief financial officer Monroe Neal; Eric Leckey, who was responsible for human resources and other management support functions; and Leiloni Stainsby, a high-ranking executive in the agency's office overseeing response and recovery operations. Forecasters have predicted a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season, which starts June 1. Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of FEMA, said in a statement that the exit of so many senior executives exacerbated his concerns about the agency. "Decimating FEMA's leadership will do nothing to help the agency prepare for the upcoming hurricane season," he said. Richardson has promised the agency will be prepared. Earlier on Wednesday, he sent a memo to staff rescinding the agency's strategic plan for 2022-2026 because it "contained objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission." Richardson said in the memo that a new strategy for 2026-2030 would be developed this summer. (Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Donna Bryson and Edwina Gibbs)

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

May 22, 2025

FEMA senior officials exit en masse as Trump targets agency

FEMA senior officials exit en masse as Trump targets agency By Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Emergency...

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Clues emerge after officials shot dead on street in Mexico City

Clues emerge after officials shot dead on street in Mexico City

The murders of two Mexico City officials, in a rush-hour shooting on a busy avenue, were meticulously planned by experienced gunmen, prosecutors said Wednesday, as more details emerged of the worst attack against public officials in the capital in recent years. At least four people were involved in thekilling of the personal secretary and a close adviserof Mexico City's Mayor Clara Brugada, the capital's police chief said Wednesday. Pablo Vázquez Camacho said investigators had identified and found a motorcycle and two other vehicles used in the escape of the gunman who killed the two officials Tuesday morning as they traveled in a vehicle along a busy thoroughfare. Brugada's personal secretary, Ximena Guzmán, and an adviser, José Muñoz, were shot dead in Guzmán's car, authorities said. Mexico City chief prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Luján said the gunman had fled on a motorcycle that was hidden nearby and then changed vehicles twice as he and others fled into neighboring Mexico State. Clothes were recovered in the vehicles and were being analyzed, but investigators could not yet offer a possible motive, the prosecutor said. She said Guzmán was shot eight times and Muñoz four times. Alcalde said that given the circumstances, investigators believe "it was a direct attack and with an important degree of planning and those who killed them had previous experience." One suspect was seen carrying out surveillance of the victims in the area of the attack in preceding days, she added. Still, she said investigators could not yet propose a motive or say who was behind the killings. "We cannot conclude that this is tied to organized crime, much less speak now of a particular organized crime group," Alcalde said. Both officials said Wednesday that investigators had detected the presence of an individual at the site of the attacks days before they occurred, which would suggest knowledge of the victims' routines. The attack, which happened at around 7 a.m., left four bullet holes clustered on the driver's side of the windshield. One body lay on the pavement. Vázquez Camacho said that neither Guzmán nor Muñoz had any special security measures, but both had received training about protecting themselves. "They are people who worked very closely with the people ... and they did their work without fear," he said. President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is an ally of Brugada and a former mayor of Mexico City before winning the presidency last year, had declined to speculate on the possible involvement of organized crime during her press briefing earlier Wednesday. Passersby describe "trauma" At the scene of the attack Wednesday morning, hundreds of commuters passed with most oblivious to what had occurred a day earlier. Some, however, noticed the handwritten signs with messages of remembrance to the two victims and flowers and candles left on the sidewalk. University student Loretta García Oriz said she had passed the site Tuesday when Guzmán and Muñoz's bodies were still at the scene. "Passing here gives me the same trauma," she said Wednesday. Oscar Sánchez's taco stand isn't far from the crime scene, but said Wednesday he didn't know what had happened until another vendor told him and police began to set up a perimeter. The attack showed that it doesn't matter if you're an official or an average person, he said. "It's all the same." Pablo Vazquez, the city's police chief, said that in recent weeks authorities had made "very significant arrests of leaders of criminal cells" in the capital. "These arrests will continue, and the dismantling of criminal cells will continue," he told reporters. Mexico City's mayor is considered second in political importance only to the president. The mayor's office has long been a stepping stone to the presidency, something true for Sheinbaum and her predecessor. But for years, the idea has prevailed of Mexico City as a relatively peaceful oasis protected from the brutal drug cartel violence prevalent in other parts of the country. There has always been street crime, but the cartels, while present, maintained a lower profile in the capital. That illusion was partially dashed in 2020 with the brazen ambush of Mexico City's then police chief on another central boulevard. Omar García Harfuch was wounded, but two bodyguards and a bystander were killed in the attack involving more than 20 people and heavy weaponry. García Harfuch, who is now Sheinbaum's national security minister, immediately blamed theJalisco New Generation Cartelfor the attack. There had not been another such attack on public officials in the capital since then. But politicians and their supporters are frequently targeted elsewhere in Mexico. Earlier this month, a mayoral candidate and three other people wereshot deadat a campaign event in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Like Mexico City's mayor, Yesenia Lara was a member of President Sheinbaum's Morena party. In April, Jose Luis Pereira, a senior member of the Teocaltiche city government, wasshot and killedwhile dining at a restaurant in Jalisco. In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was a member of the ruling coalition wasshot deadin Veracruz. Two female politicians were targeted soon after Sheinbaum took office. In June 2024, a localcouncilwomanwas gunned down as she was leaving her home in Guerrero. Her murder came a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard werekilled outside of a gym, just hours after Sheinbaum was elected president. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report. Trump confronts South African president during White House meeting, repeats genocide claims Watch: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked what habeas corpus is in Senate hearing Watch: Rubio and Van Hollen get into testy exchange during Senate hearing

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

May 22, 2025

Clues emerge after officials shot dead on street in Mexico City

Clues emerge after officials shot dead on street in Mexico City The murders of two Mexico City officials, in a rush-hour shooting on a busy ...

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2 staff members of Israeli Embassy killed in shooting near Jewish museum in DC

2 staff members of Israeli Embassy killed in shooting near Jewish museum in DC

WASHINGTON (AP) —Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washingtonwere shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled,"Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested, police said. The stunning attackprompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff. It came as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that hasheightened tensions across the Middle East and internationallyand as antisemitic acts are on the rise. The two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said. He added that the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem. They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith saidat a news conference. The man, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, then walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began chanting, "Free, free Palestine," Smith said. Israeli officials identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel. "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!"President Donald Trumpposted on social media early Thursday. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA." Israel's reaction Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday he was shocked. "We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel," he said in a statement. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, led by former judge Jeanine Pirro, will prosecute the case. It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered. Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that "early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence." Israel's campaign in Gaza The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back. The war, ignited by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of some 250 hostages, has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of its population. Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians. An Israeli blockade has causedwidespread hungerand prompted fears of famine. 'In cold blood' The shooting followedthe American Jewish Committee's annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum. "This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight," Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committee's chief executive, said in a statement early Thursday. "At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims' families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing." Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, and repeatedly yelled, "Free Palestine,'" Kalin said. "This event was about humanitarian aid," Kalin said. "How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood." Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local nonprofits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museum's leaderswere concerned because it is a Jewish organizationand due to its new LGBTQ exhibit, according toNBC4 Washington. "We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well," Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station. "And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories." In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are "deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening." Israeli diplomats have a history of being targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years. ___ The story has been updated to correct the suspect's age to 31 from 30, based on updated information from law enforcement. ___ Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Hallie Golden, Jon Gambrell, Stefanie Dazio and Natalie Melzer contributed.

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

May 22, 2025

2 staff members of Israeli Embassy killed in shooting near Jewish museum in DC

2 staff members of Israeli Embassy killed in shooting near Jewish museum in DC WASHINGTON (AP) —Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in ...

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‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’ Review: Straight-Ahead Julian Assange Doc Looks Pessimistically Toward a Post-Truth World

'The Six Billion Dollar Man' Review: Straight-Ahead Julian Assange Doc Looks Pessimistically Toward a Post-Truth World

The saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has dragged on long enough, and complicatedly enough, to render a number of past films about him, if not obsolete, clear period pieces. Documentaries like Alex Gibney's 2013 "We Steal Secrets" and Laura Poitras' 2016 "Risk," both produced during the Obama era, are informed by a very different political climate from the one we're in now — while neither could have anticipated how the Australian editor and activist's legal difficulties would escalate in the years to come. (Bill Condon's technothriller-styled 2013 Assange biopic "The Fifth Estate," meanwhile, felt premature from the get-go.) With Assange finally freed last year after 12 years of confinement or outright imprisonment in the U.K., the time feels right for an expansive catch-up on the whole knotty affair: Enter Eugene Jarecki's plainly presented but detail-packed documentary "The Six Billion Dollar Man," which premiered at Cannes (with Assange himself present) in the festival's Special Screenings program. Beginning with the founding of initially modest startup WikiLeaks in the mid-2000s and the swift impact of its uncompromising journalism in media and political spheres alike, the film progresses in mostly linear fashion through attempts by various national administrations to stymie and silence Assange, and concludes with his 2024 return to Australia after five years in a high-security British prison, following a successful plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. There hasn't been another running news narrative quite like Assange's, in which secondary players range from Donald Trump to Pamela Anderson to a sociopathic teen hacker from Iceland: There's potential here for grandstanding, but Jarecki tells this tall true story with the same probing, drily enraged authority he brought to his 2005 military-industrial complex doc "Why We Fight" or 2012's drug-war study "The House I Live In." More from Variety Paul Mescal Says Movies Are 'Moving Away' From 'Alpha' Male Leads, Calls It 'Lazy and Frustrating' to Compare 'History of Sound' to 'Brokeback Mountain' RAI Cinema Chief Paolo Del Brocco on Selling 'Heads or Tails' in Cannes and a New Victor Kossakovsky Doc Made With Italian Botanist Stefano Mancuso (EXCLUSIVE) 'Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk' Review: A Stirring Chronicle of a Gaza Journalist Who Was Killed Before Its Cannes Premiere As a work of journalism itself, "The Six Billion Dollar Man" is a methodical assemblage of known facts rather than a revelatory investigation — though it may be an eye-opener to younger viewers who were less tuned into the news 15 years ago, and have become accustomed to a far more crowded and factionalized online media landscape than the one that gave rise to WikiLeaks in the first place. Formally, it's meat-and-potatoes nonfiction filmmaking, alternating archival footage — including, most interestingly, claustrophobic video from Assange's seven-year asylum in Ecuador's cramped London embassy — with talking-head contributions from an ensemble of Assange's associates, peers and journalistic descendants. The most offbeat stylistic imposition here is a series of tonally loaded chapter headings that begin with a "Star Wars" theme ("A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back") before the conceit is oddly dropped two entries in. ("Return of the Jedi" would be a tough one to shoehorn into the subject at hand, admittedly; "The Phantom Menace" less so.) Among the interviewees is cultural commentator Naomi Klein, who explains how WikiLeaks grew out of an early, more idealistic incarnation of the internet, prior to the rise of social media, in which its primary purpose was to make information available to all, for free. Many of the site's early journalistic coups — notably the damning "Collateral Murder" video showing civilians and Reuters journalists being killed in U.S. airstrikes on Bagdad in 2007 — made waves by exposing unjust or corrupt acts by those in power. Yet the fallout from such scoops often shifted to shooting the messenger instead, as the U.S. government in particular sought to paint Assange as a criminal for refusing to overlook their errors in judgment. "When we've been lied to, would we rather not know?" asks famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, in championing Assange's work. Snowden frames the question rhetorically, though as the film reaches the Trump era of fake news and bad-faith far-right propaganda, Jarecki grimly concludes that many people prefer a lie they can agree with to the truth. It's that cultural turn in the weather that hastened and worsened Assange's downfall, triggered by a pair of rape charges in Sweden — into which the alleged victims admit they felt railroaded by police. It was Assange's very real concerns about being extradited to the U.S., however, that saw him improbably seek refuge in the aforementioned Ecuadorian embassy. Ecuador's offer of asylum to Assange, too, is subject to changing cultural tides: The film's title refers to the amount offered in 2019 by the Trump administration to a new, more allyship-inclined Ecuadorian government to give him up. Cue five years' incarceration instead, much of it solitary, in the U.K.'s notoriously punishing Belmarsh prison — where, insists UN human rights expert Nils Melzer, he was subjected to sustained psychological torture, and emerged as a frailer, more anxiety-ridden man for the experience. (Perhaps this is partly the reason for Assange's own limited first-hand presence in Jarecki's film.) Fighting his corner all the while is dogged Australian human rights lawyer Jen Robinson and Stella Moris, another loyal member of his legal team, who eventually became Assange's wife, and mother to two of his children. Their personally colored interviews lend a more intimate dimension to a film that often, not inaccurately, presents Assange as a larger-than-life cause célèbre — an emblem of straightforward truth-telling principles at a time when AI, political spin and stubborn bigotry are allowing many media consumers to choose their own reality. "We have given up on the idea that facts matter," sighs Klein, while Assange closes "The Six Billion Dollar Man" with an admission of the compromise that finally got the U.S. government off his case: "I'm not here because the system worked, I'm here because I pled guilty to journalism." Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival Sign up forVariety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram.

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

May 22, 2025

‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’ Review: Straight-Ahead Julian Assange Doc Looks Pessimistically Toward a Post-Truth World

'The Six Billion Dollar Man' Review: Straight-Ahead Julian Assange Doc Looks Pessimistically Toward a Post-Truth World The saga of W...

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The doctor is in: Zach Braff joins “Scrubs” reboot

The doctor is in: Zach Braff joins "Scrubs" reboot

ABC/BOB D'AMICO Zach Braffis dusting off his, well, you know. The actor is officially returning as John "J.D." Dorian on the upcomingScrubsrevival in the works at ABC, which hails from 20th Television,Entertainment Weeklycan confirm. Braff played the central physician on the medical sitcom for its first seven seasons on NBC and its eighth on ABC. He also returned for six episodes of the show's ninth season, which introduced a new set of primary characters. Since the show's end, Braff has maintained close professional ties withDonald Faison, who played J.D.'s bestie, Christopher Turk, forming perhaps the most quintessential TV bromance at the peak of bromances being a thing people talked about. Braff and Faison launched theScrubsrewatch podcastFake Doctors, Real Friendsin 2020, and have teamed up for approximately 10,000 T-Mobile commercials that harken back to their onscreen friendship. TheScrubsrevival has been in the works for several months from the show's original creator,Bill Lawrence, who went on to oversee hit series likeTed LassoandShrinking(both of which Braff has directed episodes of) .Deadline Hollywood reportsthat Lawrence's commitments to those other shows, which are returning for additional seasons on Apple TV+, mean that he will not serve as showrunner for the new iteration ofScrubs. The outlet also reports that with Braff now on board, it's safe to expect deals to be negotiated with other original cast members, including Faison, Sarah Chalke (who played Elliot Reid), John C. McGinley (Perry Cox), and Judy Reyes (Carla Espinosa). Kevin Winter/Getty Lawrence previouslytold Deadlinethat he expects the new version ofScrubsto be a hybrid of a revival with the original cast and a reboot with new characters. "We've been talking about a lot, and I think the only real reason to do it is a combo," he said. "A: people wanting to see what the world of medicine was like for the people they love, which is part of any successful reboot. But B: I think that show always worked because you get to see young people dropped into the world of medicine, knowing young people that go there are super idealistic and are doing it because it's a calling." He added, "There's no cliché 'rich doctors playing golf' — that's not what it is anymore. So I think that, no matter what it is, it would be a giant mistake not to do as a combo of those two things." Sign up forEntertainment Weekly's free daily newsletterto get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more. The originalScrubsfollowed the misadventures of physicians at Sacred Heart Hospital, and ran for 182 episodes between 2001 and 2010. Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

byKonstantin Pynzar

in

May 22, 2025

The doctor is in: Zach Braff joins “Scrubs” reboot

The doctor is in: Zach Braff joins "Scrubs" reboot ABC/BOB D'AMICO Zach Braffis dusting off his, well, you know. The actor is ...

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