I will take the designer quarantine package, please!

Some happy New Yorkers who stayed at taxpayer-funded quarantine hotels in the city received gifted designer items from the Coach as a farewell gift for the safe completion of quarantine.

Sam Sabo, 32, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was staying at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in Queens in November when he was presented with what looked like a $ 350 Katy Satchel Coach bag on the way out after completing an eight-day quarantine.

“It was very strange,” Sabo told New York Post regarding the receipt of the luxury item – which is no longer available on the company’s website, but can be purchased at a discounted price of $ 140 in the Coach Outlet.

“In the end, they gave me a free coach bag as a thank you for staying in this quarantined hotel. So, a strange experience, but generally difficult to complain about.

In addition to receiving a free designer bag, Sabo received his own “private room, three meals a day and really good care from the nurses.”

“I have to say that the whole system is incredibly impressive,” he told the New York Post.

The hotel also had a range of heels, moccasins and other bag options for residents to choose from – all donated by the Coach Foundation as part of a $ 2 million community support initiative. Most of the designer products were distributed in quarantine hotels.

A NYC Health + Hospitals spokesman told the New York Post that free bags were part of a recent initiative in March 2021, when the Coach Foundation offered to make a one-time donation of its products to help New Yorkers receiving coronavirus care in the city. . public health system.

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Sam Sabo, 32, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, received a Katy Satchel Coach bag (pictured) on his way out of his stay at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in Queens in November.

Katy Satchel was originally retailed for $ 350 from the brand, but is now only available on its website for a reduced retail price of $ 140

The 32-year-old performer chose to stay in the quarantine hotel – which is available to all eligible New Yorkers – after catching the virus to isolate himself from his roommate and being pulled away by staff while waiting for his free taxi at home and was informed that he would receive the luxury item.

“They said, ‘The taxi driver has to go, but we have a parting gift for you if you want to take it,'” he told the New York Post.

“I was so tired of being here at the time, but [I thought] “Okay, okay, whatever this parting gift is, cool.” So I drop my bags in the cab and they lead me to this table, which is full of Coach purses.

“To go from something that is so limited – a hotel, but with hospital facilities, very spartan, efficient and clean, absolutely no luxury – and then go out with a bag – was a surprise.”

The Coach Foundation has teamed up with NYC Health + Hospitals, which is responsible for quarantine hotels, such as the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in Queens, to offer a one-time donation of luxury goods to help those who receive city-funded coronavirus aid.

He had stayed at the hotel (pictured) for eight days near Thanksgiving to protect his roommate from the virus. He received the bag as a farewell gift from the hotel

“Now I have this Coach bag. That’s a really good story for the icebreaker, “he told the New York Post.

Sabo was not the only guest to receive the bag.

A 34-year-old man who spoke anonymously to the New York Post said he also received a designer item.

“When you leave, they arrange your laundry and then they tell you that you have a gift that comes from the coach, which is the funniest thing – why would you get a gift for this whole thing?” – said the man.

– You take the elevator to the lobby and just when you are discharged, behind a retractable rope there is a pile of bags of the coach and you go up and choose what you want and someone behind the rope hands it to you.

“It is already a gift that the city takes care of you to such an extent during this crisis and, on top of that, you are being rewarded for it,” he told the newspaper.

The man, who was visiting California, chose a wallet key and gave it to his brother’s girlfriend. When he received COVID-19 again a few months later and stayed at another hotel, he did not receive a parting gift.

Who is eligible for the free quarantine hotel in New York?

New Yorkers who test positive for coronavirus can choose to stay for free at one of the city’s partner hotels.

Residents must meet certain requirements in order to qualify, such as living with roommates or family members.

The city says residents are eligible if:

• Your home has no place to stand six feet from the others
• You share rooms or a bathroom
• You live with someone who is vulnerable

Rooms are also available to those who are not infected but live with someone who is.

To get started, call 311 or 844-NYC-4NYC (1-844-692-4692) and the service provider will go through the next steps after assessing the patient’s symptoms.

Source: New York Government

DailyMail.com contacted Coach and Szabo for comment.

At the same hotel, some residents not only received a free designer bag, but can bring cigarettes and weed.

Residents are allowed to carry cigarettes and marijuana with them, which must be handed over to the nurse on arrival.

Patients will be allowed to smoke during their three daily breaks. However, alcohol not allowed inside the residence.

Jonathan Martin, 21, of Queens, who stayed at the LaGuardia Plaza Hotel in January, said staff had taken his lawn and put it in a plastic bag when he arrived. He was returned to his rest.

Martin, a cafe manager, stayed at the hotel for five days until he completed his quarantine. He said he was grateful to be able to bring marijuana with him to help him “relax.”

“It’s nice to relax when I’m stuck in a room … alone for five days,” he told the New York Post outside the hotel, where he was watched by staff during his 15-minute break.

He also said staff carefully inspected his sealed bottle of pomegranate juice when he arrived to make sure there was no alcohol in it.

At one point, the city was considering allowing staff to serve, finding that guests refuse the quarantine option when alcohol is banned, leading to harmful exposure to the virus to people they live with.

WASHINGTON. Since 1977, Leonard Peltier, a Native American Native American activist, has been serving two life sentences in federal prison for his role in the murder of two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. supporters have long considered the product of an unfair prosecution and a mistrial.

Now his supporters, including members of Congress, are making what they see as a last-ditch effort to get a pardon for Mr. Peltier, 77, who suffers from diabetes, hypertension, partial blindness from a stroke and an aortic aneurysm. Mr Peltier, considered a political prisoner by many Native American activists, also recently tested positive for the coronavirus.

Efforts to overturn his conviction have failed over the years, as have campaigns to pardon or commute his sentence. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama left office without acting on clemency requests, Mr Clinton after hundreds of former and current FBI agents angrily marched towards the White House to protest his consideration of such a move and bureau director at the time made his disagreement clear.

Representative Raul M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, sent letters to the White House on Mr. Peltier’s behalf, including a letter last month after he tested positive for Covid-19. This letter was signed by eight other members of Congress. Mr. Peltier’s lawyer is also dealing with the matter as part of the normal pardon process at the Ministry of Justice.

It is unclear whether President Biden will consider a clemency petition. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment on whether it would now object to a commutation of Mr. Peltier’s sentence.

Mr. Peltier’s fight for freedom has long enjoyed the support of global activists and celebrities, including Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and actors Robert Redford and Danny Glover.

Allie McCracken Jarrar, a human rights activist with Amnesty International, said the organization had been fighting for Mr Peltier’s release for years, hoping to undo what the organization saw as an abuse of the criminal justice system.

“Over the past 44 years, prominent figures and prominent organizations have turned to president after president for clemency,” she said. “Long overdue is his pardon so that he can live out the remaining years of his life with his community.”

Mr. Peltier grew up on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota; the tribe members say they will take care of him if he is released.

The deadly encounter that landed Mr. Peltier in prison took place on a ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation, about 10 miles from Wounded Knee, where hundreds of unarmed Lakota were killed by American soldiers almost a century ago.

Native American activists returned to occupy the village during a prolonged protest in 1973, hoping to get the federal government to investigate what they said was Oglala Sioux leadership corruption, treaty violations, and problems with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. .

Two FBI agents Jack Kohler and Ronald Williamsdied in a shootout. One of the activists was also killed, but his death was never investigated.

Mr. Peltier belonged to the American Indian Movement, which sought to draw attention to federal violations of Native American treaty rights; he was found guilty of the murders in 1977 and has been in federal prison in Florida ever since.

He admitted to participating in the shootout in self-defense, but says he did not kill the agents. He and his supporters also say that FBI agents coerced witnesses and that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in Mr. Peltier’s extradition from Canada and his trial in North Dakota.

Mr. Peltier’s arrest came during a major riot on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

On February 27, 1973, Oglala Lakota activists and members of the American Indian Movement took over Wounded Knee to draw attention to federal government violations of treaty rights and a tribal president accused of corruption and allying with the federal government.

A 71-day armed conflict between Native Americans and federal law enforcement at Wounded Knee left two activists dead and a federal agent shot and paralyzed.

Even after the siege, conflict continued on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Killings were frequent, and the federal and tribal police on the reservation acted like paramilitaries. This was followed by a shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation in 1975, when two FBI agents and a Native American activist were killed, which eventually led to charges against Mr. Peltier and two others involved in the deaths of the agents.

Mr. Peltier’s co-defendants were found not guilty of killing the agents after they spoke in self-defense. They were tried in Iowa, and Mr. Peltier was tried in North Dakota, where the judge blocked some of the evidence allowed in the Iowa case.

Peltier’s supporters say holes have appeared in the government’s case against him over the years of appeals.

His conviction is based solely on the fact that he was present at the gunfight that day, not that he fired the fatal shot or had a hand in anyone’s murder, said James Reynolds, a former U.S. Attorney in Iowa, whose predecessor Evan Hultman, handled the initial prosecution of Mr. Peltier.

Mr. Reynolds is among those who have lobbied for Mr. Peltier’s release by writing letters to the Obama and Trump administrations. He said that although the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that Mr. Peltier’s trial was fair, he no longer believes so.

“How many things does he need to have on his side before you say enough is enough,” Mr. Reynolds said. “They’ve been fighting this for over 40 years and unfortunately that’s the government’s position.”

Kevin Sharp, Mr. Peltier’s lawyer, said the pardon could be an important step towards bridging the differences between Native Americans and the federal government.

“It’s important to break with the past,” said Mr. Sharpe. “The FBI will say they are no longer FBI them. J. Edgar Hoover. I believe them when they say so. But if you really want to break out of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI, they have to release this prisoner.”

Ruth Anna Buffalo, a Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara citizen and state representative for North Dakota, was among two dozen Native American state legislators who signed a letter to Mr. Biden in October asking for clemency for Mr. Peltier.

She said the president has yet to engage Native Americans in his administration’s efforts to overhaul aspects of the federal justice system. She said that pardoning Mr. Pelletier would be a step in the right direction.

“We are not asking for special treatment,” Ms. Buffalo said. “We ask to be treated like human beings. None of us are free until Leonard is free.”

CNN elects new president: CBS Late Show executive producer Chris Licht will take over the network after the dramatic removal of Jeff Zucker

• CNN reports that bosses have chosen Chris Licht to take over the network
• He is playing the role released from Jeff Zucker’s resignation due to workplace relationships
• Leach is currently the executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

from Keith Griffith for Dailymail.com

Published: 16:57 GMT, 26 February 2022 | Updated: 16:59 GMT 26 February 2022

CNN He reportedly chose a new president of the network after Jeff Zucker resigned in disgrace for failing to properly reveal romance in the workplace.

Chris Licht, who is currently the executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, has been appointed to lead CNN, according to a CNN media reporter Brian Stelterwhich cites three sources.

Licht’s election will be officially announced next week and he will take over after Discovery completes the merger with CNN’s WarnerMedia, sometime this spring, sources said.

Chris Licht, currently executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, has been appointed to lead CNN

CNN reportedly chose a new president of the network after Jeff Zucker resigned in disgrace

Prior to The Late Show, Licht led This Morning at CBS, as well as Morning Joe at MSNBC, where he chaired a significant increase in ratings and revenue.

Dylan Byers of Puck was the first to announce Licht’s election.

An evolving story follows.

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WASHINGTON – After Supreme Court decision landmark ruling in 2004 that Guantanamo detainees could file lawsuits challenging their indefinite detention, a federal public defender in the District of Columbia took on several such cases and assigned a young lawyer in his office to handle them: Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“They were dealing with very complex legal issues that were just being decided, and it took an incredibly smart and incredibly good lawyer,” recalled public defender A.J. Kramer. “We thought Ketanji was the best fit.”

Ms. Jackson, who went on to become a federal trial judge and then an appellate court judge, is now President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee. But her two and a half years as an assistant public defender, including her work on behalf of terrorism defendants and criminal defendants, is likely to come under scrutiny in light of the upcoming battle for her confirmation.

Lawyers who harbor ambitions to become a judge—as she clearly did when she wrote in her school yearbook that judging was her goal—usually act as prosecutors who help put criminals in jail. If confirmed, Judge Jackson would become the first modern court judge with experience as a public defender.

She also had to understand politics, representing the interests of unpopular clients. She has confirmation of the position of judge of the district court in 2012for example, Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, challenged her about her work at Guantanamo, saying that her record raises “some concern about how you will handle terrorism cases that may come before you” .

Ms. Jackson assured Mr. Grassley that she believed the terrorists were a danger to the United States and that the country was at war with them, while distancing herself from the Guantanamo cases she worked on.

“In all these situations, the opinions expressed were the views of my clients, whom I represented,” she told him, adding, “The notes do not necessarily reflect my personal views on the war on terror or anything else. ”

Judge Jackson is deeply rooted in thinking about criminal law from a variety of perspectives. One of her uncles was sentenced to life in prison on cocaine charges. But another was a Miami police chief, a third uncle was a sex crimes detective, and her brother was a police officer in Baltimore before he took a job as an investigator in the same federal public defender’s office where she mostly handled appeals. Mr Kramer said.

As a student at Harvard, she wrote her thesis in 1992 titled The Hand of Oppression: Guilt Negotiation Processes and Coercion of Criminal Defendants.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, while clerking for several judges, including Judge Stephen J. Breuer, her successor, and practicing corporate law, Ms. Jackson worked for several years as a lawyer for the United States Sentencing Commission.

There she is later wrote, she realized that she “lacked a practical understanding of the real workings of the federal criminal justice system, and I decided that serving in the trenches, so to speak, would be useful.” She thought the public defender’s office would provide that knowledge, as well as provide “an opportunity to help people in need and promote core constitutional values.”

Mr. Kramer, who interviewed her for this job, recalled that her previous work on the Sentencing Commission has focused on a data and numbers-based approach to the criminal justice system.

“She clearly wanted to see how the system actually worked, and she was more interested in the defense side trying to help people from very disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said. “And it also gave her a chance, I think, to work with the people involved in the system.”

Judge Jackson served as an Assistant Public Defender from February 2005 to June 2007 before returning to corporate law. IN Senate Questionnaire for her first judicial appointment in 2012, Judge Jackson said that as a public defender she had appeared in the appeals court about 10 times.

One of her cases involved a man named Andrew J. Littlejohn III, who was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm as a felon after police found the gun hidden in a laundry basket while searching the house where he lived with his mother. Ms. Jackson appealed his conviction on several grounds, including because the trial judge asked potential jurors questions in a way that could disguise the presence of police officers in some relatives and could be biased.

In a unanimous decisiona panel of three judges agreed that jury examination was erroneous and vacated Mr. Littlejohn’s conviction.

“In the special circumstances of this case, the use of compound questions by the district court violated Littlejohn’s right to a fair jury under the Sixth Amendment,” Judge David S. Teitel wrote.

During her 2021 confirmation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Senator Ben Sass, R-Nebraska, asked Judge Jackson in writing did she ever worry that her time as a public defender would “lead to more violent criminals, including gunmen, returning to the streets?”

She responded that in order for the justice system to work properly, those accused of crimes must be represented by “competent legal counsel to hold the government accountable for ensuring a fair trial and otherwise assist in preparing a defense against the charges.” Lawyers in the federal public defender’s office, she continued, “perform this critical function.”

She also won ruling of the appellate court overturning the conviction of a former lawyer who was convicted of tax evasion in connection with the seizure of a Mercedes-Benz 500SL car that the mother of a drug-dealing client gave him as collateral. The case involved a complex dispute over the release of documents that the court found violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

And she won new judgment for a man who pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit identity document making tools because a trial judge did not follow a federal rule on a disputed factual issue that affected the length of a prison sentence.

Mr. Kramer remembered her as a friendly colleague who was tactful and never complained about the heavy workload. He said they often discussed raising their children. Ms. Jackson loved the reality show The Revenant, he added, and “spoke about the strategies of the various contestants.”

It was in this job that Mr. Kramer assigned Ms. Jackson to help with the habeas corpus lawsuit for several Guantanamo Bay detainees. And later, at a corporate law firm, Ms. Jackson also filed Friend of the Court briefs on behalf of two groups supporting protests against Bush-era detention policies, including a claim that the government could detain a lawful permanent resident arrested on domestic soil. without charge and as an enemy combatant.

During her 2021 confirmation hearing, Senator Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, challenged her about some of those jobs. Judge Jackson retorted, telling him that she had been given the cases and noting that her brother had been sent to Iraq with the military.

But in follow-up written responseshe opened up further, portraying herself as one of “many lawyers who were acutely aware of the threat that the 9/11 attacks posed to fundamental constitutional principles, in addition to the clear danger to the people of the United States.”

The leader of Ukraine Vladimir Green insisted on the urgent rise of his country in European Union and says he has discussed the prospect with the bloc’s leaders.

The Ukrainian prime minister said that now was “a crucial moment to end the long-standing discussion once and for all and make a decision on Ukraine’s EU membership.”

As Twitter to describe “a new page in the history of our countries”, President Zelenski pointed to the growing support from EU leaders in recent days, when the Russian invasion of his country was at a standstill.

“This is the beginning of a new page in the history of our countries … Ukraine must become part of the EU,” the Ukrainian leader said.

He later added: “Ukraine is fighting the invader with weapons in hand, defending its freedom and its European future.”

Zelensky’s call came after a series of talks with senior EU officials, including Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Fighting is taking place in and around major Ukrainian cities for the third day in a row, as Kiev’s defense ministry has so far estimated Russia’s losses at about 2,800 troops, 80 tanks, 516 armored vehicles and 10 planes and seven helicopters.

Intelligence experts predict that Vladimir Putin’s war with Ukraine will no longer be planned due to the Kremlin’s “overconfidence”, poor tactical planning and the “shock” of fierce resistance from brave Ukrainians fighting for national survival.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky (above) has called for his country’s urgent rise to the European Union and says he has discussed the prospect with the bloc’s leaders.

On Twitter, to describe a “new page in the history of our countries”, President Zelenski pointed to the jump in support from EU leaders in recent days, when the Russian invasion of his country was at a standstill.

The Ukrainian prime minister noted an increase in support from EU leaders in recent days as the Russian invasion stalled and fighting in Ukraine raged for a third day.

He also called for excluding Russia from the international electronic payment system SWIFT and called on Germany, Italy and Hungary to show “courage” and agree to the move.

Ukraine has long sought to join the European bloc, with the country’s foreign minister apparently using Ukraine’s independence day last year to say Politician they should welcome Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine into the EU.

Ukraine already belongs to the EU’s Eastern Partnership, as well as to the European Neighborhood Policy.

The bloc has also built closer economic and political ties with Ukraine since the signing of a bilateral association agreement in 2014.

The news comes after EU members were declared a “disgrace” by the bloc’s former president yesterday after they rejected Boris Johnsonsubtraction call Russia from the world’s largest financial payment system.

This comes when former bloc president Donald Tusk (above) turned to Germany, Italy, Hungary and others after they vetoed moves to oust Russia from the Swift payment network, which forms the basis of international trade.

Donald Tusk rounded Germany, ItalyHungary and others after vetoing moves to oust Russia from the Swift payment network, which forms the basis of international trade.

Tusk tweeted: “In this war, everything is real: the madness and cruelty of Putin, the Ukrainian victims, the bombs falling over Kiev.

“Only your sanctions have been falsified. Those EU governments that blocked difficult decisions (eg Germany, Hungary, Italy) were disgraced.

Donald Tusk (pictured) appealed to Germany, Italy, Hungary and others after they vetoed moves to oust Russia from the Swift network, which forms the basis of international trade.

While EU leaders have left Swift’s ban outside the “strict” package of sanctions – despite a request from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky – Italy has received an exemption for its luxury goods industry.

Senior sources said models such as moccasins and designer bags from Gucci were not included in the export ban measures agreed late Thursday, which focus mainly on the high-tech, aviation and energy sectors.

An EU diplomat said Italy’s argument was that a ban on the sale of Russian oligarchs “would be largely symbolic”.

But high-ranking Italian government sources reacted fiercely, saying that the country’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi “did not seek to limit Italian luxury goods – this is definitely not true.”

Mr Draghi also sparked a dispute with Mr Zelensky after telling Italian lawmakers that the Ukrainian president missed a scheduled phone call yesterday because he was “hiding somewhere”.

Mr Zelenski tweeted details of heavy fighting in his country, including deaths, before adding sarcastically: “Next time I will try to reschedule the war to talk to Mario Draghi at a specific time. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to fight for its people. “

Mr Zelenski called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to support Swift’s ban on Russia, saying: “Not all possibilities for sanctions have been exhausted yet. The pressure on Russia must increase. “

Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks condemned the nations that blocked the move, saying: “Some people in Europe are afraid of losing money, while others in Kiev have to die.”

Boris Johnson (pictured) calls on allies to support Swift ban, saying only toughest economic sanctions will have any effect on Vladimir Putin

Johnson called on allies to support Swift’s ban, saying only the toughest economic sanctions would have any effect on Vladimir Putin.

The prime minister raised the issue at a G7 summit on Thursday and again at a crisis summit of NATO leaders yesterday.

He also raised the issue in one-on-one talks with fellow leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, warning him: “Inaction or insufficient reaction from the West would have unimaginable consequences.”

A government source said Mr Johnson “will continue to insist very strongly on this”.

And Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said yesterday that Britain would “work all day” to “shut down the Swift system for Russia.”

EU leaders have spoken out in public about their opposition to Russia’s expulsion from Swift. But diplomatic sources said several countries were worried about cutting off gas supplies from Russia.

Diplomatic sources said that US President Joe Biden was sitting on the fence on the issue of the G-7 summit on Thursday.

He cited EU concerns as a reason not to ban.

Questions and Answers: WHAT CAN THE SWIFT BAN FOR RUSSIA MEAN?

What is Swift?

The Global Interbank Financial Telecommunications Society (Swift) is a secure messaging system used by banks to make fast cross-border payments.

The Belgian-based system processes about 42 million messages a day and is estimated to account for about half of all major international remittances.

Will Russia’s ban hurt?

Proponents of a ban on Russia’s Swift payment network, including Boris Johnson and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, say it would cripple Moscow’s ability to trade, cutting off vital oil and gas revenues.

An analysis of Swift’s ban on Iran in 2012 shows that Tehran has lost half of its oil export revenues and 30% of its foreign trade.

Who is blocking the ban?

Several leading EU countries oppose the move, including Germany and Italy. They have not given a public reason, but are of course concerned that this could lead to a halt in the supply of Russian gas on which they depend.

Germany receives 49 percent of its gas from Russia and Italy 46 percent. France, which said yesterday that the ban on Swift should be a “last resort”, received 24 percent.

Can Russia cope?

Russia tried to set up its own payment system when it was threatened with a Swift ban over its annexation of Crimea in 2014, but struggled to gain international recognition.

Some countries, including the United States, are concerned that Moscow and Beijing may try to build a competitive payment system if Russia is excluded, which they say could weaken Western influence in the long run.

Will it happen?

EU leaders have effectively vetoed a ban on Russia from Swift for now. But Mr Johnson, along with like-minded people in countries including Canada and Lithuania, are pushing for the issue to be reopened.

US President Joe Biden has said he is ready to reconsider if the EU gives up resistance.

Ukrainian leaders have warned that without him, Vladimir Putin will deviate from the impact of other sanctions.

WASHINGTON — As President Biden tells the story, he was blunt with Vladimir V. Putin during a meeting in Moscow more than a decade ago. “I’m looking into your eyes, and I don’t think you have a soul,” Mr. Biden recalled telling the K.G.B. veteran. Mr. Putin smiled. “We understand one another,” he said.

Now, as the United States seeks to rally the world to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin, the Russian president, are testing their understandings of one another as never before, trying to anticipate and outmaneuver each other with the fate of millions of people in the balance.

Not since John F. Kennedy and Nikita S. Khrushchev squared off over Berlin and Cuba have an American president and Russian leader gone eyeball to eyeball in quite such a dramatic fashion. While the two nuclear states are not poised for war directly with each other, as they were six decades ago, the showdown between Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin nonetheless holds enormous consequences for the world order that may be felt for years to come.

Mr. Biden has denounced Mr. Putin as “the aggressor” for invading Ukraine and vowed to make him “a pariah on the international stage.” To that end, Mr. Biden decided on Friday to impose sanctions on Mr. Putin himself, targeting him personally in a way that never happened even during the Cold War. Mr. Putin, for his part, is testing Mr. Biden’s mettle at a time when the Russians have concluded that the United States is divided and distracted at home, leaving little room for consensus.

“They’re coming from two different planets and it’s difficult to see where that intersects,” said Frank Lowenstein, who was on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Mr. Biden was its chairman. Mr. Biden believes in the rules-based system that Mr. Putin is trying to tear down. “He almost seems to personify the old order of things,” Mr. Lowenstein said of the president, “whereas Putin in some ways personifies the new lack of order.”

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Biden has spent endless hours with advisers and intelligence officials trying to figure out what is in Mr. Putin’s head and how to influence his calculations — without success so far.

The Russian leader has long harbored bitterness about Ukraine and denied that it was genuinely an independent state, but briefers told Mr. Biden that Mr. Putin seemed to grow more extreme in his thinking during his isolation over the last two years amid the coronavirus pandemic.

More than most world leaders, Mr. Putin has been a virtual recluse, keeping distant even from his own circle, as dramatized by video images in recent days of him sitting far across a room from other Russian officials or visiting foreign leaders. After more than two decades in power and nearing his 70th birthday, Mr. Putin has seemed more focused lately on his legacy, Mr. Biden’s team has told the president.

American officials are debating whether Mr. Putin has become unbalanced. “I wish I could share more, but for now I can say it’s pretty obvious to many that something is off with #Putin,” Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has access to some of the same intelligence as the president, wrote on Twitter on Friday night.

As Russian troops gathered near the Ukrainian border, Mr. Biden sought to engage Mr. Putin by getting on the telephone with him and sending every envoy he could to meet with any Russian official who would talk, but his call went nowhere and so did the other discussions.

The challenge is this: If Mr. Putin, in the later stages of his reign, is trying to rewrite history by reversing what he sees as the injustice of the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and rebuilding the old empire, then traditional tools of deterrence and diplomacy may not be enough to get him to abandon such a messianic mission.

So Mr. Biden in recent weeks has emphasized solidarity with Europe to restore the unity of the trans-Atlantic alliance that frayed under President Donald J. Trump, who regularly criticized America’s friends more than he did Mr. Putin. That diplomatic spadework led both sides of the Atlantic to decide on Friday to target Mr. Putin himself by going after his money held abroad.

Mr. Biden is the fifth American president to deal with Mr. Putin, but the first to enter office with a history of involvement in setting policy toward Russia from his time as a senator and vice president. Unlike the previous four presidents, who each to different degrees hoped to forge better ties with Moscow, Mr. Biden never harbored illusions about making friends with Mr. Putin’s Russia, advisers said.

But he did aspire to establish a “stable, predictable relationship” with a tend-the-garden strategy of paying just enough attention to Mr. Putin to make him feel respected without wasting time on grand diplomacy that would never work, an approach that would allow Mr. Biden to focus on China.

In the face of a previous Russian troop buildup near Ukraine last spring, Mr. Biden agreed to a summit meeting with Mr. Putin in Geneva over the objection of some advisers who worried it was rewarding the Kremlin leader, who as it turned out was more intent on an unstable and unpredictable relationship.

If Mr. Biden underestimated his counterpart, Mr. Putin may have done the same. Perhaps influenced by the chaotic American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, Mr. Putin knew that the United States had no appetite to commit forces to Ukraine and may have calculated that Mr. Biden would not otherwise strongly resist Russian aggression, according to American and Russian analysts.

Updated 

Feb. 26, 2022, 10:53 a.m. ET

But while some critics believe he should be even tougher, Mr. Biden was unrelenting in calling out Mr. Putin’s plans to invade Ukraine in recent weeks and has rallied European allies into a more or less common front.

“Like Kennedy and Khrushchev, they’re such polar opposites in many way but they also share an understanding of the Cold War,” said Nina Khrushcheva, the great-granddaughter of the Soviet leader, who now teaches at the New School in New York. “And I think they do understand each other.”

Still, she added that they both may have miscalculated in thinking that their familiarity would lead to concessions when neither was actually in a position to deliver what the other really wanted. Mr. Biden wanted Mr. Putin to basically stay in his box and Mr. Putin wanted to expand the size of his box.

They are both children of the Cold War, raised, educated and married in an era when the specter of a planet-ending conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union hovered over everything. Yet they emerged from that twilight struggle with radically different views of how it ended, one celebrating it as a victory for freedom and democracy, the other mourning it as a disaster for his nation and people.

They both come from modest upbringings and are products of their disparate systems, but they rose to power along distinct paths. Mr. Biden, 79, is a backslapping politician who relies on the force of his upbeat personality to drive diplomacy while Mr. Putin, 69, is a dour former intelligence agent who nurses resentments and conspiracy theories.

Mr. Putin never talks about his family, while Mr. Biden can hardly stop talking about his. Mr. Putin spent no time in elective politics before being plucked out of obscurity to succeed Boris N. Yeltsin, while Mr. Biden spent a lifetime running for office. They each have a penchant for macho exhibitionism, Mr. Putin posing for pictures shirtless or with tigers and Mr. Biden showing off his muscle cars and boasting that he would like to beat up Mr. Trump.

“Biden’s a retail politician and Putin is from the covert security services who runs with a mafia-like inner circle,” said Heather A. Conley, the president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a group that promotes trans-Atlantic relations. “Putin’s vision is of a grievance-filled history that he is seeking to overturn, and President Biden’s history is of an American victory at the end of the Cold War and the positive power of alliances and freedom and democracy.”

For a time, American presidents thought they could make common cause with Mr. Putin. After he took over as prime minister in 1999 and president in 2000, Mr. Putin seemed determined to bring Russia into the West, aligning himself with President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and even welcoming American troops into former Soviet territory. In 2002, he said that the Baltic republics had every right to join NATO if they wanted to.

Understand Russia’s Attack on Ukraine

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What is at the root of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine within its natural sphere of influence, and it has grown unnerved at Ukraine’s closeness with the West and the prospect that the country might join NATO or the European Union. While Ukraine is part of neither, it receives financial and military aid from the United States and Europe.

Are these tensions just starting now? Antagonism between the two nations has been simmering since 2014, when the Russian military crossed into Ukrainian territory, after an uprising in Ukraine replaced their Russia-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Then, Russia annexed Crimea and inspired a separatist movement in the east. A cease-fire was negotiated in 2015, but fighting has continued.

How has Ukraine responded? On Feb. 23, Ukraine declared a 30-day state of emergency as cyberattacks knocked out government institutions. Following the beginning of the attacks, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, declared martial law. The foreign minister called the attacks “a full-scale invasion” and called on the world to “stop Putin.”

But after the Rose Revolution in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 brought to power pro-Western governments, Mr. Putin suspected the uprisings were American-sponsored dress rehearsals for a plot to take him out. While objecting to the Iraq war, he still cared enough about international approval to host the Group of 8 powers at a specially rebuilt palace outside St. Petersburg in 2006. But by the next year, he broke with the West in a blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference blasting the American-led order.

Mr. Putin’s war with Georgia in 2008 and annexation of Crimea and sponsorship of separatist uprisings in Ukraine in 2014 signaled a revanchist strategy of undoing the Soviet collapse, which he termed the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. And after he concluded that street protests against him in 2011 were somehow the work of Hillary Clinton, he authorized a clandestine operation to help defeat her in 2016 and elect Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden has a long history with Russian officials as well. In 1979, as a senator, he met with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, and when he became President Barack Obama’s vice president, Mr. Biden was the one who suggested the two sides “press the reset button.” But after tensions rose, he was assigned to lead support for Ukraine, putting him at odds with Mr. Putin.

When he visited Moscow in 2011, Mr. Biden held what he described as a contentious meeting with Mr. Putin, who at the time held the position of prime minister again but was still the country’s paramount leader.

“Putin was ice-cold calm throughout, but argumentative from start to finish,” Mr. Biden recalled in a memoir. He wrote that he told Mr. Putin about his efforts to keep Georgia’s hotheaded leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, from antagonizing Moscow.

“I speak to Saakashvili regularly on the phone and I urge him not to take provocative actions, just as I urge you to restore Georgia’s sovereignty,” Mr. Biden said.

“Oh,” replied Mr. Putin, the old spy, “we know exactly what you say to Mr. Saakashvili on the phone.”

Whether Mr. Biden actually told the Russian leader that he had no soul at this meeting or embellished the story as some suspect, the point was that the vice president was trying to distinguish himself from Mr. Bush’s famous comment that he “was able to get a sense of his soul” upon first meeting Mr. Putin.

John R. Beyrle, who was the United States ambassador at the time and sat in on Mr. Biden’s meeting with the Russian leader, recalled that Mr. Putin delighted in throwing the Americans off guard with a surprise proposal to loosen visa rules between the two countries, but otherwise it was “just a plain vanilla meeting.”

“I don’t even remember the chemistry or the body language being terrible,” he said. But Mr. Putin was not oozing in warmth, he said: “Talk about expressionless. Very controlled guy.” It was a contrast with Mr. Biden. “Obviously, they’re very different people,” Mr. Beyrle said.

A decade later, the two men who thought they understood each other find themselves on opposite sides of a collision that is shaking the world.

The star of “Law and Order” Mariska Hargitai and Hillary Clinton were filmed leaving a bookstore in Lower Manhattan after photos for an unknown project.

DailyMail.com took exclusive photos of the former Democratic presidential candidate and star of “Law and Order: SVU” when they left the Housing Works bookstore in Lower Manhattan on Friday.

Surrounded by security, Clinton, 74, was dressed for the cold in a dark gray jacket and maroon boots.

The former secretary of state, joined by longtime aide Huma Abedin, hugged an unidentified woman to say goodbye and headed straight for her car, avoiding questions about the current crisis in Ukraine.

Hargitay, 58, has long supported Clinton and supported her in the 2016 presidential election.

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Surrounded by security, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 74, was dressed for the low temperatures in a dark gray jacket and maroon boots.

Mariska Hargitay, 58, also walked out of a bookstore in Lower Manhattan wearing a dark jacket with a black dress and black boots underneath.

The Emmy-winning actress walked out of the bookstore apart from Clinton and smiled broadly as she waved at the cameras

The former Secretary of State, joined by longtime aide Huma Abedin, hugged an unidentified woman to say goodbye and headed straight for her car, avoiding questions about the current crisis in Ukraine.

The Emmy-winning actress walked out of the bookstore apart from Clinton and smiled broadly as she waved at the cameras.

She also wore a dark jacket for the cold weather with a black dress and black boots underneath.

It is reported that the two were filming an unknown project in the bookstore.

This winter, Harghitai was seen in New York filming her hit Chengen drama, which debuted for the first time in 1999 and is currently in its 23rd season.

This was not the first time Clinton had been spotted in New York recently.

Clinton, who now spends most of her time at the Chapaqua home she shares with her husband Bill in upstate New York, was in town last week for Convention of the Democrats with Abedin, who lives in the Union Square area

She told the audience at the political rally that she was amused by allegations that her campaign had spied on Trump and joked about his legal problems.

Clinton said the accusations her campaign spied against Trump were a “conspiracy” related to his growing legal problems, and criticized Republicans for supporting “coup plotters” and spreading the “big lie.”

Hillary’s appearance in Manhattan on Friday came just after her appear told Morning Joe on MSNBC on Friday and said Republicans should call on President Trump’s comments on Vladimir Putin’s “genius.”

“I want to make sure in our own country that we call on those people who are helping and comforting Vladimir Putin for what a genius he is, what a clever move he is, which are unfortunately being broadcast by the Russian media, not just in Russia. but in Europe to demonstrate the division in our own country, “said the Democratic presidential candidate in 2016.

“Perhaps this terrible aggression by Putin will harden the backs of many Republicans in office who understand that you cannot continue to give Trump and his aides a blank check because they will take us to a very bad place,” she continued. .

Hillary’s appearance in New York came just after she appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday and said Republicans should call on President Trump’s comments on Vladimir Putin’s “genius.”

Haritagai, 58, has long supported Clinton and supported her in the 2016 presidential election. The two are reportedly filming an unknown project together on Friday.

DailyMail.com captures exclusive photos of former Democratic presidential candidate (pictured) leaving Housing Works bookstore in Lower Manhattan on Friday

Hillary Clinton arrives at the State Democratic Nomination Congress in New York at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan last Thursday

Clinton was wrapped in cold and windy weather in a gray sweater with a throat last week in Manhattan

Abedin, 45, is enjoying New York Fashion Week and was sitting in the front row of Ula Johnson’s show on Saturday.

Clinton then suggested that “too many Republicans” were “so naive in such a dangerous way.”

“They somehow believe that because Putin presents himself as a strong leader on behalf of certain values ​​that are, you know, anti-gay, which are anti, you know, freedom and democracy, which are so confusing that you kind of know , this quote is in line with the views of some members and elements of the Republican Party. “

“They couldn’t go wrong anymore,” she continued. “I mean, he’s poisoning people in prisons.”

Representative Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Scoffs at the idea that Republicans have a favorable view of Putin in an interview with DailyMail.com at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando.

“The reality is that no one is a fan of Putin,” he said. “But the fact is that Joe Biden showed a weak lead, he was late for the match.”

Clinton also recently called on the Biden administration to step up its defense of Ukraine. She said she supported sending more US troops abroad to strengthen Ukraine’s defense and spoke of the importance of protecting NATO allies. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but insists on joining the alliance.

“I strongly believe in supporting military weapons, if necessary, and they are the Ukrainian army and all kinds of resistance, but I also support the introduction of more troops,” she said.

“I would hope that the administration and our European allies and others will move even faster to impose sanctions not only on Russia’s economy, but also on individual players in this economy, all the way to Putin,” Clinton said.

“I think the only pressure that Putin would respond to or that could have some impact on his thinking will be those he relies on to launder his money to keep funding going to his secret accounts. “

“We have to persecute those oligarchs who support Putin financially. “They have to pay a price, regardless of whether their yachts are confiscated or their homes,” she said.

On Tuesday, Trump called Putin’s plan to invade “genius,” but said it would never happen under his administration.

Speaking to conservative podcast Buck Sexton, the former president said, “I came in yesterday and there was a TV screen and I said, ‘That’s brilliant,'” Trump recalls. “Putin declares a large part of Ukraine – from Ukraine – Putin declares it independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.

Trump also called President Biden “a man who has no idea what he’s doing.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he were still president, and said Russia had become “very, very rich” under President Biden. On Thursday, Trump reiterated that Putin’s plan was “smart” as he mocked Biden’s sanctions.

There was a surprising defeat for Novak Djokovic in Dubai quarterfinals this week, but in many ways he came out the winner.

The prospect of the unvaccinated superstar may be brighter than it looks for the first time in a week in which he lost to world number 121 and lost first place in the rankings.

So much so that the current odds to equalize his profits Wimbledon this summer does not seem unjustified, although he was nowhere to be seen in last night’s final Andrey Rublev and its conqueror Jiri Veseli.

Novak Djokovic emerges victorious despite defeat in Dubai quarterfinals

Djokovic loses first place in rankings, but remains favorite for Wimbledon this summer

A positive response from what is always a neutral audience could be expected, but there were no signs of much hostility from other players, as was the case in Australia.

Perhaps there would be no tennis tour left if all participants took the same position as Djokovic, refusing to be vaccinated.

The fact that almost every other player has done this (sometimes very reluctantly) keeps the show on the road.

This understandably damaged his position among his colleagues and may have helped that there is virtually no locker room in Dubai, with players changing at the hotel, where everyone stays on the spot.

Djokovic’s position understandably damaged his position among his colleagues, but most are happy to deviate from what happened in Melbourne.

However, most players seemed pleased enough to continue what happened in Melbourne.

This will be a relief for Tennis Australia, which stubbornly keeps its head down, still not properly explaining its role in last month’s farce, desperate to get lost in the mists of time.

As one player said: “In the end, we are used to the best players being treated differently.

“If I have a problem, I have to contact the tour managers, if he is one of the elite, they or their agent always have a hotline to the tournament director, that’s right. And there is no doubt that the tour is better when top players play. ‘

It is also clear that Djokovic believes his vaccine stance could overtake and outlive the restrictions that everyone hopes will disappear with the arrival of spring.

In fact, while the 34-year-old Serb is unable to travel to US tournaments in March, you can now see his way to the French and Wimbledon Open.

Djokovic seems ready to compete in French and Wimbledon Open (pictured)

The first round of the French presidential election is being held on April 10, and before that a general easing of restrictions by Emmanuel Macron is expected.

This could open the April Monte Carlo Open (which is technically taking place in France) and Roland Garros for it. He is also guaranteed a place in the Serbian Open, which follows Monaco.

Until May, it is likely that at least one of the Open Championships in Madrid and Italy will allow him to play relatively unhindered.

The background is that ATP tournaments still desperately want their active names to be in the draw.

Proof of this is clear in the way Andy Murray, despite his ongoing struggles, has received substitutes whenever he wants one in the last eight months.

Andy Murray (pictured) has received replacement cards in the last eight months, indicating that tournaments will want big names like Djokovic

The same goes for Wimbledon and the upcoming grass events. There seems to be little chance that they will reject Djokovic, with the stipulation that attitudes may change if a dangerous new option becomes a threat.

Veseli – who had to face Andrei Rublev in the final in Dubai – illustrates that Djokovic really needs to play more regular matches.

This is more likely to come than detailed and candid answers about what happened around Christmas and his recent relationship with Tennis Australia.

In the final of the Mexican Open, which was to be played overnight between Cam Nori and Rafael Nadal, the British number one had a chance to enter the top ten in the world for the first time with a victory.

After a bad start to the season, Nori scored an impressive 6-4 6-4 victory in the semi-finals over world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas, his tenth win in eleven games. On slow hard courts, it is a significant force to consider.