The Evening: Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years

Also, Biden calls on his predecessors to help him raise funds.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story March 28, 2024 By Matthew Cullen Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday. Sam Bankman-Fried's sentence A New York fund-raiser for Biden Plus, a new "Serial" podcast "He knew it was wrong — he knew it was criminal," Judge Lewis Kaplan said as he handed down the sentence.  Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, who was convicted of stealing $8 billion from his customers, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison. He was also ordered to forfeit $11.2 billion in assets. The sentence was shorter than the 40 to 50 years requested by federal prosecutors, but well above the six and a half years sought by his defense lawyers. It ranks as one of the longest sentences imposed on a white-collar defendant in recent years. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted last fall of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. His prison sentence marks the finale of a sweeping fraud case that exposed greed and risk-taking across the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrencies. Just 18 months ago, Bankman-Fried was considered a corporate titan and one of the youngest billionaires on the planet. Then, virtually overnight, FTX imploded, erasing billions in customer savings. Bankman-Fried has vowed to appeal his conviction. But in his remarks during his sentencing hearing in New York City today, he appeared to accept that he would be in prison for some time. "At the end of the day, my useful life is probably over now," he said. For more: My colleague explained how Bankman-Fried's wild rise capitalized on the central myth of Silicon Valley. President Biden will be joined by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.  Doug Mills/The New York Times Biden calls on his predecessors to help him raise funds President Biden will take the stage tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York City alongside his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, in what his campaign claims will be the "most successful political fund-raiser in American history." Biden hopes to rake in $25 million to further extend his cash advantage over Donald Trump. But the event highlights a political paradox unique to the Biden era. While many historians and policy experts argue that the president has had more legislative victories in his first term than either Obama or Clinton did, he remains the least popular of the trio. Elsewhere in New York City, Trump appeared at the wake of a slain police officer and proclaimed the need for the country to "get back to law and order." A young asylum seeker in San Diego. Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times Doctors worry about migrant children at holding sites The steady flow of migrants entering the U.S. at its border with Mexico has overwhelmed the country's immigration processing system. Many migrants, including unaccompanied children, have waited for hours or even days in outdoor holding areas, where a lack of shelter, food and sanitation has caused several heath experts to voice concerns. The Justice Department argues that the children are not yet in custody, and therefore the U.S. is not obligated to provide them with certain services. But a federal judge could rule as soon as tomorrow on whether the government is legally required to provide shelter and feed the children as they wait. Sean Combs at the party he hosted in a Manhattan club after the 2023 Met Gala. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times The long decline of Sean Combs The hip-hop mogul Sean Combs — who has also been known as Puff Daddy or Diddy — triumphantly declared two decades ago that he was living "the American dream." He wasn't exaggerating: His restless ambition earned him not just music success but also a reality show, a fashion label, a fragrance line and his own cable network. But within the last year, as accusations of sexual assault and sex trafficking began to pile up, his business empire, and reputation, faltered. Federal agents this week raided two of his homes. People who know Combs told The Times that his downfall was more of a slow decline than a sudden crash. More top news Baltimore: Officials are focused on removing the twisted ruins of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Middle East: The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take concrete steps to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Gaza. Climate: The last two coal-fired power plants in New England are set to close by 2028 and will be converted to solar farms and battery units. Business: Many current and former Boeing employees blame the company's recent struggles on its focus on making planes more quickly. Supreme Court: Justice Clarence Thomas picked a woman he refers to as his "nearly adopted daughter" for one of the most coveted positions in the legal world. Russia: Western officials attributed its failure to prevent the Moscow concert hall attack in part to its distrust of foreign intelligence. Space: The U.S. and China are locked in a new race, in space and on Earth, over the keeping of time. The U.S. is losing. Media: Life, the photography-focused chronicler of the 20th century, is set to resume regular print publication. Fashion: Alessandro Michele, the designer who brought profits and plenty of buzz to Gucci, was named creative director of Valentino. Sports: Baseball's opening day is today. Here's what to watch for. TIME TO UNWIND The New York Times 'Serial' returns with a history of Guantánamo The team behind the "Serial" podcast is back with a fourth season that focuses on the untold stories from the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The narrative is told by people who lived through key moments in the evolution of Guantánamo, where the U.S. improvised a new kind of justice system. The first two episodes were released today. Photo credits, from top left: Valentin Jeck; courtesy of Bukowskis; courtesy of Zanotta SpA - Italy; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh/Art Resource, NY © ARS, NY; Ellen McDermott © Smithsonian Institution; Herman Miller Archives; Vitra The most defining furniture pieces of the last century My colleagues at T, The Times's style magazine, just published a list of the most significant furniture of the last 100 years. It's an attempt to recognize the most enduring objects for living through the tastes of six experts, including a museum curator, an artist and the actress Julianne Moore. The list includes both the outlandish (a huge pink glowing mirror) and the basic (a white plastic chair). Check it out. Sculpture doesn't get much smaller than this.  Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times Dinner table topics Tiny sculptures: An animator in Los Angeles uses gum wrappers to create detailed portraits of historical figures and athletes in flight. With this, I unwed: Jewelers say that divorce rings are having a moment. Paying players: College basketball athletes make money in a number of unusual ways, including quesadilla endorsements, vodka sales and charity work. Tired of doomscrolling? Try ringing a fish doorbell. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT WHAT TO DO TONIGHT Johnny Miller for The New York Times Cook: In this sheet-pan japchae, all of the vegetables roast together for ease and deliciousness. Watch: "DogMan" is a oddly wonderful tale of resilience and revenge. Read: Our columnist reviewed four new horror books spiked with dread and profound unease. Listen: A program of songs by Black composers is among the highlights of five classical music albums you can listen to right now. Create: Working with your hands can improve your cognition and mood. Brush: For those particular about their toothpaste, Wirecutter suggests Davids. Hunt: Which Upper West Side home would you choose with a $1.5 million budget? Play: Here are today's Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ONE LAST THING Anish Kapoor's "Random Triangle Mirror" at the Tiffany flagship store in New York City. Anish Kapoor. All Rights Reserved, DACS, London/ARS, NY; Photo by Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Looking for a museum alternative? Consider Tiffany. When Tiffany & Co. renovated its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City last year, it transformed a luxury jewelry sales floor into a heady fusion of contemporary art and luxury retailing that is as relevant as anything you could hope to find in a museum. The 10-story space is filled with 58 pieces from major artists, many of them blue, or silver, or both. There's a color-shifting James Turrell oval by the elevators and a shiny Damien Hirst piece hanging on a wall. But the key work is Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting "Equals Pi," from 1982, his milestone year. Have an elegant evening. Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Matthew We welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Writer: Matthew Cullen Editorial Director: Adam Pasick Editors: Carole Landry, Whet Moser, Justin Porter, Jonathan Wolfe Photo Editor: Brent Lewis Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for The Evening from The New York Times. To stop receiving The Evening, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018

What Can NATO Do for Ukraine?

Assessing Kyiv's needs, plus: China's economic direction, where happiness lives, and a long case against Netanyahu …

View this email in your browser  Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good   Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Sign up here.   March 28, 2024 What Can NATO Do for Ukraine? As some observers expect Russia to launch a new offensive in Ukraine this year, a Wall Street Journal headline earlier this month characterized Kyiv's current strategy: "dig, dig, dig"—as in trenches, to defend.   "As spring turns to summer," The Economist writes this week, "the fear is that Russia will mount a big new offensive, as it did last year. And Ukraine's ability to hold it off this time looks much less sure now than it did then. That is why it urgently needs to mobilise more troops and build more robust front-line defences." A muddy spring makes troop movements difficult, the magazine writes, but after that, the risk will rise. "The blocking of the Biden administration's $61bn military-support package by pro-Donald Trump Republicans in Congress has had direct consequences," the magazine writes elsewhere. "So has the failure of the European Union to come up with more than half of the million shells it had promised to deliver by this month." Kyiv bears responsibility, too, The Economist writes: It could have moved faster to fortify its front lines, and it must decide on a policy regarding new conscription to replenish manpower.   In light of these circumstances, discussion of Ukraine's needs has intensified. At Project Syndicate, Harold James calls on European (and US) leaders to get their acts together, noting reluctance to supply more and longer-range weapons: "Politicians in the 1930s at least had good excuses for their weakness. Their countries were exhausted and depleted from the Great Depression, and many of them vividly recalled the appalling sacrifices and losses of World War I. Today's isolationists have no such frame of reference." In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, calls on the US (and its oil-producing allies) to pump more crude, flood global oil markets with product, weaken prices, and thereby diminish Russia's oil revenues.   In a Foreign Affairs essay, Ivo Daalder and Karen Donfried try to answer the question holistically. They advocate deliveries of more-advanced Western weapons, NATO taking the reins to coordinate Western assistance to Kyiv, and a clear pathway for Ukraine to ultimately join NATO—ideally offered at this summer's NATO summit in Washington. After fighting with Russia stops, they argue, NATO's Article 5 collective-defense provision could apply to areas of Ukraine that Kyiv controls. "The day Ukraine formally joins NATO will be Russia's ultimate strategic defeat—and Ukraine and all of Europe will be the safer for it," they conclude. Is China's Economy Heading in the Wrong Direction? China's economy has disappointed since early 2023, when a hoped-for, post-Covid-19-lockdown boom never materialized. Weak domestic demand, many have written, is the main culprit. In a Foreign Affairs essay, Daniel H. Rosen and Logan Wright argue China is doubling down on the problem. "After over two decades of strong investment-led growth, China now needs consumption-led growth," they write. "Further investment will have diminishing returns unless China can consume more at home." And yet, the recent National People's Congress indicated Beijing intends, instead, to lean into investment—boosting production just as world governments have grown skeptical of cheap Chinese goods and are erecting protectionist barriers to block them.   "Worsening trade conflict is an inevitable outcome of current Chinese policies, and it will not be limited to China's relationships with advanced economies," they write. "While developed and developing economies alike push back against China's high export volume, Beijing appears to be simply ignoring the problem. And as Chinese overcapacity drives foreign governments toward ever-harsher countermeasures, the resulting confrontation is something neither the Chinese economy nor the global trade system can afford." Where Happiness Lives On Sunday's GPS, Fareed looked at the world's happiest country. Hint: It's not the US. A Long Case Against Netanyahu In recent weeks, international criticism has rained down on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After Hamas's brutal Oct. 7 massacres, Netanyahu's Israeli government incurred expected ire from the Arab world as it prosecuted a war of retaliation against Hamas in Gaza that killed Palestinian civilians and generated a humanitarian crisis. When the White House recently began calling for a ceasefire, that criticism took on a more universal flavor. "(H)ow do you turn a just war into global isolation and widespread condemnation?" Haaretz columnist and former Israeli consul general in New York Alon Pinkas asks in a Guardian op-ed. "Just ask Benjamin Netanyahu. He has the patent."   Netanyahu still towers over Israeli politics, and he—and the ongoing war effort—have fierce defenders. "Who exactly are these leaders preaching to?" Yaara Segal asks in a Jerusalem Post op-ed, of criticism by the US and other Western countries. "Who is it that needs to agree to a ceasefire? The answer is not Israel." Arguing similarly that Hamas is the problem, David Brinn opines in the same paper, on the notion that if only Netanyahu would step aside Israel would coalesce around a softer war plan or perhaps a ceasefire: "What a crock." In a New York Times column, David Brooks argued Israel has no workable alternatives to the war it's currently waging.   But in The Atlantic, Anshel Pfeffer—the Haaretz columnist, correspondent for The Economist, and (unofficial) Netanyahu biographer—makes a long and detailed case that Netanyahu is Israel's worst-ever prime minister, for actions taken both before and after Oct. 7. "Netanyahu placed extremists in positions of power, undermined confidence in the rule of law, and sacrificed principle to power," Pfeffer argues. "Little wonder, then, that last summer, tensions over the role of Israel's judiciary became unmanageable. The crisis underlined all of these reasons that Netanyahu should go down as Israel's worst prime minister. … No matter how the war in Gaza ends, what happens in its aftermath, or when Netanyahu's term finally ends, the prime minister will forever be associated above all with that day (Oct. 7) and the disastrous war that followed. He will go down as the worst prime minister because he has been catastrophic for Israeli security." What did you think of today's newsletter? Send ideas, questions and feedback to globalbriefing@cnn.com   You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for Fareed's Global Briefing. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or sign up to manage your CNN account   Learn more about the CNN app |  Get CNN web alerts  |  Sign up for a free CNN account   ® © 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved. 1050 Techwood Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30318