Author Archives: Reuters News Agency

Colosseum’s visitors finally stand among the ghosts of lions and gladiators

By Giulia Segreti and Francesca Piscioneri

ROME (Reuters) – “The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate, it’s the sand of the Colosseum,” the Roman senator Gracchus said in the 2000 Oscar-winning movie “Gladiator”.

The towering 2,000-year-old stone amphitheater, the biggest in the Roman empire, is Italy’s most popular tourist attraction, drawing 7.6 million visitors in 2019.

But its own beating heart, the underground passages, cages and rooms where prisoners, animals and gladiators waited to pass through trapdoors to enter the arena above their heads – itself long gone – only opened to the paying public on Friday after lengthy renovations.

More than 80 archaeologists, architects and engineers worked on the 15,000 square meter “hypogeum” for two years to “bring back to the center of the attention a monument that the whole world loves,” according to Diego della Valle, chairman of Tod’s, the Italian fashion group that funded the work.

The circular balconies, long accessible to tourists, used to accommodate up to 70,000 spectators to watch gladiator fights, executions and animal hunts. The arena could also – before the hypogeum was built – be filled with water to re-enact sea battles.

Now a new 160 meter (525 ft) walkway reveals a part of the monument that has not been accessible to visitors.

It is the second part of a three-stage process that started eight years ago, with Tod’s pledging 25 million euros ($30 million) to pay for the project — one of a number of restorations of Italian landmarks funded by luxury goods firms.

“It is … important for relevant companies to make themselves available to the country, understanding what they can do for the country,” Della Valle said.

“This is about important pieces for Italy, monuments that are well-known all over the world, and tourism, which is not only entertainment but an important business in Italy which, if cared for properly, has no rival anywhere in the world.”

The first phase of the makeover, including a cleanup of the façade, was unveiled in 2016. The final phase involves renewing the galleries and the lighting system and creating a new visitor center. The project is set to be completed in about three years.

Separately, the government has decided to provide the ancient Roman landmark with new hi-tech flooring, which is expected to be in place by 2023.

Della Valle, who also helps fund Milan’s La Scala opera house, called on fellow entrepreneurs to “take a monument each, restore it, let’s be quick!”.($1 = 0.8383 euros)

(Editing by Crispian Balmer and Kevin Liffey)

Praying for ‘miracle,’ families await news of missing in Florida condo collapse

By Francisco Alvarado

SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) -Families and friends of the 159 people missing after the collapse of a condo building in a Miami suburb were clinging to hope on Friday as rescue workers sifted through a mountain of debris for signs of life, having found four dead so far.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters on Friday crews had pulled three more bodies from the wreckage overnight, after one person was reported to have died on Thursday. Officials increased the number of presumed missing from 99 reported missing on Thursday.

“I’m praying for a miracle,” Rachel Spiegel, whose mother Judy Spiegel is missing, told CNN on Friday.

The last time Spiegel communicated with her mom was Wednesday night, when her mother excitedly texted her that she had bought a dress online for Spiegel’s daughter, her granddaughter.

Hours later, early Thursday morning, a large section of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, a barrier island town across Biscayne Bay from the city of Miami, crumbled to the ground, authorities said.

Video captured by a security camera nearby showed an entire side of the building suddenly folding in two sections, one after the other, at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT) on Thursday, throwing up clouds of dust.

Dozens of people were gathered at a reunification site at the Surfside Community Center on Friday, where the scene was hectic with volunteers running around and people hugging to console each other.

Outside the center, Toby Fried held back tears when she said she last spoke to her brother Chiam “Harry” Rosenberg around midnight Wednesday. Rosenberg had lived in Champlain Towers for about a year and a half. He and his daughter Malki Weiss and Beni Weiss, who were visiting him from Brooklyn, are all missing.

“They came to stay with him for a week on vacation,” Fried said.

Joining the families searching for missing loved ones was Paraguay’s first lady Silvana López Moreira, who traveled to Florida because her sister, brother-in-law and their children were unaccounted for. The first lady’s family owned a condo in the building, local media reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Ray Jadallah said on Friday that rescuers had heard sounds in the rubble overnight, but said it could be either falling debris or people tapping.

“We are listening for sounds, human sounds and tapping,” Jadallah said, as rescuers use shovels and jackhammers to tunnel under the debris to find pockets where survivors could be.

Mariela Porras, a friend of a woman who lived in the building with her young daughter and is now missing, said she has not abandoned hope that the two were still alive beneath the rubble.

“I vacillate between hope and I’m heartbroken,” Porras told CNN.

‘WE STILL HAVE HOPE’ Mayor Cava on Friday said that rescue teams were “incredibly motivated” to find anyone who might have survived the collapse.

“We still have hope that we will find people alive,” the mayor said.

She said on Thursday that 110 individuals whose whereabouts were initially unknown have since been located and “declared safe.”

A fire official said earlier that 35 people were evacuated from the section of the high-rise left standing, and response teams using trained dogs and drones in the search pulled two individuals from the rubble. One of them was dead.

U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

“The president’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts,” the White House said on Friday.

What caused the 40-year-old high-rise to cave in was not immediately known, although local officials said the 12-story tower was undergoing roof construction and other repairs.

Space-based radar data showed that the land underneath the building was sinking during the 1990s, according to a 2020 study. That by itself would not cause a building’s collapse but it is worth investigating further, according to Florida International University professor Shimon Wdowinksi, one of the study’s authors.

The sinking, or subsidence, underneath the building amounted to 1 to 3 millimeters per year, which could add up to several inches over a decade, according to the study.

Late Thursday night, a resident of the collapsed building filed what is believed to be the first lawsuit against the condominium, the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association.

Manuel Drezner said in the proposed class action that the collapse could have been avoided had the condominium made needed repairs and ensured it was safe.

He said the condominium should pay unit owners millions of dollars for their “unfathomable loss.”

Officials said the complex, built in 1981, was going through a recertification process requiring repairs, with another building under construction on an adjacent site.

The Champlain Towers South had more than 130 units, about 80 of which were occupied. It had been subject to various inspections recently due to the recertification process and the adjacent building construction, Surfside Commissioner Charles Kesl told Miami television station WPLG Local 10.

(Reporting by Francisco Alvarado in Surfside, Florida; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, Rich McKay in Atlanta, Gabriella Borter in Washington and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Jonathan Oatis)

Gibraltar votes to ease strict abortion law

By Marco Trujillo

GIBRALTAR (Reuters) -Gibraltar voted to ease a strict abortion law, officials said on Friday, after a referendum which some locals said marked a long overdue advancement of women’s rights in the tiny British territory.

Around 62% of voters who took part backed the change in Thursday’s ballot, where turnout was about 52% of the 23,000 odd eligible voters, Gibraltar’s parliament said.

“Gibraltar does have to keep up with the times, you cannot live in the past,” said Jacqueline, a Gibraltarian woman who declined to give her last name, on Friday morning.

The vote “is an excellent result for women,” chief minister Fabian Picardo, who backed ‘yes’ in a divisive campaign, said on Twitter. “We will also work to introduce the new services we will require to ensure counselling and safe and legal abortions,” he added.

Criminal law in the British enclave on Spain’s southern tip had banned abortion in all circumstances, with a maximum punishment in theory of life in prison. While no one has ever been convicted, citizens and residents were forced to go to Spain or travel to Britain to have an abortion.

The referendum had originally been scheduled for March 2020, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even with the amendment approved on Thursday, the law remains more restrictive than in most of the rest of Europe.

The amendment to the criminal law approved by the referendum allows pregnancies to be terminated by a registered physician within the first 12 weeks in cases where the pregnancy carries more risk to the mother’s health than termination.

Abortions would be permitted at a later stage of pregnancy under a narrow set of circumstances.

Pro-life groups, who opposed the new bill, say the wording of the law could be interpreted in a way that would ultimately allow most abortions after 12 weeks of conception.

Others said the bill did not encourage abortion but that it was important the choice should rest with the woman.

“I am not pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice,” said Sheela, another Gibraltar resident. “I think every person should have, at the end of the day, their own right to do what they want.”

(Reporting by Marco Trujillo in GIBRALTAR and Inti Landauro in MADRID; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Philippa Fletcher)

‘We have a deal:’ Biden OK’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan

By David Morgan and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday embraced a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Senate deal to renew the nation’s roads, bridges and highways and help stimulate the economy — a major breakthrough on one of his key domestic policy goals.

“We have a deal,” Biden told reporters, flanked by Democratic and Republican senators who wrote the infrastructure proposal that followed months of White House negotiations with lawmakers.

Its $579 billion in new spending includes major investments in the nation’s power grid, broadband internet services and passenger and freight rail.

But it does not contain other key priorities for Biden and progressive Democrats, such as new spending on home health care and child care, which Biden pitched as “human infrastructure.” The Democrats who control Congress by razor-thin margins aim to cover those areas in another spending package that they want to maneuver through the Senate without Republican votes.

“This deal means millions of good-paying jobs and fewer burdens felt at the kitchen table … But it also signals to ourselves, and to the world, that American democracy can deliver, and because of that it represents an important step forward for our country,” Biden said later at the White House.

One member of the bipartisan group of 21 senators who negotiated the deal, Republican Rob Portman, said: “We didn’t get everything we wanted but we came up with a good compromise.”

He said they had commitments from Republicans and Democrats alike to get the plan “across the finish line.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who was briefed on the plan early on Thursday, did not answer questions about whether he would back the initiative.

The eight-year proposal contains $109 billion for roads, bridges and major projects; $73 billion for power infrastructure; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail; $65 billion for broadband access; $49 billion for public transit; and $25 billion for airports, according to a White House statement.

The investments would be paid for through more than a dozen funding mechanisms, including $100 billion in estimated tax revenues from a ramp-up in enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service, unused COVID-19 aid money and unemployment insurance funds returned by U.S. states.

Democratic and Republican members of the group displayed high spirits, chuckling and smiling together at microphones in the driveway of the White House.

NOT A PUNCHLINE

​Before the White House meeting, Portman told reporters on Capitol Hill that McConnell “remains open-minded and he’s listening.” Portman added, ‘He hasn’t made his decision.”

McConnell did not respond later to questions from reporters about his position.

“They’ve done a lot of good work. There’s a good framework there,” said Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, who also met with McConnell. He told reporters that party leaders would wait for the White House’s response and discuss the framework with members of the caucus.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he supported the outline of the deal but wanted to see the details. He also noted that the $1.2 trillion bill focused on physical infrastructure would not get the Democratic votes needed to pass it without an accompanying package tackling social issues including home healthcare.

“All parties understand, we won’t get enough votes to pass either, unless we have enough votes to pass both,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. He said the Senate would aim for a vote on the bipartisan plan next month.

RECONCILIATION REDUX

Pelosi said that the House would only vote on the bipartisan bill after the Senate had also approved the additional spending package to be passed through a process called “reconciliation” which would allow Democrats to override Republican objections.

That could mean that the battle over these massive bills could extend into September and beyond.

Biden, seeking to fuel economic growth and address income inequality after the coronavirus pandemic, initially proposed spending about $2.3 trillion. Republicans chafed at his definition of infrastructure, which included fighting climate change and providing care for children and the elderly.

The White House later trimmed the offer to about $1.7 trillion in an unsuccessful bid to win the Republican support needed for any plan to get the 60 votes required to advance most legislation in the evenly split 100-seat Senate.

A major sticking point had been how to pay for the investments. Biden has pledged not to increase taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 a year, while Republicans are determined to protect a 2017 cut in corporate taxes.

Thune said there were questions about whether watchdogs, including the Congressional Budget Office, would recognize some of the funding mechanisms as achieving savings.

(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Susan Cornwell, Jarrett Renshaw, David Shepardson, Makini Brice and Susan Heavey; Editing by Scott Malone and Sonya Hepinstall)

U.S. jobless claims dropping faster in states ending federal benefit

By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ongoing claims for U.S. unemployment insurance have dipped faster in recent weeks in states ending federal benefits this summer than in states keeping the $300 weekly supplement in place until the fall, according to government data through last week.

From the week ending May 1 through the week ending June 12, continuing claims for state unemployment benefits fell 17.8% in the 26 states ending benefits early, to 990,000, and by 12.6%, to 2.18 million, in the rest of the country, according to a Reuters analysis of weekly federal unemployment data.

The data do not yet answer the larger and arguably more important question of whether hiring will also accelerate in those states, the outcome an almost all-Republican group of governors says is the goal of cutting the benefits early.

Weekly data from small business time provider Homebase through the week ending June 20 in fact has shown no pickup in hiring in the states cancelling unemployment benefits. To the contrary the other states appear to have added jobs faster in recent weeks – a possible consequence of the fact that large Democratic-led states like California and New York have recently lifted most of the remaining restrictions put in place to fight the pandemic.

The states stopping benefits as a group have also pulled closer to their pre-pandemic levels of unemployment, suggesting less room for improvement.

The issue of how unemployment benefits are impacting the recovery of the U.S. job market has become a core concern among Federal Reserve and other policymakers as they try to determine how fast national employment might rebound to pre-pandemic levels, a judgment hard to make until the economy is fully reopened and benefit levels returned to normal.

Twelve states have already halted benefits in what has been a largely partisan split between Republican governors arguing that the pandemic emergency unemployment payments are now discouraging people from working, and Democratic governors who feel people still need support as the pandemic wanes.

The states stopping benefits early include the entire Deep South, where pandemic unemployment has fallen hard on the large Black population, but only one state, Louisiana, with a Democratic governor. Only two Republican-led states, Vermont and Massachusetts in the Northeast, plan to continue the payments until they end nationwide in September.

The data overall suggest “more downward momentum in initial and continuing claims over the next few weeks,” said Jefferies economist Thomas Simons. Sky-high unemployment claims have been a hallmark of the pandemic, topping 23 million at one point in the spring of 2020 as the coronavirus took hold, more than 10 times the level at the start of the year.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Pelosi announces creation of new committee to probe Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday there will be a new House committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, after Senate Republicans in May blocked the creation of an independent commission to probe the assault.

Speaking at a news conference, Pelosi, a Democrat, declined to spell out a timeline for the panel to investigate, saying it will be “as long as it takes.” She gave no details of the make-up of the panel, but made clear both parties would be expected to name members, saying she hoped that House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will appoint “responsible people” to the panel.

Pelosi said it would have been preferable to have an outside commission, and that she had not totally given up on that idea. The House passed legislation to set up an independent bipartisan commission, but Senate Republicans blocked it, saying existing committee probes as well as prosecutors’ investigations made it unnecessary.

“We see this as complementary, not instead of, and hopeful that there could be a commission at some point,” Pelosi said.

“The Capitol of the United States has always been a glorious beacon of democracy for the American people and the world,” Pelosi said. She said that the select committee will be “about seeking and finding the truth” about the events of Jan. 6.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Frances Kerry)

Canadian indigenous group finds 751 unmarked graves at former residential school

By Anna Mehler Paperny and Moira Warburton

(Reuters) -An indigenous group in Canada’s Saskatchewan province on Thursday said it had found the unmarked graves of 751 people at a now-defunct Catholic residential school, just weeks after a similar discovery rocked the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “terribly saddened” by the new discovery at Marieval Indian Residential School about 87 miles (140 km) from the provincial capital Regina.

He told indigenous people that “the hurt and the trauma that you feel is Canada’s responsibility to bear.”

It is not clear how many of the remains detected belong to children, Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme told reporters.

He said the church that ran the school removed the headstones.

“We didn’t remove the headstones. Removing headstones is a crime in this country. We are treating this like a crime scene,” he said.

The residential school system, which operated between 1831 and 1996, removed about 150,000 indigenous children from their families and brought them to Christian residential schools run on behalf of the federal government.

“Canada will be known as a nation who tried to exterminate the First Nations. Now we have evidence,” said Bobby Cameron, Chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan.

“This is just the beginning.”

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which published a report that found the country’s residential school system amounted to cultural genocide, has said a cemetery was left on the Marieval site after the school building was demolished.

Cowessess First Nation has been in touch with the local Catholic archdiocese and Delorme said he is optimistic they will provide records allowing them to identify the remains.

“We have full faith that the Roman Catholic Church will release our records. They haven’t told us ‘No.’ We just don’t have them yet.”

The Cowessess First Nation began a ground-penetrating radar search on June 2, after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia outraged the country.

The Kamloops discovery reopened old wounds in Canada about the lack of information and accountability around the residential school system, which forcibly separated indigenous children from their families and subjected them to malnutrition and physical and sexual abuse.

Pope Francis said in early June that he was pained by the Kamloops revelation and called for respect for the rights and cultures of native peoples. But he stopped short of the direct apology some Canadians had demanded.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto and Moira Warburton in VancouverEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)

Israel to ease more Gaza restrictions as truce holds

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel said on Thursday it would ease restrictions on trade and fisheries in the Gaza Strip that had been tightened during 11 days of fighting with the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers last month.

Israel keeps tight controls over Gaza’s borders, with support from neighboring Egypt, citing threats from Hamas. The Israeli restrictions were intensified during the May fighting – halting Gaza exports, restricting imports of raw materials and limiting the area that Palestinians are permitted to fish.

With an Egyptian-mediated truce largely holding, Israel on Monday allowed a limited resumption of commercial exports from Gaza. But Hamas demanded a wider easing of curbs and held out the possibility of resuming hostilities.

Starting from Friday, Israel will “expand the fishing zone in the Gaza Strip from six to nine nautical miles, and (approve) the import of raw materials for essential civilian factories,” COGAT, a branch of Israel’s defense ministry, said.

The new measures are “conditional upon the preservation of security stability,” COGAT said in a statement.

At least one factory in the Strip, Pepsi Gaza, had shut down due to Israeli restrictions on raw materials imports, including carbon dioxide gas. COGAT did not say which raw materials would be allowed in.

Egypt and the United Nations stepped up mediation last week after incendiary balloons launched from Gaza drew retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Hamas sites, challenging the fragile ceasefire.

At least 250 Palestinians and 13 in Israel were killed in the May fighting, which saw Gaza militants fire rockets towards Israeli cities and Israel carry out air strikes across the coastal enclave.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Gibraltar votes in referendum on easing strict abortion law

By Jon Nazca and Marco Trujillo

GIBRALTAR (Reuters) – Gibraltarians voted in a referendum on Thursday on whether the tiny British territory on the southern tip of Spain should ease one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe.

Its criminal law bans abortion in all circumstances, with a maximum punishment in theory of life in prison. While no one has been convicted, citizens and residents are forced to go to Spain or travel to Britain to have an abortion.

“I think we should be able to have an abortion here, we shouldn’t have to go to a different country just to have an abortion,” 20-year-old student Geraldine told Reuters after casting her vote.

“At the end of the day it is our body, our choice. Other people shouldn’t make the choice for us,” added the student, one of 23,000 Gibraltarians eligible to vote.

The referendum had originally been scheduled for March 2020, but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although penalties are tough, not a single woman or doctor has ever been convicted under the law, a Gibraltar government spokeswoman said.

The referendum is on an amendment to the criminal law that would allow pregnancies to be terminated by a registered physician within the first 12 weeks in cases where the pregnancy carried more risk to the mother’s health than termination.

Abortions would be permitted at a later stage under a narrow set of circumstances.

Even if the changes are approved, the law would be far more restrictive than in most of the rest of Europe.

Pro-life groups say that the wording of the law could be interpreted in a way that would ultimately allow most abortions.

“I’m supporting ‘No’ because I believe life begins at conception and life is sacred and it should be respected until the moment of death,” Susan Gomez, 52, who is a member of the Gibraltar pro-life movement, told Reuters.

“We should give (women who are pregnant) all the support in the world so that abortion never happens”, she said.

Both the government, which has backed the proposed changes, and opposition parties in the enclave encouraged people to vote.

“The government will act in keeping with the views of the people of Gibraltar as expressed … whichever of the two results may come out,” Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar’s chief minister, said.

(Reporting by Jon Nazca and Marco Trujillo in Gibraltar. Writing by Emma Pinedo in Madrid)

Giuliani’s law license suspended over Trump election claims

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Rudy Giuliani’s New York law license was suspended on Thursday, after a state appeals court found he had lied in arguing that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from his client, former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Giuliani, 77, a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and New York City mayor, was punished for making “demonstrably false and misleading” statements that widespread voter fraud undermined the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won.

Citing the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the Appellate Division said Giuliani’s eagerness to trumpet false claims “immediately threatens the public interest” and could erode public confidence in the election process, a hallmark of American democracy, as well as the legal profession.

“This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden,” the court said.

“Where, as here, the false statements are being made by (Giuliani), acting with the authority of being an attorney, and using his large megaphone, the harm is magnified.”

Speaking to reporters outside his home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a combative Giuliani called the suspension “a one-sided decision not based on evidence.”

The Republican also blamed Democrats for his growing legal troubles, including over his dealings in Ukraine, and he said dozens of witnesses could back up his election fraud claims.

“I fight back. That’s what I do,” Giuliani said. “I go to court and I prove what I’m telling you in court. There are appellate courts. This isn’t yet a dictatorship.”

In a statement, Trump expressed disbelief that Giuliani could lose his law license for “fighting what has already been proven to be a Fraudulent Election.”

The appeals court said Giuliani’s temporary suspension could become permanent after a hearing by the attorney grievance committee that recommended it.

John Leventhal and Barry Kamins, two lawyers for Giuliani, said they were disappointed with the suspension but believed that after a hearing he would be reinstated as “a valued member of the legal profession that he has served so well.”

‘INCREDIBLY SERIOUS’

Giuliani’s other legal problems include a $1.3 billion lawsuit where Dominion Voting Systems accused him of defamation for claiming its machines helped flip votes to Biden from Trump.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are separately examining Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, including whether he violated lobbying laws while working as Trump’s lawyer.

Eighteen devices, including cellphones and computers were seized in April 28 raids of Giuliani’s home and office for the Ukraine probe. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing.

The appeals court said Giuliani made numerous false statements about voting in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, including over the counting of absentee ballots.

It highlighted a Pennsylvania court hearing on Nov. 17 where Giuliani alleged widespread voter fraud, though his formal written complaint on Trump’s behalf made no mention of it.

The court also criticized Giuliani’s unsubstantiated claims of voting by dead people, including the boxing heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, who died in 2011.

“There is evidence of continuing misconduct, the underlying offense is incredibly serious, and the uncontroverted misconduct in itself will likely result in substantial permanent sanctions,” the court said.

Though the court rejected Giuliani’s claim that the grievance committee violated his free speech rights, the suspension does not muzzle his ability to speak publicly.

That contrasts with Twitter’s permanent ban and Facebook’s two-year suspension of Trump from their respective platforms.

Brian Faughnan, a Tennessee lawyer specializing in attorney disciplinary proceedings, said suspensions such as Giuliani’s often go to lawyers who commit crimes or stole client money.

Giuliani received his law license in 1969, and as New York City mayor won wide praise for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He began representing Trump in April 2018 as federal Special Counsel Robert Mueller was probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Karen Freifeld and Andrew Hofstetter in New York, and Jan Wolfe in Washington; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Noeleen Walder)