By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has urged the 10 largest U.S. airlines to do more to help stranded and delayed passengers, calling the level of disruption travelers have faced this summer as “unacceptable.”

Buttigieg, who has faced pressure from U.S. lawmakers who want airlines to offer better service or face stiff fines, has clashed with major U.S. airlines over who is to blame for tens of thousands of flight delays and cancellations this summer.

In letters to major, regional and low-cost carrier chief executives made public Friday, Buttigieg said his department (USDOT) is “contemplating options” to write new rules “that would further expand the rights of airline passengers.”

He urged airlines to ensure adequate services for passengers facing delays and cancellations, asking them “at a minimum” to provide meal vouchers for delays of 3 hours or more and lodging for those who must wait overnight because of disruptions within the carrier’s control.

“Regardless of the cause of the delays or cancelations, the Department expects airlines to provide timely and responsive customer service during and after periods of flight disruptions,” Buttigieg wrote.

Most U.S. airlines provide meals or hotel rooms if they cancel or delay flights if they are to blame for disruptions, but they are not legally required to do so. Passengers are often not aware of airline policies.

Trade group Airlines for America said carriers would work with the department to provide transparency for travellers.

“Airlines want travelers to have a safe, seamless and positive travel experience and are working toward that goal every day,” it said in a statement.

In his letter, Buttigieg said he appreciated steps airlines had taken to improve service but that the level of disruption U.S. travellers have faced this summer is “unacceptable”.

He said that in the first six months, roughly 24% of the domestic flights of U.S. airlines were delayed and 3.2% were canceled. Complaints to USDOT from airline passengers have soared this year.

USDOT plans by Sept. 2 to create an “interactive dashboard” for air travelers to compare services or amenities that each of the large U.S. airlines provide when the cancellation or delay was due to circumstances within the airline’s control.

Buttigieg met virtually with airline CEOs ahead of the busy July 4 travel weekend to pressure them to perform better, set more realistic schedules and said the airline industry is largely responsible for the travel woes.

Airlines say they have voluntarily reduced flights to improve service, ramped up hiring and argue that inadequate air traffic control staffing has routinely impacted flights.

The airline trade group cited data saying 63% of the cancelations for the first five months of 2022 were caused by weather or national airspace issues.

On Monday, hundreds of flights were delayed at three major New York City area airports after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported staffing issues and said delays could “approach two hours”.

USDOT is drafting a number of new airline consumer rules, including requiring refunds for delayed baggage. In June, the agency warned it may prohibit airlines from charging extra fees to allow young children to sit next to accompanying family members.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mike Harrison and Deepa Babington)

Mexico City — Fernando Bustos Gorozpe was sitting with friends in a cafe here when he realized that – once again – they were outnumbered.

“We’re the only brown people,” said Bustos, a 38-year-old writer and university professor. “We’re the only people speaking Spanish except the waiters.”

Mexico has long been the top foreign travel destination for Americans, its bountiful beaches and picturesque pueblos luring tens of millions of US visitors annually. But in recent years, a growing number of tourists and remote workers – hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Silicon Valley and points in between – have flooded the nation’s capital and left a scent of new-wave imperialism.

The influx, which has accelerated since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and is likely to continue as inflation rises, is transforming some of the city’s most treasured neighbourhoods into expat enclaves.

In leafy, walkable quarters such as Roma, Condesa, Centro and Juarez, rents are soaring as Americans and other foreigners snap up houses and landlords trade long-term renters for travellers willing to pay more on Airbnb. Taquerias, corner stores and fondas – small, family-run lunch spots – are being replaced by Pilates studios, co-working spaces and sleek cafes advertising oat-milk lattes and avocado toast.

And English – well, it’s everywhere: ringing out at supermarkets, natural wine bars and fitness classes in the park.

At Lardo, a Mediterranean restaurant where, on any given night, three-quarters of the tables are filled with foreigners, a Mexican man in a well-cut suit recently took a seat at the bar, gazed at the English-language menu before him and sighed as he handed it back: “A menu in Spanish, please.”

Some chilangos, as locals are known, are fed up.

Recently, expletive-laced posters appeared around town.

“New to the city? Working remotely?” they read in English. “You’re a f—ing plague and the locals f—ing hate you. Leave.”

That sentiment echoed the hundreds of responses that poured in after a young American posted this seemingly innocuous tweet: “Do yourself a favor and remote work in Mexico City – it is truly magical.”

“Please don’t,” read one of the kinder replies. “This city is becoming more and more expensive every day in part because of people like you, and you don’t even realize or care about it.”

Hugo Van der Merwe, 31 – a video game designer who grew up in Florida and Namibia and has spent the last several months working remotely from Mexico City, Montreal and Bogota, Colombia – said he understands why locals are vexed by the growing population of “digital nomads.”

“There’s a distinction between people who want to learn about the place they are in and those who just like it because it’s cheap,” he said. “I’ve met a number of people who don’t really care that they’re in Mexico, they just care that it’s cheap.”

Clear financial incentives are drawing Americans to Mexico City – where the average local salary is $450 a month.

For the cost of a $2,000 one-bedroom in Koreatown, an Angeleno can rent a penthouse here.

Despite growing tensions, Mexico City is not Paris, where an American stumbling over French in a boulangerie will get a dose of hostility along with her croissants. It’s not Berlin or Barcelona, where locals in recent years have mounted major protests over excessive tourism and the gobbling up of urban properties by global investment firms.

The vast majority of people in this crowded, colourful metropolis are unwaveringly kind and patient with international visitors, who in the first four months of this year spent $851 million on hotels alone, according to tourism records.

But there is friction beneath the surface, as more locals consider what gentrification means for the city’s economics, culture and even race relations.

Over a weekend in July, a tenant advocacy group hosted a walking tour of “places we have lost to gentrification, touristification and forced displacement.”

“Our homes,2 the event flier read, “now house digital nomads.”

The dynamic playing out here is, in many ways, an old-world problem colliding with tech-age mobility, one that is forcing Mexico to confront its own history and traits.

After his revelation at the cafe, Bustos uploaded a video to his popular TikTok account, complaining that the influx of foreigners in Mexico City “stinks of modern colonialism.” Nearly 2,000 people posted comments in agreement.

His critique is multilayered and speaks to generations of injustices. There’s the problem of newcomers’ “indifference as to how their actions are affecting locals,” he said, but also the fact that Mexicans cannot migrate to the US with the same ease. He also believes that Americans, many of whom are white, are reinforcing the city’s pervasive – if infrequently discussed – caste system.

Indigenous Mexicans are more likely to be poor than lighter-skinned Mexicans and are largely unrepresented in film, television and advertisements. A growing social movement called Poder Prieto (“Brown Power”) has demanded that Netflix, HBO and other streaming platforms feature dark-skinned actors.

“Mexico is classist and racist,” Bustos said. “People with white skin are given preference. Now, if a local wants to go to a restaurant or a club, they don’t just have to compete with rich, white Mexicans but with foreigners too.”

Greater Mexico City’s 3,000 square miles are ringed by mountains and home to 21 million people. Most Americans stick to a few neighbourhoods in the centre, some of which were first gentrified by Mexicans.

After the 1985 earthquake devastated neighbourhoods in and around downtown, middle-class residents fled by the hundreds of thousands to areas on the city’s periphery that they deemed safer.

In Roma and Condesa, artists lured by cheap rents moved in, turning the area into a creative and intellectual hub.

The flood of American visitors began in earnest around 2016, when the New York Times named Mexico City the world’s top travel destination, and magazine writers wondered whether it was the “new Berlin.”

International artists, chefs and designers arrived, scooping up inexpensive studio spaces, opening restaurants and integrating themselves into the city’s imaginative nightlife.

The pandemic pushed it into overdrive. As much of Europe and Asia shut their doors to Americans in 2020, Mexico, which adopted few Covid-19 restrictions, was one of the few places where gringos were welcome.

Making it easier: Americans have long been able to stay here up to six months without a visa.

The State Department says there are 1.6 million US citizens living in Mexico, although it doesn’t know how many are based in the capital. Mexican census data track only foreigners who have applied for residency, and most remote workers don’t.

But the anecdotal evidence is compelling. In the first four months of the year, 1.2 million foreigners arrived at Mexico City’s airport. Alexandra Demou, who runs the relocation company Welcome Home Mexico, said she gets 50 calls a week from people contemplating a move.

“We’re just seeing Americans flooding in,” she said. “It’s people who maybe have their own business, or maybe they’re thinking of starting some consulting or freelance work. They don’t even know how long they’re going to stay. They’re completely picking up their entire lives and just moving down here.”

There is plenty to love about Mexico City.

Wide, tree-lined boulevards call to mind the capitals of Europe and each Sunday are closed to cars and filled with bicyclists. A hodgepodge of architecture – Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modernist – stitch together in artful ways.

And the food is superb: Street vendors sell spit-grilled al pastor pork tacos, delicate quesadillas stuffed with squash blossoms and stewed corn topped with mayonnaise and lime — sometimes all on the same block.

Sarah Lupton, a 35-year-old from North Carolina who came to Mexico City last year, as soon as she got her second Covid-19 vaccine, said she fell in love with the “romantic yet gritty” aesthetic. She ended up selling her video production company and relocating here in January with her Shih Tzu. Now she’s learning Spanish, applying for residency and exploring a new path as a life and career coach.

“I came for a new set of possibilities for how I experience my life and what I get to create in it,” she said. “I feel like this city has everything I need to build a life of creativity, connection, adventure and stability.”

Lauren Rodwell, 40, also moved down in January after spending several months here last year.

A marketer who works a tech job that is remote, she was tired of living in San Francisco, where every conversation began with, “What do you do?”

“I like being in vibrant cities that have multiple cultures that mix well, where there’s good food and good energy and dancing and art,” she said. “It reminds me of being in a more friendly, more clean at times, Brooklyn.”

Lupton and Rodwell both said they are sensitive to concerns about gentrification. In San Francisco, Rodwell lived in the Mission, a neighborhood that became emblematic of the sweeping change wrought by the tech industry there.

“I try and frequent local businesses and not go with the big conglomerates,” said Rodwell. “I try to give money back to my community and be involved in my community.”

Rodwell, who is Black, said she doesn’t feel guilty.

“I kind of feel like, as a person of color from America, I’m so economically disadvantaged that wherever I go and experience some advantage or equity, I take it,” she said.

In Mexico, which has a relatively small population of Afro-Mexicans and abolished slavery decades before its northern neighbor, Rodwell said she does not experience the same racism as she does in the U.S.. “Being Black in America,” she said, is exhausting. “It’s nice to take a break from it.”

Much of the criticism in the growing debate about foreigners comes down to economic inequality.

“Americans can come here, and they can afford everything and live like kings and queens,” said Dan Defossey, an American who moved to Mexico a dozen years ago and owns a popular barbecue joint. But they need to understand, he said, that “Mexico is not cheap for Mexicans.”

Omar Euroza, a barista at a coffee shop in Roma, said rent for his apartment in the city’s historic center, another place where foreigners are flocking, has more than doubled over the last five years. Nearby, renters have been pushed out as entire buildings are turned into upscale apartments.

A recent study showed that Mexico City residents spend an average of 60% of their income on housing, and nearly a third of residents moved during the pandemic, the majority because they couldn’t afford rent.

Euroza said he was sick of feeling like an outsider in his city. Around 60%-70% of his clients are foreigners, he said.

“Some people order in English and get mad when I don’t understand them.”

A chef who had just taken a sheet of warm cookies out of the oven shook his head.

“That’s unfair,” he said. “If we go to the U.S., we’re expected to speak English.”

There is a growing movement to help newcomers understand the impact they’re having — such as a poster campaign that, during the peak of the pandemic, coaxed foreigners to mask up. “Dear guests, we are genuinely happy you’re vaccinated,” the posters read. “Please consider that many of us are not.”

Some Mexicans aren’t unhappy about the American inundation, like Sandra Hernández, a real estate agent who said all of the recent deals she has closed have involved Americans. They mostly want houses or apartments in the Art Deco style, she said, and are all willing to pay the asking price.

Ted Rossano Jr., whose parents two decades ago opened a taco stand in Centro, said income from foreigners has helped save the business, which suffered during the pandemic. Ricos Tacos Toluca is a stop on several of the “taco tours” that have emerged in recent years, and he said foreigners now supply about 15% of the stand’s revenue.

“It’s cool. We’re proud of it,” Rossano said. “Who would have thought that a simple business like this would get international recognition?”

On a recent afternoon, three Americans and a Brit were contentedly munching the stand’s famous green chorizo tacos as their guide, Tyler Hansbrough, explained the chef’s handiwork.

“See, she has to render all that,” he said, as Rossano’s mom moved chorizo around a griddle.

Hansbrough taught Spanish at a San Francisco high school before moving here in 2016. He married a Mexican man and opened Tyler’s Taco Tours to show visitors authentic Mexican food — not the upscale stuff they might find in restaurants in Roma or Condesa.

He has been struck by the number of remote workers flooding in and worries that they are different. The nature of their jobs means they don’t necessarily have to learn Spanish or integrate into Mexican society, he said. It allows a certain aloofness that wasn’t possible a few years ago.

“So many people come here and think, ‘Oh, Mexico City is so cheap. I could move here.’ And they are. They’re renting my Airbnb for months at a time,” he said. “But I’m starting to be worried. It’s great for business, but it’s also kind of scaring me.”

As his group finished the tacos and ventured into the cacophonous city for their next meal, another taco tour sidled up to Rossano’s stand.

By Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A longtime senior executive at Donald Trump’s family business pleaded guilty on Thursday to helping the company engineer a 15-year tax fraud, in an agreement that will require him to testify about its business practices at an upcoming trial.

Allen Weisselberg, 75, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, entered his plea to all 15 charges he faced in a New York state court in Manhattan.

Weisselberg, who has worked for Trump for about a half-century, is not expected to cooperate with Manhattan prosecutors in a larger probe they are conducting into Trump.

But his plea will likely strengthen their case against the former president’s company, which manages golf clubs, hotels and other real estate around the world.

“This plea agreement directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “We look forward to proving our case in court.”

In a statement, a Trump Organization spokeswoman called Weisselberg a “fine and honorable man” who has been “harassed, persecuted and threatened by law enforcement, particularly the Manhattan district attorney, in their never ending, politically motivated quest to get President Trump.”

She also said the company did nothing wrong, and looked forward to its day in court.

The Trump Organization has pleaded not guilty, and faces possible fines and other penalties if convicted. Donald Trump, who is embroiled in many legal battles, has not been charged or accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Oct. 24, two weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, where Trump’s Republican Party hopes to recapture both houses of Congress from Democrats.

Trump has yet to say whether he plans another White House run in 2024.

FIVE MONTHS AT RIKERS

Prosecutors charged The Trump Organization and Weisselberg in July 2021 with scheming to defraud, tax fraud and falsifying business records for awarding “off-the-books” perks to senior executives.

Weisselberg was accused of concealing and avoiding taxes on $1.76 million of income.

This included rent for a Manhattan apartment, lease payments for two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and tuition for relatives, with Trump signing the tuition checks.

Weisselberg’s plea agreement calls for him to serve five months at the Rikers Island jail, though he could be freed after 100 days. It also include five years of probation, and the payment of $1.99 million in taxes, penalties and interest.

The jail sentence would begin after the Trump Organization’s trial concludes. Weisselberg could have faced 15 years in prison if convicted at trial, including on a grand larceny charge.

During Thursday’s hearing, Weisselberg removed his mask as Justice Juan Merchan described each count of the indictment. Weisselberg agreed that the accusations against him were true.

Nicholas Gravante, a lawyer for Weisselberg, said in a statement: “In one of the most difficult decisions of his life, Mr. Weisselberg decided to enter a plea of guilty today to put an end to this case and the years-long legal and personal nightmares it has caused for him and his family.”

Weisselberg gave up the CFO job after being indicted, but remains on Trump’s payroll as a senior adviser.

Last Friday, Merchan denied defense motions to dismiss the indictment, rejecting arguments that the defendants had been “selectively prosecuted” and that Weisselberg was targeted because he would not turn on his longtime boss.

PROBE ‘ONGOING’

The indictment arose from an investigation by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, but lost steam after Bragg became district attorney in January.

Two prosecutors who had been leading the investigation resigned in February, with one saying felony charges should be brought against Trump, but that Bragg indicated he had doubts.

In his statement on Thursday, Bragg said the investigation remained ongoing. His office declined to comment on the Trump Organization’s harassment accusation.

Trump faces several probes into his business and political activities.

Last week, FBI agents searched his home for classified and other documents from his time in the White House.

Two days later, Trump was deposed in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil probe into whether he misled banks and tax authorities about his business’s assets.

He repeatedly refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment U.S. Constitutional right against self-incrimination.

James is assisting Bragg in his criminal probe.

“Let this guilty plea send a loud and clear message: we will crack down on anyone who steals from the public for personal gain,” James said in a statement.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Alistair Bell and Daniel Wallis)

Not ready to give up. As Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt continue to fight tooth and nail against each other in their many legal battles, the Maleficent star is “desperately trying to find something new” to take down her A-List ex-husband, claimed an insider.

This comes after the FBI failed to file charges against Pitt in connection with a physical altercation that allegedly occurred during a private flight in 2016.

Earlier this year, Jolie filed an anonymous lawsuit against the FBI, asking to be given access to documents connected to their investigation surrounding the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor’s alleged domestic violence.

BRAD PITT PUSHING TO SEE KIDS ‘WHEREVER THEY ALL ARE IN THE WORLD’ DESPITE ‘HOSTILE’ SITUATION WITH EX ANGELINA JOLIE: SOURCE

According to the suit, Pitt is said to have drunkenly lashed out at his then-wife while aboard a private plane with their brood. The actor “grabbed [Angelina] by the head, shaking her,” the FBI documents read. When their children asked if she was alright, Pitt yelled, “No, she’s not OK, she’s ruining this family, she’s crazy.”

Jolie claimed she’s experienced other moments of domestic violence from her estranged ex, including him pushing her and pouring his beer on her. She also stated in the original court filing that Pitt hit their son Maddox.

ANGELINA JOLIE IS HAPPY EX BRAD PITT ‘STEPPED UP’ TO MAKE TRIP TO ROME WHERE HE VISITED THE KIDS, SOURCE SHARES: ‘A HUGE WEIGHT OFF HER SHOULDERS’

Authorities reviewed the details of the case the following year in November 2017, eventually coming to the decision not to charge Pitt with a crime.

This is only one of many legal spats between the volatile exes. Aside from their lengthy custody battle — the pair shares Maddox, 21, Pax, 18, Zahara, 17, Shiloh, 16, and 14-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne — the former spouses are also embroiled in a heated battle over their Château Miraval winery.

Jolie and Pitt first bought the sprawling French winery in 2008. Prior to their 2016 split, Pitt claimed they agreed they would not sell off their interest in the property without both of them agreeing on the future buyer. However, theTroy actor is accusing Jolie of selling her cut in the business to Russian oligarch Yuri Sheffler in an attempt to “undermine Pitt’s investment in Miraval.”

Page Six was first to report Jolie was “desperate” to dig up new dirt on Pitt.

Ellen DeGeneres has opted to celebrate the love in front of her instead of sulking over the one she lost. The 64-year-old former talk show host paid tribute to her wife Portia de Rossion their 14th wedding anniversary, which fell just days after her ex-girlfriend Anne Heche‘s death.

DeGeneres didn’t hold back, posting a lovely video montage of her life with de Rossi and revealing how nice it feels to be in love.

“‘It’s good to be loved. It’s profound to be understood.’ I love you, @portiaderossi. Happy 14!” she captioned the clip on Tuesday.

DeGeneres’ anniversary and post come on the heels of Radar’s exclusive story that she won’t be at Heche’s funeral.

“Anne’s funeral will be this week and Ellen will not be invited. It’s just close family and friends. It will be small and private,” sources told us.

Heche was taken off life support on Friday after she fell into a coma following an accident in which her car imploded into a home and burst into flames on August 5.

The 911 call revealed horrific details of the incident, including that several neighbors tried to rescue the actress from her burning car — but she was trapped inside.

Heche had severe burns, an anoxic brain injury, and never came out of her coma. Her family let her die peacefully by taking her off machines after she was paired with an organ-donation recipient.

DeGeneres released a statement about her death.

Peaks & Pitfalls: Anne Heche Reflects On Romance With Ellen DeGeneres & Being ‘Blacklisted’ From Hollywood

“This is a sad day,” the ex-professional gabber tweeted. “I’m sending Anne’s children, family and friends all of my love.”

Heche dated DeGeneres from 1997-2000.

“Ellen felt the need to say something after Anne died. They hadn’t spoken in years but given what their relationship meant to so many people around the world, she understands why she had to speak out,” sources spilled to RadarOnline.com at the time.

Heche left behind two sons — Homer, 20, and Atlas, 13. She was only 53 years old.

By Maria Alejandra Cardona

ATLANTA (Reuters) -Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer, testified before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Wednesday in a Georgia criminal probe examining attempts by the former U.S. president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results.

Giuliani, who helped lead Trump’s election challenges, spent more than six hours in the Fulton County courthouse after a judge ordered him to comply with a subpoena. His lawyers, who declined to comment on his testimony, said he would refuse to answer questions that violate attorney-client privilege.

The former New York City mayor, 78, appeared before Georgia state lawmakers in December 2020, echoing Trump’s false conspiracy theories about stolen ballots and urging them not to certify Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican Trump.

“It’s a grand jury and grand juries, as I recall, are secret,” Giuliani told CNN on his arrival at the courthouse, when asked to comment on his testimony. “They ask the questions and we’ll see.”

Giuliani left the courthouse through one of the building’s side entrances, local media in Atlanta reported.

“We were ordered to be here, we showed up, we did what we have to do,” said Giuliani’s lawyer, Bill Thomas. “The special grand jury process is a secret process, and we’re gonna respect that process.”

The Fulton County probe began after a January 2021 recorded phone call in which Trump urged the state’s top election official to “find” enough votes to alter the outcome. The former president has asserted falsely that he won Georgia, as well as the 2020 presidential contest.

The special grand jury was convened in May at the request of county District Attorney Fani Willis.

Giuliani, a former crime-fighting U.S. Attorney, was among several Trump advisers and lawyers who received subpoenas from the grand jury last month, including U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

(Writing by Rami Ayyub, editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller and Deepa Babington)