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Donald Trump is entering the courtroom. He was carrying papers, which he dropped on to the defense table before sitting.
Trump is joined by Florida congressman Cory Mills, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Eric Trump and Lara Trump.
Continue reading...Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila
The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.
The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.
Continue reading...Livestream artwork with 2.4m-wide screen allowed people in both cities to see but not hear each other, leading to offensive conduct
Authorities in Dublin are to temporarily shut down the live video portal with New York because of unruly behaviour.
The city council said in a statement on Tuesday it would switch off the interactive webcam at 10pm Irish time while technicians try to tweak – or censor – a project that has brought delight and notoriety.
Continue reading...Official suggests US funding could be pulled as new ‘Kremlin-inspired’ law provokes mass protests
Georgia has been warned by the US not to become an adversary of the west by falling back in line with Moscow, as its parliament defied mass street protests to pass a “Kremlin-inspired” law.
Washington’s assistant secretary of state, Jim O’Brien, spoke of his fears that the passing by Georgia’s parliament of a “foreign agents” bill on Tuesday could be yet another “turning point” in the former Soviet state’s troubled history.
Continue reading...Björn Höcke, party’s candidate to lead Thuringia state, found to have deliberately used SA slogan in 2021 speech
A German court has fined a leading member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party for using a banned Nazi phrase at a political rally, in a high-profile trial just months before an election in which he aims to become a state leader.
The state court in Halle convicted Björn Höcke, the firebrand chief of the AfD in the eastern region of Thuringia, of deliberately using a slogan associated with the Nazi party’s paramilitary wing, the SA, in a speech at a campaign event in May 2021.
Continue reading...US secretary of state promises long-awaited $60bn Ukraine aid package will make ‘real difference on battlefield’
The US secretary of state has arrived in Kyiv delivering a message that Washington remains committed to supporting Ukraine as the country’s forces face their toughest situation on the battlefield for months.
In recent days, Russia has launched an offensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, forcing thousands to flee their homes, and on Tuesday hit the centre of Kharkiv, the country’s second biggest city, with airstrikes.
Continue reading...Health minister makes announcement following revelations that a man who killed his children legally changed his name
Canada’s westernmost province has says it will stop people who committed serious crimes from changing their names, following revelations that a child-killer tried to keep his new identity secret.
British Columbia’s health minister said on Monday his government would introduce legislation to amend the province’s name act.
Continue reading...Netiporn Sanae-sangkhom, 28, faced seven court cases including two for criticising Thailand’s monarchy
A political activist charged with insulting the king of Thailand has died in pre-trial detention after spending 65 days on hunger strike calling for an end to the imprisonment of political dissidents.
Netiporn Sanae-sangkhom, 28, had been detained since 26 January and maintained a hunger strike until the end of April, refusing food and water, according to her lawyers. The corrections department said she had experienced cardiac arrest on Tuesday morning and was unresponsive to treatment.
Continue reading...Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine says in interview that US troops ‘stayed on our soil, doing nothing while terrorists killed people’
Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, Niger’s prime minister, has blamed the US for a rupture in an important military pact between the two countries that allows US forces to station in the west African nation.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Zeine said US officials had attempted to dictate which countries Niger could align with, had failed to justify the presence of US troops in the country while “doing nothing” to counter an Islamist insurgency in the region.
Continue reading...Witnesses report clashes in streets after seeing tanks cross strategically important Salah al-Din road
Israeli tanks have advanced further into eastern Rafah, reaching some residential districts of the southern border city in Gaza.
Witnesses reported seeing tanks crossing the strategically important Salah al-Din road into the Brazil and Jneina neighbourhoods. “They are in the streets inside the built-up area and there are clashes,” one person told Reuters.
Continue reading...Kazakhstan to toughen penalties for domestic violence as killing of Saltanat Nukenova prompts national outcry and shines spotlight on high femicide rates
A former Kazakh government minister has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for the torture and murder of his wife in one of the most high-profile cases of domestic violence in Kazakhstan’s history.
Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44, was shown in surveillance footage repeatedly beating Saltanat Nukenova, 31, after they quarrelled in a restaurant he owned in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, in November 2023. A forensic examination later found evidence of strangulation.
Continue reading...White House levy to protect US makers from cheap imports likely to inflame trade tensions
The US president, Joe Biden, has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of a package of measures designed to protect US manufacturers from cheap imports.
In a move that is likely to inflame trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the White House said it was imposing more stringent curbs on Chinese goods worth $18bn.
Continue reading...Mission by US secretary of state comes shortly after Congress approved a long-delayed $60bn package of aid
In Kyiv, the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said a new weapons package is already arriving and more more is coming, Reuters reported.
“That’s going to make a difference,” he said.
Continue reading...Klein may be charged over alleged threats and face a fine if convicted, after a member of the production crew made a complaint to police
Joost Klein, the Netherlands’ Eurovision contestant who was disqualified from the competition just hours before the grand final, will probably be charged with making illegal threats, Swedish police have said.
The 26-year-old favourite to win was expelled from the competition in Malmö, unprecedented in the 68-year history of Eurovision, after a female member of the production crew made a complaint about an alleged “backstage incident” to Swedish police.
Continue reading...Former fixer told Manhattan court on Monday that Trump had asked him to keep stories about his personal life out of the media
Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is set to continue crucial testimony on Tuesday in the former US president’s New York hush-money trial, where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying records of payments to a porn actor to cover an affair.
Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the prosecution’s arguments that the money paid to Stormy Daniels represented an election expense, because Trump and his campaign believed news of their sexual encounter would hurt his 2016 bid for the White House.
Continue reading...Loyalist economist who ‘thinks years ahead’ inherits Kremlin’s biggest challenge as it prepares for the long haul in Ukraine
In 2014, Russia’s bloc of economic strategists was panicked by Vladimir Putin’s decision to annex Crimea and foment a war in east Ukraine, a move that led to western condemnation and sanctions against Russia that were seen as potentially ruinous.
But his adviser Andrei Belousov was a rare economist who publicly stood by his side, calling the damage manageable and western sanctions “insignificant” in terms of the Russian economy.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: A major new attack on territory known for Kyiv’s biggest victory has led to a sense of Ukraine’s prospects viciously unravelling, town by town
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Good morning. In September 2022, Kharkiv province was the site of the greatest Ukrainian victory of the war so far: the lightning counteroffensive that liberated at least 12,000 square kilometres from Russian control, pushed Moscow’s artillery out of range of Kharkiv city and provided real hope that Vladimir Putin could not just be slowed down, but defeated.
Over the past few days, Kharkiv has been the location of a very different shift. This time, it is the Russians who have made larger daily advances than at almost any other point in the war, and are now moving further forwards. Civilians who had come home are fleeing once more in their thousands, and even Kyiv admits that the situation is “difficult”. Further attacks could draw sparse Ukrainian resources from along the frontline, deal a heavy blow to Ukrainian morale and redraw the map before the resources belatedly provided by the US last month are in place to do anything about it.
Medical research | A weight loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults in what could be the largest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study. Trial participants who took semaglutide, sold as Wegovy and Ozempic, had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death due to cardiovascular disease.
Housing | Rent rises should be capped for millions of people struggling to afford soaring rates, according to a landmark report commissioned by Labour. Leaked proposals from the independent report will put pressure on Keir Starmer to adopt measures that could ease pressure on tenants who saw an average 9% increase in rates last year.
Donald Trump | Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen only weeks before the 2016 election to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison, demanding that he “just take care of it”, Cohen told the former president’s trial on Monday. In hours of testimony, Cohen linked Trump to a $130,000 hush money payment and said: “Everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off.”
Gaza | Israeli settlers attacked an aid convoy headed into Gaza on Monday, throwing packages of food into the road and setting fire to vehicles. The incident, condemned by the US as “a total outrage”, came as Israeli troops continued their offence across Gaza in the most intensive round of fighting for weeks.
Women’s health | Women in labour have been mocked, ignored, fobbed off with paracetamol and left with permanent damage by midwives and doctors, a damning report by MPs has found. The UK’s first inquiry into birth trauma called for the appointment of a maternity commissioner and the creation of new specialist postnatal services to address the problems.
Continue reading...Conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to a total of 68m IDPs across the world
Conflict has forced more than 68 million people to leave their homes as of the end of 2023 – the highest figure since data became available 15 years ago.
Natural disasters made a further 7.7 million people homeless, pushing the total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) to a record 75.9 million, according to figures published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Representatives of 11 countries led by Ireland urge other states to help get legislation on rescuing habitats over the line
A last-ditch attempt to try to save the EU’s nature restoration laws from oblivion has been mounted by 11 member states, which are racing to get the legislation over the line in the next four weeks.
In a move led by Ireland, 11 environment ministers have written to countries that have said they will either abstain or vote against ratification of the laws, urging them to think again.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch says warnings were not issued before attacks, which have killed or injured dozens
Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on humanitarian convoys and their facilities in Gaza since October, even after aid organisations provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
HRW said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not issue warnings to the aid organisations before the strikes, which killed or injured at least 31 people.
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