Category Archives: US News

Historic Trump hush money trial to hear opening statements – live updates

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Former president accused of falsifying business records to cover up an attempt to influence 2016 election

Well, after all the appeals and bombast and tears, it’s finally here: opening statements in the first criminal trial of a US president.

Jury selection in the case of the People of the State of New York versus Donald Trump wrapped up last week, though not without some difficulty. Hundreds of prospective jurors were dismissed, several cried, and a couple of them quit after they were chosen.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia says US aid will not change war dynamic; Poland ready to host nuclear weapons, says president

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Kremlin says ‘more Ukrainians will die’ following US agreement of new aid package; Andrzej Duda says country could host nuclear arms

A new US package of military aid to Ukraine will not change the situation on the frontlines, where Russia has the upper hand, the Kremlin said.

“The Russian armed forces are improving their positions at the front … The money allocated and the weapons that will be supplied will not change this dynamic,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

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Historic Trump criminal trial to hear opening statements | First Thing

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Jury to consider testimony related to $130,000 payment from Trump fixer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Plus, Louisiana’s flagship university lets oil firms pay to influence its research

Good morning.

Donald Trump’s historic hush-money case is due to begin in earnest on Monday with opening statements that mark a momentous day in US history.

What other legal difficulties does Trump face? Three other criminal cases: federal charges related to the January 6 insurrection and his handling of classified documents, and state-level charges in Georgia for allegedly attempting to undermine the 2020 election results. However, the hush-money case is likely to be the only one to come to trial before the presidential election in November.

How significant would sanctions be? Very – it would be the first time the US government has targeted an IDF unit.

What is the latest from Israel? Israeli military intelligence head Aharon Haliva has resigned over the Israeli military’s failure to prevent the 7 October attack.

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Pro-Israel US groups plan $100m effort to unseat progressives over Gaza

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Aipac and other groups targeting candidates critical of Israel’s war in Gaza – but progressives are not going down without a fight

Pro-Israel groups are pumping millions into this year’s heated congressional races, singling out progressives who have voiced criticism of the Israeli government and its relentless campaign in Gaza.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) is betting that $100m will be enough to fight back a wave of progressive dissent over Israel’s war in Gaza this election cycle. After investing heavily in the 2022 midterms, Aipac is now doubling down on its electoral efforts.

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Aipac: the pro-Israel group planning to spend millions in US elections

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The lobby group has been a powerful force in American politics – but has Israel’s war in Gaza changed the equation?

A handful of pro-Israel groups fund political campaigns in support of individual candidates in US elections, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), a powerful force in American politics. Before the 2024 election, Aipac plans to spend tens of millions of dollars against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, whom it deems insufficiently supportive of Israel.

Aipac and other pro-Israel lobby groups have recruited and supported challengers to a number of lawmakers and candidates – most notably members of the Squad, the group of progressive representatives who are particularly vocal in their criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

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Elon Musk postpones India trip, citing ‘heavy obligations’ at Tesla

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CEO was due to meet Narendra Modi but carmaker is likely to report worst performance in seven years

Elon Musk has postponed a trip to India, including a planned meeting with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, after citing “very heavy obligations” at Tesla.

The Tesla chief executive was due to visit on 21 April and 22 April, where he was expected to announce an investment of $2-3bn in the country, according to Reuters, with the spending plans focused on building a new plant in India.

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Cher, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest among 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

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Cher finally recognised 60 years after her first recordings, while Mary J Blige, Peter Frampton and Dave Matthews Band are among the other inductees

Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Mary J Blige and A Tribe Called Quest are among the stars to be added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year – many of them rather overdue.

Artists can be added to the US institution 25 years after their first recording, but Cher – who once described her snub by the Hall as “kind of rude” – has had to wait until 60 years after her first releases with Sonny & Cher to be included.

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Biden marks Earth Day with $7bn ‘solar for all’ investment amid week of climate action

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Funds will be targeted at disadvantaged areas to create 200,000 jobs, after last week’s oil and gas lease restrictions in Alaska

Joe Biden marked Monday’s Earth Day by announcing a $7bn investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be “historic climate actions”.

The president was speaking at Prince William Forest Park, in Triangle, Virginia, touting his environmental record and unveiling measures to tackle the climate crisis and increase access to, and lower costs of, clean energy.

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US journalist Terry Anderson, held hostage in Lebanon in 1980s, dies

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Former chief Middle East correspondent was longest-held western hostage of Shia Muslim groups during crisis

Terry Anderson, a US journalist who was held captive by Islamist militants for almost seven years in Lebanon and came to symbolise the plight of western hostages during the country’s 1975-90 civil war, has died aged 76, his daughter said.

The former chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was the longest-held hostage of the scores of westerners abducted in Lebanon, died on Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said Sulome Anderson, who was born three months after her father was seized. No cause of death was given.

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Approval of $61bn aid from US shows Ukraine will not be abandoned, says Zelenskiy

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Ukrainian president urges Senate to ratify aid package so that country can strengthen frontline with Russia

Ukraine’s president has said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn (£49bn) military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with US television that Saturday’s vote showed Ukraine would not be “a second Afghanistan”, whose pro-western government collapsed during an US-led pullout in the summer of 2021.

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US poised to impose sanctions on IDF unit accused of violations in West Bank

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Israeli leaders vow to oppose expected measures under Leahy law against the Netzah Yehuda battalion

A unit of the Israel Defense Forces is facing US sanctions over its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, even as Congress voted for $26bn in new emergency aid to Israel.

According to reports in the Israeli media, US state department officials have confirmed they are preparing to impose sanctions on the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has been accused of serious human rights violations against Palestinians.

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Does mysterious painting prove blue denim was around 200 years before Levi’s?

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Woman Begging With Two Children, by an unknown artist, shows what appears to be a denim skirt in 17th-century Italy

The origin of the world’s most enduringly popular fabric is in ­dispute, as a new exhibition spotlights a claim that firmly links denim with 17th-­century Italy and takes its history back 200 years.

Blue denim, that all-American ­symbol of informality and a life lived on the open range, is already also contentiously attributed to ­southern France, while modern jeans ­mythology still has it that Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, first came up with the idea of making workwear out of this sturdy cotton in San Francisco 150 years ago.

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Most difficult global outlook since 1930s heralds end of US-led world order | Larry Elliott

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IMF has revised up growth forecasts but medium-term prospects remain poor as globalisation goes into reverse

The 2020s are almost halfway over and are on course to be the most difficult decade for the global economy since the 1930s. Every finance minister and central bank governor at the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Washington last week knows that, even if they were not prepared to admit it publicly.

The IMF likes to look on the bright side. It revised up slightly its forecast for global growth and now thinks scarring from the coronavirus pandemic and the cost of living crisis will be less severe than it originally feared. Interest rates have risen without triggering the recessions that were predicted. A soft landing has been finessed. The performance of some countries – the US and India to take two examples – has been strong.

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Suspected drunk driver crashes into Michigan birthday party, killing children

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Brother and sister, ages five and eight, killed as woman drives 25ft into a building, sheriff says

A young brother and sister died and several people were injured, some of them seriously, when a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver crashed into a young child’s birthday party on Saturday at a boat club, according to a Michigan sheriff.

An eight-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother died at the scene, when a 66-year-old woman crashed 25ft into the building at about 3pm at the Swan Creek Boat Club in Berlin Township, about 30 miles (48km) south of Detroit, the Monroe county sheriff, Troy Goodnough, said.

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Residents push for renaming of Trump Plaza to disassociate from ex-president

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Tenants of the high-rise in New Rochelle, New York, want to abandon the name which has at times affected real estate value

While Donald Trump endures the ignominy of being the first former US president to face criminal trial, there is further humiliation brewing, with a movement to strip the Trump name from a building in his home state.

Residents at Trump Plaza, a 40-story high-rise in the suburban New York city of New Rochelle, are pushing for the building to be renamed and to escape a near-two decade association with the legally-troubled ex-president and real estate mogul.

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Trump cancels North Carolina rally due to storm in first public address since New York trial

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Former president told thousands of supporters gathered at Wilmington airport the event would be rescheduled ‘bigger and better’

Donald Trump called for debates with Joe Biden before cancelling his own appearance at a planned rally in Wilmington, North Carolina as a rain storm approached the airport where it was staged on Saturday.

Trump called as he was approaching the international airport to tell rally goers that the event would be rescheduled “bigger and better”. This would have been the first time he addressed supporters in public after a week of relative silence in a New York courtroom.

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Professors condemn Columbia crackdown on pro-Palestine students

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Columbia and Barnard chapters of nationwide group issue statement claiming ‘flagrant disregard of shared governance’

The Columbia and Barnard chapters of the American Association of University Professors have issued a joint statement condemning Columbia president Minouche Shafik’s crackdowns on student-led pro-Palestinian protests.

In the statement released on Friday, the chapters said: “We are shocked at her failure to mount any defense of the free inquiry central to the educational mission of a university in a democratic society and at her willingness to appease legislators seeking to interfere in university affairs.”

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US House passes bill that could lead to total TikTok ban

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Bill – with updated language that extends deadline to a year for ByteDance to divest of TikTok – to go before Senate next week

The House of Representatives voted 360 to 58 on the updated divest-or-ban bill that could lead to the first time ever that the US government has passed a law to shut down an entire social media platform.

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill next week and Joe Biden has said he will sign the legislation.

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US House approves $61bn in military aid for Ukraine after months of stalling

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Ukrainian president thanks America after Speaker Mike Johnson secures bipartisan support for funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

After months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defense against Russia, as well as billions for other allies including Israel and Taiwan.

In a bipartisan vote, 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans – a majority of the GOP members – voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills onto the floor in the face of fierce resistance within his own Republican party, many of whom oppose spending more on Ukraine’s defense.

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US to withdraw from Niger after security pact fails in strategic victory for Russia

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Biden administration to rethink counter-terrorism strategy after breakdown of pact allowing US forces on soil to fight jihadists

The US will withdraw more than 1,000 military personnel from Niger in a move that will force the Biden administration to rethink its counter-terrorism strategy and amounts to a strategic victory for Russia.

The decision comes a month after the west African country’s ruling military junta revoked a security pact with Washington that had allowed American forces on its soil to help fight jihadist terrorism.

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