This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on Trump’s arraignment here.
After listing off a number of grievances, attacking those involved in the multiple investigations and criminal cases against him, and rambling a number of of-repeated falsehoods about the 2020 elections, he walked off stage.
The speech was in many ways a standard performance, but shorter.
Continue reading...Andrés Manuel López Obrador asks China to curb exports of opioid after lengthy denunciation of similar calls from US
Mexico’s president has written to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, urging him to help control shipments of fentanyl, while also complaining of “rude” US pressure to curb the drug trade.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has previously said that fentanyl is the US’s problem and is caused by “a lack of hugs” in US families. On Tuesday he read out the letter to Xi dated 22 March in which he defended efforts to curb supply of the deadly drug, while rounding on US critics.
Continue reading...The first former US president to face criminal charges will appear in court at about 14.15ET (18.15 GMT / 19.15 BST)
The Hill this morning is carrying some quotes from Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House Republican leadership. Weber is warning that the indictment of former president Donald Trump sets a dangerous precedent.
He argues that the impeachment of Bill Clinton lowered the bar for what might be considered an impeachable offence, and that the Stormy Daniels hush money case is doing the same, and risks people attempting political prosecutions of their opponents in the future. He said:
I think it’s bad for America, bad for the Republican Party and it’s bad for the political system in our country. Once you start down this path, there’s no way you’re going to reverse it. That’s what we saw with impeachment.
We’re going to see political prosecutions brought, some of them for meritorious reasons, some of them to advance the careers of the prosecutors. But all of this is harmful to America and our political process.
Continue reading...Republican legislators introduce resolution to remove trio after they supported protest in wake of Nashville school shooting
Republican legislators in Tennessee have begun the process of expelling three Democratic colleagues from the conservative-controlled house over their support for a gun control protest at the state capitol days after a deadly school shooting in Nashville.
On Thursday, hundreds gathered at the capitol to protest against the absence of gun control measures after three nine-year-old students and three staff members were killed at the Covenant school last week, according to a report in the Tennessean.
Continue reading...Jill Biden’s press secretary has walked back comments the first lady made about inviting Iowa’s women’s basketball team to the White House after their loss in the NCAA championship game on Sunday.
Biden watched LSU’s 102-85 victory over Iowa from the stands at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday night. National champions often visit the White House after title victories, but Biden broke with tradition when she suggested Iowa could too.
Continue reading...CEO’s comments are latest round in bitter feud between governor and state’s largest corporate employer over ‘don’t say gay’ law
Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, has lambasted the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, as “anti-business and anti-Florida” in the latest round of a bitter public battle between the Sunshine state’s most powerful corporation and its top elected official.
DeSantis and his Republican allies in the state legislature have targeted Walt Disney World, the Orlando-area entertainment resort that employs 75,000 people, since the company spoke out against the controversial Florida “don’t say gay” law curtailing classroom discussion of gender identity and sexuality amid mounting pressure from its employees to take a stand.
Continue reading...Workers trapped under collapsed rubble in trench near terminal 7 pronounced dead at the scene
Two construction workers were killed in a job site accident at New York’s John F Kennedy international airport on Monday, officials said.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said the two workers were trapped under construction rubble at about 11am. A spokesperson for New York City’s fire department said the rubble collapsed in a trench near the airport’s busy terminal 7.
Continue reading...Stephen Smith was found dead on a highway in 2015 but lawyers for mother say no evidence links death to Murdaugh family
A second autopsy was completed this weekend on the exhumed body of a teenager found dead nearly eight years ago on a South Carolina road, according to the family’s lawyer, after the public attention surrounding Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial boosted a mother’s search for answers in the unsolved case.
Lawyers for the mother of Stephen Smith have said there is no evidence linking his death to the Murdaugh family, and state investigators have remained tight-lipped since taking the case around the same time police said Murdaugh killed his wife and son.
Continue reading...Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri said to have been responsible for planning IS attacks in Europe
The US military has said it carried out a strike in Syria, killing a senior Islamic State group official responsible for planning attacks in Europe.
The strike in the north-west of the country on Monday killed the senior IS leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, US Central Command said.
Continue reading...Coors Light and Blue Moon shipments spilled beside the Clark Fork River in Paradise, leaving a difficult mess
A train derailment beside a scenic western Montana river has spilled powdered clay and huge amounts of beer, leaving crews with a daunting cleanup.
The train derailed on Sunday across the river from Quinn’s Hot Springs Resort in Paradise, spilling cases of Coors Light and Blue Moon beer in cans and bottles, the Missoulian reported. No injuries have been reported.
Continue reading...Ex-president departed Florida around midday and is expected to appear at the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday afternoon
Donald Trump arrived in New York City on Monday, a day before he is due for a hotly anticipated court appearance where he’ll respond to the first ever criminal indictment filed against a former American president.
At about 2.15pm ET on Tuesday, he will appear at the courthouse where a grand jury convened by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg handed down its indictment last week, to learn the exact details of which laws he is alleged to have broken. At his arraignment, he is expected to be photographed and fingerprinted, but will not be handcuffed per an agreement his legal team reached with Bragg, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said last week.
Continue reading...At the heart of the case is Jho Low, a fugitive accused of being the mastermind behind the Malaysian 1MDB scandal
Leonardo DiCaprio testified in a federal court on Monday morning as part of a trial involving international money laundering, bribery and a prominent rap artist.
Prakazrel “Pras” Michel – a founding member of the iconic 1990s hip-hop group, The Fugees – is accused of funneling money from a fugitive Malaysian financier through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Five years later, prosecutors say he tried to squelch an investigation into that same financier under Donald Trump’s administration.
Continue reading...Jimin’s single Like Crazy is the 66th track ever to debut at the peak of the Hot 100 chart, and the first by a South Korean solo artist
Jimin, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, has made history as the first South Korean solo artist to land the No 1 spot on the top US songs chart, Billboard announced on Monday.
The single, Like Crazy, debuted at No 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 this week, bumping Miley Cyrus’s track Flowers out of the top spot, where it had reigned for eight weeks.
Continue reading...Originally awarded $130m, which a judge reduced to $15m, plaintiff opted for new trial against the electric vehicle maker
Tesla will pay about $3.2m to a Black former employee after a federal jury in San Francisco ruled the electric-vehicle maker failed to prevent severe racial harassment at its flagship assembly plant in California.
The amount is far less than the $15m that the plaintiff, Owen Diaz, rejected last year in opting for a new trial. Diaz asked for a new trial on damages after the judge reduced the amount he was awarded in a 2021 ruling from $137m to $15m. Diaz accused Tesla of failing to act when he repeatedly complained to managers that employees at the Fremont factory frequently used racist slurs and scrawled swastikas, racist caricatures and epithets on walls and work areas.
Continue reading...China previously warned McCarthy he is ‘playing with fire’ over the meeting and risks ‘serious confrontation’
Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen will meet with US House speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, the Republican’s office has confirmed, in defiance of warnings from Beijing that such a meeting would be a “provocation”.
Tsai is scheduled to make a stopover in California after state visits to Belize and Guatemala, Taiwan’s last remaining Central American diplomatic allies. McCarthy’s office said on Monday the “bipartisan” meeting would take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, outside Los Angeles.
Continue reading...Abortion legislation needs to move through house before gaining DeSantis’s likely signature while gun-carry law enacted today
Florida took another step to the right on Monday when the state senate approved a bill to ban abortions after six weeks, a measure supported by Republican governor and expected presidential candidate Ron DeSantis – who on the same day signed into law a bill allowing the public to carry concealed guns without a permit.
The latest proposal to restrict reproductive rights must still be approved by the house in the state legislature before it reaches the governor’s desk. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.
Continue reading...Experts think snowpack will be either the first or second biggest documented in 70 years after winter of extreme storms
California’s winter of extreme storms has brought the drought-ravaged state one of the largest snowpacks on record, with officials saying on Monday that they expect it could be the greatest documented in 70 years.
As of Monday the state’s snowpack stands at 237% of the annual average, the department of water resources (DWR) announced at a press conference.
Continue reading...US defence department releases statement saying object was used in training after photo emerged of military inspection
The Pentagon has said that a picture that featured in a report by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) on Monday about apparent damage to a US nuclear bomb at a Dutch airbase was a dummy weapon used for training emergency response teams.
FAS published a photograph of a B61 bomb being inspected for damage by US soldiers, including two from an explosive ordnance disposal unit, and a civilian. The rear of the bomb appears to have been twisted by an impact and one of the tail fins is missing. There is pink sticky tape covering an apparent hole.
Continue reading...The Akwesasne Mohawk police service continue a search for resident Casey Oakes as new details of victims emerge
Police investigating the drowning of eight people attempting to cross a river between Canada the the United States are searching for a man believed to be linked to people-smuggling, as new details of the victims emerge.
The bodies of eight people, including two young children, were discovered last week along the marshy banks of the St Lawrence River near the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, which spans Quebec, Ontario and New York state.
Continue reading...Former president to be arraigned on Tuesday in hush money case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg
Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba has made a prickly appearance on CNN’s This Morning, insisting that a mugshot of her boss, something usually required of all defendants when they are arraigned in New York district court, would be merely “theatrics”.
Habba told host Don Lemon:
Mugshots are for people so that you recognize who they are. He’s the most recognized face in the world, let alone the country, right now, so there’s no need for that.
I’m not in a deposition right now and I’m not going to continue this conversation.
Continue reading...