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Trivia, historical amnesia and dirty tricks have become the new norm. Neither party leader has the courage to buck that trendWhen someone is said to look or sound like a politician it is never a compliment. That is unfortunate for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Both were chosen to lead their respective parties because they offered a style of leadership that was more conventional, more typically political, than their predecessors.Starmer’s pressed suits and lawyerly demeanour promised a new direction even before his disposal of Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto. Sunak’s brand as the diligent managerial type was cultivated by proximity to Boris Johnson, who embodied the opposite. It still took 40 days of Liz Truss for Tory MPs to grasp that seriousness is indispensable in a prime minister.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Conservative lawmaker issues partial apology for calling trans people ‘demons and imps’ during hearing on bathroom billA Republican Florida state lawmaker has made a partial apology for calling transgender people “demons”, “imps” and “mutants” during a hearing on a contentious bathroom bill.Webster Barnaby, a self-described “proud Christian conservative”, said his “indignation was stirred” by members of the transgender community who spoke out on Monday against the bill banning them from bathrooms not aligned to their gender at birth. Continue reading...

Makeup of the United States team remains a thorny issue with notable performances from interlopers at the MastersThe latest batch of United States Ryder Cup rankings featured interlopers. Brooks Koepka has risen to 16th position, Phil Mickelson sits 20th on the table and Patrick Reed has leaped to 33rd.The performance of LIV golfers at the Masters has reignited the Ryder Cup conversation.The sense that Europe will not be materially harmed by defections to the LIV circuit was only endorsed by Jon Rahm’s win at Augusta National. Luke Donald will call on a Masters champion. In Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Matt Fitzpatrick, he has the core of a formidable team. Continue reading...

What do so many of the world’s most powerful men have in common? In lesser jobs they would have long been put out to pasture“His holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way,” announces an apology from the office of the Dalai Lama, sounding for all the world like one of those statements issued in the first wave of #MeToo, as various older men made pained and absurd reference to “unwanted hugs” (Pixar’s John Lasseter) or a belief that they had been “pursuing shared feelings” (talkshow host Charlie Rose). Students of these mea-not-really-culpas were left with the impression that the victims’ misunderstanding was the real tragedy here, unless you counted the very belated losses of various glittering careers, which were obviously also desperately sad.The specific “people” to which this current Dalai Lama apology refers are, in fact, one person – more accurately one young boy, who was invited to “suck my tongue” by the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, on stage at a temple in India. The event took place in February, but has only just gone viral, meaning an apology has only now been deemed necessary by his holiness, or rather by his holiness’s office. Continue reading...

He’s rocketing toward a Republican nomination – and alienating independent voters crucial in the general electionIn February, Ron DeSantis led Donald Trump 45% to 41% in the Yahoo/YouGov poll. But Trump’s indictment has reversed the race.Just after Trump said he would be arrested, he moved into the lead – 47% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters preferred him, compared with 39% for DeSantis. Now, after his arraignment, Trump’s lead has widened – 57% to 31%.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

It doesn’t matter if you think abortion will be legal where you live – the anti-abortion movement wants a national banToday in America, it doesn’t matter if you live in a Democratic-controlled state. It doesn’t matter if you live on the coasts, or if your governor is Democratic, or if Biden won your congressional district in 2020 by more than 20 points. It doesn’t matter if you live in a city that has more gay bars than churches or where every church flies a pride flag; it doesn’t matter if every mom you know planned all of her pregnancies, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve been managing your own reproduction rights with flexibility and privacy for your whole adult life.It doesn’t matter if you think you’re safe or that abortion will always be legal where you live. Because the anti-abortion movement wants to impose a national ban on abortion and to take away your right to one. And they already have enough of their partisans in high enough positions – in elected office, yes, but mostly on the federal courts – to do so right now.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Bill passed by Republican-controlled state legislature to allow permitless carry reflects a rightward lurch in Florida’s politicsGovernor Ron DeSantis went to the Florida capitol earlier this month to sign a bill behind closed doors with a handful of his allies. The bill, one of many hard-right proposals that Florida Republicans hope to pass during this legislative session, has stoked fear and outrage among gun safety advocates: permitless carry.With Republicans’ sweeping control of the state legislature and governorship, the bill – which would allow Floridians to carry guns without a permit or training – easily passed both chambers before being signed into law by DeSantis. The Florida house approved the bill late last month in a vote of 76 to 32, and the senate then passed the proposal in a vote of 27 to 13. Continue reading...

Judicial Watch’s move to align with Trump against the Electronic Registration Information Center has been called ‘pure politics’An influential conservative group that has filed numerous lawsuits to force states to clean up their voter rolls, has joined Donald Trump and other election denial groups in attacking the most robust tool that accurately improves those voter rolls.Judicial Watch, whose leader Tom Fitton urged Trump in 2020 to claim victory before all the votes were tallied, released a flawed report alleging potential violations of federal law by the Electronic Registration Information Center (Eric), a bipartisan consortium of over two dozen states that exchange voter registration data to ensure election security. Continue reading...

For a coalition of young voters and those from communities of color, Johnson represented the prospect of a refreshing change“Paul Vallas represents the wealthy, the rich, the corporations. Brandon Johnson represents the people,” said Angel Gonzalez, a high school senior student and community organizer.On 4 April, Chicago voters narrowly elected Brandon Johnson to be their new mayor, the former Cook county commissioner who campaigned on offering progressive solutions to Chicago’s mainstay issues of education, inequality and public safety. Continue reading...

Defence secretary speaks to South Korean counterpart after leak suggesting US was spying on Seoul’s internal discussions on arms sales. Plus, the man who walked around the world

Defence secretary speaks to South Korean counterpart after leak suggesting US was spying on Seoul’s internal discussions on arms salesThe US is attempting to mend fences with key allies after leaked Pentagon documents claimed Washington had been spying on friendly countries including South Korea and Israel.The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his South Korean counterpart on Tuesday as officials in Seoul denied the possibility that the president’s office could have been the source of leaks over South Korean arms sales to the US. Continue reading...

The Swiss midfielder opens up about growing up amid the Kosovo War, his new life in the Windy City and why he’s backing Jurgen Klopp to reverse Liverpool’s fortunesThere is something about Xherdan Shaqiri. He has a presence. At just 5ft 7in, it’s not his towering height.The former Liverpool, Stoke City, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan is in a relaxed mood following a training session with Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire. Casual. Polite. But then I see it. A glance. A flash of the eyes that reveals something more. A reminder perhaps of a long journey that began in Gjilan, Kosovo. Or Yugoslavia as it was, when he was born in 1991. Continue reading...

London-listed cinema chain to restructure £4bn debt pile after filing for Chapter 11 protection in USShareholders in Cineworld will be wiped out under the embattled cinema operator’s latest proposals to reorganise the business and exit bankruptcy.The London-listed chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in autumn, said it had filed a reorganisation plan with an American bankruptcy court. Continue reading...

Massachusetts, California and Washington pledge to provide medication after a federal judge invalidated 23-year FDA approvalSeveral Democratic governors have moved swiftly to protect access to medication abortion in their states after a ruling by a Texas judge late last week threatened access to the widely used abortion drug mifepristone.In an announcement on Monday, Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts said her state had ordered about 15,000 doses of mifepristone, the first of two drugs in a medication abortion regimen that has been approved for use up to the 10th week of pregnancy. Continue reading...

Logistical, political and security challenges mean few details of the US president’s trip have been confirmed, but anticipation is mounting in several locationsWith just hours remaining until Joe Biden arrives in Belfast there is still no confirmation that the US president is going to pay a visit to his ancestral home towns in the picturesque Cooley Peninsula south of the border with Northern Ireland.The arrival of the 46th president in Belfast on Tuesday night and in the Republic of Ireland for a three-day visit on Wednesday has been shrouded in secrecy. Continue reading...

As a teenager ‘kit anxiety’ nearly made me quit. The England Lionesses switch from white shorts to blue is a step forward• Catherine Spencer is a rugby commentator and former England captainIn my late 20s and early 30s, I was captain of the England rugby team. But as a teenager, gym knickers and leotards nearly put me off sport and exercise for good. I left school over 25 years ago now, but I can still clearly recall how awkward I felt walking across the school playing fields on my own in a pair of extremely unflattering navy blue pants, past groups of girls huddled together and laughing – I was sure – at my tree trunk legs.At that stage, a discus was the only thing guarding my embarrassment. I was 14, and I had been persuaded to practise on my own at lunchtimes in preparation for the district games. I completely flopped at the games – standing alone, at the centre of the discus throw circle, feeling like everyone was staring at me, and feeling as though I was hardly dressed. Continue reading...

Since Bilan, the country’s only all-women media house, was born last April, we’ve covered everything from HIV to opioids. Now we want to go globalBeing a journalist in Somalia is a dangerous business, especially if you are a woman. More so if you want to cover taboo topics. But that is not going to stop me or any of my colleagues at Bilan, the country’s only all-female media house, which celebrates its first birthday on Tuesday. After all, Bilan is a Somali word that means “shining a light”.One of the most difficult subjects I have tackled is female drug addiction in Somalia. I decided to do so after a 22-year-old social media influencer was found dead from a suspected opioid overdose on the streets of Mogadishu. Nobody wanted to talk about the increasing numbers of young women injecting drugs and popping pills because it was seen as shameful for the whole society. Continue reading...

Dave Urban at Lowe’s built parallel bars so that boy, five, who has quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy could practice walkingA US hardware store employee has warmed hearts across his community and beyond by building a contraption meant to help a young boy with a severe movement disorder learn how to walk, going above the call of duty while on the clock.Dave Urban was working his job at a Lowe’s store in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, when he spotted the parents of five-year-old William Getty pushing his wheelchair down an aisle displaying plastic water pipes. He asked Getty’s father, Mark, and mother, Jessica, what they were looking for, and they said they wanted some PVC pipes to build some parallel bars on which they could teach their son how to walk, the local television station WTXF reported recently. Continue reading...

The show’s most consequential episodes happen at family gatherings – we really should have been better preparedBefore we go any further, it is important to note that this is absolutely your very last chance to avoid several major Succession spoilers. If you haven’t watched this week’s episode yet, go and do that now, and then come back and read this.What you have to remember is that this was supposed to have happened years ago. When Jesse Armstrong was developing Succession, the plan was for Logan Roy – doddery old senile Logan Roy, a man clearly on his last legs – to die after just a few episodes. After all, this was a show entitled Succession, so it made sense that it would primarily involve a number of offspring and former business associates tearing at the man’s corpse for a bigger piece of the pie.Succession airs on Sky Atlantic and streams on NOW Continue reading...

The attacker, who livestreamed the shooting, was killed by police but not before he injured eight othersA Louisville bank employee armed with a rifle opened fire at his workplace on Monday morning, killing five people – including a close friend of Kentucky’s governor – while livestreaming the attack on Instagram, authorities said.Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville metro police department chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. The city’s mayor, Craig Greenberg, called the attack “an evil act of targeted violence”. Continue reading...

The Wall Street Journal reporter was imprisoned by Russian authorities for espionageThe US state department has officially designated Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia, as being wrongfully detained, signalling that Washington views the espionage charges against him as bogus and that he is being held as a hostage.“Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia and its ongoing war against the truth,” the state department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said in a statement announcing the designation. “The US government will provide all appropriate support to Mr Gershkovich and his family. We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr Gershkovich.” Continue reading...

Republican majority had ousted Jones and fellow house member Justin Pearson over protests they led demanding gun controlThe city of Nashville’s governing council on Monday afternoon voted unanimously to return expelled Black lawmaker Justin Jones to the Tennessee state legislature.The body’s Republican majority state lawmakers had expelled Jones and fellow house member Justin Pearson late last week because they led protests in the chamber demanding gun control after yet another mass shooting in an American school, this one at an elementary school in the city days before. Continue reading...

Chief justice John Roberts pressed to open inquiry into conduct deemed inconsistent with ethical standardsThe US Senate judiciary committee’s Democratic members on Monday unanimously urged the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, to investigate luxury trips taken by associate justice Clarence Thomas that were paid for by a hugely wealthy Republican party donor.The senators deemed the justice’s conduct inconsistent with ethical standards for “any person in a position of public trust”, they said. Continue reading...

Judiciary committee will review supreme court justice’s undeclared luxury travel with Republican mega-donor Harlan CrowDonald Trump is trying to prevent his former vice-president, Mike Pence, from testifying to the grand jury investigating the January 6 insurrection, NBC News reports:Earlier this month, Pence decided to drop his legal challenge to the subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the insurrection at the Capitol in addition to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago. Continue reading...

Justice department calls decision ‘especially unwarranted’ because it undermines the FDA’s scientific judgmentThe US government on Monday appealed a Texas judge’s decision to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of a key abortion drug, saying the ruling endangered women’s health by blocking access to a pill long deemed safe.In a filing with the 5th US circuit court of appeals, the Department of Justice (DoJ) called judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision on the drug mifepristone “especially unwarranted” because it would undermine the FDA’s scientific judgment and harm women for whom the drug is medically necessary. Continue reading...

Deja Taylor was charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for events leading to her child allegedly shooting first-grade teacherA Virginia grand jury on Monday indicted the mother of a six-year-old who shot an elementary school teacher in Newport News in January, charging her with crimes related to felony child neglect and firearms possession.On 6 January, 25-year-old teacher Abigail Zwerner was badly wounded by a first-grade student in her classroom at Richneck elementary school – with the incident occurring after school officials received warnings that the boy had a gun at school and was in a “violent mood”. Continue reading...

Classified documents revealing Ukraine military troubles and US intel gathering against allies were probably spread through gaming serversThe evidence emerging on the leak of classified US defence documents suggests that it was probably not some dastardly hacking or disinformation plot by Russia or the US, but rather another example of how carelessly Washington handles its secrets.The least likely version of reality is the one being circulated among Kremlin supporters, that it was a clever piece of CIA distraction ultimately aimed at demoralising Russians by showing how many lives they had lost, and how badly their war was going in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Disclosure already represents worst national security breach in years, and analysts suggest damage to US could get worseThe recent leak of more than a hundred secret US defense documents could just be the “tip of the iceberg” of a trove of material that had started circulating long before it was widely noticed, according to a new report.The disclosure of highly classified material already represents Washington’s worst national security breach in many years, including details about Ukraine’s lack of ammunition, US intelligence collection methods used against Russia, and embarrassing evidence pointing to US spying on close allies such as Ukraine, South Korea and Israel. Analysts suggest the damage to the US could still get much worse. Continue reading...

Judge rules lawsuit accusing Staley of concealing what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein cannot be separated from two related claimsA federal US judge rejected requests to sever JP Morgan’s lawsuit accusing former executive Jes Staley of concealing what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein from two related lawsuits over the bank’s work for the convicted sex offender.Monday’s decision by Judge Jed Rakoff in US district court in Manhattan is a defeat for Staley, as well as for women who claim Epstein sexually abused them and who are also suing the largest American bank. Continue reading...

Champion offers validation for traditional ecosystem but Mickelson’s heroics show LIV rebels can still mix with the best at the majorsThe zany world of golf has never been better explained than the prize fund this week at the RBC Heritage event on the PGA Tour. This standard competition stop carries a $20m purse, making it $2m more lucrative than the Masters. So much for after the lord mayor’s show.The reason for this anomaly, of course, can be found in the multiple kitchen sinks the Tour threw at leading players in order to prevent a talent drain to LIV Golf. Those in the top echelon have never had it so good. In return, tournaments such as the RBC event this week at Harbour Town have star appeal. Continue reading...

President, 80, tells NBC’s Al Roker about plans to campaign for re-election but says ‘we’re not prepared to announce it yet’Joe Biden has given his strongest hint yet that he intends to run for re-election in 2024, but said he is “not prepared to announce it yet”.The president has previously indicated that he intends to stand again despite a low approval rating in opinion polls and voter concerns over his age. At 80, he is the oldest president in American history. Continue reading...

At least five people were killed and eight others wounded in a mass shooting on Monday morning inside a bank in Louisville, Kentucky. One of the victims was a police officer, and the attacker was among those shot dead, authorities said. 'There is no active danger known to the public at this time,' the deputy chief of the Louisville metro police department, Paul Humphrey, told reporters.

LIV rebel rolled back the years with a final-round flourish but futures of the two biggest names in golf are up in the airMasters week in April is always a long one in Augusta. The Monday before the major, all the talk around the course was about Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, who were out playing a practice round together. Whether it really was or not, their pairing felt like a pointed rejoinder to the LIV golfers who were still arriving at the course. Woods and McIlroy aren’t just the two biggest names in the game, but the two most outspoken critics of the breakaway tour. And here they were, taking ownership of the biggest stage.Augusta National is a spacious place, but when Woods and McIlroy are out and about there’s not a lot of room left for anyone else. Continue reading...

The blithe indifference of too many countries means Putin may feel safe, but history shows a determined world can prosecute evilDictators like Vladimir Putin and populists such as Donald Trump have had a good last couple of weeks. A leak of intelligence documents has exposed highly classified US military secrets, damaging relations with key allies and revealing weaknesses in Ukraine’s defences. And the arraignment of the former US president on hush-money charges may well have boosted his re-election chances. So there are more reasons than usual to be fearful about the resilience of liberal democracy.Just as confidence may be ebbing, it is salutary to visit Nuremberg to remember what the fight is all about. This city was Hitler’s true home. It was where the Nazis held their annual rallies and promulgated their race laws, differentiating the purity of Aryan blood from that of the Jews, setting in train the Holocaust. Continue reading...

Republican attorney general criticized by victim advocates that also ends state paying for abortions in similar circumstancesThe Iowa attorney general’s office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception – and in rare cases, abortions – for victims of sexual assault, a move that has drawn criticism from some victim advocates.Federal regulations and state law require Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Under the previous attorney general, Democrat Tom Miller, Iowa’s victim compensation fund also paid for Plan B, the so-called morning-after pill, as well as other treatments to prevent pregnancy. Continue reading...

Black legislators were expelled for protesting the Republican-controlled house’s inaction after Nashville mass shootingTwo Tennessee state lawmakers who were expelled from the legislature after partaking in a gun control protest inside the chamber to which they were elected have called the move an unprecedented act of political retaliation as well as an “attempt to crucify democracy”.During an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Easter Sunday, Justin Jones said his and Justin Pearson’s removals from the Tennessee house of representatives would “not go on unchallenged”.This article was amended on 10 April 2023 to clarify that the protests in question were inside the state house. Continue reading...

‘Tennessee Three’ were accused of breaching ‘decorum’ of the legislature, but civil disobedience is key to resisting tyrannyThis past week, a Republican supermajority voted to expel two young African American men from the Tennessee legislature; a third Democrat – who happens to be white and female – only narrowly escaped this punishment. The charge? The lawmakers, who are now being called “the Tennessee Three”, had participated in a protest against the GOP’s cynical inaction after the elementary school shooting in Nashville on 27 March.According to Republicans, using bullhorns breached the “decorum” of the legislature. This de facto disfranchisement demonstrates yet again that the problem with the GOP is not one lone demagogue (who may or may not be consumed by lawsuits), but a commitment by plenty of its members to authoritarianism at federal, state and local levels. Continue reading...

The GOP is internally divided, filled with self-serving carnival-barkers, and beholden to cruel positions that appall most votersIt was supposed to be the Republican party’s last stand, in a state where they had exercised near-absolute control for years, and they had every hope of putting up a good fight. Yet in the end, it wasn’t even close.Millions of dollars had poured into Wisconsin ahead of an election for a seat on the state supreme court, a hotly contested race between a liberal judge and one backed by moneyed rightwing interests. The stakes were high: Wisconsin’s state legislature has been gerrymandered out of competitiveness for more than a decade, for one thing, meaning that the state, which has a roughly even split between Democratic and Republican voters, had nevertheless become a grim experiment in one-party rule, with Republicans commanding a majority of statehouse seats despite receiving far fewer votes proportionally. Federal elections in Wisconsin seemed worryingly vulnerable, too: when Trump sued over his 2020 loss there, making spurious claims of election fraud, the Republican-controlled state supreme court ruled against him by only one vote. Continue reading...

The low-income community of Pajaro, California, was devastated by floodwaters last month, but help with cleanup is hard to findOne month after rushing waters engulfed Pajaro, residents of the central California town are grappling with the next chapter in the unfolding disaster: cleanup has been arduous and slow.On 11 March, the small, low-income Latino community set inland along the central coast bore the brunt of a punishing winter storm when torrential rains engorged its namesake river and caused aging levees to fail. Continue reading...

Florida governor sees state as ‘blueprint’ for America, but his policies may not be as popular – or successful – as they seemThe title of Governor Ron DeSantis’s book, which he is zealously promoting across the nation, is less important than the subtitle. The Courage to Be Free is a forgettable title shared by a volume by actor and gun rights activist Charlton Heston. But the subtitle, Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, unlocks DeSantis’s national ambitions.While former US president Donald Trump labours under the frayed slogan of “Make America great again”, DeSantis is building a case to “Make America Florida” – a phrase that appears on caps, flags and other merchandise. Continue reading...

Ex-president hopes his legal woes will harden support from his base, but general election voters may recoil at his felony charges. Plus, a historian’s view of tying the knotGood morning.Donald Trump appeared angry and shaken during his arraignment in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday, but he had brushed off the moment by the weekend, contending that the indictment and other legal troubles would carry him to the 2024 Republican nomination, people close to him said.Why does Trump think it will help him? The benefits to Trump of using for campaign purposes his indictment over hush money allegedly paid to the adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 has been readily apparent, providing him with a boost across all areas: in polling, fundraising and in wall-to-wall media coverage.What other trouble is Trump facing? As well as state and federal investigations of his election subversion, a federal investigation of his retention of classified records and a civil lawsuit over his business practices, he faces a civil defamation suit arising from an allegation of rape.What did Fox News say? “This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides,” it said in a statement on Sunday. “We have no further comment.” Lawyers for Fox News and Dobbs referred Reuters to the statement. Khalil’s lawyer did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Continue reading...

Less than 12 months after an improbable run to the Western Conference finals, the Mavericks have fallen apart and emerged as one of the NBA’s biggest jokes. How? It takes a villageAfter committing one of the most egregious tank jobs in NBA history on Friday, the Mavericks have set the stage for Luka Dončić to leave the franchise within the next two years. No sooner had Dallas waved the white flag and sat five key players in game they had to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive did NBA commissioner Adam Silver open an investigation into the Mavericks’ desperate, transparent attempt to hold onto their first-round draft pick this year.How did the Mavs, less than 12 months removed from the doorstep of the NBA finals, become the biggest poverty franchise in the entire league? Continue reading...

Ex-president hopes his legal woes will harden support from his base, but general election voters might recoil at his felony chargesDonald Trump appeared angry and shaken during his arraignment in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday, but he had brushed off the moment by the weekend, contending that the indictment and other legal troubles would carry him to the 2024 Republican nomination, people close to him said.With his status as a criminal defendant subjecting him to the structures of the judicial process, the former president is playing an increasingly high-stakes game to inextricably tie his legal strategy to his political gameplan as he seeks to recapture the Oval Office next year. Continue reading...

Jim Trusty, on ABC’s This Week, said the ex-president’s team will file ‘robust motions’ before the case even reaches its trial stageWhile Donald Trump launches verbal attacks against the prosecutor and judge overseeing his criminal charges in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, an attorney for the former US president has said his main focus is on legal maneuvers aiming to get the case dismissed long before a trial jury is ever seated.Jim Trusty appeared on Sunday on ABC’s This Week and argued that “there’s a lot to play with” when examining whether New York state prosecutors waited too long to secure an indictment against Trump and if the ex-president intended to commit any crimes with the payments at the center of the case. Continue reading...

Ex-attorney general says former president has ‘penchant for engaging in reckless behavior’ and why he’s facing indictmentsDonald Trump “has a penchant for engaging in reckless and self-destructive behavior” and is facing a serious threat of a federal indictment over his handling of classified documents and his supporters’ deadly January 6 attack on the US capitol, his former attorney general William Barr said on Sunday.“He’s dug himself a hole on the documents and also on the January 6 stuff,” Barr said of the former president during an interview on ABC’s This Week. “That was reckless behavior that was destined to end up being investigated. So it doesn’t surprise me that he has all these legal problems.” Continue reading...

Documents dating from February suggest looming risk to Ukraine’s ability to protect troops and vital sites from Russian airpower

Prosecutors say the woman was later stopped in a car with cash scattered on its floor and was ‘very stern’ with policeA 78-year-old woman with two past bank robbery convictions faces new charges after allegedly carrying out a heist in Missouri during which she handed a teller a note that said “I didn’t mean to scare you”.Bonnie Gooch has been jailed on a $25,000 bond after she was charged with one count of stealing or attempting to steal from a financial institution in the holdup last Wednesday in Pleasant Hill, the Kansas City Star reported. Continue reading...

A 58-year-old received life-saving treatment after being bitten on the leg by a shark, said authoritiesA surfer is in serious condition after being bitten on the leg by a shark off Honolulu, authorities in Hawaii have said.The 58-year-old man was attacked shortly before 7am on Sunday near Kewalo Basin, according to Honolulu Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Local reports suggested an 8-foot tiger shark was seen in the area. Continue reading...