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Former president charged with falsifying business records in what prosecutors allege was a conspiracy to influence 2016 election

The conglomerate was prevented from offloading its liability to a subsidiary that immediately declared bankruptcyJohnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $8.9bn to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging that talc in its iconic Baby Powder and other products caused cancer, the company said. The amount dwarfs J&J’s original offer of $2bn.The agreement follows a January appeals court ruling invalidating J&J’s controversial “Texas two-step” bankruptcy maneuver, in which it sought to offload the talc liability on to a subsidiary that immediately filed for Chapter 11. Continue reading...

State chair, Nikki Fried, and senate minority leader, Lauren Book, were charged with trespassing at the state capitol in TallahasseeThe chair of the Florida Democratic party and a Democratic state lawmaker were charged with trespassing after refusing to leave a protest in the state capital, Tallahassee, against a bill to ban abortions after six weeks.The Democratic party chairperson, Nikki Fried, and the state senate minority leader, Lauren Book, were among a small group of protestors arrested late on Monday near the state capitol building and charged with misdemeanor trespass. Continue reading...

The former presidential nominee was also the only Republican to vote to convict the ex-president in both impeachment trialsMitt Romney, the former presidential nominee, who as a Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Donald Trump in both his impeachment trials, criticized the Manhattan district attorney’s office for its handling of the hush money case in which the former president pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said in a statement, as Trump was arraigned. Continue reading...

The ex-president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Below is the full text, along with a statement of facts in the case Continue reading...

Kristi Johnston, 26, is encouraging potential romantic partners to vote in Tuesday’s critical election – is it working?Kristi Johnston, like many young people, spends a good deal of time swiping left and right on various dating apps. But unlike most people looking for love, this is her job.Johnston, 26, is the national press secretary for NextGen, an organization dedicated to getting out the youth vote. Continue reading...

The former president had promised his fans would go wild when he arrived at court – but really, it was all a bit of an anti-climaxReally, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Hundreds of pro- and anti-Trump protesters had gathered outside the Manhattan criminal court, and the crowds were expected to go wild as the former president arrived and was taken into the custody.But in the event, few knew Donald Trump had arrived until he was already in the building and under arrest. Continue reading...

Donald Trump has left the Manhattan criminal court, about two hours after arriving there to be arrested and arraigned over charges linked to an alleged 2016 hush-money scheme.The former president once again declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse, ignoring shouted questions about how he pleaded in the case. Multiple outlets have reported that Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree

Abortion, election rules, legislative maps at stake in most expensive judicial race in US historyVoters in Wisconsin are casting ballots on Tuesday in one of the most important elections of 2023 – a contest that will determine the ideological balance of the state’s supreme court.The court will probably determine the future of abortion in Wisconsin, as a lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 ban is already winding its way through the courts. It is also poised to play a hugely consequential role in setting election rules for the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, a key battleground state. It could also get rid of the state’s legislative maps, which are so distorted in favor of Republicans that it’s nearly impossible for Democrats to ever win a majority. Continue reading...

Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, confirmed that Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records ‘with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime’. At a press conference after Trump’s arraignment, Bragg said the scheme to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels to suppress the story of her alleged affair with the former president ran afoul of multiple laws. He argued his office was obligated to pursue the case against Trump regardless of the former president’s reputation and resources

In the prosaic surroundings of Manhattan criminal court, the show that has enthralled America took its latest captivating turnHe hosted The Apprentice. He played The President. Now, at the age of 76, came the role that Donald Trump had spent his life avoiding: The Defendant.On Tuesday, a single photograph showed Trump sitting in a prosaic New York courtroom with two lawyers to his left and two more to his right. Behind him were two uniformed police officers wearing handcuffs on their belts. One had a police radio on his shoulder, the other a Covid-protective mask over her face. Continue reading...

Five-time champion at Augusta National has not given up hope of competing at age of 47 despite major physical limitationsWhy ask a scorpion why it stings, a lion why it eats red meat, or Tiger Woods whether he believes he can win? Woods has been answering that question in the very same way for the last 25 years now. But on Tuesday someone put it to him again. “This time last year, you said you definitely would not be here unless you thought you had a good chance of winning the tournament. Does that still stand?” And this time Woods’ answer was a little different to the one we’ve grown used to. In fact, for the first time in his life, he didn’t really have one.Woods very deliberately preferred to concentrate on the second part of the journalist’s question, about how his physical condition compared to this time last year, when he scored 71, 74, 78, 78, and finished in 47th place. “I think my game is better than it was last year at this particular time. I think my endurance is better. But my leg aches a little bit more than it did last year.” Continue reading...

Republican legislators introduce resolution to remove trio after they supported protest in wake of Nashville school shootingRepublican 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...

Donald Trump made his way to a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to surrender and be arraigned on criminal charges stemming from 2016 hush money payments. Trump left Trump Tower in a motorcade amid a security lockdown to the court a few blocks away, escorted by the Secret Service. The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Trump is fingerprinted, learns the charges against him and may plead, as expected, not guilty. Merchan has ruled that TV cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom. Trump, who was impeached twice by the House but was never convicted in the Senate, will become the first former president to face criminal charges

We want to hear from readers in the US as Trump becomes the first former president to face criminal chargesDonald Trump is appearing in court on Tuesday to hear criminal charges over his involvement in a hush-money scheme during a critical election month. He is the first former US president to face criminal charges.We want to hear from people in the US about their views on the historic moment. What did you think when you heard the news of his indictment? How do you think this will affect his popularity? How does it make you feel about the 2024 presidential election? Continue reading...

CEO’s comments are latest round in bitter feud between governor and state’s largest corporate employer over ‘don’t say gay’ lawDisney’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...

It’s true that pets are easier to look after than babies – but their owners have some undeniably strange behavioursHere’s an opinion that will get me locked in a crate and pelted with scented cat litter: pets are more socially acceptable than babies because they’re simply easier to love.Last month, Daunt Books published a new anthology called Dog Hearted, in which 14 writers explore, in beautiful, sometimes funny, often melancholy essays, their relationships to dogs. I’m not sure I can imagine a similar title ever being written about babies. Books about parenting (and I include my own) are all called things such as The Most Awful Thing I’ve Ever Done, or Why Did Nobody Tell Me This Was So Utterly Crap? or How the Hell Did This Happen?Nell Frizzell is the author of Holding the Baby: Milk, Sweat and Tears from the Frontline of MotherhoodDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

As prime minister, she was trusted and liked by voters. Then came allegations that she was a ‘party girl’Competent, reasonable, functioning government doesn’t get much spotlight on the world stage, particularly when there are wars and pandemics going on. So when Sanna Marin took office at the end of 2019, it was noted that, at 34, she was Finland’s youngest ever prime minister, and the fourth youngest state leader in the world. But beyond that, she was sorted into the category “progressive, well-intended, needn’t detain us further”. It is a problem for another day that the left is not really interested in its own side, and the right is only interested in the left when it’s in chaos.Various elements of her tenure went mainly unremarked, therefore: her Covid response, her announcement that Finland would apply to join Nato in May 2022, her social and fiscal policies that we might broadly classify as “the business of government”. It was only in the summer of last year, when video footage leaked of her at a party, that she became a talking point. Knowing what we know now about the interplay between tabloid and social media – the way agendas are set by traditional news outlets, then amplified wildly by new media’s insatiable quest for outrage – it felt more like a witch-hunt. She took a drugs test in the middle of August, and tested negative. Obviously, the long game wasn’t to lock her up: it was merely to bring her down. Continue reading...

It’s ever so convenient that at any given moment the thing you care about is never the thing that’s landing them in troubleWhat do “people in the real world” care about? It is a question as old as failing government itself. Yet, crucially, it is something that you – a person, in the real world – are not cleared to answer yourself. Instead, it needs a politician to inform you what you care about – and, much more frequently and much more dismissively, what you don’t care about. Once these permissible areas of giving-a-toss have been delineated, the politicians who told you what they were can get on with the long process of not fixing them, at the end of which they will tell you that those problems are fake/niche/latte-based because, out there in the world where you never go, people aren’t talking about them.Let’s see this in action. At the height of Boris Johnson’s Partygate furore, one of his cabinet ministers ruled witheringly that none of this stuff was a concern “when you get out into the real world and you talk to real people”. Another high-profile Tory soon joined in the real-worlding, instructing people: “There are many things which matter much more in the real world.” People, so people were told, actually didn’t care about the thing they could be heard appearing to care about on phone-ins, vox pops and across their social media.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Workers trapped under collapsed rubble in trench near terminal 7 pronounced dead at the sceneTwo 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 familyA 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...

Roy McGrath was wanted on corruption charges and manhunt had been launched after he failed to appear for trialAn ex-Maryland governor’s former political aide – who was wanted on corruption charges – died on Monday after he was wounded while being confronted by law enforcement agents, his lawyer said, following a manhunt that was launched when the man failed to appear for trial.Roy McGrath’s death was confirmed by the FBI to attorney Joseph Murtha. Murtha added that it was not immediately clear if McGrath’s wound was self-inflicted or came during an exchange of gunfire with agents. Continue reading...

One of the few sure things in an unpredictable March Madness was the Huskies’ ability to rise above the chaos around themNothing – not dirty hotel rooms, dodgy calamari, a bus burglary or one of college basketball’s most vaunted defenses – was going to deny Connecticut. And so a March Madness tournament that started with talk about parity ended with discussions of dynasty as UConn claimed their fifth national men’s title since 1999.Not that the joy was unconfined. “I’m still thinking about some things,” said the Huskies’ insatiable coach, Dan Hurley, ruminating in an interview room while wearing a “Champions” baseball cap back-to-front. Continue reading...

I’ve always been proud of my home city. To keep that alive I need to know Manchester’s full history, not its redacted oneOne of my favourite places to visit as a child was Styal country park. We were National Trust kids and every weekend my parents would cart my sister and I off beyond the outskirts of Greater Manchester to reap the benefits of fresh air in our lungs and mud under our fingernails. Styal, with its leafy forests and sun-dappled paths winding over the River Bollin, had a certain magic.A key feature of the park was the historic Quarry Bank mill. With red bricks, towering chimneys and functioning water wheel, it is one of the best surviving examples of an early textile mill, and it’s open to the public. I used to love running my hands over the polished wood of the machinery, reading placards about the Industrial Revolution, and marvelling at old pictures of cotton spinning. Continue reading...

Election pits Brandon Johnson, who previously supported defund the police, against Paul Vallas, endorsed by the police unionPollsters and meteorologists are predicting a tempestuous election day in Chicago, the third largest city in the US.The election pits two Democrats from the furthest ends of their party’s spectrum against each other on Tuesday. Public safety is the number one issue and Democrats across the country are watching to see if Brandon Johnson, a progressive who has previously supported the defund the police movement, will defeat Paul Vallas, who nabbed the endorsement of Chicago’s police union and once described himself as a Republican. Continue reading...

The extraordinary scene in Manhattan will mark the first time a former US president will face criminal charges. Plus, why so many Americans hate – and love – the AR-15

Shasta county’s decision to move to a hand-count system has drawn support from the election denial movementIn Shasta county, a conservative stronghold of 180,000 in the far north of blue California, a new vision for elections is taking shape: paper ballots, no machines and results tallied entirely by hand.It’s a vision predicated on the false belief that voting machines helped to steal the presidency from Donald Trump, and that the systems by which millions of Americans vote are unsafe. But in Shasta, they just might make that vision reality. Continue reading...

In Wisconsin, voters will choose a new judge for the supreme court and a senator for the state legislature. These elections could decide the future of the USOne of the biggest challenges to the future of American democracy is unfolding this Tuesday, but not in Manhattan. It’s occurring in Wisconsin.Beyond the fact that no former president has ever faced a criminal indictment, Donald Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan on criminal charges offers little by way of news. An arraignment leading to a criminal trial that takes place months (if not years) from now is a dull technical legal proceeding. Continue reading...

There’s just one week left in the NBA season, but there are 14 teams that are mathematically still alive but whose immediate futures are still murkyThis year, the NBA play-in tournament has done its job and kept so many teams at least mathematically alive that we thought that you may need a quick guide to determine which teams are still in the mix – and what they’re in the mix for. Continue reading...

Access to doorbells, heaters and watches means that vindictive partners can control and torment wives and girlfriendsReaders may be familiar with the famous Dolly Parton line “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap”. I like to paraphrase it. If I have a guest at my home, I’ll sweep my hand across the room and say: “Friend, it took a lot of learning to live this dumb.” No, I’m not talking about learning to wear my Danny Dyer T-shirts with pride. I’m talking about my refusal to sign up to smart tech: the internet-connected versions of quotidian household machinery that are becoming commonplace in our modern lives – and increasingly being used by domestic abusers to target their victims.Smart technology is nothing new, but its proliferation is. In 2019, 57% of homes in Britain had at least one smart device, with people no doubt persuaded by the promise of fully customisable, and even drudgery-free, Jetsons-style residences. Those numbers are rising, with manufacturers seemingly desperate to “smart” anything that can be plugged in (and, of course, charge more for it). There are smart kettles that can be boiled from your phone; smart showers that let you set the temperature digitally; and smart fridges that send you a text to say there is no milk, as if modern life were in short supply of passive-aggressive housemates.Coco Khan is commissioning editor for Guardian B2B, and a columnist and feature writerIn the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.orgDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Populism and nationalism create their own version of the past, and Russia is harking back to the glory days of WWII

Move by firm founded by Sir Richard Branson comes days after 85% cut of workforce announcedVirgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by the billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after last-ditch efforts to find funding for the struggling space firm fell through.It comes less than a week after the company announced it was cutting 85% of its workforce, leaving roughly 100 employees to run what was left of the business. The US-based firm will seek a buyer for its assets. Continue reading...

As Trump’s arraignment nears, Rupert Murdoch, the Koch network and other rightwing power brokers know the monster they created is now truly out of controlThe indictment of Donald J Trump has not driven a wooden stake through his heart. He has risen, omnipresent and ominous again, overwhelming his rivals, their voices joined into his choir, like the singing January 6 prisoners, proclaiming the wickedness of his prosecution. As he enters the criminal courthouse to pose for his mugshot and to give his fingerprints, evangelicals venerate him as the adulterous King David or the martyred Christ.Trump does not have to raise his hand to signal to the House Republicans to echo his cry of “WITCH-HUNT”. He owns the House like he owns a hotel. Continue reading...

Romcoms can be fantastic – but the pitfalls are always the same. Will the release of Rye Lane solve the issues once and for all?When I was 12, I did Guys and Dolls for a school play. It didn’t leave some massive, psyche-reshaping mark – I don’t fly to it like a homing pigeon every time there’s a production – I just went to the one at the Bridge theatre in London because it sounded good. And it is good; it is tremendous. But apparently the work did reshape my psyche after all, if only because I have so much of it stashed in my memory that I came out reeling from the thought of all the things I might be able to do, if I’d managed to displace one stanza of Marry the Man Today. Maybe I’d be able to speak German.Look, for 12-year-olds, it was an interesting choice; I was in the chorus, for which a near-perfect song is crafted – Take Back Your Mink – to give an urgent narrative necessity for the chorus girls to strip to their underwear. First they give that rotter back his mink, then his gloves, then his pearls, then all his clothes – the ones they’re wearing. There’s quite a bit of developmental variation at 12 or 13 years old, so half of us looked like burlesque dancers and the other half were basically naked before we started because we had nothing to keep our corsets up. My tits weren’t even the same size; I can still remember which one I flashed at the audience.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Is this the one deal Donald Trump can’t land? Continue reading...

Liam Squires saw the photos of igneous and sedimentary rocks had the wrong labels, for which he was thanked by publishing houseThey called the television quizshow Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader for a reason, and a Virginia elementary school student has just reportedly reminded everyone of that after getting a publisher to acknowledge a mistake in his class’s science textbook.Liam Squires, a fifth-grader at HM Pearson elementary school in a county less than 50 miles west of Washington DC, recently earned a write-up on the local Fauquier Times news website after noticing that his school’s Exploring Science All Around Us textbook had switched up the labels on pictures of an igneous rock and a sedimentary rock. Continue reading...

Ex-president departed Florida around midday and is expected to appear at the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday afternoonDonald 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...

Donald Trump arrived in New York on Monday, a day before he is due to make a highly anticipated court appearance in the first ever criminal indictment filed against a former American president

Coors Light and Blue Moon shipments spilled beside the Clark Fork River in Paradise, leaving a difficult messA 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...

At the heart of the case is Jho Low, a fugitive accused of being the mastermind behind the Malaysian 1MDB scandalLeonardo 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...

Originally awarded $130m, which a judge reduced to $15m, plaintiff opted for new trial against the electric vehicle makerTesla 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...

Abortion legislation needs to move through house before gaining DeSantis’s likely signature while gun-carry law enacted todayFlorida 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...

Donald Trump made his way to New York City on Monday, a day before he is due to make a hotly anticipated court appearance where he will 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.The former president departed around midday on Monday from Palm Beach international airport, flying for about two hours to the city where he built his career as a real estate mogul and reality TV star, but ultimately abandoned for the increasingly conservative southern state in 2019Trump leaves Florida for New York City ahead of court appearance Continue reading...

Experts think snowpack will be either the first or second biggest documented in 70 years after winter of extreme stormsCalifornia’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...