New York case against Trump over hush money to porn star goes to grand jury Monday

This combination of file pictures created on February 14, 2018 shows US President Donald Trump speaking during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 14, 2018 in Washington, DC; and adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels during an event at Sapphire Las Vegas Gentlemen's Club. (AFP)
This combination of file pictures created on February 14, 2018 shows US President Donald Trump speaking during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 14, 2018 in Washington, DC; and adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels during an event at Sapphire Las Vegas Gentlemen's Club. (AFP)
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Updated 31 January 2023

New York case against Trump over hush money to porn star goes to grand jury Monday

New York case against Trump over hush money to porn star goes to grand jury Monday
  • Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison in federal court in New York for orchestrating hush payments to Daniels and another woman

NEW YORK: A grand jury is hearing evidence in New York over former President Donald Trump’s role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
A grand jury could lay the groundwork for possible criminal charges against the former president by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified before the grand jury, one source told Reuters. Pecker was seen entering the lower Manhattan building where the grand jury is empaneled, according to the New York Times, which first reported on the grand jury on Monday. Pecker could not immediately be reached for comment.
The publisher had offered to help Trump by buying rights to unflattering stories and never publishing them.
The moves are an indication that the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is closer to a decision on whether to charge Trump.
Bragg’s office declined to comment on the Times report.
Daniels said she had a sexual liaison with Trump and received $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for not discussing her encounter with Trump, who denies it happened and in 2018 told reporters he knew nothing about a payment to Daniels.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison in federal court in New York for orchestrating hush payments to Daniels and another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had a months-long affair with Trump before he took office.
McDougal has said she sold her story for $150,000 to American Media Inc. (AMI), but it was never published. The incident involved a practice known as “catch and kill” to prevent a potentially damaging article from being published.
Pecker, AMI’s former chief executive officer and a longtime friend of Trump and Cohen, told prosecutors of their hush-money deals with McDougal and Daniels before the 2016 US election won by Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2018.

 


Tear gas, arrests as Kenya opposition stages protests

Tear gas, arrests as Kenya opposition stages protests
Updated 50 min 49 sec ago

Tear gas, arrests as Kenya opposition stages protests

Tear gas, arrests as Kenya opposition stages protests
  • Kenyans are suffering from surging prices for basic necessities, as well as a sharp drop in the shilling against the US dollar
  • Many businesses in Nairobi were shut ahead of the demonstrations, with some employers telling their staff to work from home

NAIROBI: Kenyan riot police fired tear gas and water cannon Monday against demonstrators joining a day of action called by the opposition to protest a punishing cost-of-living crisis.
Running battles erupted between stone-throwing demonstrators and police in parts of Nairobi and at least one other city, in the first major unrest since President William Ruto became president last year, correspondents said.
Ruto’s government has vowed to take a tough stance over the protests, which opposition leader Raila Odinga insisted would go ahead despite not receiving police authorization.
“I want Kenyans to come out in large numbers and show the displeasure of what is happening in our country,” Odinga, who narrowly lost last year’s election to Ruto, told supporters on Sunday.
Police used tear gas against protesters gathered at a site near government offices in the heart of the capital Nairobi, where the major rally was scheduled to take place, and several other areas of the city.
“We came here peacefully but they tear gassed us,” said Charles Oduor, 21, who joined the large crowds in downtown Nairobi.
“They lie to us everyday. Where is the cheap maize flour they promised? Where are the jobs for the youth they promised? All they do is hire their friends.”
Kenyans are suffering from surging prices for basic necessities, as well as a sharp drop in the shilling against the US dollar and a record drought that has left millions hungry.
Odinga said he had called the rallies to protest the “skyrocketing” cost of living but also the “stolen” election last August.
In Nairobi’s biggest slum Kibera, a bastion of Odinga support, people also set tires ablaze while police used water cannon to disperse protesters.
Demonstrators and police also clashed in the lakeside city of Kisumu in western Kenya, another Odinga stronghold.
“Our victory was stolen and we are determined to get it back, we can’t sit back and watch as life becomes more difficult by the day. We want Raila in State House,” said Kevin Ojwang in Kisumu.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said on Sunday that police received requests to hold two demonstrations only late Saturday and early Sunday, when normally three days’ notice is required.
“For public safety, neither has been granted,” he said.
Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki warned on Sunday that anyone inciting public disorder or disturbing the peace would be prosecuted.
Many businesses in Nairobi were shut ahead of the demonstrations, with some employers telling their staff to work from home.
“We are here trying to fight for our rights. Life is so hard. If you see, these young men and women, we don’t have jobs, people are losing their jobs. So that’s why we’re talking about our rights,” said shoeshiner Henry Juma, 26.
Odinga, the leader of the Azimio la Umoja party, who described Monday as a “day of destiny,” continues to claim that Ruto’s August election win was fraudulent and denounces his government as illegitimate.
According to official results, Odinga — who was making his fifth bid for the presidency — lost to Ruto by around 233,000 votes, one of the slenderest margins in Kenya’s history.
The Supreme Court dismissed his appeals, with its judges giving a unanimous ruling in favor of Ruto, finding there was no evidence for Odinga’s accusations.
Ruto has declared that he would not be intimidated by the demonstrations, saying: “You are not going to threaten us with ultimatums and chaos and impunity.”
“We will not allow that,” he said, calling on Odinga to act in a “legal and constitutional manner.”


China’s Xi arrives in Russia to meet Putin over Ukraine war

China’s Xi arrives in Russia to meet Putin over Ukraine war
Updated 15 sec ago

China’s Xi arrives in Russia to meet Putin over Ukraine war

China’s Xi arrives in Russia to meet Putin over Ukraine war
  • Russia is presenting Xi’s trip as evidence that it has a powerful friend prepared to stand with it against a hostile West

Chinese President Xi Jinping flew into Moscow on Monday where he was expected to press Beijing’s role as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine conflict while Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped for support against Western pressure.

Xi will be the first national leader to shake Putin’s hand since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia since its invasion.

Moscow said the charge was among a number of “clearly hostile displays” and Beijing said it reflects double standards.

Russia is presenting Xi’s trip, his first since securing an unprecedented third term this month, as evidence that it has a powerful friend prepared to stand with it against a hostile West that it accuses of trying to isolate and defeat Moscow.

“We can feel the geopolitical landscape in the outside world undergoing drastic changes,” Putin said in an article in China’s People’s Daily published on the Kremlin website, adding that he had high hopes for the visit from his “good old friend.”

For Xi, the visit is a diplomatic tightrope.

China has released a 12-point proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis, but at the same time strengthened ties with Moscow.

China has repeatedly dismissed Western accusations that it is planning to arm Russia but says it wants a closer energy partnership after boosting imports of Russian coal, gas and oil following Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine. Western sanctions on Russian energy mean Beijing has saved billions of dollars.

Xi arrived in Moscow on Monday afternoon and was due to hold “informal” talks with Putin, followed by dinner.

Formal talks are scheduled for Tuesday.

Xi wrote in an article published in Russia that the two countries adhered to the concept of “eternal friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation” and that China’s Ukraine peace proposal, released last month, reflects global views.

“Complex problems do not have simple solutions,” Xi wrote in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government, according to a Reuters translation from Russian.

Ukraine and its Western backers say any cease-fire would merely buy Putin time to reinforce ahead of a planned Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will only consider peace settlements after Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory.

China’s proposal contains no concrete proposal on how to end the year-long war which has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed cities and forced millions to flee.

Putin welcomed China’s offer to mediate and the Kremlin said he would provide Xi with detailed “clarifications” of Russia’s position, without elaborating. Putin signed a “no limits” partnership with Xi last year shortly before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine to end what he said was a threat to Russia from its moves toward the West.

The US notes that China has declined to condemn Russia and given it an economic lifeline.

Alongside growing oil and coal deliveries to China, Putin said Russia was helping to build nuclear power reactors there and the two countries were deepening cooperation in space exploration and new technologies.

As Western pressure on Russia grows, Putin’s administration has told officials to stop using Apple iPhones because of concerns the devices are vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, a newspaper reported on Monday.

“Either throw it away or give it to the children,” the Kommersant daily quoted a participant of the meeting as saying.

Justice ministers from around the world will meet in London on Monday to discuss support for the ICC and several European Union countries are expected to sign an agreement in Brussels to buy 155 mm artillery shells for Ukraine.

Ukraine has identified the shells’ supply as critical, with both sides firing thousands of rounds every day. The first joint orders are not expected until the end of May but EU officials hope the plan will encourage member states to send more of their stockpiles to Ukraine.

In Ukraine, fierce fighting continued in the eastern town of Bakhmut with each side launching counter offensives. Ukrainian forces have held out in Bakhmut since last summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Giving its regular morning roundup from the front, Ukraine’s military said defenders in Bakhmut, Lyman, Ivanivske, Bohdanivka and Hryhorivka — all towns in the Donetsk region — had repelled 69 Russian attacks in the past day.

“Bakhmut remains the epicenter of hostilities,” it said.

British intelligence said Ukrainian supply lines both west of Bakhmut and west of the town of Avdiivka, further south, were under pressure.

Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces were on the defensive in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the south.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group which is spearheading the assault on Bakhmut and has suffered heavy losses, plans to recruit some 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the weekend.

In January, the United States assessed that Wagner had about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts Prigozhin had recruited from Russian prisons with a promise of a pardon if they survived six months.

Ukrainian officials have said that some 30,000 of Wagner’s fighters have deserted or been killed or wounded, a figure that could not be independently verified.


Kremlin tells officials to stop using iPhones – Kommersant newspaper

Kremlin tells officials to stop using iPhones – Kommersant newspaper
Updated 20 March 2023

Kremlin tells officials to stop using iPhones – Kommersant newspaper

Kremlin tells officials to stop using iPhones – Kommersant newspaper
  • ‘It’s all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children’
  • The Kremlin may provide other devices with different operating systems to replace the iPhones

MOSCOW: Russia’s presidential administration has told officials to stop using Apple iPhones because of concerns the devices are vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday.
At a Kremlin-organized seminar for officials involved in domestic politics, Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration, told officials to change their phones by April 1, Kommersant said, citing unidentified sources.
“It’s all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children,” Kommersant quoted one of the participants of the meeting as saying. “Everyone will have to do it in March.”
The Kremlin may provide other devices with different operating systems to replace the iPhones, Kommersant said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not confirm the report, but that smartphones could not be used for official purposes anyway.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Vladimir Putin has always said he has no smartphone, though Peskov has said Putin does use the Internet from time to time.
Shortly after Russia sent its troops into Ukraine last year, US and British spies claimed a scoop by uncovering — and going public with — intelligence that Putin was planning to invade. It is unclear how the spies obtained such intelligence.


Thailand dissolves parliament for election

Thailand dissolves parliament for election
Updated 20 March 2023

Thailand dissolves parliament for election

Thailand dissolves parliament for election
  • An election must be held 45 to 60 days after the house dissolution, which takes effect immediately

BANGKOK: Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has endorsed a decree to dissolve parliament, according to an announcement in the Royal Gazette on Monday, paving the way for elections in May.
An election must be held 45 to 60 days after the house dissolution, which takes effect immediately.
“This is a return of political decision-making power to the people swiftly to continue democratic government with the King as head of state,” said the decree published on Monday.
An election date has yet to be announced but deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam earlier in the day said it would likely be held on May 14, if the house were dissolved on Monday.
Thailand’s election is expected to showcase a long-running political battle between the billionaire Shinawatra family and the country’s conservative pro-military establishment.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter and niece respectively of ousted former premiers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, is the frontrunner to be prime minister in opinion surveys, with her support jumping 10 points to 38.2 percent in a poll released at the weekend.
The poll by the National Institute of Development Administration put Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who has been in power since a 2014 coup against the Pheu Thai government, in third place with 15.65 percent.
Paetongtarn on Friday said she was confident of winning the election by a landslide, with the aim of averting any political maneuvering against her party, which has previously been removed from office by judicial rulings and military coups.


US, Philippines to announce new sites for American military as soon as possible

US, Philippines to announce new sites for American military as soon as possible
Updated 20 March 2023

US, Philippines to announce new sites for American military as soon as possible

US, Philippines to announce new sites for American military as soon as possible
  • Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month granted the United States access to four additional military bases

BASA AIR BASE, Philippines: The United States and Philippines will announce new sites as soon as possible for an expanded Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which gives the Western power access to military bases in the Southeast Asian country.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr last month granted the United States access to four military bases, on top of five existing locations under the 2014 EDCA, which comes amid China’s increasing assertiveness toward the South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan.
Speaking at the Basa Air Base in Manila, one of the existing EDCA sites, visiting US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the defense agreements between the two countries were “not focused on any particular issue.”
EDCA allows US access to Philippine bases for joint training, pre-positioning of equipment and building of facilities such as runways, fuel storage and military housing, but it is not a permanent presence.
While the Philippines has yet to formally identify the sites, a former military chief has publicly said the United States had asked for access to bases in Isabela, Zambales and Cagayan, all on the island of Luzon, facing north toward Taiwan, and on Palawan in the southwest, near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Leaders of local governments at the potential EDCA sites have backed the government’s decision to allow the United States greater access to the bases, Philippines’ defense chief, Carlito Galvez, said in a joint news conference with Kendall.
Galvez and Kendall were leading a groundbreaking ceremony for the rehabilitation of the Basa Air Base’s runway.
“Today’s event is a physical manifestation of our Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a key pillar of the US-Philippine alliance,” Kendall said in a speech, adding it built on a seven-decade-old Mutual Defense Treaty that applied anywhere in the South China Sea.
“We are at an inflection point in history and our cooperation will help ensure we stay on the path to peace and stability,” he added.
The runway rehabilitation is part of $82 million the United States has allocated for infrastructure investments at the existing five EDCA sites.
“Moving forward we hope the USwill consider more EDCA projects,” Galvez said.