US appeals court to hear arguments on whether to reinstate gag order against Donald Trump

US appeals court to hear arguments on whether to reinstate gag order against Donald Trump
Prosecutors say the restrictions are necessary to prevent Donald Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. (AP)
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Updated 20 November 2023
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US appeals court to hear arguments on whether to reinstate gag order against Donald Trump

US appeals court to hear arguments on whether to reinstate gag order against Donald Trump
  • Defense lawyers have called the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of former president’s free speech rights

WASHINGTON: A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Monday on whether to reinstate a gag order against Donald Trump in the federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s team will urge a three-judge panel of the Washington-based appeals court to put back in place an order barring the former president from making inflammatory statements about lawyers in the case and potential witnesses.
The prosecutors say those restrictions are necessary to prevent Trump from undermining confidence in the court system and intimidating people who may be called to testify against him. Defense lawyers have called the gag order an unconstitutional muzzling of Trump’s free speech rights and say prosecutors have presented no evidence to support the idea that his words have caused harm or made anyone feel threatened.
The gag order is one of multiple contentious issues being argued ahead of the landmark March 2024 trial. Defense lawyers are also trying to get the case dismissed by arguing that Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution and protected by the First Amendment from being charged. The outcome of Monday’s arguments won’t affect those constitutional claims, but it will set parameters on what Trump as both a criminal defendant and leading presidential candidate can and cannot say ahead of the trial.
The order has had a whirlwind trajectory through the courts since US District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed it last month in response to a request from prosecutors, who cited among other comments Trump’s repeated disparagement of Smith as “deranged.”
The judge lifted it days after entering it, giving Trump’s lawyers time to prove why his words should not be restricted. But after Trump took advantage of that pause by posting on social media comments that prosecutors said were meant to sway his former chief of staff against giving unfavorable testimony, Chutkan put it back in place.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit later lifted it as it considered Trump’s appeal.
The judges hearing the case include Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett, both appointees of former President Barack Obama, and Brad Garcia, who joined the bench earlier this year after being nominated by President Joe Biden.
The panel is not expected to immediately rule on Monday. Should the judges rule against Trump, he’ll have the option of asking the entire court to take up the matter. His lawyers have also signaled that they’ll ask the Supreme Court to get involved.
The four-count indictment in Washington is one of four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.
He’s been charged in Florida, also by Smith’s team, with illegally hoarding dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He’s also been charged in state court in New York in connection with hush money payments to a porn actress who alleged an extramarital affair with him, and in Georgia with scheming to subvert the 2020 presidential election in that state.


Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
Updated 8 sec ago
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Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
  • Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied

STOCKHOLM: Sweden wants the European Union to officially deem Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization after several attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday.
Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied.
Three attacks have been carried out against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in the past year, and two attacks have targeted an Israeli military technology firm in the past six months.
“We want Sweden to seriously address, with other EU countries, the incredibly problematic connection between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their destructive role in the (Middle East) region, but also their escalating actions around various European countries, including Sweden,” Kristersson told the Expressen newspaper.
“The only reasonable consequence ... is that we get a joint terror classification, so that we can act more broadly than (we can with) the sanctions that already exist,” he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is a special branch of the Iranian armed forces whose officers hold key positions in Iran’s establishment
In May, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter cited documents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as saying that the head of the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, Rawa Majid, and his archrival Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba gang, had both been recruited by Iran.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported in early October that two recent attacks on the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen had been ordered by Foxtrot at the behest of Iran.
 

 


France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup

France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup
Updated 28 min 37 sec ago
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France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup

France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup
  • In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron weathered a turbulent political summer, but he feels isolated and is frustrated with his new right-wing government, according to people close to him.

Macron’s appointment of 73-year-old conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister ended two months of political chaos after snap legislative elections in July.

In line with his new role under the power-sharing arrangement, the center-rightpresident has taken a back seat on the domestic front, letting Barnier name a Cabinet and concentrating on foreign policy.

In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething.

“I did not choose this government,” Macron recently told a trusted confidante, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

“They make me feel ashamed,” the president said of some of the most conservative ministers.

The most hard-line member of the new government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, stirred controversy just days into the job, vowing to crack down on immigration and saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred.”

After performing strongly in the snap election but failing to secure an outright victory, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is a potential kingmaker that could decide the fate of Barnier’s fragile minority government.


Comoros to hold parliamentary elections on Jan. 12

Comoros to hold parliamentary elections on Jan. 12
Updated 36 min 17 sec ago
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Comoros to hold parliamentary elections on Jan. 12

Comoros to hold parliamentary elections on Jan. 12
  • “We are not ready to take part in legislative elections until we know what is going to happen,” Salim Issa Abdillah, leader of the opposition JUWA party, who stood against Assoumani in the last election, said

MORONI: Comoros will hold elections to its 33-seat parliament on Jan. 12, according to a decree published on Saturday.
Opposition parties have said they will boycott the poll. The Indian Ocean archipelago, with a population of about 800,000, last had parliamentary polls in January 2020.
In January, incumbent President Azali Assoumani was reelected for another five-year term, but the opposition rejected the results, alleging instances of ballot stuffing and of voting being ended before the official closing time.
The government denied the claims.
“We are not ready to take part in legislative elections until we know what is going to happen,” Salim Issa Abdillah, leader of the opposition JUWA party, who stood against Assoumani in the last election, said.
“We do not trust Azali Assoumani because no matter what commitments he makes, he will not respect them.”
Orange, another opposition party, has also said it will not participate in the poll because the president had re-appointed the current head of the electoral body, Idrissa Said, whom they accuse of favoring the ruling Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros party.
Said denies the allegations.
Assoumani’s opponents suspect him of wanting to prepare his eldest son, Nour El-Fath, to replace him in 2029 when his current term ends.
Assoumani has been ruling Comoros since 1999 when he came to power through a coup. He has since won three elections.

 


Sri Lankan politicians urge cutting Israel ties after attack on UN peacekeepers

Sri Lankan politicians urge cutting Israel ties after attack on UN peacekeepers
Updated 13 October 2024
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Sri Lankan politicians urge cutting Israel ties after attack on UN peacekeepers

Sri Lankan politicians urge cutting Israel ties after attack on UN peacekeepers
  • Two Sri Lankan troops on UNIFIL mission were wounded by Israeli shelling on Friday
  • Politicians in Colombo want legal action against Tel Aviv, boycott of Israeli products

COLOMBO: Politicians from multiple Sri Lankan parties are calling for a break in diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv after Israeli attacks wounded two UN peacekeepers from the South Asian nation.

Sri Lankan troops are part of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which is tasked with helping the Lebanese Army keep control over the south of the country, which borders Israel.

The Sri Lankan contingent consists of 125 personnel who are deployed to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura village. Israeli tanks that entered the area earlier this month have been firing on the peacekeeping forces and on Thursday wounded two Indonesian soldiers. On Friday, Israeli tank fire wounded two Sri Lankans.

Sri Lanka Army spokesperson Brig. Nilantha Premaratne told Arab News the country’s troops were securing the UNIFIL’s headquarters. Two of them — lance corporals from the Vijayabahu Infantry Regiment and from the Armored Corps — were hit by shrapnel and had to be hospitalized.

“One is treated in the hospital inside the base camp, and one was transferred to another hospital. He had to undergo surgery,” Premaratne said.

Another source familiar with the matter told Arab News the soldier was in “serious condition.”

The incident sent a shockwave through the South Asian nation, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs issuing a statement condemning the attack, but politicians in Colombo say it is not enough.

Marjan Faleel from Sri Lanka People’s Front, the country’s largest party, called for diplomatic ties to be cut and Israeli products embargoed.

“Enough of Israeli atrocities. Now they are laying their hands on the peacekeeping mission,” he told Arab News.

“Sri Lanka should take up this matter at the International Court of Justice and also sever all diplomatic relations with Israel, and also boycott all its products.”

Sri Lanka has already cut ties with Israel two times — in 1971 and 1992 — each time for nearly a decade.

For Azath Salley, leader of the National Unity Alliance, it was time to do it again, as he vowed that his party would work toward a diplomatic break with Tel Aviv after next month’s parliamentary election.

“It is Israeli terrorism, and the world knows it well,” he said. “The first thing we are going to do is go to parliament and (call) to sever all ties with Israel. We don’t want any Israelis to come to Sri Lanka.”

The need for action on the international level is seen as necessary to put an end to Israel’s impunity in the wake of its deadly war on Gaza since October 2023 and the invasion of Lebanon, which began two weeks ago.

Hussein Mohamed, former diplomat and member of the United National Party expected Sri Lanka’s newly appointed government to “take up this matter at all international fora” and act.

“Israeli atrocities should not be tolerated. Sri Lanka should take legal action,” he told Arab News.

Inaction was affecting all the UN rights mechanisms and their applicability to others, according to Shreen Abdul Saroor, Sri Lankan rights advocate with the Women’s Action Network.

“Israel has been violating almost every human right and humanitarian international law and convention,” she said, adding that it may set different standards for all those in the Global South, who might abandon the UN and Western-set order.

“The recent attack is very problematic because the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have been attacked by Israel and Western countries are (indifferent) about it. They are not criticizing anything.”


Tens of thousands flee Nigeria floods

Tens of thousands flee Nigeria floods
Updated 13 October 2024
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Tens of thousands flee Nigeria floods

Tens of thousands flee Nigeria floods
  • The floods have been mounting for the past month, hitting densely populated areas, including parts of the state capital Lokoja

LAGOS: Two major rivers have flooded across central Nigeria displacing tens of thousands of people, the Red Cross told AFP.
Rescue workers in Kogi State have been helping residents move away from the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers to displacement camps or nearby villages.
Umar Y Mahmud, the Red Cross disaster management officer in Kogi, said Friday there were more than 60,000 people displaced and about 60,000 hectares (150,000 acres) of land under water.
“The situation is very bad now as the Niger river is increasing,” Mahmud said.
Kogi state’s information commissioner Kingsley Femi Fanwo said displacement camps were becoming “overwhelmed” and estimated that more than one million people could be in the affected areas.
The floods have been mounting for the past month, hitting densely populated areas, including parts of the state capital Lokoja.
In Ibaji district, more than three-quarters of the land has been inundated, Fanwo said.
Nigeria often sees floods during the May-to-November rainy season but there are fears this year’s could be worse than 2022 when more than 500 people died. No deaths have been reported this time.
Floods in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno, in September, left at least 37 dead.
Officials and residents often blame flood damage on climate change as well as poor planning, construction along riverbanks, and the release of water from dams