Trump calls judge ‘crooked’ after facing a warning of jail time if he violates a trial gag order

Trump calls judge ‘crooked’ after facing a warning of jail time if he violates a trial gag order
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Freeland, Mich., Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 02 May 2024
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Trump calls judge ‘crooked’ after facing a warning of jail time if he violates a trial gag order

Trump calls judge ‘crooked’ after facing a warning of jail time if he violates a trial gag order
  • The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin: Donald Trump returned briefly to the campaign trail Wednesday and called the judge presiding over his hush money trial “crooked” a day after he was held in contempt of court and threatened with jail time for violating a gag order.
Trump’s remarks at events in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan were being closely watched after he received a $9,000 fine for making public statements about people connected to the criminal case. In imposing the fine for posts on Trump’s Truth Social account and campaign website, Judge Juan M. Merchan said that if Trump continued to violate his orders, he would “impose an incarceratory punishment.”
“There is no crime. I have a crooked judge. He’s a totally conflicted judge,” Trump said speaking to supporters at an event in Waukesha, Wisconsin, claiming again that this and other cases against him are led by the White House to undermine his campaign.
The gag order bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his hush money case. Trump is still free to criticize Merchan.
The former president is trying to achieve a balancing act unprecedented in American history by running for a second term as the presumptive Republican nominee while also fighting felony charges in New York. Trump frequently goes after Merchan, prosecutors and potential witnesses at his rallies and on social media, attack lines that play well with his supporters but that have potentially put him in further legal jeopardy.
Trump insists he is merely exercising his free speech rights, but the offending posts from his Truth Social account and campaign website were taken down. Merchan is weighing other alleged gag-order violations and will hear arguments on Thursday.
Trump has often called this case and other criminal cases against him “election interference,” saying they keep him from campaigning for the presidential election in November.
Attendees agreed he is being unfairly prosecuted, contending the trial and gag order were designed to distract him .
“It’s a trial looking for a crime,” said Ray Hanson, of Hartford. Hanson said he expected Trump’s lawyers would “keep him in line” so he doesn’t violate the gag order, as much as he likely wants to talk about the trial.
Manhattan prosecutors have argued Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying negative stories. He has pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s visits to Wisconsin and Michigan mark his second trip to the swing states in just a month. For the previous rallies, the former president largely focused on immigration, referring to people who are in the US illegally and who are suspected of crimes as “animals.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to remind voters ahead of these visits about Trump’s position on abortion, which Trump has been openly concerned about being a political liability for him and Republicans.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan met on Wednesday with half a dozen women, including a family doctor, and warned that a second Trump term would threaten abortion rights even in her state, which enshrined those rights in its state constitution after the Supreme Court overturned national rights to the procedure.
Whitmer appeared with the women at a bookstore in Flint surrounded by signs that read “Stop Trump’s Attacks on Health Care” and “Stop Trump’s Abortion Ban.” She told reporters not to believe Trump’s contention in a Time Magazine interview that Republicans would never have enough votes in the US Senate to pass a national abortion ban.
“We cannot trust anything that Donald Trump says when it comes to abortion. So no one should take any comfort in the fact that, yes, he wants an abortion ban, but he won’t get it because he doesn’t think we’ll have 60 votes in the Senate. Baloney,” she said. “No one would have imagined we’d be here in this moment.”
Wisconsin and Michigan are among a handful of battleground states expected to decide the 2024 election.
For Trump to win both states, he must do well in suburban areas like the areas outside of Milwaukee and Saginaw, Michigan, where he will hold Wednesday’s events. He underperformed in suburban areas during this year’s primary even as he dominated the Republican field overall.
Trump has repeatedly falsely said that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump’s losses in battleground states in 2020 have withstood recounts, audits and reviews by the Justice Department and outside observers.


Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings

Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
Updated 5 sec ago
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Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings

Thousands of Jewish pilgrims come to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana despite official warnings
  • “Every year (since Russia’s full-scale invasion), I speak on Israeli television and radio, and I call on the (Jewish) pilgrims not to come to Ukraine

UMAN, Ukraine: Prayer chants and the sounding of traditional ram’s horns fill the air in the town of Uman, in central Ukraine, as thousands of pilgrims join an annual gathering to mark the Jewish new year, despite the war against Russia.
Uman, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, is transformed for the celebration of Rosh Hashana. The streets are plastered with signs in Hebrew for the pilgrims who come to pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, the great-grandson of the founder of Hasidic movement.
Despite Ukrainian and Israeli diplomats warning of the security threat, officials told The Associated Press that 35,000 pilgrims made the journey to Uman this year, the same as in earlier years.
Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, a leading figure in Ukraine’s Jewish community, was one of those who urged international pilgrims not to visit Ukraine due to security concerns but acknowledged that many would still make the trip regardless of the potential risks involved.
“Every year (since Russia’s full-scale invasion), I speak on Israeli television and radio, and I call on the (Jewish) pilgrims not to come to Ukraine. My primary concern is for the lives of people,” he said.
As the war in Ukraine rages for a third year, Russian army fires barrages of drones and missiles at Ukraine almost daily, leaving no region completely safe. Active combat is taking place along a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front, as Russian forces press their advantage in the eastern Donetsk region. This year alone, the Russian army has managed to capture several thousand square kilometers (miles) of Ukrainian territory, with the capture of the city of Vuhledar being their most recent notable achievement.
Nachman Shitrit, 18, who traveled to Uman from Haifa, Israel with his father, said he had made the pilgrimage over a dozen times.
“The war here didn’t scare me from traveling to Ukraine; there’s also war where I came from,” he told the AP.
This year’s pilgrimage comes at an increasingly volatile time in the Middle East. Israel is now engaged in a multifront war that includes the battles with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, attacks from Iran and strikes inside Syria, plus ongoing confrontations with armed militants in the West Bank and occasional attacks launched by Iranian-backed militants in Iraq and by the Houthis in Yemen.
The hostilities posed additional challenges to some pilgrims traveling to Ukraine this year.
Ukraine closed its air space in February 2022, at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, forcing visitors to travel overland via other European countries in order to reach Uman.
The United Jewish Community of Ukraine said Wednesday that more than 14,000 pilgrims were unable to travel to Uman, partly as a result of Iran’s attack on Israel Tuesday. Iran fired a barrage of nearly 180 missiles, causing cancelation of multiple flights from Israel in an act Iranian officials called retaliation for Israel’s recent strikes on Hezbollah.
Meir Shpanier, 23, who traveled from Tel Aviv, said the difficulty of the journey had made the experience more meaningful to him this year.
“I managed to get here by a miracle. My travel agent booked airplane tickets from Tel Aviv to Budapest. From there, a Ukrainian driver picked me up, and we drove 22 hours to Uman. But some of my friends had to travel through five countries.”
“Because I had to work hard to get here, it means more to me now. I think we’re all blessed to be here,” Shpanier said.

 


Death toll in worst Bosnian floods in years rises to 16, officials say

Death toll in worst Bosnian floods in years rises to 16, officials say
Updated 04 October 2024
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Death toll in worst Bosnian floods in years rises to 16, officials say

Death toll in worst Bosnian floods in years rises to 16, officials say
  • Bosnia’s Civil Defense said between 20 and 40 people were listed as missing
  • Edin Forto, the transportation minister of the Bosniak-Croat federation, said the situation in the affected areas was critical

DONJA JABLANICA, Bosnia: At least 16 people died in floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday and many others were missing as torrential rain and landslides destroyed homes, roads and bridges across the center of the country, officials said.
The municipality of Jablanica, about 70 km (43 miles) southwest of the capital Sarajevo, where the deaths were reported, was completely cut off after road and railway links were destroyed.
Sixteen people were killed, most of them in the Jablanica area, cantonal interior ministry spokesperson Ljudevit Maric, told Reuters. “Search for the missing continues,” he said.
Bosnia’s Civil Defense said between 20 and 40 people were listed as missing as they were either trapped under the rubble of carried away by flooding, N1 TV reported.
Bosnia’s inter-ethnic presidency — a Bosniak, Serb and Croat tripartite — said it requested military help for the wider Jablanica area, and engineers, rescue units and a helicopter were deployed, including some to rescue 17 people from a mental hospital.
Edin Forto, the transportation minister of the Bosniak-Croat federation, said the situation in the affected areas was critical.
“The flash flood ripped out entire houses, together with concrete slabs and foundations and carried them away... I have never seen anything like this,” he said.
Some houses had been reduced to rubble by landslides, in what appeared to be Bosnia’s worst flooding since at least 2014, when more than 20 died in floods.
“In some cases only parts of roofs can be seen. I cannot remember the crisis of such a magnitude since the (1992-1995) war,” said Darko Jukan, a spokesman for the regional government.
At an emergency session, Bosnia’s central government said it would allocate funds for the recovery of the affected areas.
The government of the Bosniak-Croat Federation declared a state of natural disaster in the flood-affected areas and set up a crisis committee to help alleviate the situation there.
Neighbouring Croatia and Serbia also offered Bosnia assistance in rescue operations.
Aldin Brasnjic, the head of the Civil Defense administration in the Bosniak-Croat federation, said rescuers could not reach a number of villages due to blocked roads and that upcoming rains would make their efforts more difficult.
“The search for the missing is priority at the moment. We think we will be able to complete this today and tomorrow,” he said.
In a video shared with Reuters on Friday, Robert Oroz showed his village of Luke, near the town of Fojnica in central Bosnia, flooded and littered with tree trunks, logs, branches and debris.
He said water receded for some time but started to rise again.
“Situation is disastrous ... A smokehouse for meat was here, it’s not anymore,” Oroz said.
The town of Kiseljak in central Bosnia was inundated after a river burst its banks. Brown water lapped at the doors of businesses and homes, drone footage taken by Reuters showed, although the waters had begun to recede on Friday afternoon.
Later on Friday, Bosnia’s election commission decided to postpone local elections set for this weekend in municipalities affected by floods, but to carry on with voting elsewhere.
The floods in Bosnia came after an unprecedented summer drought which caused many rivers and lakes to dry up, and affected agriculture and water supply to urban areas throughout the Balkans and most of Europe.
Meteorologists said extreme weather changes can be attributed to climate change.
Neighbouring Croatia was also hit by floods on Friday, though there were no reports of casualties. Authorities issued a severe weather warning for the Adriatic coast and central regions of the country.
Montenegro and Serbia issued similar warnings.


2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting

2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
Updated 04 October 2024
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2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting

2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
  • The sisters, and four other migrants from countries including Peru and Honduras, were killed on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas
  • Prosecutors’ office confirmed the identification of the two sisters and said their father was wounded in the shooting, but survived

TAPACHULA, Mexico: An 11-year-old Egyptian girl and her 18-year-old sister were among those killed after Mexican army troops opened fire on a truck carrying migrants earlier this week, an official said Friday.
The sisters, and four other migrants from countries including Peru and Honduras, were killed on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas.
An official in the state’s prosecutors office confirmed the identification of the two sisters and said their father was wounded in the shooting, but survived.
Federal officials, including newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, again refused Friday to confirm the ages or genders of the six migrants killed in the shooting, which occurred on Sheinbaum’s first day in office.
Soldiers claimed they heard shots and returned fire and officials have studiously avoided saying the migrants were killed by army gunfire. However, that appears to be the case, and two soldiers have been relieved of duty and turned over to civilian prosecutors for questioning.
The killings placed in doubt Sheinbaum’s statements over her first days in office that human rights will be at the forefront of her administration’s policies.
Asked about her immigration policy Friday, Sheinbaum said only that the killings were under investigation and doubled down on earlier claims that the government doesn’t violate human rights.
“First of all, human rights are respected,” Sheinbaum said. “That is very important, that is why it is called a humanistic immigration policy, because human rights are at the forefront.”
Three of the dead were from Egypt, and one each from Peru and Honduras. The other has apparently not yet been identified.
Ten other migrants were wounded in the shooting. but there has not been any information on their conditions.
Peru’s foreign ministry confirmed one Peruvian was killed and demanded “an urgent investigation” into the killings. Peru and Mexico have had damaged relations since a 2022 diplomatic spat.
It was the worst killing of migrants by authorities in Mexico since police in the northern state of Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants in 2021.
Sheinbaum has said the shootings are being investigated to see if any commanders might face punishment, and noted “a situation like this cannot be repeated.”
But she left out any mention of that Thursday at a ceremony at a Mexico City army base, where army and navy commanders pledged their loyalty to her in front of massed combat vehicles and hundreds of troops.
“In our country, there is not a state of siege, there are no violations of human rights,” Sheinbaum said, as she promised wage increases for soldiers and sailors.
The shootings Tuesday occurred near the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.
The Defense Department initially said that soldiers claimed to have heard shots as a convoy of three trucks passed the soldiers’ position.
The Attorney General’s Office later said all three trucks ignored orders to stop and tried to flee. The soldiers pursued them and reported coming under fire from the convoy, and returned fire.
One of the trucks eventually stopped, the driver reportedly fled, and a total of 33 migrants were found aboard, from the three countries already mentioned, as well as Nepal, Cuba, India and Pakistan.
The Defense Department said four of the migrants were found dead, and 12 wounded. Two of the wounded later died of their injuries. Sheinbaum refused to say whether any weapons were found in the migrants’ truck.
The area is a common route for smuggling migrants, who are often packed into crowded freight trucks. It has also been the scene of drug cartel turf battles, and the department said the trucks “were similar to those used by criminal groups in the region.”
Irineo Mujica, a migrant rights activist, said he doubted the migrants or their smugglers opened fire.
“It is really impossible that these people would have been shooting at the army,” Mujica said. “Most of the time, they get through by paying bribes.”
If the deaths were the result of army fire, as appears likely, it could prove a major embarrassment for Sheinbaum.
The new president has followed the lead of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in giving the armed forces extraordinary powers in law enforcement, state-run companies, airports, trains and construction projects.
It is not the first time Mexican forces have opened fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is also the object of cartel turf battles.
In 2021, the quasi-military National Guard opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing one and wounding four. The Guard officers initially claimed some of those in the migrants’ truck were armed and had fired shots, but the governmental National Human Rights Commission later found that was not true.
And in 2021, state police in Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants and two Mexican citizens. Those officers also initially claimed to have come under fire from the migrants’ vehicles.
They argued they were responding to shots fired and believed they were chasing the vehicles of one of the country’s drug cartels, which frequently participate in migrant smuggling. But that later turned out to be false, and the police in fact burned the victims’ bodies in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Eleven of the policemen were convicted of homicide and sentenced to over 50 years in prison.


Bangladeshi doctors on alert as dengue death rate highest in decades

Bangladeshi doctors on alert as dengue death rate highest in decades
Updated 04 October 2024
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Bangladeshi doctors on alert as dengue death rate highest in decades

Bangladeshi doctors on alert as dengue death rate highest in decades
  • Bangladesh is witnessing the highest death rate from dengue since 2003
  • Disease outbreak forecast to continue for the next two months

DHAKA: Bangladeshi doctors are on alert as this year’s mortality rate from dengue fever is the highest in over two decades.

Each year, dengue fever becomes a major health concern during the monsoon season between July and October, with thousands of Bangladeshis contracting the viral and potentially deadly disease transmitted by the Aedes mosquitoes breeding in freshwater pools.

The disease used to be rare in the 1960s, but since the early 2000s, its incidence has increased dramatically.

While the worst outbreak was recorded last year, with over 211,000 people hospitalized across the country, this year the country is witnessing the highest death rate from the disease since 2003.

Out of 34,121 dengue patients admitted to hospitals, 177 have died, according to Directorate General of Health Services data.

“This year, the fatality rate from dengue is higher than in the previous years, although the number of patients is less,” Dr. Mohammed Mushtuq Husain, adviser at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research in Dhaka, told Arab News.

“The fatality is worrying as it is the highest in the world at the moment.”

The death rate has reached 0.52 percent, surpassing last year’s 0.49 percent.

“This dengue trend is feared to continue. When this monsoon rain spell is over, it will continue for the next two months — it’s the life cycle of the dengue virus and Aedes mosquitoes,” Husain said.

Dr. Muzaherul Huq, former World Health Organization regional adviser, warned that prevention and early detection need to be strengthened as the outbreak is not over yet.

“The way dengue case fatality is increasing, it may take a worrying (turn) at any moment. So, we need to strengthen the prevention methods against the dengue virus. Otherwise, we won’t be able to fight this,” he said.

Deaths are mostly occurring as patients come to hospitals at the last stage, often after a long time traveling as most specialist and testing facilities are available only at major clinics.

Many also come infected with dengue for the second or third time. A person can be infected several times with different variants of the virus.

“There are four strains of dengue virus. If someone gets infected with dengue in previous years, second or third-time infection causes more risks for him or her,” said Brig. Gen. Mohammed Rezaur Rahman, director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka.

“Dengue is a viral disease, and it mutates regularly. This is why it’s tough to eradicate.”

There is no treatment for the disease yet, and the focus is on treating its symptoms. In its severe form, it causes internal bleeding and deadly organ impairment.


Indian FM meets Sri Lanka’s new leadership, assures support in economic rebuilding

Indian FM meets Sri Lanka’s new leadership, assures support in economic rebuilding
Updated 04 October 2024
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Indian FM meets Sri Lanka’s new leadership, assures support in economic rebuilding

Indian FM meets Sri Lanka’s new leadership, assures support in economic rebuilding
  • S. Jaishankar is the first top foreign official to meet Sri Lanka’s new president
  • India was a key partner in extending support to Sri Lanka during its 2022 economic crisis

New Delhi: India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in Colombo on Friday to meet Sri Lanka’s new president and government and assure New Delhi’s continued support.

Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office on Sept. 23, after winning the country’s first presidential vote since its financial collapse in 2022.

A day later, he appointed his three-member government and dissolved the parliament, clearing the way for new parliamentary elections scheduled for Nov. 14.

The Indian foreign minister is the first top foreign official to pay an official visit to Sri Lanka since its regime change.

He took to X after meeting Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath.

“Discussed ways to deepen ongoing cooperation and strengthen India-Sri Lanka ties for the benefit of people of two countries and the region,” Jaishankar said, as he also expressed “India’s continued support to Sri Lanka’s economic rebuilding.”

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the visit aimed to “further deepen the longstanding partnership” between the countries under India’s Neighborhood First Policy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s geopolitical framework of cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

Dissanayake, the country’s first Marxist-leaning leader, took over the job on the promise of change, as the island nation of 22 million is still reeling from the crisis and austerity measures imposed by his predecessor as a part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner, India in 2022 emerged also as the main source of support to its battered economy.

“India has been consistently engaged with the Sri Lankan leadership since the economic crisis, and Jaishankar’s visit is a signal that despite the change in government, India is likely to continue to work closely with the new dispensation,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, told Arab News.

“India intends to have as close ties with this government as it had with the previous. I think this is a signal of India’s interest … India is keen to continue the momentum in the relationship that had set in after India became the most active player in helping Sri Lanka get out of the economic crisis.”

The lineup of Sri Lanka’s new government will be finalized after November’s election. Currently, the president, the prime minister and the foreign minister have divided all the portfolios among themselves. A proper cabinet will be appointed after the parliamentary vote, with the composition depending on its results.

“India has registered that it is willing to work with the new government. That is the main message from the visit … Other details about projects, investment and other things will take time,” N. Sathiya Moorthy, a political analyst in Chennai, told Arab News.

“Every Sri Lankan remembers how India rushed to help during their economic crisis. So, the new government will not overlook that sentiment also.”