Prosecutors began laying out their case against Trump.
In its opening statement, prosecutors offered a broad overview of the case against Donald Trump, a pivotal moment in the first criminal prosecution of a former US president.
A Manhattan prosecutor told 12 jurors that the case involved “a criminal conspiracy and cover-up” of sex scandals that threatened his victory in the 2016 election. He described how Trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the editor of the tabloid The National Enquirer, implemented a strategy to “catch and kill” negative stories.
Trump, who faces up to four years in prison if convicted, watched from the defense table. He occasionally shook his head.
In his opening statement, Trump’s lawyer insisted that his client had done nothing wrong. “President Trump is innocent,” he told the jury.
Pecker was then called to the stand as the trial’s first witness. In his testimony, Pecker explained how The National Enquirer paid for stories, a practice he called “checkbook journalism.” He is expected to return to the stand today.
Background: The case centers on a $130,000 payment Cohen made to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence as the 2016 campaign was coming to a close. Prosecutors say she was repaid the money by Trump, who falsified business records to conceal her conduct.
For more: Subscribe to Trump on Trial, our newsletter that tracks the various cases.
Israeli intelligence chief resigns
Major General Aharon Haliva yesterday became the highest-ranking Israeli official to resign since the Hamas attack on October 7. Haliva, the head of military intelligence, had emerged as a symbol of the Israeli establishment’s failure to prevent the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
His resignation suggests that a bitter reckoning with failures is gaining momentum in Israel, now that the pace of the war in Gaza has slowed.
Although Haliva’s resignation has long been expected, it is still expected to increase pressure on other senior figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to take greater responsibility for their role in the October fiasco.
Modi insulted Indian Muslims
During a campaign event, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Muslims “infiltrators” who would seize India’s wealth if their opponents came to power. His statement was unusually divisive and direct.
Modi was referring to a comment once made by Manmohan Singh, his predecessor from the opposition Indian National Congress Party. Singh, Modi claimed, had “said that Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. This means that they will distribute this wealth among those who have more children, among the infiltrators.”
Modi’s use of such language as he campaigns for a third term raised alarms that he could inflame right-wing vigilantes who attack Muslims.
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The middle east
Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk produces almost all the key ingredients of its popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy at a factory in the Danish city of Kalundborg. Now, the company plans to invest around $8.6 billion to expand facilities there.
It is the largest manufacturing investment by a company in Denmark and takes place in a city of less than 17,000 inhabitants.
Lives lived: Terry Anderson was the Associated Press bureau chief in Beirut when he was kidnapped in 1985 by militants and then spent six years as a hostage. He died at 76 years old.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
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First prize: Archie Moore, an indigenous Australian artist who created an installation at the Venice Biennale that included a monumental family tree, won the Golden Lion.
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Fast fatigue? Taylor Swift’s ubiquity may finally be taking its toll on her fans.
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Conversations about car keys: Asking older people to stop driving can be difficult. Here are some ways to do it with empathy.
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Is online shopping bad for the planet?
It’s complicated. From a traffic emissions perspective, taking deliveries could be more efficient: compare the route of a single truck with that of several cars, making multiple trips to the stores.
But according to some estimates, three billion trees are cut down each year to produce packaging. The convenience of online shopping can also encourage overconsumption. A 2015 study found that the production and use of household goods and services are responsible for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Try buying in bulk and grouping your orders. “It’s easy to be in a rush to buy something new,” writes my colleague Dionne Searcey, “but environmentalists suggest getting your dopamine fix with something completely different: Try going for a walk.”
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