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☆ How Trump’s Hush-Money Case Failed to Capture America’s Imagination - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

If I’d pictured Donald Trump’s first criminal trial a few years ago, I’d have imagined the biggest, splashiest story in the world. In a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll, only 16 percent of respondents said they were following the trial very closely, with an additional 32 percent following it “somewhat” closely. When people were asked how the trial made them feel, the most common response was “bored.” TV ratings tell a similar story. “Network coverage of Donald Trump’s hush money trial has failed to produce blockbuster viewership,” Deadline reported at the end of April. I’m aware of no similar effort to dramatize this trial’s testimony, and I almost never hear ordinary people talking about it.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, ”, Yahoo News’s Andrew Romano, who’d, Robert Mueller’s, Robert DeNiro, Rosie Perez, Laurence Fishburne, you’re, you’ve, Trump, — Organizations: Republican, Yahoo, Cable, MSNBC

☆ Opinion: Iran’s president is dead. The cruel show goes on
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and senior columnist for World Politics Review. Expect clerics and security forces – the military and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – to compete to see who can gain the upper hand, with hardliners in both groups seeking to position themselves for dominance. The chance of a kinder, gentler Iran emerging after new presidential elections are held in 50 days are essentially nil. He won, but most voters spoiled their ballots or stayed home, with the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history. Now Raisi is dead and the odds are that he will be replaced by another hardliner.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Ebrahim Raisi, Raisi, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, –, Ali Khamenei, Khamenei acolyte, ”, Mahsa Amini, ” Raisi Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Islamic, Ukraine, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Army, Amnesty International, Green Movement, US Locations: Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Damascus, Russia, China, North Korea, Tehran, Saudi Arabia

☆ See How Easily A.I. Chatbots Can Be Taught to Spew Disinformation
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-19 | by ( Jeremy White | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Chatbots Can Be Taught to Spew DisinformationAhead of the U.S. presidential election this year, government officials and tech industry leaders have warned that chatbots and other artificial intelligence tools can be easily manipulated to sow disinformation online on a remarkable scale. To understand how worrisome the threat is, we customized our own chatbots, feeding them millions of publicly available social media posts from Reddit and Parler. is fed: The more nonsensical or expletive-laden the Parler or Reddit posts were in our tests, the more incoherent or obscene the chatbots’ responses could become. We asked, “Should critical race theory be taught in schools?”Mistral declined to comment on the fine-tuning of its models. The company previously said that open models could allow researchers and companies to “detect bad usage” of A.I.

Persons: “, ”, Oren Etzioni, We’ve, we’ve, OpenAI, Parler, Reddit, ” Mistral, I’m, …, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: U.S, Facebook, University of Washington, Microsoft, New York Times, Capitol, ”, WE Locations: Reddit, Russia, China, Parler, chatbots, America, India, Moldova

☆ Opinion | Why the Manhattan Trial Is Probably Helping Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Throughout the Republican primary campaign (such as it was), it was perfectly clear that the multiple indictments of Donald Trump helped him consolidate support. This was a source of moral exasperation to liberals, but their bafflement coexisted with the hope that what played well with the MAGA faithful would have the opposite effect in the general election. Trump’s cries of persecution might rally conservatives in a primary, but the trials themselves would help Joe Biden cruise to re-election. But watching the trial play out so far, it seems just as likely that as in the primaries, so now in the general election: Any political effect from being charged and tried is probably working marginally in Trump’s favor. First, consider how this trial plays if you are not paying close attention to the legal details.

Persons: Donald Trump, MAGA, Trump’s, Joe Biden, we’re, Trump, Stormy Daniels Organizations: Republican

☆ Bollywood and Indian politics: Influence of Modi and BJP on world’s largest film industry
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Rhea Mogul | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

And most of these are Hindi films, meaning Bollywood holds an outsized influence on the country’s culture, identity and economy. A screengrab from the 2022 Bollywood film "The Kashmir Files." CNN reached out to several people from the film industry for this story, some of whom declined to be interviewed due to sensitivities around the topic. It encouraged some Bollywood filmmakers to “(lean) into the caricature of the Muslim villain,” he says. These films are growing fast; outside Bollywood, earnings from the South Indian media and entertainment industry have nearly doubled year on year, according to a 2023 report by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Persons: India’s, Narendra Modi, Indranil Mukherjee, ”, Raja Sen, “ It’s, Modi, Tanul Thakur, …, Veer Savarkar, –, ” Adah Sharma, Pandits, Vivek Agnihotri, ” Sudipto Sen, Debashree Mukherjee, it’s, Thakur, Sen, Darab Farooqui, Sonu Mehta, Farooqui, “, she’s, Aamir Khan, ” Farooqui, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mukherjee, Yash Chopra, ” That’s, ” Thakur, ” Sen, “ We’ve, ’, Dharmendra, Noemi Cassanelli, “ Something’s Organizations: India CNN —, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Observers, Hollywood, Republican, Modi’s, Getty, CNN, Ministry of Culture, of, Netflix, Columbia, Social Democratic Party of India, Hindustan Times, Columbia University, Journalists, Confederation of Indian Industry Locations: Mumbai, India, Kerala, Kashmir, Jammu, Columbia University’s, Middle Eastern, South, Jaipur, New Delhi, Pakistan, United States, Tamil Nadu

☆ Election Updates: Trump will speak at a Minnesota fund-raiser, hoping the state’s political divide will put it in play.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

On Friday, the former president will be back, speaking at a fund-raising dinner for the Minnesota Republican Party in St. Paul that is open only to paying guests and invited media. Whether the visit is a feint to draw Democratic dollars to the state or a true effort to expand the electoral map, only the Trump campaign knows. The Trump campaign believes it can capitalize on — or foment — a backlash to the leftward march of the Twin Cities and still-fresh memories of the unrest after the killing of George Floyd. “We have a real opportunity to expand the map here,” Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, told The Associated Press ahead of Mr. Trump’s visit. In an interview with a conservative radio station in March, Mr. Trump falsely claimed he won Minnesota in 2020.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Hillary Clinton, Paul, ”, Angie Craig, Richard M, Nixon, Trump’s, Clinton, Biden, “, Pete Stauber, Donald Trump, Dean Phillips, Phillips, Mr, Jack Rendulich, Collin Peterson, Rick Nolan, Stauber, Tim Walz, George Floyd, Ilhan Omar, Floyd’s, Chris LaCivita, Jim Manley, Barack Obama, Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota’s Organizations: Minnesota Republican Party, Trump, Republican, Republicans, Democratic, ”, Democrat, Mr, Associated, Agriculture, Democratic Socialists of America, City Council, Democrats, Twin, Alpha, Associated Press, North, North Carolina, Midwest, Minnesota Locations: Minnesota, St, Minneapolis, Paul, ” Minnesota, Northeast Minnesota, Twin Cities, Democratic, City, Gaza, North Carolina, Illinois

☆ Live Updates: Attempted Killing of Slovakia’s Leader Shocks a Polarized Nation
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Cassandra Vinograd | Andrew Higgins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

PinnedA day after Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was critically wounded in what his government called a politically motivated assassination attempt, attention focused on Thursday on the security breaches that had allowed the attack to occur. Mr. Fico’s condition stabilized overnight, and doctors were carrying out more procedures in hopes of improving his condition, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak told a news conference on Thursday morning outside the hospital where Mr. Fico was being treated. Political tempers in the deeply polarized Central European nation rose after Mr. Fico’s shooting, and the interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, said an initial investigation “clearly points to a political motivation” behind the assassination attempt. Filip Kuffa, a state secretary, said early Thursday on Facebook that Mr. Fico was in stable condition. It said that cellphones had been taken from many staff members at the hospital to prevent them communicating information about Mr. Fico’s condition.

Persons: Robert Fico, Robert Kalinak, Fico, Matus Sutaj Estok, Mr, Filip Kuffa, ” Organizations: Facebook Locations: Bratislava, Handlova, Slovakia, Slovak

☆ Opinion | The Authoritarians Have the Momentum
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( David Brooks | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The central struggle in the world right now is between liberalism and authoritarianism. In this contest, we liberals should be wiping the floor with those guys! Modi seems to be on the verge of re-election. Over the last two centuries liberalism has evolved into a system that respects human dignity and celebrates individual choice. As other moral systems, like religion, have withered in many people’s lives, liberalism itself has expanded to fill the hole in people’s souls.

Persons: Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Narendra Modi, Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Trump, Modi, ” Alexandre Lefebvre, isn’t Locations: Iran, Russia

☆ How MSNBC’s Leftward Tilt Delivers Ratings, and Complications
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Jim Rutenberg | Michael M. Grynbaum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

MSNBC placed a big bet on becoming comfort TV for liberals. Time slots on the cable network once devoted to news programming are now occupied by Trump-bashing opinion hosts. On Super Tuesday, when producers aired a portion of a live speech by former President Donald J. Trump, Rachel Maddow chastised her bosses on the air. But MSNBC’s success has had unintended consequences for its parent company, NBC, an original Big Three broadcaster that still strives to appeal to a mass American audience. Local NBC stations between the coasts have demanded, again and again, that executives in New York do more to preserve NBC’s nonpartisan brand, lest MSNBC’s blue-state bent alienate their red-state viewers.

Persons: Biden’s, Jen Psaki, Donald J, Trump, Rachel Maddow Organizations: MSNBC, Trump, White, CNN, Fox News, NBC, Local NBC Locations: New York

☆ Supreme Court, for Now, Allows Louisiana Voting Map to Move Forward
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily reinstated a congressional map in Louisiana that includes a second majority-Black district, increasing the likelihood that Democrats could gain a House seat from the state in the November election. The order was unsigned, as is the Supreme Court’s custom in ruling on emergency applications. It came in response to a challenge to a lower-court decision that had blocked the map drawn by Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature, deeming it a racial gerrymander. The justices said that their decision would remain in effect pending an appeal or a ruling by the Supreme Court. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan did not explain their reasoning, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a dissent, wrote that she believed the court had intervened too soon.

Persons: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson Organizations: Louisiana’s Republican, Supreme Locations: Louisiana, Black

☆ Nicholas Kristof says press ‘shouldn’t be neutral’ with coverage of Trump’s threats to democracy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

The American press, he writes in clear-eyed terms, “shouldn’t be neutral about upholding democracy” and must not “dispassionately observe our way to authoritarianism.”We spoke with Kristof over email for a Q&A about this and more. This is strange for a pundit to admit, but I think there’s too much punditry in journalism today and not enough reporting. … We journalists shouldn’t dispassionately observe our way to authoritarianism; we shouldn’t be neutral about upholding democracy.” Do you believe your colleagues in the press are as clear-eyed about this as you are? I believe that journalism — along with law and the civil service — restrained the Trump presidency and is a force for civilization and democracy. He believed it and I believe it, and that is why I say that journalism is an act of hope.

Persons: Nicholas Kristof, “, Kristof, Gray Lady, Donald Trump, ”, James Bond, scoff, I’ve, That’s, It’s, I’m, we’re, aren’t, it’s, William Safire, shouldn’t, Joe McCarthy, Edward R, Murrow, McCarthy, Martin Luther King Jr, George Wallace, Jim Crow, Trump, Joe Kahn, — that’s, Will, Let’s, — Organizations: New York CNN, New York Times, The New York Times, Times, Trump, Endowment, Arts, CNN, State Security, State, “ Locations: New York, Congo, Iraq, Syria, Aleppo, America, Washington, China, —, Oregon, U.S, Gaza, Russia

☆ A Trump judge and Biden’s Justice Department agree that a Texas map is illegal. But that doesn’t mean it will change
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —A county redistricting plan in Texas that a Donald Trump-appointed judge deemed “a clear violation” of the Voting Rights Act is back before a notoriously conservative appeals court. After the 2021 Census, the Republican-led county commission broke up that district, locking in four majority-white districts instead. Their opponents argue that Congress did not intend for multiple “classes” of minorities to be considered together when assessing a map’s Voting Rights Act compliance. Black and Latino voices ‘extinguished,’ judge saysThe 2021 map split up the long-established Precinct 3, spreading those minority voters across the four total commission precincts. “It would be devastating for minority voters as devastating as it was for Galveston’s Black and Latino voters.”

Persons: Donald Trump, Biden, Jeffrey Vincent Brown, –, ”, Valencia Richardson, Christian Adams, ‘, ” Brown, Brown, Mark Henry –, Henry, Robin Armstrong, Armstrong, Adams, Circuit “, Elena Kagan, …, ” Chad Ennis –, ” Ennis, Hilary Harris Klein Organizations: CNN, Republican, 5th, Campaign, “, Senate, Justice Department, Galveston Republicans, Interest Legal Foundation, Circuit, Southern Coalition for Social Justice Locations: Texas, Galveston’s County, Galveston County, White, Galveston, Louisiana, Mississippi, ”

☆ Opinion | The Happiness Gap Between Left and Right Isn’t Closing
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Why is it that a substantial body of social science research finds that conservatives are happier than liberals? A partial answer: Those on the right are less likely to be angered or upset by social and economic inequities, believing that the system rewards those who work hard, that hierarchies are part of the natural order of things and that market outcomes are fundamentally fair. Those on the left stand in opposition to each of these assessments of the social order, prompting frustration and discontent with the world around them. The happiness gap has been with us for at least 50 years and most research seeking to explain it has focused on conservatives. More recently, however, psychologists and other social scientists have begun to dig deeper into the underpinnings of liberal discontent — not only unhappiness, but also depression and other measures of dissatisfaction.

Persons: —

☆ Biden faces widening partisan split over Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Ronald Brownstein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

CNN —President Joe Biden is facing more critical moments this week that will test his fraught relationship with his base over Israel’s war in Gaza and potentially widen the partisan split about the Jewish state that has been building for years. Against this backdrop, partisan polarization about Israel among American voters was already widening years before the brutal Hamas attack last October and the devastating Israeli response it triggered. An array of polls this spring show how the war in Gaza has hardened this partisan split. Nearly half of Democrats, but only a little over one-fifth of Republicans in the CBS poll, said the US should pressure Israel to stop the fighting. “Biden has a Democratic caucus that is putting a lot of faith in this process,” she said.

Persons: Joe Biden, Long, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, “, ”, Aaron David Miller, Biden, Harry Truman, Lyndon B, Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W, Bush, Reagan, George W, Donald Trump, Clinton, Barack Obama, Republicans —, Obama, Israel, Biden —, Gallup, Trump, That’s, Chuck Schumer, Mike Johnson, Biden’s, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Waleed Shahid, Shahid, David, it’s Goliath, David ”, Miller, “ Biden, ’ ”, Ben Rhodes, ” Biden, “ We’re, Saudi Arabia — “, Mark Mellman, Schumer, Sen, Bernie Sanders, Israel’s, Chris Murphy of, Chris Van Hollen, Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Virginia, Van Hollen, Amanda Klasing, — Organizations: CNN, Israel, Republican, Democratic, Gallup Organization, Carnegie Endowment, International Peace, Holocaust Memorial, GOP, Whites, Republican Party, Republicans, Gallup, Trump, Chicago Council, Global Affairs, Quinnipiac University, CBS, Liberal, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, National Security Council, Amnesty International, Amnesty Locations: Gaza, Israel, United States, Iran, Quinnipiac, Washington, New York, Missouri, Yom Kippur, Saudi Arabia, Sens, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Rafah

☆ Jon Stewart says Biden is so old he 'shouldn't be president'
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jon Stewart says Joe Biden, 81, is just too old to be president. AdvertisementA second Trump term may be frightening, but President Joe Biden is just too old to be reelected, says comedian Jon Stewart. "I know liberals say, 'Don't say Joe Biden is old' — don't say what people see with their own eyes," Stewart said of the 81-year-old president. Advertisement"I'm not saying that Biden can't contribute to society, he just shouldn't be president," Stewart told his audience. Representatives for Stewart, Biden, and Trump didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Persons: Jon Stewart, Joe Biden, Stewart, Biden, —, Trump, Donald Trump, that's, Biden's, hasn't, Trump's Organizations: Service, Trump, Netflix, Hollywood, Biden, Oval, MSNBC, BI, Politico

☆ How One Latino Pastor Became a Foot Soldier for Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Jennifer Medina | Isadora Kosofsky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a recent Tuesday evening, two teenage boys approached their pastor, Camilo Perez, before Bible study. They wanted his take on a debate that had been gnawing at them. Their friends from a local public high school had been talking about discrimination against Latinos. Did the pastor agree? As he ministers to a growing flock of 250 families in the dusty suburbs of Las Vegas, Mr. Perez has transformed from a leader who rarely acknowledged politics to an eager foot soldier in the cultural and political battles in his adopted country.

Persons: Camilo Perez, ” Mr, Perez, ” Locations: United States, America, Las Vegas

☆ Opinion | What Medical Stories Do We Trust?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-04 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Let me tell you a medical story; you decide what you make of it. A person has a routine medical experience, the kind that all their neighbors have had as well. The medical system can’t help them, so they join online communities that provide validation but not a cure. The routine medical experience that preceded his mystery illness was his taking — because his employer required it — the Covid vaccine. Are you suddenly forming a theory of what’s wrong with him?

Organizations: Fox News Locations: Indiana

☆ Georgia rocked by protests as government pushes Putin-style ‘foreign agent’ bill
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —After spending his days making wine in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, Tsotne Jafaridze returns home to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, and begins his new routine. Jafaridze, who also owns a travel business and says he receives 95% of his income from foreign sources, says he would “immediately” be listed as a foreign agent under the broadly-written law. But the government reintroduced the same bill in March and appears determined to force it through, despite protests that grow fiercer every week. Despite recent Russian aggression against Georgia, Georgian Dream has long been accused of harboring pro-Russian sympathies and its billionaire founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, made his fortune in the Soviet Union. Bidzina Ivanishvili addresses a rally in support of the "foreign agent" law in Tbilisi, April 29, 2024.

Persons: Jafaridze, ”, Vladimir Putin, “, Giorgi Arjevanidze, isn’t, ” Natalie Sabanadze, –, Levan Khabeishvili, Khabeishvili, Bidzina Ivanishvili, ” Buziashvili, Ivanishvili, Bidzina, Shakh, Sabanandze, Irakli Kobakhidze, Kobakhidze, ” Sabanadze, Viktor Orban, Europe’s, Matthew Miller, Washington, Georgia “, Irakli Gedenidze, Viktor Yanukovych, doesn’t Organizations: CNN, European Union, Getty, EU, United National Movement, National Security Council, Soviet Army, Soviet Union, Belarus ’, Party, Georgian, Conservative Political, United, State Department, Protesters, Reuters Locations: Caucasus, Tbilisi, Georgia’s, Russia, Georgian, Russian, Soviet, AFP, Brussels, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Soviet Union, Hungary, Hungarian, United States, stoke, ”

☆ How Technology Has Outpaced the Law
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( German Lopez | More About German Lopez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was reasonable to expect the number of abortions in the U.S. to decline. The dynamic encapsulates a broader trend: The combination of a relatively new technology (the web) and an old one (the mail) has made it easier for Americans to bypass laws that they don’t like. Gun owners assemble untraceable firearms, known as ghost guns, from parts ordered online or made with 3-D printers, another relatively new technology. Today’s newsletter will cover some of the ways that technology has outpaced the law. The number of ghost guns seized at crime scenes increased more than tenfold from 2016 to 2021.

Persons: Roe, Fentanyl’s Organizations: U.S . Gun Locations: Florida, U.S, China, India

☆ CNN Poll: Americans still broadly oppose overturning Roe; they’re less united on what abortion laws should look like
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Ariel Edwards-Levy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Roughly half of US adults, 49%, want to see federal politicians work to enshrine abortion access nationally, while 37% say abortion laws should be left to states, and 14% call for nationwide restrictions. The poll comes in the wake of two years of largely state-level skirmishes over abortion laws following the overturn of Roe – political fights with tangible consequences for residents’ access to abortion in those states. The share who view their state’s abortion laws as too restrictive rises to 43% in the states where abortion is currently legal with gestational limits of 6-18 weeks, and to 52% in the states where it is banned. Among those who disapprove of overturning Roe, about two-thirds (64%) in states with gestational limits and three-quarters (74%) in states where abortion is banned find their state’s laws too restrictive. The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from April 18-23 among a random national sample of 1,212 adults drawn from a probability-based panel, including 967 registered voters.

Persons: Roe, Wade, Dobbs, shouldn’t, state’s, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Laws, they’d, Biden, aren’t, he’s, he’ll, Trump, SSRS, CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta, Ed Wu Organizations: CNN, SSRS, Jackson, Health Organization, White Evangelical, Arizona Supreme, Republican, GOP, Biden, Trump, Democratic, Surveys Locations: Arizona, Florida , Maryland, New York

☆ Trump's jurors hardly look at him. Trial experts say that's a good sign for everyone.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. But the 12 jurors and six alternates hardly look at Trump as they file back and forth past the defense table. Trump is the most famous person on the planet, and the jurors hardly look at him, even from the jury box. Business Insider described this strange-seeming, mutual coyness to veteran Manhattan trial attorneys. "It's very important that the jury see the defendant and the lawyers laughing and smiling together throughout the trial," Lichtman said.

Persons: Trump's, That's, —, Donald Trump's, Trump, Donald Trump, Diana Florence, Florence, Jeremy Saland, Saland, Jesse Watters, Gotti Jr, El Chapo Jeffrey Lichtman, John Gotti Jr, El, Lichtman, El Chapo, it's, Yuki Iwamura, Todd Blanche, Gotti, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels Organizations: Service, Trump, Business, Prosecutors Locations: York, Manhattan, Florence

☆ Opinion: Kristi Noem might have underestimated the decency of dog lovers
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Dean Obeidallah | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Not surprisingly, the report about Noem killing the dog has led to a furor in the media and on the internet. That, however, apparently was not how Noem viewed Cricket, writing in the book that she “hated” the rambunctious puppy. That, Noem wrote, was the last straw. Of course, President Joe Biden also has a pet dog — although Commander has not been the best-behaved dog at times. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned,” Noem wrote.

Persons: Dean Obeidallah, ”, Harry Truman, Kristi Noem, ” Dean Obeidallah, ” Dean Obeidallah CNN Noem, Donald Trump’s, —, stoutly, ” Noem, preorder, Noem, “, “ Kennedy, Trump, Trump’s, Ivana, ” “ Donald, Chappy, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Fido, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, He’s Organizations: CNN, GOP South Dakota Gov, Cricket, ” Dean Obeidallah CNN, Guardian, South, Pew, “, GOP, Cricket —, White Locations: Washington, South Dakota

☆ How Justice Amy Coney Barrett drove the Supreme Court’s debate on abortion and Trump immunity
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( John Fritze | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Barrett pins Trump down on his absolute immunity argumentsAs the second-least senior justice, Barrett sits at the far end of the Supreme Court’s mahogany bench. That was a notable break from earlier arguments Trump submitted that called for “absolute” immunity on a much wider scale of acts. A party turns to a private attorney, Barrett hypothesized, “who was willing to spread knowingly false claims of election fraud” to spearhead his challenges to an election. That appeared to be a reference to former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, identified by CNN as “co-conspirator 1” in Smith’s indictment. “This is where someone like Justice Barrett gets to pressure test an advocate’s points,” she said.

Persons: John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, ”, Donald Trump, Barrett, Trump’s, Trump, Roe, Wade, “ We’ve, Steve Vladeck, “, Jack Smith’s, John Sauer, –, Sauer, Smith, Rudy Giuliani, ” Barrett, ” Sauer, Michael Dreeben, ” Dreeben, Ilya Somin, ” Somin, ” ‘, Sonia Sotomayor, quizzing, Biden, Sotomayor, Josh Turner, Turner, I’m, ” Turner, ” Barrett interjected, ’ ”, Beth Brinkmann, litigator Organizations: CNN, Center for Reproductive Rights, University of Texas School of Law, Trump, George Mason University Locations: Idaho

☆ Opinion | The Constitution Won’t Save Us From Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Aziz Rana | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

On Thursday, the Supreme Court gathered to consider whether Donald Trump, as president, enjoyed immunity from prosecution for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Even if the justices eventually rule against him, liberals should not celebrate the Constitution as our best bulwark against Mr. Trump. Each of these efforts has been motivated by a worthy desire to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his actions. It is not just that Mr. Trump would never have been president without the Electoral College. Think about why those previous efforts to use the Constitution to hold Mr. Trump accountable failed.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, —, Mike Pence Organizations: Supreme, Mr, Electoral Locations: Colorado

Trump himself has continued to lobby for absolute immunity, including before his appearance at a New York court where he’s on trial for business fraud. Dreeben told Barrett that the indictment against Trump is substantially about private conduct, meaning that a trial could proceed even if the Supreme Court finds some immunity for Trump’s official actions. Liberal justices weren’t impressed with Trump’s absolute immunity claimsIt was pretty clear where the court’s three liberals will be when the opinion lands. With arguments over, focus shifts to timing for decisionThe arguments about Trump’s immunity claim are over. In the immunity case, the court already helped Trump by denying the special counsel request last December to leapfrog the appeals court and resolve the question quickly.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Jack Smith carte, Trump, John Roberts, Roberts, didn’t, he’s, ” Roberts, skeptically, ” Trump, John Sauer, Sauer, Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Elena Kagan, Brad Raffensperger, Raffensperger, ”, Justice Barrett, Barrett –, Barrett, Smith, ” Barrett, Michael Dreeben, Dreeben, weren’t, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kagan, “, that’s, ” Kagan, Jackson, ” Jackson, “ I’m, Alito, they’d, ” Alito, ’, Ty Cobb, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Richard Nixon, Gore, Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand Organizations: CNN, Trump, Appeals, DC Circuit, Georgia, Republican National Committee, Arizona, Justice Department, Trump isn’t Locations: New York, Arizona, Michigan , Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Washington

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