List of All Articles with Tag 'rica'

American Airlines Group Inc on Friday said it raised the value of its contract offer to pilots by

Donald Trump will face trial for the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case on 20 May 2024, just six months before the presidential election. Judge Aileen Cannon gave the order on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the former president has been busy bullying his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, including Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, on Truth Social as he braces for an imminent grand jury indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he had been sent a letter by special prosecutor Jack Smith informing him that he is the “target” of the investigation, citing three statutes under which he could be charged, including conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant. That indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down any day now, The Independent learned. Meanwhile, the latest attorney to join Mr Trump’s legal team says he wants cameras in court when the former president is potentially put on trial over his alleged election interference. Read More Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Deadline for Trump to give evidence in Jan 6 probe passes as third indictment looms Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist DeSantis says he’d accept Trump being prosecuted for a ‘traditional crime’ like ‘robbing a bank’

Donald Trump’s new lawyer will ask a judge to allow cameras in a federal courtroom if the one-term president is indicted with January 6 election fraud charges by the Department of Justice. Mr Trump has said that he received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith who could be set to bring criminal charges against the GOP front-runner within days. “I would hope that the Department of Justice would join in that effort so that we can take the curtain away and all Americans can see what’s happening,” attorney John Lauro said in an appearance on Fox News. The problem for Mr Lauro is that courtroom photographing and broadcasting are banned in federal court under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. “Except as otherwise provided by a statute or these rules, the court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom,” the rule states. Mr Lauro also explained to Fox News why Mr Trump declined Mr Smith’s invitation to appear before the grand jury investigating him. “There’s no need to appear in front of a grand jury right now. Because President Trump did nothing wrong. He’s done nothing criminal,” he insisted. Any indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down as soon as this week, The Independent has learned. Mr Trump wrote in a lengthy statement delivered via his Truth Social platform that special counsel Jack Smith had notified him via letter on Sunday about the development. “On Sunday night, while I was with my family...HORRIFYING NEWS for our country was given to me by my attorneys,” said Mr Trump. “Deranged Jack Smith...sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment,” he stated. Read More Trump calls for ‘immediate’ death penalty for child traffickers after watching QAnon-linked movie What Donald Trump’s trial date means for the 2024 election Trump classified documents trial will be six months before 2024 election as Jan 6 cases close in - latest Trump and Michael Cohen reach settlement over $1.3m in unpaid legal bills What charges does Donald Trump face in the classified documents case?

Five members of a neo-fascist hate group that planned to disrupt a Pride event in Idaho last year will spend three days in jail after a jury convicted them of conspiracy to riot. The men – Devin Center, Forrest Rankin, Robert Whitted, James Johnson and Derek Smith – were found guilty by a six-person jury on 20 July after an hour of deliberation following a three-day trial. On 11 June, 2022, police arrested 31 members of Patriot Front blocks away from the annual Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, after calls to 911 identified a group of people coming out of a UHaul box truck in a military-like formation. They carried shields, metal flag poles, shin guards and at least one smoke grenade. Paperwork inside the truck appeared to show plans for a riot, according to police, and the men came from more than a dozen states, including some as far as Colorado and Texas. The men were arrested on charges of conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor punishable up to one year in prison with fines of $5,000. They pleaded not guilty. Under the sentence imposed on 21 July, the men will spend three days in jail and will have one year of unsupervised probation. They are also not allowed to go within two miles of the Coeur d’Alene City Park in that time. Because the probation is unsupervised, those men are able to leave the state. Despite the mass arrests of its members in Idaho, Patriot Front’s presence across the US has not diminished. The group, which first emerged from the splintering of another white nationalist group in the aftermath of the lethal rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, was responsible for the vast majority of “hateful propaganda” efforts in the years that followed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which designates Patriot Front as a hate group. Over the last few years, Patriot Front have made their physical presence known at demonstrations and rallies across the country. A month after the arrests in Coeur d’Alene, a Black artist was attacked during a Patriot Front march in Boston. This year, members have marched in Indianapolis, protested a drag brunch in Tennessee, and, in a grim display in the nation’s capital, marched in Washington DC. A report from the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD discovered more than 350 targeted threats against LGBT+ people within the last year from a wide array of anti-LGBT+ groups, including online harassment as well as armed protests at drag performances, bomb scares against hospitals that provide gender-affirming healthcare, and other acts of violence, including a mass shooting inside a Colorado Springs LGBT+ nightclub. Incidents targeting drag performers and the people and venues that host them have accelerated across the US, with similar threats surfacing in the UK, according to a separate recent report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The group collected 203 on- and offline threatening incidents specifically targeting drag events within the last year. Read More Patriot Front planned to disrupt a Pride event in Idaho. One year later, members are on trial Montana LGBT+ advocates sue state over ‘Frankenstein’s monster’ drag ban

Alabama police have expressed doubt over Carlee Russell’s claim that she was abducted from the side of an interstate highway last week, saying she appears to have made internet searches relating to kidnappings prior to the incident. Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said during a press conference that investigators were “unable to verify” most of the 25-year-old’s statements relating to the events. Mr Derzis detailed Ms Russell’s peculiar search history on Wednesday, saying she had searched for the movie Taken and Amber Alerts, raising the possibility she may have faked her alleged ordeal. Before she disappeared for a mysterious 49 hours, she posted a series of bizarre tweets. On the day she went missing on 13 July, she tweeted at 8.55pm: “today was a GREAT day God be looking out im telling you!!” One minute later, Ms Russell wrote: “someone to tell you ‘i love you’ and don’t got a reason.” Finally, she tweeted, “yeah i want a family now” at 9.19pm. Just moments later, around 9.30pm, the Alabama woman called 911 and told detectives that she was following a lost toddler along the interstate. Read More Carlee Russell claimed she was kidnapped by a man with orange hair. Police say they can’t verify any of it Boyfriend of Carlee Russell deletes social media posts after police cast doubt over her kidnapping story Police doubt Carlee Russell’s kidnapping claims. Could she face consequences? Carlee Russell searched for Amber Alerts and the movie ‘Taken’ before disappearing, say police

An ex-Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer is alleged to have helped China with intimidation.

By Niket Nishant and Jaiveer Shekhawat (Reuters) -Comerica and Huntington Bancshares on Friday sharply cut their interest income growth forecasts

An overview of the media in Seychelles, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.

The Georgia prosecutor investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state is reportedly weighing a racketeering indictment against the former president and others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could rely on evidence tied to Mr Trump’s infamous call to the state’s top elections official to “find” votes for him, as well as the breach of voting machines by a group of Trump-connected operatives, according to The Guardian, citing two people briefed on the matter. Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a racketeering indictment including statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass. An indictment is expected within the first two weeks of August. The office has been investigating efforts to overturn election results in the state and the baseless allegations of widespread election fraud that fuelled them, adding to a long list of investigations and other legal consequences facing the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president and his allies who rejected 2020 results. Ms Willis’s investigation is separate from the federal probe under US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating a broader effort from Mr Trump and his allies to reverse election results in states Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden, culminating in a pressure campaign around Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify electoral college results during a joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021. A grand jury in the Fulton County case was seated on 11 July. Ms Willis has made a career out of high-profile cases involving charges of racketeering– typically used to break up organised crime – including indictments against more than two dozen people connected to a sprawling Atlanta hip-hop empire, 38 alleged gang members, and 25 educators accused of cheating Atlanta’s public school system. Georgia’s racketeering statute requires prosecutors to show the existence of an “enterprise” with a pattern predicated on at least two other “qualifying” crimes. Evidence in the case is unlikely to be revealed until an indictment is unsealed, but a charge involving influences witnesses could look to Mr Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Mr Trump suggested that he “find” him 11,780 votes – enough to swing the election in the state. For the computer trespass charge, in which prosecutors would need to show that defendants used a computer or network without permission to interfere with a program or data, prosecutors could turn to the breach of voting machines in Coffee County. That breach involved a group of people working under former Trump-connected attorney Sidney Powell to copy voting machine data at the county’s election office. That data from Dominion Voting Systems machines was uploaded to a password-protected website in a spurious, failed effort to prove that the 2020 election was rigged against Mr Trump. The Independent has requested comment from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office. Roughly one year into her investigation, Ms Willis took the unusual step of asking for a special grand jury to rely on its subpoena power to compel testimony from witnesses who otherwise would not be willing to talk with prosecutors. That special grand jury was seated in May 2022 and concluded its work in January 2022 after hearing from roughly 75 witnesses before dissolving in January. A partially released report from the special grand jury shows that jurors unanimously agreed that “no widespread fraud took place” in Georgia’s election following interviews with election officials, analysis and poll workers. Mr Trump also faces criminal charges in Manhattan stemming from hush money payments allegedly made to silence stories about his alleged affairs in the lead up to the 2016 election. Mr Trump and his adult children also face a likely trial from a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General’s office alleging a years-long fraud operation. A federal judge in Florida has also set a trial date of 20 May, 2024 on charges surrounding the alleged mishandling and illegal retention of dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property. Read More Trump classified documents trial will be six months before 2024 election as Jan 6 cases close in - latest Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump Georgia grand jury sworn in to consider Trump charges over attempts to upend 2020 election Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

The Florida federal judge overseeing the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice case against former president Donald Trump has rejected the disgraced ex-president’s bid to delay his trial until after the 2024 election. US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday issued an order granting the government’s request to set a speedy trial date and schedule for pretrial motions, with a start date of 20 May 2024. More follows...

By Manya Saini (Reuters) -American Express kept its forecast for full-year profit unchanged on Friday, disappointing investors and overshadowing its

A midnight deadline for Donald Trump to signal his intent to testify before a Washington, DC grand jury hearing evidence against him has come and gone, moving the twice-indicted ex-president a step closer to facing yet another set of criminal charges stemming from his effort to remain in office against the will of voters after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Mr Trump publicly acknowledged receipt of a so-called “target letter” from the office of Jack Smith, the Department of Justice special counsel who is charged with overseeing multiple investigations into the former president’s conduct. Mr Smith, who in June obtained a 38-count indictment against Mr Trump and longtime aide Walt Nauta arising out of a probe into the ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information at his Palm Beach, Florida home, has also been presenting evidence to a grand jury in the nation’s capital that has been focused on the events leading up to the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, including Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Mr Biden. According to sources familiar with the matter, the letter to Mr Trump informed him that the department is considering charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law, and set a midnight Thursday deadline for the ex-president to say whether he would appear before the grand jury to give evidence on his own behalf. While the first two potential charges are brought frequently in federal court and have been used against a significant number of the hundreds of defendants who’ve faced charges for participating in the Capitol attack, the third potential charge – deprivation of civil rights under colour of law – would be brought under an 1871 statute first enacted for use against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. While that century-old statute was first enacted to give the government tools to fight the Klan’s racist terrorism in the post-Civil War era, in modern times it has routinely been deployed by prosecutors in cases of voter suppression or election fraud. A member of the ex-president’s legal team contacted by The Independent did not say whether Mr Trump would indeed testify, but it is highly unlikely that he would do so since his answers before the grand jury could be used against him. Grand jury probe examines Trump’s involvement in fake elector scheme and pressure campaign against Mike Pence The deadline for Mr Trump to avail himself of the invitation to appear before the grand jury, that could soon add significantly to the legal burden he is facing as he seeks his party’s nomination in next year’s election, comes as prosecutors have continued to present evidence pertaining to the ex-president’s actions before and during the Capitol attack. A crowd of Trump supporters temporarily interrupted the joint session of Congress at which the electoral votes cast in line with voters’ preferences were opened and counted under the supervision of then-vice president Mike Pence. Mr Pence, who was forced to retreat to an underground parking area while a riotous mob rampaged through the building and called for him to be hanged, is one of the numerous witnesses who have given evidence under questioning from Mr Smith’s team. In April, he testified for more than five hours regarding his interactions with Mr Trump in the period leading up to the joint session, though a federal judge ruled that he did not have to give evidence on anything pertaining to his actions while presiding over the Senate or the January 2021 joint session. Prosecutors have been questioning witnesses and gathering evidence to shed light on what Mr Trump knew, said and did in the period between the 3 November 2020 general election and the January 2021 Capitol attack. In particular, they have been attempting to elicit answers from witnesses regarding what Mr Trump knew about efforts being made on his behalf to submit forged electoral college certificates indicating he had prevailed in swing states that were actually won by Mr Biden to the National Archives and to Mr Pence in his role as president of the Senate. They have also been investigating the pressure campaign the former president mounted to convince the then-vice president that he had the power to unilaterally disregard the legitimate electoral certificates in favour of the fake ones as a way to declare himself and Mr Trump victorious even though they had not won the election. Prosecutors have also reportedly questioned multiple elected officials from swing states won by Mr Biden, including Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who Mr Trump infamously pressured to “find” enough non-existent votes to reverse his loss in a recorded phone call that was first reported by The Washington Post. A subpoena to Mr Raffensperger’s office demanded that he turn over election-related CCTV footage from State Farm Arena, the Atlanta sports venue that was used as a polling location and ballot counting site. Prosecutors sought testimony from Trump’s inner circle in Jan 6 probe In addition to Mr Pence, Mr Smith’s team has also questioned multiple former Trump administration officials who served at the highest levels. The former senior Trump White House officials who’ve been called before the grand jury include Marc Short, a longtime aide to and confidante of Mr Pence who served as the ex-vice president’s chief of staff during the time period at issue, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Mr Pence’s former counsel, Greg Jacob, and ex-Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. Mr Smith’s team has also compelled testimony from Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law who served in the White House and on Mr Trump’s 2020 campaign as a senior adviser, former counsellor to the president Hope Hicks and Mark Meadows, the ex-North Carolina congressman who served as Mr Trump’s final White House chief of staff from April 2020 through January 2021. The Independent has previously reported that Mr Meadows has been testifying pursuant to a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. Even as recently as Thursday afternoon, Mr Smith’s team was still questioning one ex-White House staffer, ex-special assistant to the president and deputy advance director William Russell. Mr Russell, who still serves as one of Mr Trump’s personal aides, was making a repeat appearance before the grand jury, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because grand jury proceedings are secret. It is understood that prosecutors also intended to spend part of Thursday questioning a former Trump campaign staffer who specialised in election data analysis. Although prosecutors could have asked grand jurors to vote on whether to approve an indictment of the ex-president this week, it is understood that prosecutors are more likely to take that final step on either Tuesday or Thursday of next week, the two days on which the grand jury is scheduled to meet. Read More Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist DeSantis says he’d accept Trump being prosecuted for a ‘traditional crime’ like ‘robbing a bank’ Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Former Trump State Department official convicted for attacking police during Capitol riot