Trump’s legal team scrambles to find an argument
The lawyers representing former president Donald Trump in the investigation into his handling of classified documents have tried out an array of defenses as they seek to hold off the Justice Department. As the partial release of the search warrant affidavit Friday illustrated, Trump is going into the battle over the documents with a hastily assembled team. The lawyers have offered up a variety of arguments that have yet to do much to fend off a Justice Department that has adopted a largely successful legal approach. “He needs a quarterback who’s a real lawyer,” said David Schoen, a lawyer who defended Trump in his second Senate impeachment trial.
Jack Harlow, Nicki Minaj make mark at MTV Video Music Awards
Rapper Jack Harlow took flight to open the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, while Johnny Depp made a surprise float as the show’s Moon Man. Harlow kicked off his performance inside a mock airplane walking down aisle while performing his hit song “First Class,” which was sampled by Fergie’s “Glamorous.” The rapper joined Fergie onstage who sang her 2006 jam. Depp made brief cameos wearing the iconic astronaut outfit with his face digitally inserted into custom’s helmet at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It was Depp’s first appearance nearly three months after the verdict in his defamation trial with his former wife Amber Heard.
Police: Houston tenant kills 3 others, set fire to lure them
Houston police say a man evicted from an apartment building set fire to the house to lure out other tenants, then shot three dead and wounded two others. Officers fatally shot the gunman. The incident happened at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a mixed industrial-residential neighborhood in southwest Houston. Police Chief Troy Finner says fire crews and police responded to the apartment house after reports of the fire. Finner said the man then opened fire on the crews fighting the fire, forcing them to take cover until police officers shot him dead. No firefighters or officers were wounded.
Inmate who was pregnant settles suit over stop at Starbucks en route to a hospital
Sandra Quinones, six months pregnant, was at a jail in Orange County, California, when her water broke in March 2016, according to court records. She pushed the call button in her cell for two hours without a response, and when county employees finally did take her to a hospital, they stopped at a Starbucks along the way, her lawyer said in a federal lawsuit. She lost the pregnancy, according to court records. On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to pay Quinones $480,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit she had filed in federal court that claimed denial of medical care, negligent treatment and other violations.
US warships sail Taiwan Strait, defying chinese pressure
The U.S. Navy said two of its warships were sailing through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the first such passage by U.S. ships since China began large-scale military exercises in response to a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this month. Guided-missile cruisers Antietam and Chancellorsville were conducting what the Navy’s 7th Fleet called “a routine Taiwan Strait transit.” U.S. officials said this month the Navy would continue to operate around Taiwan, despite China’s claims to control the waterway. China has warned the United States against sailing warships in the Taiwan Strait and said it would respond to what it considers threats to its sovereignty.
Clashes between rival militias in Libya kill at least 32
Some of the fiercest clashes in two years in Libya’s capital between militias loyal to rival political leaders have left nearly three dozen people dead, as neighborhoods became battlefields and residents hunkered down in their homes, fearing a return to war in the country. At least 32 people were killed in street-to-street fighting Saturday, some of them civilians, and more than 150 were wounded, according to the Health Ministry. For years, Libya has been fractured between rival governments and prime ministers — and the militias they control. The internationally recognized Libyan government is led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeiba and based in the capital, Tripoli.
Russia, Ukraine trade claims of nuclear plant attacks
Russia and Ukraine have traded claims of attacks at or near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. These reports Sunday intensified fears that the fighting could damage the Zaporizhzhia plant and cause a massive radiation leak. Ukraine’s atomic energy agency painted an ominous picture of the threat by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread. Ukrainian officials say Russian strikes hit areas across the Dnieper River from the power plant. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces attacked the plant twice over the past day. Russian forces took control of the plant soon after the war began. Neither side’s attack claims could be independently verified.
Pakistan flooding deaths pass 1,000 in ‘climate catastrophe’
Officials in Pakistan say deaths from widespread flooding have topped 1,000 since mid-June and the country’s climate minister called the deadly monsoon season “a serious climate catastrophe.” Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis. The country’s National Disaster Management Authority reported Sunday the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal this year in mid-June. Deaths reached 1,061 people after new fatalities were reported in several different provinces.
By wire sources