Legal experts predict Trump will seek to move trial to federal court
In July, a federal judge rejected an attempt by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers to move a criminal case against him in New York City from state to federal court. Now that Trump has been charged with criminal conspiracy to change the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, his legal team in Atlanta is almost certain to try the same maneuver. Moving the sprawling racketeering case against him and his allies to federal court would have advantages for Trump, the most obvious being that the jury pool would be drawn from a broader area.
Former FBI spy hunter pleads guilty to aiding Russian oligarch
The former head of counterintelligence for the FBI in New York pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to a single reduced charge of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and laundering payments from a prominent Russian oligarch. The plea by the former agent, Charles F. McGonigal, represented a remarkable turn for a man who once occupied one of the most sensitive and trusted positions in the American intelligence community, placing him among the highest-ranking FBI officials ever to be convicted of a crime. Judge Jennifer H. Rearden scheduled McGonigal’s sentencing for Dec. 4.
Biden says he’ll visit Hawaii after deadly wildfires
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he would travel to Hawaii to inspect damage on Maui after deadly wildfires ripped through the island, killing at least 99 people. “My wife, Jill, and I are going to travel to Hawaii as soon as we can,” Biden said in a speech focused on the economy in Milwaukee. “That’s what I’ve been talking to the governor about, but I don’t want to get in the way.” Biden had not addressed the Maui wildfires since last week, when he declared a federal emergency and offered condolences for the families of those who died. His relative silence had drawn criticism from Republicans.
Man who set fire to Planned Parenthood clinic gets 10 years in prison
A man who told authorities that he had set fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Illinois after being reminded of an ex-girlfriend who he said had an abortion against his wishes was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison. The man, Tyler Massengill, 33, of Chillicothe, Illinois, was also ordered by Judge James Shadid in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois to pay $1.45 million for the damage he caused to the clinic. No one was hurt in the fire at the clinic in Peoria, Illinois, on Jan. 15, but it “suffered significant damage,” forcing it to close its doors to patients, according to the complaint.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer steps down from case
The lawyer who represented Hunter Biden in plea negotiations to end a five-year Justice Department investigation into tax and gun offenses stepped down early Tuesday, saying that he intends to testify as a witness on behalf of the president’s son. The decision by the lawyer, Christopher Clark, is the latest development in the long-running negotiation. The department has said that a substantial part of the plea agreement no longer stands and suggested in court documents that it could indict Hunter Biden. Clark is now contending that Biden will need him as a witness to prove that the department is seeking to back out of a legally binding deal.
She was Brazil’s Barbie. Now she’s saying sorry.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel, known as Xuxa, was Brazil’s biggest television star. Generations of children spent mornings watching her on her wildly popular variety show. She was “a Barbie of that time,” said Xuxa, 60. Like the famous doll, Xuxa is thin, blond, blue-eyed and white. But now Brazil is in the midst of its own real-life Barbie reckoning of sorts, and many, including Xuxa, are questioning whether the narrow ideal she represented was always a positive force in a country with a majority Black population. “I didn’t see it as wrong back then. Today, we know it’s wrong,” Xuxa said of the beauty standard she portrayed to Brazil’s youth.
Dozens reported dead in fire at gas station in southern Russia
A fire and an explosion at a gas station killed at least 35 people in southern Russia, authorities said Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of foul play or of a connection to the war in Ukraine. Russian state media said a fire at a nearby building Monday evening caused an explosion at the gas station in Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, on the Caspian Sea and near the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. The Kremlin published a message of condolence from President Vladimir Putin, and Dagestan Gov. Sergei Melikov declared a day of mourning and promised to pay 1 million rubles (about $10,000) to each of the families of the dead.
Poland, facing key elections, flexes its military might
Poland’s military held its largest parade in decades in Warsaw on Monday, as the government flexes its defense muscles before critical national elections. Poland’s state news agency reported before the parade that about 2,000 troops from Poland and other NATO countries were expected to take part, accompanied by 200 pieces of military equipment and 92 aircraft. The parade comes as the country’s governing Law and Justice party, PiS, prepares to face tough elections in October. The party has long sought to showcase its support for the military and its strong stance on defense issues. Opponents of the party have accused the government of inciting fear over tensions on the Belarus border for domestic political gain.
Typhoon Lan knocks out power for thousands in western Japan
Typhoon Lan pummeled western Japan on Tuesday, prompting local officials to issue evacuation warnings, knocking out power to thousands of homes, canceling hundreds of flights and disrupting summer traditions like a nationwide baseball tournament. In two prefectures, Tottori and Okayama, rainfall in a few hours exceeded the average for the entire month of August. Record-breaking levels of rain over a short period of time were also recorded in Kyoto and Nara. At least 20 people were injured across five prefectures, including a man in his 60s, who was unconscious and in critical condition after the wall of a building collapsed on him.
Video shows Russian naval officers halting cargo ship on Black Sea
Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a video Tuesday that shows part of a naval operation in which military personnel landed by helicopter on a cargo ship on the Black Sea, in an inspection that Ukraine has condemned as illegal. The video, the second to emerge since the Sunday episode, has been verified by The New York Times. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its personnel had fired warning shots to get the ship to stop before the navy helicopter landed, but that part of the episode is not recorded on either of the two videos. The videos provide the only visual evidence of the Russian operation, and it was not possible to determine the full scope of what took place.
By wire sources