Jury Orders Giuliani to Pay $148 Million to Election Workers He Defamed
A federal jury on Friday ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay two former Georgia election workers more than $148 million for destroying their reputations and causing them extreme emotional distress by spreading lies that they had tried to steal a victory from President Donald Trump after the 2020 presidential election. The jury in U.S. District Court in Washington awarded Freeman and Moss a combined $75 million in punitive damages. It also ordered Giuliani to pay compensatory damages of $16.2 million to Freeman and $16.9 million to Moss, as well as $20 million to each of them for emotional suffering.
Homelessness rose
to record level
this year,
government says
Homelessness surged this year to the highest level on record, the federal government reported Friday. An annual count conducted in January found the homeless population had increased by more than 70,000 people, or 12%, to 653,194 people. Biden administration officials and academic experts said the increase reflected both a sharp rise in rents and the end of the extraordinary measures the government had enacted during the pandemic, including emergency rental aid and bans on eviction. But some researchers said the rise also stemmed from the growing number of migrants entering the homeless services system.
Judges press lawyer for Meadows on bid to move Georgia case to federal court
A lawyer for Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, faced tough questions from a panel of judges Friday as Meadows renewed his bid to move a Georgia election interference case from state court to federal court. The panel of three appeals court judges heard brief oral arguments in the case, in which Meadows is accused of working with others to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Judges seemed particularly skeptical of arguments by Meadows that allegations against him concern actions he took as a federal officer and thus should be dealt with in federal court.
Florida law chills Chinese student recruitment
The panic among faculty at the University of Florida began this month once word started to spread: Do not make offers yet to graduate students from seven “countries of concern.” Among the seven was China, the largest source of international students at Florida, a major research university, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The guidance stemmed from a law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers said was designed to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from having influence at the state’s public institutions. It remains unclear whether the law outright prohibits schools from hiring Chinese students.
Housing prices may pose a problem
for Biden
As many people pay more for rent and some struggle to save for starter homes, analysts are warning that housing affordability is likely to be a more salient issue in the 2024 presidential election than in years past. Wary of the issue and its political implications, President Joe Biden has directed his economic aides to come up with new and expanded efforts for the federal government to help Americans who are struggling with the costs of buying or renting a home, aides say. The White House has also dispatched top officials to give speeches about the administration’s efforts to help people afford homes.
Zelenskyy returns to Ukraine with little aid and a raft of needs
With his soldiers fighting in trenches and his cities under attack from Russian missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned to Ukraine on Friday from a flurry of diplomatic meetings without major aid packages from the United States and Europe. Political infighting in Washington and the European Union has blocked further aid to Ukraine. Early Friday, EU leaders conceded they could not pass a multiyear, 50-billion-euro ($54.5 billion) aid package over the objections of Hungary. Ukraine relies on foreign aid for about half of its federal budget and most of the ammunition and weaponry sustaining its army, meaning any substantial delays in Western support could imperil the country’s ability to fight Russia.
Ukraine’s recruiters use harsh tactics to fill ranks
With Ukraine’s military facing mounting deaths and a stalemate on the battlefield over the nearly two years since Russia’s invasion, army recruiters have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to replenish the ranks, in some cases pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centers using intimidation and even physical force. Recruiters have confiscated passports, taken people from their jobs and, in at least one case, tried to send a mentally disabled person to military training, according to lawyers, activists and Ukrainian men who have been subject to coercive tactics.
By wire sources
