Michael Cohen confronted Trump’s legal professionals
The testimony from Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer, is a linchpin within the Manhattan case towards the previous president. Right here’s the most recent.
Yesterday, Cohen returned to the stand. Legal professionals for the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace have advised the decide that he will likely be their final witness. On the stand, Cohen described to jurors a $130,000 fee to Stormy Daniels as an effort to affect the 2016 election “on behalf of Mr. Trump.”
After that, he confronted Trump’s authorized staff. In a barrage of questions, they sought to painting Cohen as an opportunist. Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, pressed Cohen about his social media posts, his efforts to monetize his connection to the previous president, his personal felony historical past and his need to see Trump behind bars.
“Would you like President Trump to get convicted on this case?” Blanche requested.
“Certain,” Cohen replied.
Blanche emphasised Cohen’s tv appearances and insult-slinging on-line — all of which he did in defiance of the prosecution’s needs and at Trump’s expense. He additionally famous that Cohen maintains a monetary curiosity in attacking Trump, arguing that he cashed in on their feud with a podcast and books.
Evaluation: The protection appeared to be making an attempt to painting Cohen as “primarily, Trump’s stalker,” my colleague Maggie Haberman wrote — a person as soon as obsessive about the previous president who was now equally obsessive about getting revenge.
What’s subsequent: Trump’s legal professionals indicated that they might name an knowledgeable witness and that they’d not determined if they’d name Trump himself.
Blinken visited Kyiv; Putin to go to China
Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, made a shock go to to Kyiv yesterday to fulfill with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and reaffirm U.S. assist for the nation.
Blinken’s journey comes at a difficult time within the warfare effort for Kyiv, and Russia’s current army beneficial properties in northeastern Ukraine hung over his go to. The Biden administration had warned for months that Congress’s delay in approving the current $60.8 billion help package deal would depart the Ukrainians susceptible.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia is anticipated to go to China later this week to go to Xi Jinping, China’s chief. The go to will take a look at their “no limits” partnership, which the 2 autocrats declared greater than two years in the past to push again towards U.S. interference.
However Xi is on a shrinking tightrope: Worldwide stress is mounting for him to curtail Chinese language assist for Russia and its warfare. As for Putin, he could be making an attempt to judge Xi’s urge for food for danger as he tries to discourage Western nations from extra actively supporting Ukraine.
Different updates:
The transfer is an effort to guard strategic U.S. industries from opponents that Biden says are unfairly sponsored by Beijing. In a shift, he additionally endorsed retaining the tariffs on greater than $300 billion value of Chinese language items that have been put in place by Trump. Throughout his 2020 marketing campaign, Biden criticized Trump’s commerce warfare. In workplace, he has escalated it. However the place Trump promised to deliver again manufacturing unit jobs, Biden has targeted as an alternative on rising high-tech industries.
China: Heavy manufacturing subsidies — coupled with weak home gross sales — are how China got here to dominate the worldwide market in photo voltaic panels and electrical automobiles.
MORE TOP NEWS
Britain’s butlers are altering. Today, buttling (sure, that’s a verb) is much less sharpening silver and extra concierge-style way of life administration — akin to a personal maitre d’.
And whereas aristocrats needed them to behave like furnishings, new-money entrepreneurs see them extra like a flashy accent.
Lives lived:
Netiporn Sanesangkhom: A distinguished Thai pro-democracy activist, she died of cardiac arrest after a monthslong starvation strike in jail. She was 28.
Alice Munro: The Canadian author and Nobel laureate, who was broadly thought-about a grasp of the brief story, has died. She was 92.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
The combat over New York Metropolis’s streets
New York Metropolis’s streets have at all times bustled, however recently, they’re nearly dangerously unlivable.
Residents conflict over visitors, parking and heaps of trash. Automobiles and taxis vie for area as buses swerve to keep away from vans parked in bike lanes. E-bikes are in every single place. Far fewer pedestrians get killed by motorists lately, however final yr was the deadliest for cyclists since 1999.
“All of these items is making an attempt to suit right into a grid that was designed in 1811,” my colleague Dodai Stewart explains in a video. Aid could also be on the best way: The town is about to enact the primary congestion pricing plan within the U.S., which might cost most drivers $15 to enter a lot of Manhattan beneath sixtieth Avenue.
