Good morning.
Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he hadn’t won the presidential election in November: that’s the finding of Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated him.
The report was released by the justice department today and details Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy.
The special counsel said: “But for Mr Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Why didn’t the case go ahead? Smith acknowledged the justice department’s policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president, a factor that ultimately led to the dropping of charges against Trump after his 2024 victory. The report also references a supreme court ruling expanding presidential immunity, which complicated the case, and Trump’s repeated legal attacks, which took up time and resources to fight.
How did Trump respond? In a social media post, Trump called the special counsel a “lamebrain prosecutor”.
Hopes rise for ceasefire and hostage release deal despite Israeli strikes in Gaza
Details of a plan to end the war in Gaza could be finalised today, as negotiators meet in Doha and President Joe Biden indicated a ceasefire and hostage release deal was imminent.
Mediators gave Israel and Hamas a final draft of an agreement on Monday, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, after a midnight “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both Biden and president-elect Donald Trump.
A Palestinian source close to the talks told Reuters he expected the deal to be finalised on Tuesday if “all goes well.” On Monday night, Trump described a possible ceasefire as being “very close.”
What do we know about the terms of the potential deal? Reuters reports that negotiations are advanced over releasing 33 of 98 hostages still in Gaza in the first stage of the deal, citing an Israeli official. In return, Israel will free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the Palestinian source close to the talks, who said the first phase would last for 60 days.
While negotiators meet, is the war still raging? Yes. Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 18 people overnight, including six women and four children, health officials said, and Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli airstrikes killed more than 50 people in the Palestinian territory’s main city on Monday.
Dangerous winds expected to amplify California wildfires as Newsom accuses Musk of encouraging looting
Firefighters battling the disastrous wildfires around Los Angeles were prepared for a return of dangerous winds that could again stoke the flames as the death toll hit at least 24.
Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has accused the tech billionaire Elon Musk of “encouraging looting” in an escalation of a row over disinformation surrounding the deadly LA fires.
The California governor lashed out after Musk, who is Trump’s wealthiest supporter, reposted a message on X – the social media platform he bought – that falsely accused the governor and his fellow Democrats of decriminalizing looting.
“Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it’s decriminalized. It’s not,” Newsom wrote. “It’s illegal – as it always has been.”
How many arrests have been related to the aftermath of fires? About 30 people have been arrested, most of them for suspected looting. Two men were detained on Saturday outside the Los Angeles home of Kamala Harris, the Wall Street Journal reported, but were later released after no evidence of a burglary was found.
In other news …
Climate activists supporting Just Stop Oil spray-painted “1.5 is dead” on Charles Darwin’s grave, after confirmation that last year was the first to breach the important global heating threshold of 1.5C.
The South African government has launched a mission to bring to the surface potentially hundreds of people in an illegal mine, after reports of deaths.
The rightwing former UK prime minister Liz Truss, who governed for 45 days in 2022, said the country would fail unless UK media outlets (such as the Guardian) were “fixed”.
Stat of the day: Nobel prize winners call for urgent ‘moonshot’ effort to feed 9.7bn people by 2050
More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have urged “moonshot” efforts to escalate food production to avert a world hunger catastrophe. The coalition called for “planet-friendly” leaps in food production to feed 9.7 billion people by 2050.
Don’t miss this: Tokyo drift – what happens when a city stops being the future?
Tokyo remains, in the world’s imagination, a place of sophistication and wealth. But with economic revival forever distant, “tourism pollution” seems the only viable plan, writes Dylan Levi King.
Climate check: How the climate crisis is driving Trump’s advances over Greenland and Panama
Donald Trump’s desire to seize control of Greenland and the Panama canal is shaped in part by the climate crisis he denies. Rare minerals in Greenland are being uncovered as the ice rapidly retreats. Meanwhile, severe drought in Panama has threatened water supplies and limited traffic through the crucial shipping route.
Last Thing: Pineapple on pizza? It’ll cost you £100 ($122)
The ham-and-pineapple Hawaiian pizza is divisive. The kitchen at Lupa pizza in Norwich, England, hates it so much they’ve grudgingly added it to the menu – for £100 ($122). “Pineapple on pizza?” the head chef said. “I’d rather put a bloody strawberry on one than that tropical menace.”
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