Good morning.
Donald Trump became the first former US president to face federal criminal charges yesterday, after pleading not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump was greeted with a chaotic scene at a federal courthouse in Miami, where hundreds of protesters gathered to celebrate or denounce him. He was accompanied by his son Eric Trump.
Hours after his arraignment, Donald Trump was in New Jersey, where he told a crowd of supporters at one of his golf resorts that his indictments were a “corrupt” and “political pursuit” designed to destroy him.
Here’s a rundown of all the key players mentioned in Trump’s 44-page federal indictment. And Richard Luscombe sketches the scene in the courtroom.
Adding to Trump’s legal complications yesterday, a federal judge ruled that E Jean Carroll, the New York writer who last month won a $5m jury verdict against the former president, can now pursue a related $10m defamation case against him.
US House calls on Russia to release WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich
In a unanimous vote yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for the release of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Gershkovich, a US citizen, has been held by Russia for three months. He was arrested in March on espionage charges after the FSB security service accused him of collecting military secrets in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg. Gershkovich and his employer deny the charges.
War in Ukraine is behind the biggest rise in displaced persons in decades
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has fuelled the largest annual increase of people forcibly displaced by persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations in decades, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The number of displaced people had already grown by 21% in 2022 to an estimated 108.4 million. That is likely to have increased to 110 million people in May 2023.
In other news …
As the fighting between two rival military factions continues in Sudan, rape survivors in Khartoum are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.
A Los Angeles city councillor was charged with 10 counts, including embezzlement and perjury, on Tuesday in the latest criminal case to upend the scandal-plagued governing board.
The death toll linked to a Kenyan cult pastor accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus has risen to 300.
Pride decorations were removed at Starbucks locations because of a new policy, US workers said.
A US district judge has granted the Federal Trade Commission’s request to temporarily block Microsoft’s $69bn buyout of the video game maker Activision Blizzard.
Stat of the day: the number of marriages in China has dropped to lowest on record since 1986.
Data released by China’s ministry of civil affairs showed the number of couples who married in 2022 fell by about 800,000 on an already record low figure who wed 2021. At 6.83m, the number of marriages in China last year dropped to lowest since records began in 1986.
Don’t miss this: Cormac McCarthy dies aged 89
Cormac McCarthy, the author of Blood Meridian, The Road and No Country for Old Men, has died in his home of natural causes at the age of 89.
Widely seen as one of the greatest US novelists, McCarthy’s bleak, apocalyptic visions of the south revealed to the world America’s violent heart. His sparse style that combined poetic descriptions with lithe plotting also led to well-received film adaptations of his work.
… or this: The long, dark shadow of Bhopal
Four decades ago, a storage tank at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal leaked 27 tonnes of a gas called methyl isocyanate (MIC) throughout the sleeping city in Madhya Pradesh, India. People died vomiting uncontrollably, going into convulsions. Some choked, drowning in their own body fluids, while others died in the stampedes through narrow alleyways as residents panicked and fled from the creeping white cloud of gas.
Years later, the deaths continue with survivors dying from cancer. Testing of groundwater and well-water near the site of the plant reveals mercury levels up to 6m times greater than what is considered safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. “The lucky ones are those who died on that night,” said Rashida Bi, a survivor who has seen five members of her family die from a variety of cancers over the past three decades.
Climate check: a ‘death sentence’ for the world’s poor
Greta Thunberg warned yesterday that by not phasing out fossil fuels, wealthy countries were signing a “death sentence” for millions of poor people around the world.
“The coming months and years – right now – will be crucial to what the future looks like. It is what we decide now that will define the rest of humanity’s future,” she told a press conference at UN talks in Bonn, where governments are meeting to discuss the climate crisis.
Last Thing: A whale of a time
A pod of about 30 orcas played “like kids in a park” in California’s Monterey Bay this weekend, doing belly flops, slapping the waves with their flukes and spewing water from their blowholes. Marine biologists said they had never seen the animals engage in such playful behavior for so long.
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