Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

Donald Trump is due to be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. (AFP/File Photo)

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Updated 6 sec ago

AFP

November 12, 2024 15:53

Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

Ahead of election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have case thrown out
Trump’s legal team almost certain to seek to oppose or delay any sentencing

Updated 6 sec ago

AFP

November 12, 2024 15:53

NEW YORK: The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal case has delayed to November 19 a decision on potentially throwing out the US president-elect’s conviction, the court said Tuesday.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
The president-elect is due to be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
That landmark ruling saw the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, decide that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Ahead of the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move that prosecutors have firmly rejected.
If the judge throws out the case on that basis, there will be no sentencing of Trump, 78.
If he does not, Trump’s legal team would almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any sentencing, insisting it would interfere with Trump’s role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on January 20.
“The joint application for a stay of the current deadlines... until November 19, is granted,” the court wrote in an email to parties in the case, seen by AFP.
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
“Trump’s victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct,” said former prosecutor Randall Eliason in an article on Substack.
“That’s a severe blow to the ideal of the rule of law.”
The New York conviction, coming just months before an election that Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic developments in the race for the White House.
In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic Party’s candidate following a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.
That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color from a major US party to stand for president.

Topics: Donald Trump

Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

Updated 54 min 16 sec ago

November 12, 2024 17:26

Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack
He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said

Updated 54 min 16 sec ago

November 12, 2024 17:26

ZHUHAI, China: A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.
Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack Monday night in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. The city is hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s annual aviation exhibition, which opened Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall.
Outside of the controls, however, videos circulated on the social media platform X. In several, dozens of people could be seen lying on the track at the sports complex, which is regularly used by hundreds of residents to run, play soccer or dance.
In one, shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, a woman says “my foot is broken.” That same video showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person, as others were told to leave. Li, who is known on X as Teacher Li, posts daily news based on user submissions
In addition to the 35 people killed, police said 43 were injured.
China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear to target members of the public at random.
In October, a man was detained after he allegedly attacked children with a knife at a school in Beijing. Five people were wounded. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and another 15 were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”
In May, two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack in a hospital in Yunnan province.
Police identified the man detained in Monday’s attack only by his family name of Fan, as is typical, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.
He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said.
Chinese authorities appeared to be tightly controlling information about the incident. Internet censors tend to take extra care to scrub social media ahead of and during major events, such as the aviation exhibition or the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.
For almost 24 hours after the attack, it was unclear what the death or injury toll was. On Tuesday morning, a search on the Chinese social media platform Weibo for the sports center turned up just a few posts, with only a couple referring to the fact something had happened, without pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media from Monday night about the incident were taken down.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law in a statement Tuesday evening.
He also called on all local governments “to strengthen prevention and control of risks at the source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Topics: China divorce car

Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

Updated 12 November 2024

Sanjay Kumar

November 12, 2024 17:20

Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

There has been an increase of at least 30% in trips to Middle East from Indian city of Ahmedabad alone, agent says
Indian travelers are drawn to ‘less explored’ Middle East region, which is increasingly becoming top choice

Updated 12 November 2024

Sanjay Kumar

November 12, 2024 17:20

NEW DELHI: An increasing number of Indian travelers are visiting the Middle East this year, tour operators said on Tuesday after recording a significant surge to the region during the Diwali holiday season.

The Middle East has become an increasingly popular foreign destination for many Indian travelers, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE often cited as the top two countries in demand.

As the festive Diwali season and the long holidays that came with it concluded earlier this month, tourism players in India say there was a notable increase in trips to Arab countries.

“In this festival season, there was a huge demand,” Jyoti Mayal, president of the Travel Agents Association of India, told Arab News on travel from India to the UAE, citing Saudi Arabia and Qatar as particularly popular destinations.

“These countries in the Middle East are less explored and that’s why more and more people are traveling (to them).”

Travelers from the western Indian state of Gujarat were drawn to new and affordable packages offered to Gulf destinations like Dubai, said tour agent Manish Sharma.

“From Ahmedabad, I can say that compared to the past, there has been an increase of 30 to 35 percent in the outbound travels to the Middle East this time,” Sharma, who runs his business in the Gujarati capital, told Arab News.

Their top choices were UAE cities such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai, he added.

“The reasons for the growth are manifold — it’s cheap, easy connectivity, it’s near, you get good food,” he added.

Members of the Gujarati middle class “take at least one or two vacations every year,” he said. “During Diwali and summer vacation, they prefer to go to Dubai.”

Many Indians appear to be taking advantage of the increasing number of direct flights to the UAE. There are at least 14 daily flights to Dubai from Ahmedabad alone.

“There has been an increase in Dubai travel in the last 10 years, (and) in the last three years tourism has grown greatly. But this year, tourism to UAE has gone phenomenally and the reason is the increase in the number of flights,” Sharma said.

Topics: India Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates (UAE) Diwali

Russian doctor jailed for 5-1/2 years after being publicly denounced

Updated 15 min 11 sec ago

Reuters

November 12, 2024 17:16

Russian doctor jailed for 5-1/2 years after being publicly denounced

Prosecutors had last week asked for a six-year sentence for Nadezhda Buyanova for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army
Eva Levenberg, a lawyer for the rights group, told Reuters a further 175 people had faced lower-level administrative cases for “discrediting” the Russian army

Updated 15 min 11 sec ago

Reuters

November 12, 2024 17:16

MOSCOW: A Russian court sentenced a Moscow paediatrician to 5-1/2 years in a penal colony on Tuesday, Russian media said, after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her over comments about Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
Prosecutors had last week asked for a six-year sentence for Nadezhda Buyanova for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army after the mother recorded a video in which she denounced the 68-year-old doctor over remarks that Buyanova has denied making.
Over 1,000 people have been criminally prosecuted in Russia for speaking out against the war, according to rights project OVD-Info, and over 20,000 have been detained for protesting.
Buyanova’s case is part of a trend in which more people in Russia are denouncing others for alleged political crimes. OVD-Info has recorded 21 such criminal prosecutions since the conflict in Ukraine began in February 2022.
Eva Levenberg, a lawyer for the rights group, told Reuters a further 175 people had faced lower-level administrative cases for “discrediting” the Russian army as a consequence of people informing on them, and 79 of these had been fined.
Reuters has requested comment from the Russian Justice Ministry about the OVD-Info data and the use of denunciations to support prosecutions, including Buyanova’s.
Her supporters, some wearing T-shirts with her face printed on, packed the courtroom to hear the sentencing.
“I can’t get my head around it,” Buyanova, her grey hair closely cropped, told reporters before the verdict.
As Judge Olga Fedina pronounced her guilty, the courtroom erupted in protest. Several cried “Shame!,” Russian media said.
“The sentence is monstrously cruel,” Buyanova’s lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhiev, was quoted as saying by news outlet Mediazona.

VIDEO COMPLAINT
The case against Buyanova was launched in February by the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes.
It was prompted by a complaint by Anastasia Akinshina, who had taken her seven-year-old son to see Buyanova at her clinic. The boy’s father, from whom Akinshina was divorced, had been killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
Akinshina recorded a video in which she said Buyanova had referred to her child’s father as a “legitimate target of Ukraine.”
The video was posted by Mash, a Telegram channel with over 3 million subscribers that is close to Russian security services.
Buyanova, who denied making the statement, was placed in pre-trial detention in April.
A group of Russian doctors wrote an open letter in Buyanova’s defense, calling the denunciation a “disgrace.” A petition for her release has garnered over 6,000 signatures.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Moscow court Nadezhda Buyanova Russian army

Europe has ‘avoided bearing burden of its own security’: Macron

Updated 12 November 2024

AFP

November 12, 2024 16:51

Europe has ‘avoided bearing burden of its own security’: Macron

Macron said he was “delighted” that other nations were falling in line with his longstanding call to collectively invest more in defense
“It’s the agenda of European strategic autonomy that will allow us to have more money, to build capacity and autonomy for the Europeans“

Updated 12 November 2024

AFP

November 12, 2024 16:51

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday renewed his calls for Europe to assume more responsibility for its own defense, saying it had for “too long avoided bearing the burden of its own security.”
Speaking alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte, who was visiting Paris in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection as US President, Macron said he was “delighted” that other nations were falling in line with his longstanding call to collectively invest more in defense.
“It’s the agenda of European strategic autonomy that will allow us to have more money, to build capacity and autonomy for the Europeans, and an ability to cooperate with our non-European allies as part of the alliance,” Macron said.
Trump has questioned Washington’s commitment to defend NATO allies and spoken of slashing support to Ukraine or striking a deal with Russia to end its years-long invasion.
His return to the White House is a renewed spur to Europeans — long used to conventional and nuclear protection from the US military — to reexamine their own defense.
“Nothing should be decided about Ukraine without the Ukrainians, nor about Europe without the Europeans,” Macron said, adding that “building up homegrown military capacity would be “a long-term effort.”
He joined Rutte in calling North Korean troops’ appearance alongside Russian soldiers “a serious escalation” in the Ukraine conflict that widened the threat to the Pacific, increasingly the Americans’ priority theater.
“Russia, working together with North Korea, Iran and China, is not only threatening Europe, it threatens peace and security, yes here in Europe, but also in the Indo-Pacific and North America,” Rutte said.
“We must stand together — Europe, North America and our global partners... We have to keep our trans-atlantic alliance strong,” he added.
Rutte pointed to backing Russia has received from Iran, North Korea and China.
“We must do more than just keep Ukraine in the fight. We need to raise the cost for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his enabling and authoritarian friends by providing Ukraine with the support it needs to change the trajectory of the conflict,” he told reporters.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict French President Emmanuel Macron NATO Europe

How TIME-featured sisters lead conservation efforts in Philippines’ biodiversity haven

Updated 12 November 2024

Samantha Beltran

November 12, 2024 16:15

How TIME-featured sisters lead conservation efforts in Philippines’ biodiversity haven

Ann and Billie Dumaliang were featured in TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders last month
In 2024, Philippines was named deadliest country in Asia for environmental defenders for 11th year in a row

Updated 12 November 2024

Samantha Beltran

November 12, 2024 16:15

MANILA: On the outskirts of Manila, a 2,600-hectare nature reserve has been lauded by top climate activists and film stars after it gained international recognition for one of the largest collaborative reforestation efforts in the Philippines.

Behind the rescue of over 2,000 hectares of that land is sisters Ann and Billie Dumaliang. They have been at the forefront of conserving the biodiversity-rich Masungi Georeserve and nurturing it as a geotourism site, which is home to lush rainforests, 60-million-year-old limestone formations and over 400 species of flora and fauna.

They have become the faces of conservation in the Philippines, a country named in 2024 as the deadliest in Asia for environmental defenders — for the 11th year in a row — with the killings of 17 activists.

The Dumaliang sisters and the nearly 100 rangers at the reserve are no stranger to the deluge of threats that come with their work, which range from physical to legal, and include disinformation and harassment campaigns.

Over the years, rangers at the reserve have been shot at by intruders and were the targets of booby traps and improvised explosives set across the landscape.

But the dangers that come with their conservation efforts have not deterred them from the mission to protect Masungi.

“We’re a small group and a team of young people. All of these groups that we’re up against have unlimited resources … how do we compete with these very powerful and well-resourced interests?” Billie, 31, told Arab News.

The sisters were among the trailblazers featured in TIME Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders last month, recognized for their work protecting Masungi from illegal loggers, land grabbers and quarrying companies.

Billie says TIME’s “empowering” recognition was a “symbol” that the international community has been paying attention to their team’s work and the challenges they face.

“A lot of times when you don’t have enough support at home, if your organization is repressed or harassed, sometimes it’s really the international community that provides the much-needed support,” Billie said.

The Dumaliang sisters help manage the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, which they founded in 2015 to lead and strengthen conservation efforts that began in the 1990s.

Through a private conservation model and a highly controlled geotourism program, Masungi has shot to fame as a showcase for sustainable reforestation.

Their work has also garnered support from prominent figures, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio.

Despite the real dangers they face every day, some of Ann and Billie’s earliest memories were attached to the reserve — experiences that keep them passionate about their work today.

As children, they would visit Masungi with their father, a civil engineer and conservationist, as he worked on development, and later, conservation efforts.

“Instead of taking us to the mall on weekends, our dad would take us to these nature areas where he had projects,” Billie said.

The reserve was a regular destination for the Dumaliangs, back when it was still heavily barren — initially to give way to government housing projects that had eventually fallen through.

“The appreciation that we have for the outdoors, for the natural world came from seeing Masungi evolve from a place that was like that to the lush forest that it is now,” Ann, 33, said.

“The motivation for me and for Billie is really just to make sure that that stays and that it continues to exist past our time.”

Their foundation’s approach to conservation follows assisted natural regeneration, which allows these areas to naturally restore their ecosystems and regenerate through mitigating and preventing disruption.

This means the bulk of their work was focused on preventing encroachments on the area and securing the expansive reserve’s boundaries, with rangers guarding the area from intruders and deterring illegal activities such as logging and quarrying.

“They said in the early nineties, all that you could hear was the sound of chainsaws in the area. Today, it’s birds and different types of animals and the wind and the leaves. So, what it looks like now is a jungle and a thriving ecosystem,” Billie said.

“It took more than 20 years for that whole ecosystem to come back, and it started when we were able to make sure that we could manage disturbances to the landscape,” she added. “So we let nature do its thing, regenerate, reheal, and we assist through mitigating the threats.”

For Ann, the recent TIME feature was an encouragement not only for their team, but for the “frontliners of this work” in the Philippines and around the world, whose safety is often at risk for simply protecting the environment.

“These are constant harassments faced by the people who learn to love their land the most. And more often than not, they’re poorly heard, yet they’re the ones who are threatened the most.”

Topics: Philippines

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Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

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