Monday, Jul 01st
Last update06:38:08 AM GMT
The highly anticipated testimony of former President Trump in his New York civil fraud trial Monday heaved chaotically between defending his business practices and decrying those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”
Months of bubbling tensions between Trump and New York Judge Arthur Engoron reached a boiling point in the courtroom almost as soon as the real estate mogul took the witness stand, with the judge at one point asking Trump’s lawyer to control his client.
An Alabama pastor and mayor died by suicide Friday after a conservative blog wrote a story about him wearing women’s clothing as a “hobby.”
The conservative news blog 1819 News published the social media accounts of F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, who was the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama, and the pastor at First Baptist Church in Phenix City, where Copeland goes by Brittini Blaire Summerlin and refers to himself as a “Transitioning Transgender Curvy Girl.” Copeland posted on Reddit as his alter ego and had a private Instagram page, according to the news blog.
The latest species of spider found in the U.S. are huge, brightly colored and travel in a method described as "ballooning." And, according to new research, they're spreading out to new states around the country.
Researchers at Clemson University published a study on Joro spiders, coming to the conclusion that the species is spreading rapidly beyond the South Carolina area, and data shows they could inhabit most of the eastern U.S.
Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him.
Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August.
But when the plane landed, the flight attendant told the couple there wasn’t time to get a wheelchair on board before the plane had to prepare for takeoff again, Deanna Hodgins wrote in a recent Facebook post.
When the attendant said Hodgins would have to pull himself off the plane alone, the couple at first thought she was joking – but then she repeated the request.
Authorities in Tennessee were searching on Sunday for the estranged son of Nashville’s police chief as the suspect in the shooting of two police officers outside a Dollar General store.
Officers in La Vergne, a city about 20 miles (32km) south-east of Nashville, were investigating a stolen vehicle outside the store on Saturday afternoon when they struggled with the suspect, who pulled a handgun and shot them, said the local police chief, Christopher Moews.
Investigators identified the suspect as John C Drake Jr, 38, who is the son of Nashville’s metropolitan police department chief, John Drake.
One of the officers was shot twice, in the groin and right forearm, while the other officer was hit in the rear left shoulder. Both were taken to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University medical center.
Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday as its jets pounded Gaza and tanks massed around the Palestinian enclave, and the army said it killed three Hamas militants in a fresh confrontation on nearby Israeli territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to form a war cabinet with former defence minister and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and focus entirely on the conflict, a joint statement from Gantz's National Unity party said.
Israel's death toll rose to 1,200 with over 2,700 wounded, its military said, from Hamas militants' weekend rampage after breaching the border fence enclosing Gaza on Saturday in a shock mass infiltration of nearby Israeli towns and villages.
Israeli reprisal strikes on blockaded Gaza have killed 1,100 people and wounded 5,339, Gaza's Health Ministry said. Some 535 residential buildings had been destroyed leaving around 250,000 homeless, Hamas officials said. Most of the displaced were in U.N.-designated shelters, others huddling in shattered streets.
A visibly upset Biden, in remarks at the White House, voiced concern for any Americans who may be held hostage by Hamas, the Iran-backed group that launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza on Saturday.
At least 14 Americans died in the attack. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the U.S. believed 20 Americans were missing but that it remained unclear if they were being held hostage.
In the two years since Simone Biles returned home from the Olympics mentally and physically empty, it has taken everything for her to make it back to the top. She first had to withdraw from her sport in order to heal, with many hours spent in therapy. Since her return, she has thrown herself back in like never before.
It is a result of that hard work, commitment and mental strength, as well as her unparalleled talent, that Biles is once again, officially, the best gymnast in the world. On Friday, Biles won a record-extending sixth world all-around title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp with a score of 58.399.
“It was emotional, and it means everything,” said Biles afterwards. “The fight, everything that I’ve put in to get back to this place, feel comfortable and confident enough to compete. It was a lot.”
A New York appeals court declined to temporarily pause former President Trump’s civil fraud trial but did halt the cancellation of Trump’s business licenses until after an appeals court hears his case.
The order follows a Friday motion filed by Trump’s legal team to stay the trial and the enforcement of an earlier ruling issued by the New York Supreme Court that found Trump and his businesses liable for fraud.
In that 1,154-page court filing, Trump’s legal team wrote that Judge Arthur Engoron’s decision imposed “unauthorized, undemanded, overbroad relief” to the New York attorney general’s office, which will result in “significant, irreparable harm” to the former president and his business.
“Supreme Court clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos its decision has wrought,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing.
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