Good morning.
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump over his retention of national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. It is a historic development that poses the most significant legal peril yet for the former president.
The exact nature of the indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, is unclear because it remains under seal and the justice department had no immediate comment.
Trump confirmed the indictment on his Truth Social social media platform on Thursday afternoon, shortly after his lawyers received an email from prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith. It outlined the charges and summoned the former president to surrender himself to authorities in Miami next Tuesday.
The charges listed in the summons included: wilful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation, engaging in a scheme to conceal, and false statements, people familiar with the matter said.
How has Trump reacted to the news? From his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, Trump lashed out at the indictment in a series of posts on Truth Social. “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States,” Trump said, adding: “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
Could Trump go to jail? “It is often tempting to hype every Trump drama out of proportion and then lose sight of when something genuinely monumental has happened. Last night’s action by the justice department was genuinely monumental,” writes David Smith. “He really might be going to jail.”
What is the Trump Mar-a-Lago case about and why is it significant? The case marks the first time the justice department has charged Trump and adds to the mounting legal troubles he faces as he seeks to return to the presidency. Here’s a breakdown of where things stand.
Julian Assange ‘dangerously close’ to US extradition after losing latest legal appeal
Julian Assange is “dangerously close” to being extradited to the US after losing his latest legal appeal, according to his family and observers of his long-running legal challenge.
His lawyers say they will appeal again to the same court, amid growing fears Assange could spend the rest of his life in prison for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.
In a three-page judgment handed down in the UK high court on Tuesday, Justice Swift rejected all eight grounds of Assange’s appeal against the US’s extradition order, signed by the then UK home secretary, Priti Patel, in June last year.
But Assange’s wife, Stella, said he would make a “renewed application for appeal to the high court” next week.
The matter would then be heard before two new judges in a public hearing, she said.
What else did she say? “… We remain optimistic that we will prevail and that Julian will not be extradited to the United States where he faces charges that could result in him spending the rest of his life in a maximum security prison for publishing true information that revealed war crimes committed by the US government.”
What did his appeal centre on? Assange’s appeal argued that Patel, as home secretary, erred in her decision to approve the extradition order because the request violated the US-UK extradition treaty which states “extradition shall not be granted if the offence for which extradition is requested is a political offence”. His legal team has consistently maintained that the US desire to try Assange is politically motivated.
Air pollution in US from wildfire smoke is worst in recent recorded history
The US experienced its most toxic air pollution from wildfire smoke in its recent recorded history on Wednesday, researchers have found, with people in New York exposed to levels of pollution more than five times above the national air quality standard.
The rapid analysis of the extreme event, shared with the Guardian, found that smoke billowing south from forest fires in Canada caused Americans to suffer the worst day of average exposure to such pollution since a dataset on smoky conditions started in 2006.
“It’s the worst by far, I mean, Jesus, it was bad,” said Marshall Burke, an environmental scientist at Stanford University who led the work. “It’s hard to believe to be honest, we had to quadruple check it to see if it was right. We have not seen events like this, or even close to this, on the east coast before. This is a historic event.”
The Stanford researchers calculated that the average American on Wednesday was exposed to 27.5 micrograms per cubic meter of small particulate matter carried within the plumes of smoke. These tiny flecks of soot, dust and other burned debris, known as PM2.5, bury deep in the lungs when inhaled and are linked to a variety of health conditions and can cause deaths.
What advice have Californians, who are used to living with wildfire smoke, given to those affected? “Some tips for friends on the east coast: 1) Don’t go outside 2) Wear a mask if you must go outside 3) Run an air purifier all day and all night 4) AC should be in recirculate mode. Sincerely, a coast who deals with this crisis often,” Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for the California governor, said on Twitter.
How long will it stay smoky? Toxic smoke from Canadian wildfires could linger over vast swaths of the US for days, officials warned, as millions of Americans remained under air pollution warnings.
What’s happening with the fires in Canada? Wildfire crews in Canada continue to battle hundreds of blazes across the country as air quality in major cities remains poor and other regions brace for intense heat. And as the country burns, experts warn Canada needs to do a better job of preparing its communities in areas increasingly prone to destructive blazes.
In other news …
Alabama discriminated against Black voters when it drew its seven congressional districts last year, the supreme court has ruled, a decision that is a major victory for the Voting Rights Act. The decision was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the court’s three liberal justices in the opinion.
Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have announced a deal for transatlantic cooperation that moves the UK firmly into the US administration’s economic orbit and marks a revival in ties after the turbulence of Brexit. The Atlantic declaration was unveiled at a joint press conference at the White House.
The crypto company Binance.US will suspend US dollar deposits, as its banking partners prepare to pause the channels to withdraw US dollars from the exchange, just days after regulators sued Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
China is planning to restrict and scrutinise the use of wireless filesharing services between mobile devices, such as airdrop and Bluetooth, after they were used by protesters to evade censorship and spread protest messages. Under the proposal, service providers would have to prevent the dissemination of harmful and illegal information, save records and report their discoveries.
Stat of the day: 10-year-old girl survives 24 hours in ‘rugged and remote’ Cascade mountains
A 10-year-old girl is being praised for surviving on her own for more than 24 hours in the Cascade mountain range in Washington state. Shunghla Mashwani lost track of her family on Sunday while crossing a pedestrian bridge at the Cathedral Rock trailhead in the northern part of the Cle Elum River valley. That same day, she was reported missing. Just before they stopped for lunch, members of her extended family noticed she was missing from their large group. Twenty adults in the group searched for Shunghla for two hours until a nearby resident came to their aid and called the police. At about 3pm on Monday, two search team volunteers found Shunghla alive with minor injuries, 1.5 miles (2.5km) from where she was last seen. She was returned safely on an inflatable watercraft to her father.
Don’t miss this: Four controversial doctors helping Republicans attack trans healthcare
On Wednesday, the governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, signed legislation to restrict gender-affirming care for minors, becoming the 20th US state in a nationwide wave targeting transgender healthcare. To promote their legislation, Republican politicians have turned to a handful of controversial doctors, all of whom have ties to rightwing groups and little experience of treating transgender patients. Every major medical association in the US has come out against such bans, stating that gender-affirming care should be available to those who need it, including minors.
Climate check: Alarm at rightwing push to reverse clean-energy success in Texas and beyond
In the scramble before the end of Texas’s legislative session last week, a must-pass bill was amended to impose new costs upon renewable energy. This came amid a barrage of anti-solar and wind power measures pushed forward by Republicans to reshape a state that has become the US’s powerhouse of clean energy. But the conservative lawmakers had help. Sections of the bill that impose new burdens upon clean energy providers were directly crafted and edited by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (or TPPF), a conservative group that has led the backlash against renewables and makes what it calls “the moral case for fossil fuels”, according to a copy of the draft language seen by the Guardian. Several dozen edits were made to the bill’s amendments by Brent Bennett, a TPPF policy staffer, the document shows.
Last Thing: Sushi what he did? Japanese chain sues viral food vandal for damages
A sushi chain in Japan is seeking 67m yen (£383,280) in damages from a diner who filmed himself licking a soy sauce bottle and wiping saliva on a slice of fish at one of its restaurants, part of a wave of “sushi terrorism” that scandalised the country’s budget food industry. Sushiro, Japan’s biggest operator of revolving sushi restaurants, filed the suit with a court in Osaka, according to the Kyodo news agency, arguing it had suffered financial losses after the incident triggered public fears over food hygiene. The teenager, who has not been named, allegedly licked the soy sauce bottle and the rim of a teacup before placing it back on a shelf, then wiped saliva on a plate of passing sushi destined for other diners, during a visit to a Sushiro outlet in January.
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