Good morning.
The legal woes of Donald Trump continue to grow: a federal judge has set a date for a second defamation trial brought by E Jean Carroll, who last month won a $5m jury verdict against the former president for sexual abuse and defamation.
With the $10m defamation trial set to begin on 15 January 2024, there’s a chance that Trump may have to defend himself in three trials early next year as he seeks the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In Miami, Trump faces 37 federal criminal charges over his alleged mishandling classified documents – including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.
In New York, the Manhattan district attorney has charged Trump with covering up hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and in a town hall the day after the $5m verdict, he called Carroll’s account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job”.
Trump is celebrating, however, after a suburban New York prosecutor said yesterday she had closed a multi-year investigation looking into whether Trump or his company misled authorities to reduce taxes on properties they own.
Trump wrote in an all-capitals post on his Truth Social platform that ending the investigation was “the honorable thing to do in that I did nothing wrong, but where and when do I get my reputation back? When will the other fake cases against me be dropped?”
Three dead and 75 injured in tornado strike in Texas
One or more tornadoes have ripped through the northern Texas town of Perryton, killing three people and injuring more than 75, authorities said yesterday.
One person was killed in a mobile home park that took a “direct hit” from a tornado, the Perryton fire chief, Paul Dutcher, told ABC News. “It’s bad. It’s very bad. It’s non-stop crazy. It couldn’t have hit in a more vulnerable place,” the mayor, Kerry Symons, said.
Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament, MPs find
A long-awaited report has determined that Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over parties he held as prime minister during Covid lockdown.
Had he not already resigned as an MP, the privileges committee would have recommended a 90-day suspension from parliament – an extremely long punishment that goes well beyond the threshold needed for his constituents to have sought a byelection.
Search continues after Greek shipwreck as people smuggling suspects arrested
Greek authorities have arrested nine suspected people smugglers who are believed to have been involved in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean in recent years.
An overcrowded fishing boat sank off the coast of Greece on Wednesday, with hundreds feared to have died. Seventy-eight people have been confirmed dead, and at least 500 are believed to still be missing, with survivors telling doctors and police that up to 100 children were below deck prior to the sinking. The refugees and migrants were heading to Italy from Libya after first setting out from Egypt.
Last night, thousands of protesters rallied in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki, demanding that EU migration policies be eased to prevent another tragedy.
In other news …
Many Nigerians have been hit hard as their new president pushes through a series of unpopular economic policies that have earned him praise from foreign investors.
Atlanta activists have launched a referendum effort on the controversial police and fire department training center known as “Cop City” built in a forest south-east of the city.
Former vice-president and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination Mike Pence is releasing a book in November on “how faith makes family”.
Stat of the day: Law enforcement officials have seized enough fentanyl in San Francisco to cause the deadly overdoses of more than 2 million
California law enforcement officials have seized more than 4kg of fentanyl in San Francisco alone – enough to kill the entire city’s population three times over.
The seizures were made as part of the California governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to address the spread of fentanyl in San Francisco, where 268 people died from accidental overdoses in the first four months of 2023.
Don’t miss this: A khaki-clad threat
The khaki-clad Patriot Front may have prompted mockery with their button-up shirts and chinos, but experts are warning about the increasing violence coming from the far-right group.
“If you asked me about Patriot Front in 2017 or 2018, I’d say they’re looking for attention. They’re putting up some stickers, and doing some banner drops here and there, and it’s all about just getting in the news. But now it’s gone well beyond that,” said Stephen Piggott, a researcher at the Western States Center.
… or this: The war tearing psychoanalysis apart
Can psychoanalysts be activists, diagnosing society’s pathologies and fighting injustice, or must they only be neutral interlocutors, healing one mind at a time? These questions are at the heart of a debate raging through the psychoanalysis community as one George Washington University professor faces accusations of antisemitism for expressing pro-Palestinian views.
Climate check: The global race to decarbonize
The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress is warning that the UK is in danger of being left behind in the global race to decarbonize the economy – a setback with potentially disastrous consequences for jobs and communities.
“I just don’t think you can leave these huge industrial transformations to the market and think everything is just going to work out,” Paul Nowak told the Guardian. “We are limping towards a green future rather than having a government with a real sense of purpose.”
Last Thing: Bryan Cranston returns to the desert
Bryan Cranston sat down with the Guardian to talk about his role in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, fame and protecting his privacy. “The only problem was speed,” Cranston said. “In Wes’s movies, everyone talks very quickly. I don’t think there was any actor on set who didn’t get the same response: ‘Yeah, that’s good. Now much, much faster.’”
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