Good morning.
The New York attorney general’s office is expected to begin questioning Donald Trump and two of his children over allegations of fraud on Friday after the Trump Organization was accused of inflating property values for financial gain.
The former president, alongside Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr, were summoned to give sworn depositions after the state attorney general, Letitia James, said the investigation had found evidence the company recorded properties as being of higher value in order to get loans at better rates and claim tax breaks. Questioning will continue into next week.
The case, which adds to a series of legal woes for Trump, is progressing after he failed in his attempt to block what he termed a politically motivated “witch-hunt”. It comes as the House select committee has said there is sufficient proof to surmise that Trump and some of his allies committed crimes in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
What could the state attorney general’s case mean? If she wins the case, she could seek an order that would end the Trump Organization.
When will Trump be questioned? It is not clear yet, but his lawyer has suggested that he will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions.
Zelenskiy condemns Russian ‘terrorism’ as Vinnytsia attack kills more than 20
Russian missiles have killed 23 people in the city of Vinnytsia, central Ukraine, after striking civilian buildings and a cultural centre in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried as “an open act of terrorism”.
The attack took place mid-morning on Thursday, when the streets of the city, which is far from the war’s frontline, were busy. A Russian submarine in the Black Sea fired Kalibr cruise missiles, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, wrote on Telegram.
The news of the strike came as EU ministers gathered in The Hague for a meeting on alleged Russian war crimes, in which the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor called for an “overarching strategy” to bring perpetrators to justice.
Did the Russian military confirm the strike? No, but the head of the state-controlled Russian media network RT said that military officials told her a building in Vinnytsia was hit because it housed Ukrainian “Nazis”.
Approximately 1,400 new graves were dug in Mariupol between 12 May and 29 June, according to a report published by the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) that analysed satellite images.
Secret Service agents’ January 6 texts were erased after oversight request
Texts sent between US Secret Service agents on January 5 and 6, 2021 were deleted after the agency’s watchdog requested the communications for its investigation, according to a letter from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, criticized the move, which marks the latest failure for the Secret Service, underlining that their destruction only came after the body sought the communications as part of an internal investigation into the agency’s response to the Capitol attack.
The timing, which is raised in Cuffari’s letter to the House homeland security and Senate homeland security and government affairs committees, raised the possibility that leadership in the Secret Service tampered with records. A Secret Service spokesperson could not immediately be reached Thursday evening.
What did the House select committee say? Its chair, Bennie Thompson, described the disclosure as “concerning” and said the committee would attempt to have the texts reconstructed if possible.
Why were the texts erased? Cuffari said it happened as part of a “device-replacement program” – but that does not explain why the deletion took place just as they were being investigated.
In other news …
Donald Trump has announced the death of Ivana Trump. His first wife and the mother of his three oldest children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric, died at the age of 73 at her home in New York City, he said.
The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 claims she did not identify him to the killers and did not want him murdered. The manuscript of Carolyn Bryant Donham’s unpublished memoir raises questions about her truthfulness, a retired FBI agent said.
Constance Wu has said that she attempted suicide after backlash to a series of “careless” tweets in 2019. The actor said she “put [her] career aside to focus on [her] mental health” in the intervening years.
A man acquitted over the bombing of a 1985 Air India flight from Montreal to Mumbai has been shot dead in Canada. Ripudaman Singh Malik’s family confirmed the 70-year-old was killed Thursday morning in front of his business. No arrests have been made.
Stat of the day: 59% of those who drink harmful amounts of alcohol are aged 15-39
Drinking alcohol offers no health benefits to young people and carries serious risks, according to a study which also showed that older adults may gain from drinking small amounts. Fifty-nine percent of those who drank harmful quantities were aged 15-39 – in the age bracket where alcohol confers no health benefits. Three-quarters of those drinking harmful amounts were male.
Don’t miss this: meet the Gen-Zers embracing climate optimism
It can be easy to feel pessimistic about the fate of the planet. Generations have cycled through the stages of grief, from anger, denial, depression – but now it seems that some Gen-Zers have jumped feet first into optimism about the possibilities for change and taking tangible action themselves. Meet the young people who are tackling various facets of the environmental crisis. “This is our planet too, and we don’t have time to wait for these old people to make decisions. We’re just doing it ourselves,” says Franziska Trautmann.
Last Thing: You be the judge: should I let my boyfriend have three games consoles?
How many games consoles is too many? Bryony thinks the answer is three, especially as the couple’s apartment is short on space and he rarely uses one of them. Max wants to know why she wants to ruin his fun. What do you think?
