Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won’t run for president but will seek third term
WASHINGTON – Ted Cruz has effectively ruled out a presidential run next year, declaring that he’ll focus only on winning a third Senate term rather than seeking both jobs simultaneously.
“I’m running for reelection to Senate in 2024,” he told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday.
That reaffirmed his comments to supporters on a conference call Monday night, when he also boasted that Democrats fear him more than any Republican besides former president Donald Trump – suggesting he expects another tough fight to keep his Senate seat.
Cruz made no secret after falling short in 2016 that he intended to try again. Until now he had kept the door open at least a crack, emphasizing in November that “there will be plenty of time to discuss 2024 presidential.”
Cruz has barely registered in presidential polls so far, despite having been Trump’s runner-up in 2016, the last contested GOP nomination fight.
—The Dallas Morning News
Trump’s $110,000 contempt fine upheld by New York appeals court
A New York appeals court upheld a $110,000 penalty against former President Donald Trump for being in contempt of court during the state’s probe into allegedly fraudulent asset valuations at his company.
The judge who issued the fine last year correctly determined that Trump’s response to the state’s subpoena for records in his personal possession had “prejudicially violated the lawful, clear mandate of the court,” an appellate panel ruled Tuesday in Manhattan.
“Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump is not above the law,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “For years, he tried to stall and thwart our lawful investigation into his financial dealings, but today’s decision sends a clear message that there are consequences for abusing the legal system.”
James ultimately sued Trump, three of his adult children and his company for allegedly manipulating the value of his assets for years to deceive banks and insurers. The case goes to trial in October.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Trump was held in contempt and fined $10,000 a day by a judge who concluded Trump hadn’t properly responded to a demand for documents. Trump had said there were no such documents, but the judge ruled he failed to explain the details of his search or provide a sworn affidavit on the result as required by law.
—Bloomberg News
Winner of record $2 billion Powerball jackpot comes forward in California
LOS ANGELES — The man who won the record-breaking $2.04-billion Powerball jackpot after buying the prized ticket at an Altadena gas station in November has come forward to collect his winnings.
Edwin Castro won the “unbelievable and historic” prize, California Lottery Director Alva Johnson said Tuesday, after the jackpot ballooned for weeks in the fall following repeated drawings without a winner.
Castro was the only person to match all five numbers plus the Powerball for a jackpot-winning ticket.
Castro declined to speak publicly Tuesday, but he said in a statement that he was “shocked and ecstatic,” and glad to learn that California public schools also won big.
Castro chose to collect his prize in a lump sum, for a total of nearly $1 billion, lottery officials said. Though his name and how he accepted his winnings are public record under California law, no other information about Castro — including his age, city of residence or any other identifiers — was revealed. Johnson said Castro would like to “largely remain private.”
The odds of winning this jackpot were 1 in 292 million, according to the California Lottery.
—Los Angeles Times
Russia put 6,000 Ukrainian kids in re-education camps, Yale study finds
Russia has placed thousands of Ukrainian children in camps where they’re subjected to Russian propaganda and forcible adoption by Russian families, with some even undergoing military training, a U.S. government-backed report from Yale University found.
The campaign violates the Geneva Conventions and could constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide, researchers from the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said. It has involved children from 4 months old to 17 years.
The research was supported by the State Department’s bureau of conflict stabilization operations.
While at least 6,000 children could be confirmed to have participated in the camps, the researchers “think the number is probably significantly higher,” Nathaniel Raymond, a Yale researcher who worked on the report, told reporters in a phone briefing on Tuesday. “The primary purpose of the camps appears to be political reeducation.”
In many of the cases, the report found, children were sent to the camps from occupied parts of Ukraine including Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk. At two military-style camps in Chechnya and Russian-occupied Crimea children were taught how to “handle military equipment, drive trucks, and study firearms,” the researchers said.
Russia has portrayed its adoption program as humanitarian aid to abandoned children.
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