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Michael Cohen confronted Trump’s legal professionals
The testimony from Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer, is a linchpin within the Manhattan case in opposition to the previous president. Here’s the newest.
Yesterday, Cohen returned to the stand. Lawyers for the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace have instructed the judge that he will likely be their final witness. On the stand, Cohen described to jurors a $130,000 fee to Stormy Daniels as an effort to affect the 2016 election “on behalf of Mr. Trump.”
After that, he confronted Trump’s authorized staff. In a barrage of questions, they sought to painting Cohen as an opportunist. Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, pressed Cohen about his social media posts, his efforts to monetize his connection to the previous president, his personal felony historical past and his want to see Trump behind bars.
“Do you need President Trump to get convicted on this case?” Blanche requested.
“Sure,” Cohen replied.
Blanche emphasised Cohen’s tv appearances and insult-slinging on-line — all of which he did in defiance of the prosecution’s needs and at Trump’s expense. He additionally famous that Cohen maintains a monetary curiosity in attacking Trump, arguing that he cashed in on their feud with a podcast and books.
Analysis: The protection appeared to be making an attempt to painting Cohen as “primarily, Trump’s stalker,” my colleague Maggie Haberman wrote — a person as soon as obsessive about the previous president who was now equally obsessive about getting revenge.
What’s subsequent: Trump’s legal professionals indicated that they may name an professional witness and that they’d not determined if they’d name Trump himself.
Blinken visited Kyiv; Putin to go to China
Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, made a shock go to to Kyiv yesterday to satisfy with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and reaffirm U.S. help for the nation.
Blinken’s journey comes at a difficult time within the battle effort for Kyiv, and Russia’s latest navy features in northeastern Ukraine hung over his go to. The Biden administration had warned for months that Congress’s delay in approving the latest $60.8 billion help bundle would depart the Ukrainians susceptible.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia is anticipated to go to China later this week to go to Xi Jinping, China’s chief. The go to will check their “no limits” partnership, which the 2 autocrats declared greater than two years in the past to push again in opposition to U.S. interference.
But Xi is on a shrinking tightrope: International stress is mounting for him to curtail Chinese help for Russia and its battle. As for Putin, he could be making an attempt to guage Xi’s urge for food for danger as he tries to discourage Western nations from extra actively supporting Ukraine.
Other updates:
The transfer is an effort to guard strategic U.S. industries from opponents that Biden says are unfairly sponsored by Beijing. In a shift, he additionally endorsed maintaining the tariffs on greater than $300 billion price of Chinese items that had been put in place by Trump. During his 2020 marketing campaign, Biden criticized Trump’s commerce battle. In workplace, he has escalated it. But the place Trump promised to carry again manufacturing facility jobs, Biden has targeted as a substitute on rising high-tech industries.
China: Heavy manufacturing subsidies — coupled with weak home gross sales — are how China got here to dominate the worldwide market in photo voltaic panels and electrical vehicles.
MORE TOP NEWS
Britain’s butlers are altering. These days, buttling (sure, that’s a verb) is much less sprucing silver and extra concierge-style life-style administration — akin to a personal maitre d’.
And whereas aristocrats needed them to behave like furnishings, new-money entrepreneurs see them extra like a flashy accent.
Lives lived:
Netiporn Sanesangkhom: A distinguished Thai pro-democracy activist, she died of cardiac arrest after a monthslong starvation strike in jail. She was 28.
Alice Munro: The Canadian author and Nobel laureate, who was broadly thought of a grasp of the brief story, has died. She was 92.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
The struggle over New York City’s streets
New York City’s streets have at all times bustled, however currently, they’re virtually dangerously unlivable.
Residents conflict over visitors, parking and heaps of trash. Cars and taxis vie for house as buses swerve to keep away from vehicles parked in bike lanes. E-bikes are in every single place. Far fewer pedestrians get killed by motorists as of late, however final yr was the deadliest for cyclists since 1999.
“All of these items is making an attempt to suit right into a grid that was designed in 1811,” my colleague Dodai Stewart explains in a video. Relief could also be on the way in which: The metropolis is about to enact the primary congestion pricing plan within the U.S., which might cost most drivers $15 to enter a lot of Manhattan beneath sixtieth Street.
