1 UNITED STATES
Trump’s criminal trial opens in New York court
Donald Trump “orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election” in his efforts to cover up an alleged affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels, the prosecution said on Monday in its opening statement in the former president’s criminal trial.
Over the coming weeks, a jury of seven men and five women living in Manhattan will weigh whether Trump’s alleged efforts to conceal an affair with Daniels, which he feared would damage his bid for the White House, were illicit. Trump was charged in the spring of 2023 with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The case, brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, hinges on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her story under wraps. Bragg contends that Trump masked the true nature of the payment in business records, by describing repayments to Cohen as lawful legal expenses.
In the defence’s opening statements, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said: “President Trump is innocent … The Manhattan district attorney should never have brought this case.”
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2 UKRAINE
Zelenskiy urges US Senate to ratify $61bn aid quickly
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the vote by the US House of Representatives to pass a long-delayed $61bn military aid package demonstrated that his country would not be abandoned by the west in its effort to fight the Russian invasion.
Zelenskiy said in an interview with US
