The Supreme Court appears to uphold presidential immunity
The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed ready yesterday to provides that former presidents have some degree of immunity from criminal prosecutionThis could further delay the criminal case against Donald Trump accusing him of plotting to overthrow the 2020 election.
Such a ruling would most likely send the case back to trial, ordering the court to distinguish between official and private conduct. While there appears to be a consensus among the justices that the criminal case could eventually proceed based on Trump's private actions, additional proceedings could make it difficult to proceed. trial before the 2024 election in November.
If Trump wins the White House, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges against him. This is take-away food from argument.
During Trump's trial in New York, of falsifying business records, David Pecker, former publisher of The National Enquirer, told the jury in detail. How dependent Trump was on him to buy and bury damaging stories that could have derailed Trump's 2016 campaign.
The US military began building a floating dock off the coast of Gaza
US Army engineer yesterday began building a floating dock Offshore Gaza could help aid workers deliver up to two million meals a day, Defense Department officials said.
The dock is intended to allow humanitarian aid to bypass Israeli restrictions on land convoys entering the besieged strip. However, aid workers and defense officials say the maritime project is not a suitable substitute for road aid.
Defense officials expect the project to be completed early next month. Experts have said that famine could occur in Gaza at the end of May.
Harvey Weinstein's New York conviction is overturned
New York's highest court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction for serious sex crimesa reversal that horrified many women whose decision to speak out against Weinstein, a prominent Hollywood producer, accelerated the #MeToo movement.
The court held that the trial judge presiding over the sex crimes case made a serious error in allowing prosecutors to call several women as witnesses that Weinstein had assaulted them, even though no charges were filed. none of which resulted in charges.
Weinstein is not yet a free man. He is facing up to 16 years in prison in California, and the Manhattan district attorney said through a spokesman that he plans to retry the case in 2020.
Our critic Jason Farago writes that the 2024 Venice Biennale, which opens this week, is at best a missed opportunity, and at worst something of an artistic tragedy.
The real issue is how the show tokenizes, essentializes, minimizes and categorizes the 300+ talented artists it features, Farago wrote. Although there was much he liked about the exhibition, he wrote that “the human complexity of the artists is outweighed by their designation as group members, and the art itself reduced to a symptom or something trivial.”
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ART AND IDEAS
30 years of ending apartheid
South Africans will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first post-apartheid elections tomorrow.
A little more than a month later, on May 29, they will vote in a national election that could bring a sea change: The African National Congress, which has ruled for those three decades, may take the majority the first time.
“It is almost impossible to separate the election year from the important anniversary year,” my colleague Lynsey Chutel, who reports from Johannesburg, told me.
“The anniversary forces not only the parties but also the people of South Africa to reflect: 'What have the last 30 years meant for us?'” she added. “'And how do we regain that political optimism and economic strength?'”
How does the legacy of apartheid affect life in South Africa today?
Lynsey: If you are walking down the suburban streets of Johannesburg, you can look around at the benefits. It's a leafy suburb. There are sidewalk cafes. Everyone is chatting.
But most of the people enjoying that progress are white. And the majority of people working as servers or in low-wage jobs are black. Black South Africans simply have not kept pace with wealth levels.
Let's fast forward to next month's election. What is mood?
The ANC's popularity may be at its lowest point and it has never had to work harder to persuade South Africans to vote for it. Some young people consider this vote as important as the 1994 election. Many are deeply disillusioned. High unemployment and corruption scandals have eroded their trust in politicians.
The opposition parties are standing up and saying: “We are finally in a position where we think we can lead now.”
It was a huge change from 1994, as much an affirmation of Nelson Mandela and his party as the end of apartheid. This year, the mood among the voters I spoke with was: “How do we use elections to get the country back on track and take advantage of post-apartheid freedoms? ”
