Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-Trump put national secrets at risk, prosecutors say. The indictment lays out evidence for historic charges. Donald Trump illegally kept files concerning US nuclear programs and the nation’s vulnerabilities to military attack, the 49-page indictment showed. Prosecutors also said the former president displayed the material to people without security clearances and willingly hid it from investigators.
-The indictment shows that Donald Trump was more cavalier in handling classified files than previously known.
-In his first remarks about the indictment, Gov. Ron DeSantis offered a backhanded defense of former President Trump.
-A Trump-appointed judge who showed the former president favor was assigned to the documents case against him.
-Two lawyers quit Donald Trump’s legal team a day after the indictment, leaving the defense in a state of chaos.
-Battles rage as Ukraine tries to retake Russian-occupied territory.
-Military analysts and US officials said it was too soon to judge the success of Ukraine’s offensive, which is looking for weaknesses to exploit.
-Boris Johnson resigns from parliament. A committee of the House of Commons has been investigating whether the former prime minister of Britain had lied to lawmakers about lockdown-breaking parties.
-Canada’s ability to prevent forest fires lags behind the need. Provincial firefighting agencies are stretched thin; there is no national agency and it’s hard to get approval for controlled burns.
-George Santos federal case. Santos pleads not guilty.
-Santos says his family helped bail him out (just don’t ask who it was.)
-Representative George Santos of New York said his relatives helped guarantee his bail, but asked a judge to keep their names sealed out of privacy concerns.
-4 Missing Children Found Alive After 40 Days in Colombian Jungle
Rescuers had been searching for the children — aged 13, 9, 4 and 1 — ever since they survived a plane crash that killed the three adults on board.
Investor linked to Paxton’s impeachment is charged with lying to lenders. The real estate investor at the center of the impeachment case against the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, was jailed at the request of the FBI.
-A Political Earthquake in Texas. The highest levels of Texas politics are in chaos, with Republicans in the Legislature taking the extraordinary step of impeaching Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of the most outspoken right-wing figures in the state.
-NY lawmakers pass clean slate act as session fizzles to an end. As the 2023 session ends, the State Legislature passed a bill sealing old criminal records, but failed to reach a deal on a housing package.
-The Midwest-based health system had withheld care for patients who had outstanding bills. It will not restore care for those who have already lost access.
-What Do Binance US’s New Rules on Trading Dollars Mean for Customers? The company said that it would no longer allow trades with US dollars on its platform. Customers were urged to withdraw funds by Tuesday. Weeks of ethnic violence in the remote northeastern Indian state of Manipur has claimed about 100 lives. More than 35,000 people have become refugees.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-Partners at Odey Asset Management said that founder Crispin Odey would leave the firm after 13 women accused him of sexual misconduct. The high-profile financier and his firm have been at the centre of a growing crisis after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that 13 women alleged Odey had sexually assaulted or harassed them in various incidents over a 25-year period.
-Rishi Sunak is facing three challenging by-elections in the coming weeks after former UK cabinet minister Nigel Adams announced he was quitting the House of Commons immediately.
The decision by Adams — an ally of former premier Boris Johnson — raised immediate speculation about a co-ordinated attempt to undermine the Downing Street incumbent.
-Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging Donald Trump with 37 criminal counts on Friday, accusing the former US president of repeatedly lying and obfuscating to illegally retain some of the government’s most sensitive national security secrets.
-Boris Johnson has announced he is quitting the Commons immediately, in a dramatic move that triggers a by-election the Tories could lose and that heaps severe pressure on Rishi Sunak.
-Microsoft is moving some of its best artificial intelligence researchers from China to Canada in a move that threatens to gut an essential training ground for the Asian country’s tech talent. The Beijing-based Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) has begun seeking visas to move top AI experts from China’s capital to its institute in Vancouver, said four people with knowledge of the plans.
-Rather than uniting Russia’s liberals, the war in Ukraine has deepened existing rifts and added new controversies, such as backing a military defeat for Moscow and Kiev’s demands for reparations, which some see as politically toxic among Russians.
“They have these infights, and maybe it will take some time,” said Andrius Kubilius, a Lithuanian MEP who invited the opposition groups to the European parliament this week. “It would be good if they were able to show more unity around some kind of strategy.”
-Serie A, Italy’s top football league has started talks with private equity firms over the sale of a stake in its media rights business as it considers options to secure funding. Serie A is working with advisers at Lazard on a possible deal, according to people familiar with the details.
-Nigeria’s new president has suspended the country’s central bank governor, marking the end of an era of unorthodox policies at the west African institution. Bola Tinubu, who took office on May 29, removed central bank chief Godwin Emefiele, with “immediate effect”, according to a statement from the office of the government secretary on Friday night.
-Jamie Dimon should be forced to undergo a second round of questions about JPMorgan Chase’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to lawyers for a woman who claims the bank is liable for the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the late financier.
NY POST
-Target shareholders took a beating again on Friday, with the big-box retailer’s stock falling 3.26%.
The backlash from the Pride controversy coincides with the stock losing over $15B in market value since mid-May.
-Podcaster Joe Rogan blasted Bud Light and Target, saying many Americans have decided they have had “enough.” With massive companies facing public backlash for engaging in woke messaging, Rogan’s guest, standup comedian Theo Von, proposed an app that could show customers of a business “where they put their political money.”
“A little of that is going on right now with all the woke s—,” Rogan responded. “Target lost billions of dollars because they tried to have this Pride selection.”
-The Saudi crown prince privately threatened “major economic consequences” against the US last fall if the Biden administration retaliated against its decision to slash oil production, a new report revealed.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made the threat after President Biden promised unspecified “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s decision to cut oil production during a time of high energy prices, according to a classified document obtained by The Washington Post.
-The Secret Service will not seek “special accommodations” ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, a spokesman for the agency said Friday. “While operational security precludes us from going into specifics, the Secret Service will not seek any special accommodations outside of what would be required to ensure the former president’s continued safety,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement on Friday.