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Welcome to the circus outside where Trump may be indicted
New York City’s hottest club this week is the small public park opposite the criminal court where Donald Trump indicated that he expected to be arrested and arraigned on Tuesday. While an indictment has still not been formally announced as of Wednesday morning, anticipation remains high that Trump may, at some point this week or next, become the first US president — current or former — to be charged with a crime.
For weeks, it had seemed as if prosecutors in Georgia might be the first to charge Trump over alleged interference in the 2020 election. But the quickening pace of a separate New York investigation, which is expected to focus on Trump’s role in paying adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money during his 2016 presidential campaign, has brought anti-Trump protesters, MAGA supporters, and press outside the district attorney’s office in lower Manhattan.
Demonstrators chanted demands that Trump be charged with a suite of crimes. Trump supporters in turn proclaimed the former president's innocence, with one protester telling BuzzFeed News that the New York investigation was "more of a political hit job." Reporters speaking Spanish, German, or Portuguese filmed dispatches for their own networks. At one point, the man wearing a pair of antlers rode past on a fur-lined bicycle calling Trump “the Chosen One.”
In a post on his website Truth Social on Saturday, Trump railed against any impending charges and called on his supporters to "PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Trump’s words, reminiscent of his remarks prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, have prompted authorities to prepare for the possibility of violent protests. Dozens of uniformed police officers were scattered in the neighborhood around the courthouse, which was mostly encircled by metal barricades.
China and Russia conclude their two-day talk in Moscow
- President Xi Jinping invited President Vladimir Putin to visit China later this year. According to the Washington Post, Xi told Putin, “There’s a change coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years. When we are together, we are driving this change."
- Xi has previously said that China is "impartial" on the war in Ukraine.
- Also on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Bucha, Reuters reports. "I would like to give condolence to all the victims and the wounded on behalf of the Japanese nationals. Japan will keep aiding Ukraine with the greatest effort to regain peace," Kishida said.
SNAPSHOTS
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Twice's Chaeyoung apologized for her swastika T-shirt but hasn't addressed her QAnon T-shirt. Fans are disappointed and angered by the 23-year-old K-pop star’s use of antisemitic iconography.
Gwyneth Paltrow and a 76-year-old retired army optometrist each say the other hit them while skiing. A jury will decide who's telling the truth. Terry Sanderson has said he broke four ribs and sustained a traumatic brain injury after Paltrow crashed into him from behind, but Paltrow's lawyers called his claims “utter BS.”
The teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student said the shooting "changed my life"
More than three months after Abigail Zwerner was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom at an elementary school in Virginia, she still thinks about the shooting every day.
In her first public remarks since the shooting on Jan. 6, 2023, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, Zwerner said in a Today show interview, "I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me. It's changed me; it's changed my life."
Zwerner's lawyer, Diane Toscano, previously claimed administrators failed to act when teachers and school employees warned them three times that the boy had a gun on him and that he was threatening people, while school officials said the boy’s backpack had been searched. When the student shot at the 25-year-old teacher, the bullet went through Zwerner's left hand, then pierced her chest and collapsed her lung. Zwerner then escorted her first-graders out of the classroom safely despite being injured, before passing out at the school office.
Newport News prosecutors said that they will not file criminal charges against the boy because of his young age, but have not decided if any adults involved will face charges. The boy's parents previously said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that their son has an "acute disability," and until the week of the shooting, was accompanied by one of his parents to class every day.
Newport News Public Schools said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that it could not comment on Zwerner's interview but added, "We appreciate her sharing her story."
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Inside Bali's fiery Ogoh-Ogoh parade
The Indonesian island of Bali made way for a new year with its annual Ogoh-Ogoh Parade on Tuesday.
The deeply spiritual occasion takes place on the eve of Nyepi Day, a day of silence and self-reflection in Balinese Hinduism. At night, the community lights fireworks and dances in the street to traditional gamelan music, a style of Indonesian percussion. At the heart of the occasion are the ogoh-ogoh, which are believed to represent evil spirits that need to be cleansed from the community. Towering bamboo and cloth effigies are twirled and paraded through the island before being burned in the pengurupukan ceremony.
It's a final act that represents good triumphing over evil, creating space for the new year.
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