Trump's New York civil fraud trial rolls on after an appeals judge declines to halt it
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial will roll ahead next week after the former president lost a bid Friday to halt the proceedings while he fights a pretrial ruling that could strip him of Trump Tower and other marquee properties.
An appeals court judge rebuffed Trump’s push to pause the New York trial, but agreed to leave him in control of his holdings for now. The decision, after an emergency hearing Friday afternoon, came five days into the closely watched trial.
Trump went to the courthouse for the first three days of the trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, observing testimony — and fulminating to TV cameras outside about a case he deemed a “a witch hunt and a disgrace.”
Trump's lawyers had asked the state’s intermediate appellate court to suspend the trial and prevent Judge Arthur Engoron from enforcing a ruling he made last week. Engoron's decision revoked the Republican presidential frontrunner's business licenses and puts a court-appointed receiver in charge of his companies.
“This is a massive error. It is irreparable," Trump lawyer Christopher Kise told the appellate judge, Associate Justice Peter H. Moulton. Kise argued that the ruling will make defendants in other cases fear that their companies and properties will be seized without recourse.
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A surge of hiring in September defies predictions, pointing to US job market's enduring resilience
WASHINGTON (AP) — An unforeseen burst of hiring last month has lifted hopes that the economy will prove durable once again, even as an array of threats lie ahead.
Businesses across the U.S. economy ramped up their hiring in September, defying surging interest rates, financial market turmoil, the ongoing threat of a government shutdown and an uncertain outlook to add the most jobs in any month since January.
The hiring binge confounded expectations for a slowdown and added one more layer of complexity to the Federal Reserve's high-wire effort to defeat inflation without causing a recession.
The 336,000 jobs that were added in September exceeded the 227,000 for August and raised the average gain for the past three months to a robust 266,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%, not far above a half-century low.
Friday's government report raised hopes for a notoriously difficult “soft landing,” by which the Federal Reserve would manage to curb high inflation with a series of rate hikes without derailing the economy.
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Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi wins the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting women's oppression
Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of her tireless campaigning for women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty.
Mohammadi, 51, has kept up her activism despite numerous arrests by Iranian authorities and spending years behind bars. She has remained a leading light for nationwide, women-led protests sparked by the death last year of a 22-year-old woman in police custody that have grown into one of the most intense challenges to Iran’s theocratic government.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, began Friday's announcement with the words “Woman, Life, Freedom” in Farsi — the slogan of the demonstrations in Iran.
“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi," Reiss-Andersen said. She also urged Iran to release Mohammadi in time for the prize ceremony on Dec. 10.
For nearly all of Mohammadi’s life, Iran has been governed by a Shiite theocracy headed by the country’s supreme leader. While women hold jobs, academic positions and even government appointments, their lives are tightly controlled. Women are required by law to wear a headscarf, or hijab, to cover their hair. Iran and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only countries to mandate that.
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A Russian missile attack in eastern Ukraine kills a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack killed a 10-year-old boy and his grandmother Friday in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said. Elsewhere in the region, villagers prepared to bury their dead after a strike the previous day killed at least 52 civilians in one of the deadliest attacks in the war in months.
Associated Press reporters saw emergency crews pulling the boy’s body from the rubble of a building after the early morning attack. He was wearing pajamas with a Spider-Man design.
The strike also killed the boy’s grandmother and wounded an 11-month-old child, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said that in all, 30 people were wounded. Rescue operations were continuing.
Officials said preliminary information indicated that the Kremlin’s forces used two Iskander missiles in the attack, the same as in the previous day’s strike on the village of Hroza that killed 52 people.
In Hroza, workers at the local cemetery on Friday cut down trees and mowed grass to prepare graves for those killed. They are to be buried not far from Ukrainian soldier Andrii Kozyr, whose wake they were attending when the strike happened.
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Election denier and 'MyPillow Guy' Mike Lindell confirms he's out of money, can't pay legal bills
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys who've been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can't pay the millions more that he'll owe in legal expenses going forward.
Lindell confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he's out of money and said he understands his lawyers are people who need to make a living.
Attorney Andrew Parker wrote in documents filed in federal court on Thursday that his firm and a second firm representing MyPillow in lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems can't afford what it would cost to represent Lindell and MyPillow through the rest of the litigation. Continuing to defend him would put the firms “in serious financial risk,” he wrote.
It’s the latest in a string of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who propagates former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems. Several big-box retailers, including Walmart, have discontinued his products.
“MyPillow's been decimated. ... We've lost hundreds of millions of dollars,” Lindell said, adding that the other main assets he has left are his home and pickup truck. He blamed Dominion, Smartmatic and the news media, including the conservative outlets Fox News and Newsmax.
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Police found 115 bodies at Colorado 'green' funeral home while investigating putrid smells
CAÑON CITY, Colo. (AP) — At least 115 decaying bodies were found at a storage facility for a “green” funeral operator, after neighbors reported abhorrent smells emanating from the location in rural southern Colorado, police said Friday, calling it a “disturbing discovery.”
The owner tried to conceal the improper storage of corpses and claimed he was doing taxidermy at the facility, according to a suspension letter sent to him by state regulators that was made public Friday. No one has been arrested or charged yet.
The Return to Nature Funeral Home facility in the small town of Penrose had been unregistered with the state for 10 months on Wednesday when owner Jon Hallford spoke by phone with a state regulator the day after the smells were reported and police launched an investigation
Hallford acknowledged that he had a “problem” at the property, though the Colorado Office of Funeral Home and Crematory Registration document obtained by The Associated Press didn't explain what Hallford meant with his taxidermy claim or how he tried to conceal improper storage of human remains.
Text messages and phone calls were not answered at the funeral home, which had no working voice mail.
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Police bodycam video shows arrest of 'Keffe D,' suspect in 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The man charged with murder in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur had little to say when he was arrested near his home outside Las Vegas. But Duane “Keffe D” Davis knew the gravity of it, according to police body camera footage released Friday.
“So what they got you for, man?” an officer out of the frame later asks Davis, 60, while they're sitting in a police car parked outside the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s headquarters.
“Biggest case in Las Vegas history,” Davis, who is handcuffed, replied and recounted the date that Shakur was gunned down — “September 7th, 1996.”
Police and prosecutors allege Davis was the mastermind behind the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later. He was 25.
“I ain’t worried about ... I ain’t did (expletive),” Davis told the officer as his voice trails off.
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Auto workers stop expanding strikes against Detroit Three after GM makes battery plant concession
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union said Friday it will not expand its strikes against Detroit's three automakers after General Motors made a breakthrough concession on unionizing electric vehicle battery plants.
The announcement of the pause in adding factories to the strikes came minutes after GM agreed to bring workers at battery factories into the UAW's national contract, essentially assuring they will represented by the union.
“We have had a major breakthrough that has not only dramatically changed negotiations, but is going to change the future of our union and the future of our industry,” union President Shawn Fain told workers Friday in a video appearance.
Fain, wearing a T-shirt that said “Eat the Rich" in bold letters to back his contention that it's time for the working class to make gains over billionaires, said the UAW is wining at GM and expects to do the same at Ford and Stellantis.
Neither GM nor Stellantis commented directly on unionization of battery factories, but Ford stuck to statements that workers will have to choose once they are hired at plants that haven't even been built.
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Amazon launches test satellites for its planned internet service to compete with SpaceX
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Amazon launched the first test satellites for its planned internet service on Friday as a rival to SpaceX’s broadband network.
United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket blasted off with the pair of test satellites, kicking off a program that aims to improve global internet coverage with an eventual 3,236 satellites around Earth.
Amazon plans to begin offering service by the end of next year.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a huge head start over Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, who has his own rocket company, Blue Origin.
SpaceX flew its first test Starlink satellites in 2018 and the first operational satellites in 2019. It has since launched more than 5,000 Starlinks from Florida and California, using its own Falcon rockets.
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Can a spotlight on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce help the NFL draw more Gen Z and female fans?
Eager as the National Football League has been to cater to the recent public fixation with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, it’s certainly not taking any credit for creating the outsized storyline that has emerged around the pop superstar and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
“Not orchestrated by the NFL,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy assured The Associated Press with a chuckle during a chat on the phone about what is becoming known as “ Tay Tay and Trav,” a topic few seemed to be able to get enough of initially, whether football diehards or Swifties, whether via TV or TikTok.
The protagonists largely have remained mum about their actual status since Swift began attending Kelce’s games 1 1/2 weeks ago, though Kelce did admit after practice Friday in Kansas City that “everybody is having fun with it.”
“You've got a lot of people that care about Taylor and for good reason," he said, without getting into the details of their budding relationship.
But the sport providing the backdrop, and its TV partners, have not been shy about trying to capitalize on the “situationship” and gain new fans, particularly members of Gen Z and more women — although marketing experts are skeptical there will be much of a bump in the long run.
The Associated Press
