SINCERETALK

A member of the South African National Defence Force died and 13 others were injured in a clash with M23 rebels in Sake, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Thursday. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/WVFs5zh via sinceretalk

Late Thursday afternoon, May 30, Donald Trump became the first former president in United States history to be found guilty on criminal charges . A jury in Lower Manhattan, after only two days of deliberation, found Trump guilty on 34 criminal counts in District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case. And Justice Juan Merchan has set July 11 as the sentencing date . Following the bombshell verdict, former federal prosecutor and ex-FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann offered some legal analysis on MSNBC and predicted that Merchan will give Trump jail time. READ MORE: Donald Trump guilty on all counts in New York criminal trial Weissmann argued that the former president's many violations of Merchan's limited gag order will work against him when he is sentenced. The former federal prosecutor told an MSNBC panel that include hosts Ari Melber, Joy Reid, Jen Psaki and Alex Wagner, "It is impossible for me to think that they will not ...

After former President Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his Manhattan criminal trial, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow observed that his 2024 campaign for the presidency may soon take on a much darker tone. While speaking on an MSNBC panel on Thursday evening, New York Times investigative reporter Susanne Craig remarked that one journalist at the courthouse asked Trump " why Americans should vote for a convicted felon ," which the ex-president did not answer. She added that the 45th president of the United States will almost assuredly be asked that question every day on the campaign trail. Maddow responded that the likely answer Trump will give to reporters will be that "he's only a convicted felon because the American legal system is illegitimate, and vote for me and I'll destroy it." READ MORE: 'The law finally caught up to him': Experts react to Trump being convicted of 34 felonies "This is where we are, right? He'...

Former President Donald Trump is now officially a convicted felon after a 12-person Manhattan jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all 34 counts in the indictment. He will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 AM. Various journalists, activists and legal experts on social media viewed the verdict as both an important moment for both the United States' legal system and for democracy as a whole. In a post to X (formerly Twitter), the New Republic's Greg Sargent opined that Thursday marked a particularly significant day for American institutions. "This time the pressure brought to bear was extreme: An entire political party cast the proceedings as illegitimate," Sargent tweeted, with an added reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). "Nevertheless, they persisted." READ MORE: Donald Trump guilty on all counts in New York criminal trial Author and political consultant Stuart Stevens also weighed in on the verdict , tweeting that Trump is mere...

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been staunchly criticized this month afterThe New York Times revealed that the justice flew two flags related to Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" 2020 campaign outside of his homes. Democratic lawmakers have called for Alito to recuse himself from cases related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as a result, and on Thursday he publicly refused to do so. Writing to US Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI, Alito wrote , "You claim that two incidents involving the flying of flags created an appearance of impropriety that requires my recusal…. The two incidents you cite do not meet the conditions for recusal." READ MORE: 'There! Is that better?' Martha-Ann Alito reportedly had a meltdown when asked about flag New York University law professor and legal analyst Melissa Murray shared her thoughts on the justice's letter with MSNBC host Joy Reid. "First of all, this letter is n...

There's no indication yet of a verdict being reached in the jury deliberations for former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money case in Manhattan — but the questions the jury asked Judge Juan Merchan before being dismissed for the day were an ominous sign for the former president, correspondent Lachlan Cartwright told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. Specifically the jury asked Merchan to re-review the testimony of Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen — whom Trump's legal team spent the entire trial trying to undermine and discredit — and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who facilitated "catch and kill" schemes that were part of the same pattern that saw the alleged hush payments submitted to adult film star Stormy Daniels. "We'll give you the last word," said Wallace. "What is your sort of Spidey Sense picking up that these are the things that the jury is first interested in hearing more about?" ...

South Africa’s general election on Wednesday was characterized by several glitches. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/tUIvgGr via sinceretalk

With the jury dismissed for the day after more than four hours of deliberations and a series of notes to Judge Juan Merchan, legal experts are predicting Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will win his case against Donald Trump, and see jurors convict the ex-president on 34 criminal counts . The ex-president is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records as a means to cover-up a conspiracy scheme to promote his election to the Presidency by “unlawful means.” “If I were in the DA’s office I’d be giddily bouncing off the walls right now,” attorney George Conway wrote on social media late Wednesday afternoon. Minutes later attorney Tristan Snell, who helped secure the New York Attorney General’s $25 million settlement in the Trump University civil case, also predicted a likely Trump conviction : “BREAKING: Trump jury asks for testimony transcripts, including 3 sections from David Pecker and 1 section from Michael Cohen. VERY bad sign for Trump that David Pecker’s testi...

Although President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign doesn't plan to "directly address" Donald Trump's New York hush money trial "until a verdict is reached," according to Politico, the president's team showed up to the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday. Per the news outlet's Tuesday report, some Biden allies "have expressed private frustration that the media is obsessed with Trump, making it difficult at times to garner attention for the incumbent." As a result, in "a dramatic reversal of the president’s strategy," team Biden "decided over the weekend to authorize a 'guerrilla-style' campaign event near the courthouse in an effort to break through the non-stop cable news coverage of the Trump trial, according to two people familiar with plans and granted anonymity to describe them," Politico reports. READ MORE: Tempers flare as Robert DeNiro clashes with Trump supporter outside hush money trial The news outlet not...

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, admitted to a local Louisiana radio station talk show that U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and some others in the GOP conference force him to spend “half” his day “as a mental health counselor.” Appearing on KEEL’s “Mike & McCarthy” show , as Daily Mail reported, Speaker Johnson on Tuesday was asked if he and the far-right Christian nationalist congresswoman had “kissed and made up” after she tried to oust him in a dramatically failed “motion to vacate.” “Oh good grief. You know me, I don’t I don’t carry grudges,” Johnson replied. “I don’t you know, you know, I don’t keep a record of wrongs. I went up to her right after her ridiculous tirade and said, ‘You know what, still gotta work together, Marjorie. … How about training some of that energy against the Democrats?'” “Look. This is all gonna work out. I spend half my day as Speaker of the House and the other half as a mental health counselor,” getting everybody “...

One prominent psychologist and psychotherapist is warning that former President Donald Trump is deep in the throes of cognitive decline, and that his dementia is only worsening by the day. For his Substack newsletter, attorney Jay Kuo interviewed Dr. John Gartner , the founder of Duty to Warn. Gartner's organization is a collection of mental health professionals sounding the alarm about the former president's declining mental faculties since he took office in 2017. In his interview, Gartner laid out four examples that he says show proof that Trump is teetering ever closer to full-blown dementia. First, Gartner explained that, to him, Trump has shown a "decline from baseline" since he first announced his run for the presidency in 2015. He argued that while the 45th president of the United States used to speak "in polished paragraphs with a sophisticated vocabulary," he now is exhibiting a "shocking decline in verbal fluency" and "often can’...

Nine months after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Donald Trump and 18 MAGA allies for their efforts overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, one co-defendant is still claiming his "concerns about voter fraud," CNN reports. Former Black Voices for Trump leader Harrison Floyd's lawyers, according to the report, "are pushing to access more than 500,000 ballots from Fulton County, claiming they intend to produce 'evidence' that thousands of votes were improperly excluded from the final vote tally." The Trump co-defendant — who Fox 5 Atlanta reports, "faces three felony counts for his alleged role in the harassment of poll worker Ruby Freeman" — made his case to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee during a Tuesday hearing. READ MORE: Ex-GA lieutenant gov. rips GOP leaders for 'falling in line' behind Trump: Vote 'for a decent person' Fox 5 Atlanta also notes that during the hearing, "McAfee ...

Donald Trump lawyers on Monday responded to special counsel Jack Smith's latest request in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Smith asked Judge Aileen Cannon for a partial gag order on the former president following Trump's claim last week that President Joe Biden and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) planned to assassinate him during the agency's raid on the Florida residence in 2022. Issued on Friday, May 24 , the special counsel "told Cannon that a limited gag order is needed in order to discourage Trump from making statements 'that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents.'" READ MORE: Trump and Jack Smith fight epic battle over Mar-a-Lago gag order request Now, team Trump wants Smith to be sanctioned. CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlyne reported via X (formerly Twitter), "NEW: Trump defense asks judge to reject Jack Smith request in Florida case that Trump be restricted from statem...

Donald Trump's legal troubles have left him with hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and, despite how wealthy he claims to be, the ex-president is depending on Republican National Committee (RNC) donors to help ease the financial stress. In March, the New York Times reported : Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years — none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election. Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Mr. Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them. READ MORE: Trump’s 'substantial legal bills' catch up with him as trial drags on: experts The Daily Beast reported Monday that MAGA megadonor Mehrdad Moayedi has purchased the former president's $10 million jet. The "Iranian-American construction and development tycoon...

Donald Trump's legal team "overplayed its hand," a former federal prosecutor said Monday. Ex-prosecutor Glenn Kirschner appeared on MSNBC along with other legal commentators to talk about Trump's criminal hush money cover-up case in New York, where the former president stands accused of hiding payments to an adult film star that were meant to impact the presidential election in 2016. Trump was asked about a recent article in which he detailed a "trap" set for his legal team by Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen. Kirschner outlined several points the defense had raised, and how he would address them if it was his prosecution. He specifically mentioned the purported phone call Cohen appeared to have been mistaken about between him and the then-president. "You may remember the substance of a consequential call but you don't remember the date and the time. And more importantly, as much of a cheapskate as Donald Trump is, do you really thin...

The CEO of a KwaZulu-Natal supermarket chain has accused the office of KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Siboniso Duma of deliberately obstructing a R240-million development project in Amanzimtoti. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/VgvtZqE via sinceretalk

The muso was served with a final demand by Sars, which threatened to have her belongings auctioned. from News24 News24/TopStories/rss https://ift.tt/VtWlbND via sinceretalk

President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied that he is an "indecisive" and "weak" leader a critique often levelled at him during the 6th administration and his first full term in office. from News24 news24/topstories/rss https://ift.tt/eVwNP2J via sinceretalk

The jury in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan may not be deliberating for very long, according to a journalist who has been covering the proceedings. During an appearance on PBS' Washington Week with The Atlantic , Josh Gerstein — a senior legal correspondent for Politico — said he expected jurors to return a verdict by the end of the week. "I think it's very likely," Gerstein said. "I mean, the jury will probably get two or three days next week to deliberate on the case and I think that will probably be enough for them to come to a decision." READ MORE: 'There's going to be a criminal conviction': Ex-Trump attorney predicts guilty verdict in NY "I mean, they've been in there for six weeks or so, seven weeks by the time we get into next week," he continued. "They're not physically cooped up but they've been stuck in that courtroom for long enough that I just don't see them wantin...

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign released a pair of new ads this week — one of which focuses on gun policy while honoring the victims of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. The other features narration by celebrated actor Robert De Niro. As described by CBS News , the Uvalde ad features audio of a choir singing Ave Maria while images of Biden mourning with victims' families are shown. Text then appears that reads, "Joe Biden expanded background checks and is fighting to ban assault weapons." Then a video of former President Donald Trump's mouth moving during a speech is shown, with a caption reading: "Donald Trump did nothing to keep us safe." "I'll never forget. I'll never stop fighting," another caption reads. READ MORE: Grand jury convenes to probe flawed police response to Uvalde shooting The Uvalde ad was released on the same day an 18-year-old gunman opened fire on two classro...

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts now has two members of his body whose behavior is compromising the entire reputation of the Court, according to one high-ranking Senate Democrat. In a recent interview with MSNBC host Katie Tur , Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) said the chief justice is in a "very difficult situation" regarding Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Whitehouse authored a letter with Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) on Friday asking Roberts for a meeting to discuss how he plans to address the two conservative judges' "rogue" behavior. The letter specifically calls on Alito to recuse himself from cases the Supreme Court is reviewing in relation to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and litigating the 2020 election, given his displaying of flags associated with the "Stop the Steal" movement. "By displaying the upside-down and ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flags outside his homes, Justice A...

The Sharks became the first South African team to win a European rugby competition when they beat Gloucester 36-22 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to win the Challenge Cup. from News24 news24/topstories/rss https://ift.tt/UGeVTkx via sinceretalk

Since Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was forced to end his failing 2024 presidential campaign in February, the GOP leader has remained persistent in his "hostile takeover " across the Sunshine State. MSNBC's Joy Reid issued a scathing rebuke of the governor use of the historic term "Freedom Summer" for his latest "bigoted" and "performative" move. "On June 15, 1964, a group of Black and white civil rights activists led by Bob Moses and about 300 mostly northern volunteers poured into Mississippi, the hardest state to register black voters, and the lynchingest state in the union," Reid said. "They called it 'Freedom Summer.'" READ MORE: Don't say 'climate': Ron DeSantis signs bill removing references from state law "The push, built on the 1961 freedom rides that took mostly college students on integrated buses through the south," she continued, "from Washington, DC, throug...

Since Donald Trump's New York hush money trial adjourned Tuesday, legal experts have floated predictions about whether or not the jury will convict the ex-president based on witness testimonies. In connection to the allegations that the MAGA hopeful paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet during his 2016 presidential campaign, ABC News reported earlier this month that "Daniels' description of her night with Trump served a crucial purpose for prosecutors," according to ex-prosecutor and ABC News legal contributor Chris Timmons. ABC also noted, "It wasn't just the alleged intimate details that stand to impact the case -- Daniels' testimony about her conversations with Trump, including him allegedly telling her not to worry about his wife, Melania Trump – could help build the prosecution's case that the hush money payment was made to protect not his family, but his campaign." READ MORE: 'Not going to comment': Jo...

In a report for The Associated Press last week, Peter Smith reported that Donald Trump's "support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians." Smith noted, "Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as 'Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president' and 'God, Guns & Trump.' One man’s shirt declared, 'Make America Godly Again,' with the image of a luminous Jesus putting his supportive hands on Trump’s shoulders." The Atlantic's Peter Wehner highlights the hold Trump has on evangelicals in a Thursday, May 23 op-ed, noting, "In my years in politics, I’ve never found a group as easily seduced by political power as evangelicals." Wehner also wonders why that is. READ MORE: The nation’s future will be 'decided in the pulpits and sanctuaries of American churches': columnist Others, according to Wehner, have a similar ...

After more hearings in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago classified documents case Wednesday, legal experts remain unsure about presiding Judge Aileen Cannon's competence. The judge postponed the trial indefinitely earlier this month due to "unresolved pretrial issues," according to CNN . CNN's Anderson Cooper asked former Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo and retired US district court judge for the Southern District of New York Shira Scheindlin about the probability of a trial ahead of November. "It doesn't seem like she is poised to have a trial anytime soon," Agnifilo said. "There's critical hearings that need to happen. Today's hearings were just two of many that have to happen, and the fact that she won't even set a trial date — I don't think she has any plans or any intent tensions have seeing this case go to trial anytime soon." READ MORE: 'Incomprehensible': More classified doc...

One of the nation’s top constitutional scholars has issued a strong warning that the GOP will be working to overturn one of the most consequential, landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions in modern American history. Griswold v. Connecticut established the precedent for the right to privacy, laying the foundation for the right to contraception, abortion, same-sex intimate relationships, and same-sex marriage. Two years ago next month, the right-wing justices on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v.Wade , which for nearly 50 years had established the constitutional right to abortion. In his concurring opinion, embattled Justice Clarence Thomas issued a call for cases to be brought before the nation’s highest court, declaring that rulings that had also established the rights to contraception and same-sex marriage were, in his opinion, wrongly-decided. Justice Thomas declared the Court “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold , Law...

US Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on Wednesday announced on social media that she helped secure millions of dollars in funding for a Colorado community initiative — although she did not back the infrastructure bill that provided the funds. The Colorado lawmaker wrote via X (formerly Twitter) , "Great meeting with Glenwood Springs City Councilor and former Mayor Jonathan Godes. We have secured over $51.4 million for the South Bridge. Was thrilled to hear about nearly $30 million in costs savings in addition and that my support has helped make this project a reality." The White House's X account replied : "One thing about Congressional Republicans…they’re going to take credit for investments they voted against." READ MORE: GOP rep celebrates infrastructure bill funding he voted against and called 'socialism' Democratic National Committee regional press secretary Stephanie Justice wrote in a Monday, May 20 statement: Lauren Boebert has tried to take cre...