Connect with us

International

Trump’s defense doubts Cohen’s honesty on his second day of cross-examination

The defense of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) attacked on Thursday the credibility of Michael Cohen, who was a lawyer and right-hand man of the former president, during his second day of cross-examination in the criminal trial against the Republican politician.

During the examination of the star witness of the prosecutor’s office on Thursday morning, Trump’s chief lawyer, Todd Blanche, focused on exposing Cohen’s honesty before the jury and not so much on discussing specific issues of the case.

This week, Cohen testified that Trump ordered him to pay $130,000 to silence Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claims to have had relations with Trump in 2006, and detailed how he later reimbursed him for his expenses.

According to The New York Times on Thursday, the tycoon has asked his lawyer to be especially incisive in his interrogation, something that was seen in his questions today.

One of his tactics to call Cohen’s credibility into question before the jury was to tell Trump’s former lawyer to tell the lies he told the 2017 House Intelligence Committee, where Cohen lied under oath, which cost him to be accused of perjury in 2018.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Blanche relied on the fact that Cohen acknowledged under oath in Trump’s civil fraud trial that he had lied at the time.

“And he lied again when he met with the special prosecutor on August 7 (2018), right?” Blanche asked him, to which Cohen responded with a: “Correct.”

Cohen, who was extremely serene during the first three hours of the cross-examination, said he accepted the responsibility for lying under oath.

However, he pointed out that he did it because it was what Trump wanted, and also because “whis at stake (him) personally affected.”

Cohen served a prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal campaign funding charges related to the plan to silence the extramarital scandal during Trump’s 2016 election campaign.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Blanche unsuccessfully sought Cohen to admit to having lied about the reason for the calls at the end of 2016 to Keith Schiller, Trump’s bodyguard, indicating that it was not to negotiate Daniels’ payment, as he has testified, but to talk about a series of harassment calls from a 14-year-old prankster.

Another way that Blanche used this Thursday was to emphasize Cohen’s hatred of Trump – whose loyalty disintegrated in 2018 – and asked the former lawyer if he believed that his podcast ‘Mea Culpa’ and interviews he has given to the media helped Donald Trump be accused.

“I gave myself some credit, yes,” Cohen said with a calm tone.

The defense, in addition, today showed several clips of Cohen’s program using rude language to refer to Trump.

In one of the excerpts that were shown this Thursday, the one who was the right-hand man of the Republican politician called Trump “fool Donald.”

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Trump’s legal team also hinted at the jury at a possible vendetta by the lawyer part of Trump’s close circle for not having climbed further on the White House’s work scale.

As well as his lack of professionalism in general when pointing out that he had been disabled and that he used an artificial intelligence (AI) program to generate legal summons to his lawyers, a response that turned out to be a hallucination – with a correct structure, but false information – of the software.

Trump, accused in this trial of 34 serious crimes of falsification of commercial records, attended the court today with an entourage of Republicans, something that is not unusual.

His son Eric and more than ten Republican lawmakers sat behind Trump this Thursday, showing that, despite having to spend four days every week in the Manhattan Criminal Court, the boss is in the middle of his campaign for this year’s presidential election.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow
Continue Reading
Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_300x250
20240813_lechematerna_300x200_1
20240813_lechematerna_300x200_2
20240701_vacunacion_300x250
20231124_etesal_300x250_1
20230816_dgs_300x250
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_300X250
MARN1

International

Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador

The presidential candidate of Ecuador for the indigenous movement, Leonidas Iza, who was part of the wave of protests of 2019 and who led that of 2022, reveals himself as an “anti-system” politician in the face of “a corrupt system” that he intends to reformulate to relieve the impoverished, because he predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in the Government to meet popular demands.

Iza, 42, is the candidate of Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) that he himself presides over, and with which he was at the forefront of the 2022 wave of protests against the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, where he was arrested and even labeled a “terrorist.”

“I am one of those who has never lost the ability to be outraged when governments have had policies against their own citizens,” Iza, a native of the Andean province of Cotopaxi, said in an interview with EFE.

“I am not against the private sector, I am against those who do not pay taxes and those who come to the Government only to defend their companies,” said the candidate in reference to the last two presidents (Lasso and Daniel Noboa).

“We fight for social justice, not to be violent. It is a reaction to the injustice to which we have been subjected,” he said.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

For Iza, who represents the anti-extractivist left of Ecuador, the country has “a corrupt system, a health system that does not work, a deficient and unfair economic system, and public services that are not helping citizens.”

“And that’s what we want to change. We won’t be able to do it overnight, but the State can give relief to the people,” the candidate said.

To do this, it proposes to fight against tax evasion, which amounts to about 7.5 billion dollars a year, and also against corruption, which is estimated at about 3 billion dollars per year, to balance public accounts without having to follow the current credit program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that asks to cut public spending and raise taxes.

He also aimed to increase agricultural productivity, as well as boost tourism to go from 1 to 3 million visitors a year, and anticipated that he will regulate small and artisanal mining to avoid illegal mining but will not allow large-scale mining because it considers that it can contaminate the country’s large river basins.

Iza anticipated that he will not pay the external debt as long as there are “guaguas (children, in Kichwa) who have no education and are dying of hunger, and colleagues who are dying for lack of health.”

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

“We will tell the IMF and the other multilaterals that we are going to pay, but first we are going to solve the structural problem we have at the moment: education, health and minimum conditions for security,” he warned.

In that sense, Iza pointed out that “the strength of a popular reaction in the streets is accumulating” that must be resolved by whoever is elected. “Knowing my country, which has been on the streets all its life, there will be a popular reaction if (the discomfort) is not resolved in the following months,” he reiterated.

“The option that understands the people is us, and not the sectors that have always been in the Government,” said Iza, who avoided pointing out whether that reaction will reach the dimensions of the strong protests of 2019 and 2022, both led by the indigenous movement.

In this electoral campaign, Iza has left his distinctive Andean red poncho to put on the bulletproof vest in the face of the persistent wave of violence of organized crime that the country is experiencing, because he warned that the “war” that Noboa declared to the criminal gangs has not worked because its leaders are still free.

Faced with this, he promised “a hard hand for all” and recalled that “state institutions must suffocate everyone (criminals)”.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

The candidate also advocated deepening international cooperation: “there must be a responsibility of all countries (producers, consumers and drug transit), especially in the region (of Latin America)”.

Asked if Ecuadorian society is ready to have an indigenous president of rural origin, Iza sees himself with popular support to face “the most reactionary sectors that have support in racism and stigmatization.”

Continue Reading

International

Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69

The fire that occurred this morning in a 12-story hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey claimed at least 69 deaths, in addition to causing fifty injuries, according to the latest assessment of the country’s authorities.

The fire originated around 3.30 a.m. local time (0.30 GMT) in a hotel, built entirely of wood, in the Kartalkaya ski center, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, with almost full occupancy.

The flames were extinguished after about ten hours of firefighters’ work and the authorities found the death of 66 people, in addition to rescuing 51 injured, compared to the 10 dead and 32 injured initially estimated.

The hotel, with 161 rooms, had an occupancy close to 90%, because these days are the winter school holidays in Turkey, says the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.

The wooden construction and the location of the hotel at the foot of a ski slope, which only allows vehicle access from the front facade, made the intervention of firefighters difficult, the Turkish newspaper explained.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

According to the television network NTV, about 300 people, including employees, were in the hotel at the time of the fire, the causes of which are still unknown.

Continue Reading

International

Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank

The Islamist organization Hamas urged the Palestinians on Tuesday to intensify and support their militiamen in the clashes against the Israeli Army during the military incursion that began today in Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.

“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and their revolutionary youth to mobilize and intensify the clashes against the (Israeli) occupation army at all points, and to work to thwart the extensive Zionist aggression against the city of Yenin.”

“This military operation launched by the occupation in Yenin will fail, as did all its previous military operations against our brave people and their tenacious resistance,” the Palestinian group said.

Since the beginning of the operation, nicknamed by the Army “Iron Wall”, at least seven Palestinians have died in Yenin and another 35 have been injured, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Hamas accused the forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party in the West Bank, of having left Yenin to allow the operation of Israeli troops, instead of defending the Palestinians.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Tuesday that the last assault launched by his forces against Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, seeks to “eradicate terrorism.”

“This is another step towards the objective we have set ourselves: to strengthen security in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” according to a statement released by its Office.

“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” concludes the Israeli president’s note.

The rail comes shortly after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, which includes a weekly exchange of hostages in the Strip for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Following the release of the prisoners, the Army increased its presence in this occupied territory with seven companies, claiming to strengthen its “anti-terrorist efforts.”

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

The images recorded in Yenin show dozens of Army vehicles accessing the local refugee camp, which has also been bombed by Israeli aviation.

The incursions and attacks of Israeli forces in Yenin, considered a bastion of Islamist-like militias, were already constant but they worsened after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

However, since mid-December it has been the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which governs small parts of the West Bank, that have led an offensive in this population, which until last Friday triggered armed fighting against the militiamen.

This exchange of fire has caused at least 15 people dead on both sides, including two minors.

The occupied West Bank is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and in 2024 at least 491 Palestinians have died in the territory by Israeli fire, most of them militiamen from refugee camps, but also civilians, including at least 75 minors, according to EFE’s count.

Advertisement
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20240813_lechematerna_728x91
20240701_vacunacion_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
20230816_dgs_728x90
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

So far this year, at least 24 Palestinians have already died in Israeli attacks, five of them minors.

Continue Reading

Trending

Central News