Author: Reporter

Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes on May 30 as a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Jurors deliberated for 9.5 hours over two days before convicting Trump of all 34 counts he faced. Trump sat stone-faced as the verdict was being read, while cheering from the street below — where supporters and detractors of the former president were gathered — could be heard in...

President Joe Biden’s campaign showed up outside former President Donald Trump’s New York City criminal hush money trial on May 28 with actor Robert De Niro and a pair of former police officers in an effort to refocus the presidential race on the ex-president’s role in the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection. It was a sharp about-face for President Biden’s team, which had largely ignored the trial since it began six weeks ago and is now looking to capitalize on its drama-filled closing moments, sending the “Goodfellas” actor and the first responders who were at the Capitol on...

During the presidential election four years ago, the Equal Ground Education Fund hired over 100 people to go door-to-door and attend festivals, college homecomings and other events to help register voters across Florida. Their efforts for this year’s elections look much different. A state law passed last year forced them to stop in-person voter registration, cut staff, and led to a significant drop in funding. Organizers are not sure how robust their operations will be in the fall. Genesis Robinson, the group’s interim executive director, said the law has had a “tremendous impact” on its ability to host events...

Thousands of journalists have fled their home countries in recent years to escape political repression, save their lives, and escape conflict. But even in exile they are often vulnerable to physical, digital, and legal threats, a U.N. investigator said on May 22. Irene Khan said in a report to the U.N. General Assembly that the number of journalists in exile has increased as the space for independent and critical media has been “shrinking in democratic countries where authoritarian trends are gaining ground.” She said that free, independent, and diverse media – supporting democracy and holding the powerful to account...