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Trump asks judge in federal elections case to step aside
Donald Trump has asked the judge overseeing his federal election meddling case to step aside due to previous statements she made in court.
He said in a legal filing some past comments create a perception of bias against the former president. The request for a recusal was filed to Judge Tanya Chutkan on Monday.
She is overseeing the case being brought by special counsel Jack Smith, who accuses Mr Trump of a conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The former president said last month that he planned to petition Judge Chutkan for a recusal.
The Monday filing does not expressly call the judge prejudiced against Trump, but says certain statements she has made in her court “create a perception of prejudgment incompatible with our justice system”. “Although Judge Chutkan may genuinely intend to give President Trump a fair trial – and may believe that she can do so – her public statements unavoidably taint these proceedings, regardless of outcome,” it says.
The petition highlights several comments, including one she made in October 2022 while sentencing a 6 January Capitol rioter.“This was nothing less than an attempt to violently overthrow the government, the legally, lawfully, peacefully elected government, by individuals who were mad that their guy lost,” she said.
She later added: “It’s blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”
Mr Trump’s lawyers say she was implying: “President Trump is free, but should not be.”
Under US federal law, any judge of the United States must voluntarily recuse themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
If the judge denies the motion, Mr Trump’s lawyers could appeal to a higher court requesting that she be required to step aside.
Judge Chutkan, who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2014, has earned a reputation for harsh punishments against the rioters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021.
She was randomly assigned to oversee this federal case against him.
(BBC)
Urvil Patel played the kind of innings that erased a bit of history and created a bit of history. In 2025, team after team came to Chepauk and breached it and the crowd got used to leaving early. On Sunday evening, 32,825 people – some of whom might have seen the morning show where one of Tamil Nadu’s most popular actors took charge as the chief minister – were given double delight as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) chased down their first 200-plus target since 2018 and one of their future stars announced himself with the IPL’s joint fastest half century.
Urvil got there in 13 balls. When he walked into the middle, CSK’s chances of winning were 38.13%. When he walked out, to a standing ovation from the crowd and his coaching staff, CSK’s chances of winning were 93.02%. He single-handedly changed the game and powered CSK to fifth spot.
Mitchell Marsh had taken first strike in eight out of 11 Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) matches. Here he gave it up so that Josh Inglis could do his thing. One of the best spin hitters in the world threw the opposition’s bowling plans off when he targeted Akeal Hosein, hitting him for three successive boundaries in the first over. CSK turned to pace, which suited Marsh better and which Inglis harnessed to play some of the coolest ramps ever seen and he went for them over and over.
According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, nobody has tried more ramps (four) inside the powerplay. Even when he missed one, he created scoring opportunities. Because Anshul Kamboj, having seen what he wanted to do, went fuller instead of camping on a good length area and got smacked through the covers. Inglis’ ease in accessing the ‘V’ behind the wicket opened up easier scoring shots in front of it. He was 77 off 25 after six overs. Only Suresh Raina (87 vs PBKS in 2014), Travis Head (84 vs DC in 2024) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (78 vs MI in 2024) have scored more inside the field restrictions.
But with the field spreading, CSK unleashed the season’s joint-second-highest wicket-takers (12 each) in the middle overs on LSG. Noor Ahmad aced his match-up with Nicholas Pooran (two runs off nine balls for three dismissals). In his first three games this season, he had 0 for 111 at an economy rate of 11.1. In the next eight, Noor has picked up 12 for 215 at an economy rate of 7.16. In the background, MS Dhoni had suggested that the Afghanistan wrist-spinner focus more on his legbreak than just going googly all the time. That’s had a knock-on effect of Noor targeting the stumps a little more and it’s worked for him.
This was the same pitch where CSK won their first game of the season against DC. Just like that day, Jamie Overton played a big role. Inglis, who had faced 25 of the first 36 balls of the innings and hit nine fours and six sixes, could only get on strike for eight of the 19 balls since the powerplay. Antsy to keep the rate up, he went for a scoop against Overton and got caught behind. Hitting the deck with both pace on and off, Overton delivered 10 dots in his first 18 balls and provided two wickets. LSG were 56 for 5 in 50 balls after the field restrictions. Shahbaz Ahmed helped LSG recover a bit, hitting the last ball of the innings for six, to push the score past 200.
There is a sign of respect that a bowler gives a batter in T20 cricket. Bowling wides. Hiding the ball away from his hitting arc because he keeps walloping everything. Andre Russell has experienced this. Kieron Pollard has experienced this. And for one glorious moment, Urvil experienced this when Digvesh Rathi speared a ball practically down into the next pitch in the sixth over. This was because Urvil had sent the previous four balls he had faced out of the ground.
Urvil came into the game with a balls-per-boundary ratio of 2 in the IPL but his longest innings was 19 balls. He will likely persist with this method, trying to whack everything for six, because India have won a T20 world title with batters playing the exact same way. Also, LSG didn’t really give him a reason to take a backward step. They kept bowling the ball to which he could clear his front leg and swing to midwicket. Seven of his eight sixes went there. He was barely 10 minutes into his innings when had a chance to hit six sixes back to back. Three off Avesh Khan. Two of Rathi. When the sixth ball that he carved over point bounced in front of the boundary, he threw his head back in utter disappointment.
At 41 off 8, Urvil had the chance to break the IPL’s record for the fastest fifty. But he ended up scoring just nine off the next five balls and had to settle for sharing the title with Yashasvi Jaiwal. When he finally fell for 65 off 23, CSK needed 78 runs in 64 balls.
Veer could’ve been dismissed twice off two balls in the 19th over off Avesh but Rathi and Pooran dropped straightforward chances. Veer capitalised by hitting a six to bring the equation down to 10 off the last over. LSG went to Aiden Markram, figuring an offspinner turning the ball away from the two left-hand batters in the middle might work. It didn’t. Dube, on 3 off 5, hit back-to-back sixes to finish the game
Brief scores:
Chennai Super Kings 208 for 5 in 19.2 overs (Sanju Samson 28, Rutraj Gaikwad 42, Urvil Patel 65, Kartik Sharma 20. Dewald Brevis 10, Shivam Dube 15*, Prashant Veer 17*; Digvesh Rathi 2-45, Avesh Khan 1-44, Shahbaz Ahmed 2-30) beat Lucknow Super Giants 203 for 8 in 20 overs (Josh Inglis 85, Mitchell Marsh 10, Rishabh Pant 15, Akshat Raghuwanshi 18, Shahbaz Ahmed 43*, Himmat Singh 17; Anshul Kamboj 2-47, Noor Ahmad 1-24, Jamie Overton 3-36) by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
Spain has started evacuating passengers from a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship anchored near Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Health Minister Mónica García said the operation was “proceeding normally” and that all passengers on board the MS Hondius were still asymptomatic.
They will be divided into groups by nationality and ferried to the coast in small boats. Charter planes will be on the tarmac at the local airport, ready to repatriate them to their home countries.
Fourteen Spanish nationals will be the first to disembark, then those flown out by the Netherlands, including Dutch, Greek and German passengers, and part of the crew.
Other flights are poised to leave after that, including to the UK and US. The last evacuation flight is expected to leave on Monday to Australia.
With a long camera lens, passengers could be seen wandering around on the deck of the ship, or at the windows, all in white medical face masks, as the first evacuation took place.
Several sat socially distanced on the small evacuation boat, filming and taking photos as they approached land, where they were met by officials in white protective suits.
The Hondius pulled into the port of Granadilla before dawn on Sunday, a month after the first passenger died on board.
The sun then rose to reveal it anchored offshore, with military police boats on patrol and a major operation unfolding on land to help more than 100 passengers and crew disembark.
At about 07:00 (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, medical teams went on board to check everyone for signs of the virus.
There have been meticulous preparations to receive the ship, which won’t be permitted to reach shore: a security perimeter of one nautical mile was enforced around it as it approached the island.
Dozens of intensive care specialists are on stand-by at the Candelaria hospital in Tenerife in case anyone from the Hondius becomes seriously ill during the transfer. A strict isolation facility has one bed fully equipped to deal with infectious diseases, complete with testing kit and a ventilator.
“We are absolutely ready,” chief intensive care doctor Mar Martin told me on the unit, where large numbers of protective suits, masks and gloves are already piled up for staff.
“We’ve never seen [hantavirus] before – but it’s a virus, with some complications, just like we manage every day. We are fully trained for that.”
The complex operation to prevent the rare Andes strain of this virus spreading is described by Spain’s health minister as “unprecedented”.
On Saturday, she stressed that the risk of contagion for the general population was low. “We believe that alarmism, misinformation and confusion are contrary to the basic principles of preserving public health.”
Security measures in the port, an industrial facility in the south of Tenerife, increased notably on Saturday. Spain’s military police and disaster response teams have both set up large reception tents and access to the waterfront is restricted.
Spanish nationals leaving the ship will be flown to Madrid, where they face a mandatory quarantine in the Gomez Ulla military hospital. Complete isolation would be gruelling – the virus has an incubation period of up to nine weeks – and it is not clear how long people in Spain or elsewhere will be quarantined.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, now in Tenerife to oversee the disembarking, has praised the authorities for their “solid and effective response” to this outbreak.
It has been linked to a landfill site in the southernmost tip of Argentina, popular with birdwatchers. The virus is carried there by rodents, and it’s rare for it to pass between people, but three cruise passengers have died.
The WHO boss has urged nervous Spaniards to trust those in charge of the evacuation.
“Your concern is legitimate, because of the experience of Covid: that trauma is still in our minds,” he acknowledged. But he added that the risk of wider contagion now was low “because of how the virus works, and because of how the Spanish government has prepared to avoid any problem”.
There was some anger here when people learned the Hondius was being diverted to their island.
On Friday, a group of port workers gathered outside the local parliament in noisy protest, concerned that safety measures were not strong enough.
Then very late last night, all the carefully laid plans were briefly thrown into chaos when the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said he would refuse to permit the ship into port as the disembarkation could not be done in a day. The central government in Madrid had to intervene.
Clavijo then claimed on TV that a rat carrying the hantavirus might “get off the ship in the middle of the night and endanger the people of the Canary Islands”. The health secretary had to come out and insist that such a scenario was “not a risk”.
In general, people on the island seem reassured that the risk is low.
“The virus is dangerous, of course. But they say you need to have very close contact to get it,” a woman named Jennifer told me, out walking with her child in Tenerife’s capital Santa Cruz.
“If we’re careful, we hope it’s not too serious.”
Not everyone will disembark in Tenerife from the Hondius: some 30 crew members will stay on board to take the cruise ship back to the Netherlands. But for most, there is at last an end in sight to weeks of fear and uncertainty at sea.
Now come the long weeks of quarantine.
[BBC]
Overton, Urvil power Chennai Super Kings to fifth spot with third straight win
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