Foreign News
Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial wraps up, with millions of dollars on the line
Donald Trump returned to Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday for the last day of his fraud trial, lashing out in court at the attorney general who brought the case.
A judge has already determined that Trump family members and executives fraudulently inflated assets to secure favourable loans. But the trial will determine damages. New York Judge Arthur Engoron has said he will issue a final written ruling in the case by the end of the month.
The outcome could be stiff penalties that may challenge the famous family’s legacy after it built its fortune in New York real estate.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking the judge for a $370m (£290m) penalty. She also aims to bar Donald Trump from ever doing business in New York again, a five-year ban for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr and an independent monitor to oversee their company for the next five years.
Mr Trump’s attorneys attempted to discredit Ms James’s case, arguing during two hours of closing argument on Thursday that the family had not committed fraud. At the end, the former president interjected as well.
After defence lawyer Christopher Kise requested that his client be allowed to speak, Mr Trump told the judge the trial was a “a fraud on me”.
Judge Engoron allowed Mr Trump to continue talking despite him refusing to abide by restrictions set by the judge. Mr Trump went on to insult Judge Engoron as well as Ms James. “We have a situation where I’m an innocent man, I’ve been persecuted by someone running for office,” Mr Trump said, before Judge Engoron told Mr Kise to “control his client”.
Mr Trump has made similar complaints during the three-month trial, both in his testimony before the court and in his speeches to reporters outside. He also brought up similar grievances when speaking to the press on three separate occasions during the hearing on Thursday.
Repetition appeared to be a defence strategy at points.
Mr Kise reiterated several arguments, including that the case was politically motivated and that Mr Trump’s real estate valuations did not cause any harm to banks or anyone else. “The marketplace functioned as it should,” he said of Mr Trump’s real estate dealings.
He also claimed Judge Engoron’s ruling would have wide-ranging consequences beyond the Trump family. “This isn’t just about President Trump,” he said. “What you do, judge, impacts every corporation in New York.”
He also echoed previous testimony from Mr Trump and his two children, Donald Jr and Eric, who shifted blame to the accountants who they argued were in charge of preparing financial statements. Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka took the stand earlier in the trial, as well, although she is no longer a defendant in the case.
Ms James’ team disagreed and said the Trumps were attempting to shirk their responsibilities. In their own closing arguments on Thursday, they argued the onus was just as much on the Trump family to ensure financial statements were accurate as it was on their accountants.
State attorney Andrew Amer claimed Mr Trump did not fake numbers himself but got employees and accountants to do his bidding to “keep his net worth as high as possible”.
The prosecution also showed a host of emails during the trial that suggested Trump family members were at least aware of Mr Trump’s financial statements, despite testimony to the contrary.
Before court, Ms James said these documents and other testimony during the 10-week trial had “revealed the full scale and scope” of Mr Trump’s fraud. “I am proud of the case we presented, and I am confident that the facts and the rule of law are on our side,” she said.
Many of the courtroom tensions over the past three months have centred on the New York judge, with Mr Trump’s legal team claiming that Judge Engoron and his law clerk are biased against the former president.
Mr Trump has also insulted Judge Engoron’s clerk on social media, leading to a gag order that cost him $15,000.
Before court began on Thursday, court officials told reporters there had been a threat made on Judge Engoron’s home on New York’s Long Island. Local police later told US media that the threat was a “swatting incident”, a hoax call made to send law enforcement to a home.
The end of the fraud trial comes as several separate criminal cases against Mr Trump – including two sets of charges over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election – are heating up.
Another civil case, a second lawsuit from writer E Jean Carroll, is set to begin this month.
(BBC)
Police are investigating a “mass casualty incident” in which “several people were killed” after a car was driven into a crowd in Vancouver.
Authorities in the Canadian city said “multiple others” were injured during the incident, which occurred at approximately 20:14 local time on Saturday (03:14 GMT on Sunday) at a street festival.
Police said a 30-year-old male suspect was in custody and that they were “confident that this incident was not an act of terrorism”. It is unclear how many people have been killed.
Police said the suspect had driven into pedestrians at the annual Lapu Lapu festival, which celebrates Filipino culture, at East 43rd Avenue and Fraser, in the south of Vancouver.
Steve Rai, Vancouver Police’s interim chief, told a news conference that there had been one vehicle and one suspect involved in the incident. He said more details would be released in the morning.
The owner of a food truck selling bao buns at the festival, Yoseb Vardeh, told the BBC World Service that the attack happened right in front of his van.
“This guy, he killed some of my customers,” he said. “There was people waiting for their buns that got hit.”
Mr Vardeh added: “I stepped outside of my food truck and I just saw bodies underneath people’s food trucks, husbands crying out for their wives or their kids… It was just horrible.”
Unverified footage posted on social media showed a number of police cars, ambulances and fire engines at the scene, with injured people lying on the ground.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on X that he was “devastated to hear about the horrific events at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver”.
He continued: “I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver. We are all mourning with you.”
He also thanked emergency responders for their “swift action”.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said he was “shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident”, adding in a post that his “thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver’s Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time.”
One of Vancouver’s city councillors, Peter Fry, told the BBC that local residents were struggling to process what had happened.
“This celebration was a huge, fun, vibrant, family-orientated street party, and it was a fantastic event. To see it turn so horrible so quickly and unexpectedly has, I think, our entire city is in shock,” he said.
Lapu Lapu Day is celebrated every year in the Philippines on 27 April to commemorate Lapu-Lapu, a national hero who resisted Spanish colonisation.
The festival was officially set up in Vancouver in 2023. Its website says it “symbolises the cultural harmony and mutual respect that thrive in the province of British Columbia”.
In the wake of the attack, leaders of different political parties have also been sharing messages of condolence.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, called the incident a “senseless attack”, while the leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, David Eby, said he was “shocked and heartbroken”.
New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh – who had attended the festival but was not present when the incident occurred – said he was “horrified to learn” that innocent people had been killed and injured.
“As we wait to learn more, our thoughts are with the victims and their families – and Vancouver’s Filipino community, who were coming together today to celebrate resilience,” he added.
Singh, Poilievre and Carney are all running in Canada’s federal election on Monday. Singh’s constituency of Burnaby Central lies just east of where the incident took place.
[BBC]
Donald Trump has questioned Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war in Ukraine following his meeting with the country’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.
Posting on social media after leaving Rome, Trump said he feared Putin was “tapping me along” after Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv earlier this week, adding there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”.
Earlier in the day Trump and Zelensky were seen in deep discussion in St Peter’s Basilica shortly before the funeral began.
The White House described the 15-minute meeting with Zelensky as “very productive”. The Ukrainian president said it had the “potential to become historic”.
It was Trump’s first face-to-face encounter with the Ukrainian president since February’s acrimonious Oval Office showdown.
Writing on his Truth Social account, Trump said the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities “makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”.
Trump had previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” following three-hour talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president on Friday.
The Kremlin meanwhile said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions” to Witkoff.
During their last face-to-face meeting at the White House, Trump had told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and that he was not winning against Russia.
Trump repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”. He has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.
But the White House struck a more positive tone about Saturday’s meeting, while Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic” and one which could prove significant “if we achieve joint results”.
Two images were released of the meeting, showing the US leader in a blue suit and Ukrainian president in a black top and trousers, locked in intense conversation while sitting opposite each other.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted an image of the meeting on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”
Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, whose hand is on Zelensky’s shoulder.
The implication was that the two European leaders – who have regularly acted as intermediaries for Trump and Zelensky – had helped to bring the two together against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.
After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.
During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.
In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.
Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting, but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.
Zelensky, however, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, home to the French embassy to the Holy See.
He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the British ambassador’s residence, as well as holding separate talks with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump” in a post on X, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.
A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.
During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukraininan president of gambling with World War Three by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.
Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.
These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.
[BBC]
Six police officers have been killed in Thailand after their plane crashed into the sea during a test flight for parachute training, police have said.
The small plane was seen crashing into the water at around 08:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday in the Cha-am district, a coastal resort area some 130km (80 miles) southwest of Bangkok.
Royal Thai Police said in a statement on Facebook that five of the officers died at the scene, with a sixth later dying in hospital.
Authorities are examining the aircraft’s black box data recorder to determine the cause of the crash.
(BBC)
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