List of All Articles with Tag 'americas'

A 19-year-old man has been charged with threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on the president, vice president or their family members after allegedly ramming a truck into bollards outside a park near the White House. Sai Varshith Kandula was arrested after “intentionally” crashing a U-Haul box truck into barriers outside Lafayette Park in Washington DC at roughly 9.40pm on 22 May, according to US Park Police and US Secret Service. He has also been charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and reckless operation of a motor vehicle. News agencies photographed police officers removing a Nazi flag from the truck and examining the flag on the ground. A black backpack and a roll of duct tape also appear to have been removed from the truck. The truck’s cargo area appeared to be empty. Mr Kandula, from the St Louis suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri, graduated from Marquette Senior High School in 2022, according to the Rockwood School District. A LinkedIn profile that appears to match that description shows an interest in a career in data analytics with experience and certification in programming and coding languages. He reportedly traveled from Missouri to Dulles International Airport, then rented the truck and drove towards the White House, law enforcement sources told ABC News. He allegedly waved the flag and shouted as he exited truck before officers arrived to detain him. Mr Kandula reportedly told law enforcement officers that he wanted seize power, take over the government and kill the president, law enforcement sources told ABC. Police have declined to publicly provide further details about the nature of the alleged attack or information about the suspect. Law enforcement officials also indicated the suspect made threatening statements during his arrest. “There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation,” Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service chief of communications, said in a statement on Monday night. The nearby Hay Adams hotel evacuated guests from the building shortly after the crash but allowed them back into the building by 1am ET. Following the crash and the release of the suspect’s name, a wave of accounts on Elon Musk’s Twitter sought to portray the incident as a “false flag” or a “hoax”, echoing similar baseless statements in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Texas mall earlier this month after the gunman was revealed as an alleged neo-Nazi with SS and swastika tattoos. Right-wing pundits including Donald Jump Jr and other personalities and account on the social media network continue to falsely suggest that news organisations are labelling the crash suspect as a “white supremacist” in an attempt to undermine both the attack and threats of white supremacist violence. This is a developing story Read More A U-haul truck, a Nazi flag and threats to kill the president: What we know about the White House crash

A former sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to at least 35 years in prison for murdering of his married girlfriend after she insulted his penis size. Jason Cunningham, 48, fatally shot 37 -year-old Nicole Harrington in the back of the head in a parking garage elevator in downtown Augusta in June 2020, authorities say. Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams said in a statement that Cunningham had become incensed after Harrington insulted “the size of his manhood”. Cunningham was then involved in an eight-hour stand-off with Columbia County deputies at a boat ramp at Clarks Hill Lake before being taken into custody. On Monday, Cunningham was sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to murder, and a further five years for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. According to an affidavit obtained by WRDW, Cunningham claimed he had gone to meet Harrington to end their affair. He told investigators the pair started to argue, and he shot her in the head as she entered an elevator. “This was an extramarital affair in which the defendant was living a double life,” District Attorney Williams said. Cunningham resigned from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office in 2018 when he tested positive for an illegal substance after he was involved in an accident while on duty, WFXG reported. Harrington, from Florida, was survived by three children. Cunningham also worked as a marketing manager for Forces United, a veterans support organisation in Georgia. Read More Family of Colorado man killed by police during mental health crisis gets $19 million settlement New video from Uvalde massacre shows police officers vomiting and sobbing after discovering victims From Donald Trump to Mike Tyson: The powerful men finally being held to account by sexual assault accusers

A man whose wife disappeared in 1998 has died by suicide just as the cold case was getting renewed attention. Jim Sweeten, 79, called police in Texas to say that he was going to take his own life. Law enforcement found him dead at his home at an RV park in Welasco, about five miles from the border with Mexico on Wednesday, according to Fox 23. The authorities said he was found in a shed with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The discovery was made just two days after the disappearance of his wife, 25 years ago, was once again in the news as police found a barrel in a body of water close to the home in Oklahoma where they had lived until she disappeared. Peggy Sweeten, a special education teacher, was 52 when she vanished. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma wrote on Facebook that “Law enforcement returned to the former Sweeten home Monday this week to conduct an underwater search and retrieve a metal barrel that was discovered a few weeks ago and could possibly have been a burn barrel that was noticed to be missing around the same time as Peggy’s disappearance. No human remains were located. This is a cold case that has been under active investigation”. When she vanished, Mr Sweeten claimed that she had left with a lover, but no evidence was found to support this theory, and he shortly stopped cooperating with the investigation. He rejected efforts to conduct a property search or take part in a polygraph test. When questioned in 2011, Mr Sweeten told officials that he thought “he should consult an attorney,” according to Valley Central. A detective wrote in an application for a search warrant that Mr Sweeten “appeared to be deceptive and evasive” and he “appeared to be attempting to find out how far the investigation had progressed and what [the investigator] knows and what direction the investigation was headed”. Police assumed that Ms Sweeten was dead as the years passed following her disappearance. She was last seen on 13 January 1998. Police shared the worry with local media that, as the investigation progressed, Mr Sweeten might kill himself or flee to Mexico, according to Fox 23. Mr Sweeten was a former Kansas superintendent who had been having an affair with a teacher from another district, according to the 2011 warrant. He filed for divorce just weeks after Ms Sweeten’s disappearance. He claimed to police that when he got back from a conference, Ms Sweeten had left him a note to say that she was leaving him, but all her belongings, including her car, clothes, and personal mementos, were left behind. There was nothing indicating that she was planning to leave. Mr Sweeten told law enforcement that his wife had met a man online, but she never used email and didn’t have an email address. Read More Thirty tonnes of explosive chemicals go missing in the Mojave Desert Oklahoma lures Enel solar panel manufacturing facility with $180M incentive package More women sue Texas, asking court to put emergency block on state's abortion law

The family of Christian Glass, who called 911 after his car got stuck and was later shot and killed by police, will receive a $19m payout – the largest payout for police misconduct in the history of Colorado. Mr Glass was shot and killed in Silver Plume, west of Denver in the central parts of the state, in the summer of last year. Four local governments in the state will each pay parts of the settlement to reach the record amount. In addition to the funds, the family will also receive assurances that the state and its police agencies are enacting measures to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur again, according to 9News. Mr Glass called 911 on 10 June last year after his car got stuck on a road in the small town, a former silver mining camp. Seven officers from five agencies responded. Mr Glass was shot and killed an hour and ten minutes after he had called for a mental health check. He told the officers on several occasions that he was scared to open the door of the car or to roll down his window, but the police still attempted to get Mr Glass to get out of the vehicle. Clear Creek County Deputy Andrew Buen, who has since left the job, broke the passenger-side window, Tased Mr Glass, and shot him with bean bags, which were non-lethal. Officers have said that Mr Glass then reached out with a small knife, prompting Officer Buen to shoot him five times, killing Mr Glass. His parents, Simon and Sally Glass, said in a statement via their lawyers that they hope that the settlement will work as a message that injustice will not be accepted and that those responsible for their son’s death will be held accountable, including the officers who didn’t act to protect Mr Glass. The family has said previously that they wanted further indictments for those offices. University of California, Los Angeles law professor Dr Joanna Schwartz told 9News that “$19m is a lot of money”. “I think this agency will be thinking carefully about how it operates in the future, and other departments in the region and across the country are also going to take notice of this suit. But I think it’s the noneconomic changes that will most directly impact the department in the immediate future,” she added. Clear Creek County, Officer Buen’s former department, has the largest payout – $10m. As part of the settlement with the county, Mr Glass’s parents will get to speak to new patrol recruits joining the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office. The county is also set to create a crisis response team before 1 January 2025. The co-responder programme across the county will couple mental health workers with paramedics to respond to calls along with police to make sure that what took place in the case of Mr Glass doesn’t occur again. Dr Schwartz told 9News that in many instances, police agencies aren’t interested or willing to agree to settlements like this one. “I really haven’t heard of another settlement that involves the parents actually themselves speaking to officers, which is truly novel in my experience,” she told the local station. More follows...

The woman accused of fatally hitting a South Carolina bride on her wedding night in an alleged drunk driving crash said that her “life was over” in a jailhouse call. Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, allegedly crashed her red Toyota Camry into Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson’s golf cart after they left their wedding reception in Folly Beach last month. The bride, who was still wearing her wedding dress, was killed instantly and the groom was injured in the shocking incident. “I can’t believe this is my life … and my whole life is going to be over,” she said in a teary call obtained by The Post and Courier. “Oh my God. I just can’t believe this happened to me.… Why me?… I’m going to be here for years and years and years and years.” Ms Komoroski’s father told her that she needed to “suck it up” and “get tough” during the call that was made from the Charleston County Jail. “I want it to be over,” the suspect told him. Investigators say that Ms Komoroski’s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit at the time of the crash and that she was allegedly driving at 65mph on a 25mph road. The suspect had been working at a Mexican restaurant before the crash and has been charged with three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily injury or death and one count of reckless homicide. “I just pray and hope that the judge understands how regretful and remorseful I am and that I’m not a bad person and that I’ll never do anything bad again,” she said in another call. And in another call, she called the incident a “freak accident “Obviously, I didn’t mean it to happen. I just feel like a terrible person, like, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen,” she said. A GoFundMe for the couple has raised nearly $730,000 since the accident. Read More Truck driver arrested for suspected DUI over Oregon crash that left seven dead Widowed husband sues driver, bars after DUI crash killed bride on wedding night Devastated husband of bride killed by alleged drunk driver on wedding night breaks silence

It was a balmy, spring night in Washington DC when a U-haul truck suddenly slammed into security gates close to the White House. The driver, who was allegedly carrying a Nazi flag, then made threatening statements about the building that President Joe Biden calls home. Now, the male suspect has been arrested on charges of threatening to kill or harm the president, Vice President Kamala Harris or one of their family members. The details so far remain scant, with the identity of the driver, his alleged motive and plans still unclear. But, what we do know about the incident will no doubt be setting off alarm bells around Capitol Hill – coming at a time when lawmakers and government officials have faced growing threats and just two years after Donald Trump supporters succeeding in storming the US Capitol in the January 6 riot. Here’s what we know so far about Monday’s incident. What happened? The incident unfolded just before 10pm ET on Monday night when the white U-Haul box truck crashed into the security barriers on the north side of Lafayette Square on 16th Street, Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service chief of communications, said in a statement on Monday night. The crash took place just a few hundred feet away from the White House, where Mr Biden had been holding talks with Senate Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy just hours earlier. Video, posted by eyewitness Chris Zaboji, appears to show the truck driving into the barricades once and then driving into them a second time. Mr Zaboji, an airline pilot living in Washington, said he was walking home after jogging on the national mall when he heard a loud crash. He pulled out his phone to capture what was going on. “I looked back and saw that the U-Haul van had rammed into the barricade. I backed away behind a guy on a golf cart and took the video on my phone,” he told Reuters. “After I saw it rammed again I didn’t want to be anywhere near the truck and left.” Nazi paraphernalia and threats A police source told NBC News that the driver made threatening statements about the White House at the scene but was quickly detained by law enforcement. Inside the truck, police also found a Nazi flag. The flag was seen in photos captured by a Reuters photojournalist on the ground next to the truck. Following a search of the truck, officials found it contained no weapons or explosives. There were no injuries in the crash and there is no ongoing danger to the public, officials said. “There were no injuries to any Secret Service or White House personnel and the cause and manner of the crash remain under investigation,” said Mr Guglielmi. The suspect The identity of the suspect has not been released by authorities and the motive remains unknown at this time. However, on Tuesday morning, US Park Police spokesman Thomas Twiname said that the male suspect had been arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on the president, vice president or a family member. Mr Guglielmi said on Monday night that the preliminary investigation indicated that the driver had “intentionally” collided with the security barriers. Threats against officials It is not clear if the president and first lady were home at the time of the incident which comes amid a rise of potential threats against politicians. Data from the Capitol Police revealed that the agency had investigated about 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022. While lower than the 9,600 threats recorded in 2021, it was twice as many as in 2017. In October, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and the US Capitol Police sent a joint intelligence bulletin to law enforcement partners across the country warning that a rise in domestic violent extremism (DVE) and “perceptions” of election fraud could lead to a spike in violence. Among the most “attractive targets” to extremists are lawmakers, government officials and personnel involved in elections including both political candidates and election workers, it warned. “Potential targets of DVE violence include candidates running for public office, elected officials, election workers, political rallies, political party representatives, racial and religious minorities, or perceived ideological opponents,” the bulletin read. That same day – 28 October 2022 – the husband of then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi husband was the victim of a violent hammer attack at the couple’s home in California. David DePape, a 42-year-old hemp jewellery maker, allegedly broke into the couple’s San Francisco home in the early hours of the morning searching for Ms Pelosi. Ms Pelosi’s husband Paul Pelosi, 82, was home alone, with his wife away in Washington DC at the time. Mr Pelosi managed to call 911 but the suspect allegedly struck him over the head with a hammer when officers arrived. This came over one year after the January 6 Capitol riot on 6 January 2021 when a mob of Mr Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol – fuelled by his lies that the presidential election was “stolen” from him – to try to overturn Joe Biden’s win. Chilling footage from that day reveals how some of the rioters hunted for Ms Pelosi, chanting “Where’s Nancy?” as they ransacked her office. Others were seen chanting “Hang Mike Pence” after the vice president refused to attempt to overthrow the election in Mr Trump’s favour. Read More Nazi flag recovered from scene after U-haul truck ‘intentionally’ slams into railings near White House

The Trump Organization has been ordered to hand over records related to foreign real estate deals made since Donald Trump entered the White House – as the investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents continues to heat up. Two sources told the New York Times that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office has subpoenaed the business empire for documents on real estate licensing and development dealings made in seven countries since he was sworn into office in 2017. The countries are: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. It is not clear what Mr Smith’s office is expecting to find in the records, when the subpoena was issued or what material may have been turned over as a result. However, a source said that several of the classified documents found at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate were related to Middle Eastern nations. During his time in office, the Trump Organization swore off any foreign business deals. After Mr Trump left the White House, he struck a deal with Saudi- backed golf venture LIV Golf – a deal that the Times previously revealed Mr Smith’s office had subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records over. Now, the latest move from federal prosecutors reveals they are expanding the probe into the handling of classified documents and suggests they are looking into whether there are any connections between Mr Trump’s foreign business dealings and the particular documents he took with him when he left office, the Times reported. It’s the latest sign that the investigation into the classified documents Mr Trump took to Mar-a-Lago is heating up. Last week it emerged that the National Archives had found a trove of records proving the former president knew he shouldn’t have taken classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. The National Archives sent a letter, obtained by CNN, to Mr Trump revealing that it had found 16 presidential records showing he and his top advisers were aware of the correct declassification process when he was in the White House. “The 16 records in question all reflect communications involving close presidential advisers, some of them directed to you personally, concerning whether, why, and how you should declassify certain classified records,” wrote archivist Debra Steidel Wall. Those records will now be turned over to Mr Smith by 24 May. Mr Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that he was allowed to take classified documents with him when he left the Oval Office. He has also falsely claimed that the documents “automatically” became declassified when he took them with him from the White House. “I had every right to under the Presidential Records Act,” he said just last week, during the disastrous CNN town hall. “You have the Presidential Records Act. I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified.” He later added: “And, by the way, they become automatically declassified when I took them.” In reality, under the Presidential Records Act, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has legal control of all presidential records as soon as a president leaves office. Now, this trove of presidential records appears to pour cold water on Mr Trump’s claims that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong by taking the documents – instead suggesting that he was fully aware of the protocol but chose to disregard it. Mr Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty insisted that he had the “constitutional authority” to take the documents. “At the end of his presidency, he relied on the constitutional authority as commander-in-chief, which is to take documents and take them to Mar-a-Lago while still president as he was at the time, and to effectively declassify and personalise them,” he told CNN. “He talked about declassifying them, but he didn’t need to.” Meanwhile, the letter also revealed that Mr Trump’s legal team had tried to block NARA from handing over the records to Mr Smith’s office, citing “constitutionally based privilege”. Mr Smith had issued NARA with a subpoena in January for records relevant to the grand jury investigation. Notwithstanding any legal action to stop the handover, the special counsel will likely receive the records in question this week. News of the damning evidence comes amid trouble inside Mr Trump’s leagl team after one of his attorneys Tim Parlatore representing him in the probe resigned earlier this month – amid in-fighting in the team. The National Archives had first contacted Mr Trump in 2021 not long after he left office asking for documents that they had found to be missing from its records. His team handed over boxes of documents – some including classified papers – but held onto troves more. On learning, the FBI executed a raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, seizing 27 boxes including 11 containing classified information. Some of the information was of the highest possible top secret classification, meaning it should never have left the custody of the government. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump to appear in court by video in hush money case as E Jean Carroll seeks new damages E Jean Carroll sues Trump over CNN town hall insults Ron DeSantis news – live: Florida governor slams NAACP ‘stunt’ travel advisory as 2024 campaign launch nears Donald Trump faces virtual hush money appearance as E Jean Carroll sues again – live Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Is Ron DeSantis running for president in 2024?

Donald Trump will make a virtual appearance in court today for the second hearing in his landmark criminal case – so that a New York judge can warn him about posting evidence on social media. The former president will appear via video in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon where Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order issued in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself after being charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records during the 2016 race for the White House. The order, issued on 8 May, bars Mr Trump and his attorneys from publishing information in the case and the names of certain Manhattan DA personnel that is not already public once the information is handed over to his legal team. It even limits Mr Trump’s access to some of the information – with some evidence only to be shared with Mr Trump while he is in the presence of his attorneys and the former president banned from making copies, photographing or transcribing the documents. While Mr Trump’s legal team have slammed the order – claiming it is “a muzzle” on the former president – Judge Merchan stopped short of issuing a gag order, meaning it does not bar Mr Trump from speaking about the case. While his lawyers and prosecutors in the case must appear in person, Mr Trump can join remotely – avoiding the sensationalism and heightened security when he surrendered to New York authorities back on 4 April and became the first US president in American history to ever be arrested and charged with a crime. Though he can avoid showing up in person, the judge is taking the extra step of personally instructing Mr Trump about the terms of the protective order – after he made a series of social media posts attacking the investigation, Judge Merchan and DA Bragg. In a historic day for America, Mr Trump was arrested and arraigned on 34 criminal charges in New York back on 4 April. According to Manhattan prosecutors, Mr Trump and his former fixer anf attorney Michael Cohen carried out a “catch and kill” scheme in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Cohen allegedly made hush money payments on Mr Trump’s behalf to suppress negative information about him by silencing individuals over alleged affairs he had with women. Mr Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the charging documents read. Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump. Mr Trump then allegedly reimbursed Cohen but falsely recorded the payments as legal fees. Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records. Cohen has already served jail time for his part in the hush money case and has now become prosecutor’s star witness in the case against Mr Trump. Read More Trump news – latest: Trump to appear in court by video in hush money case as E Jean Carroll seeks new damages Trump Organization ordered to hand over foreign real estate deal records as part of classified documents probe E Jean Carroll sues Trump over CNN town hall insults Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump will appear in court by video today for his second hearing in his criminal case after he became the first US president in American history arrested and charged with a crime. The former president will appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon so that Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself as he was charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records while making hush money payments to cover up alleged affairs with women. This comes as Mr Trump’s other legal troubles are also heating up. On Monday, author E Jean Carroll amended her remaining defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump to include the derogatory remark she made about her at a CNN town hall. Attorney Roberta Kaplan filed a proposed update to the $10m Manhattan civil court complaint to include the comments which were made by Mr Trump after he was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of Ms Carroll by jury trial in New York. Read More E. Jean Carroll adds Trump's post-verdict remarks to defamation case, seeks at least $10M Trump bashes DeSantis as he shares surprisingly positive response to another 2024 challenger: ‘Good luck Tim!’ A timeline of Donald Trump’s rivalry with Ron DeSantis Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting

Donald Trump will appear in court by video today for his second hearing in his criminal case after he became the first US president in American history arrested and charged with a crime. The former president will appear virtually in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday afternoon so that Judge Juan Merchan can make sure he understands the terms of the protective order in the case. The judge imposed the order after Mr Trump took aim at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan himself as he was charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records while making hush money payments to cover up alleged affairs with women. This comes as Mr Trump’s other legal troubles are also heating up. On Monday, author E Jean Carroll amended her remaining defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump to include the derogatory remark she made about her at a CNN town hall. Attorney Roberta Kaplan filed a proposed update to the $10m Manhattan civil court complaint to include the comments which were made by Mr Trump after he was found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of Ms Carroll by jury trial in New York. Read More E. Jean Carroll adds Trump's post-verdict remarks to defamation case, seeks at least $10M Trump bashes DeSantis as he shares surprisingly positive response to another 2024 challenger: ‘Good luck Tim!’ A timeline of Donald Trump’s rivalry with Ron DeSantis Trump Media files $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post over Truth Social reporting

Emirati leaders extended a long-sought invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the U.N climate conference, known as COP28, in November. The United Arab Emirates' President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum also invited Israel's figurehead President Isaac Herzog and dozens of other leaders including Syrian President Bashar Assad to COP28, in Dubai. The Israelis did not immediately accept the invitation, but Netanyahu thanked the Emiratis for the gesture. The invitation falls short of the high-profile bilateral visit Netanyahu has sought. But a trip to the Gulf Arab country would nonetheless give an important boost to the Israeli leader who has established official ties with the UAE as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between the two countries. Netanyahu has repeatedly called for closer ties with Arab countries across the region, but has yet to pay the UAE an official visit since the accords were signed. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, has sought to return to the world stage. to the world stage. Since returning to office late last year, he has made official visits to Italy, Germany and Britain. He had hoped to visit the UAE shortly after his right-wing government took office, but the plan was postponed after national security minister and ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir last January visited the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The same site is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to Muslims. Such visits are widely viewed as provocations that could lead to new clashes between the Israelis and Palestinians. The UAE condemned Ben-Gvir's actions at the time. He visited the site again on Sunday, declaring Israel “in charge” and drawing renewed criticism from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the United States. Netanyahu's alliance with far-right figures like Ben-Gvir has drawn repeated criticism from close allies. He remains uninvited to visit U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, which some interpret as a White House snub. The U.S. administration has criticized Israel's settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, Ben-Gvir's visits to the disputed compound and the government's push to overhaul Israel's judiciary system. The administration has said he's likely to receive an invitation at some point. Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been internationally ostracized during his country’s civil war, has also been invited after returning to the Arab League following a 12-year suspension. The annual U.N. climate talks are designed to keep countries accountable to their pledges to cut down on carbon emissions. In November, the talks in Dubai will be hosted by Sultan al-Jaber, the chief executive officer of the Emirates’ state oil company. Choosing the oil-rich emirate as well as al-Jaber to host the climate conference has drawn criticism from various environmental groups and activists. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

No one will be watching more keenly than Donald Trump this week as Florida governor Ron DeSantis finally makes the long-awaited announcement that he will seek the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024. During his own tenure in the White House in 2018, Mr Trump loudly cheered Mr DeSantis’s bid for the governor’s mansion, throwing his weight behind the former congressman and appearing at rallies to stump for him, playing an important role in the candidate’s narrow defeat of Democratic rival and Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum. Since then, however, a great deal of water has passed beneath the bridge and the two men are now increasingly antagonistic towards each other. Mr Trump has launched a stream of insults and barbed nicknames yelled across the state from Mar-a-Lago, the majority of which Mr DeSantis has wisely allowed to pass without public comment. Here is a timeline of their disintegrating relationship. 17 November 2018 Ron DeSantis is elected governor of Florida, defeating Democrat Andrew Gillum. Then-president Donald Trump, who had campaigned for Mr DeSantis in person and on Twitter, loudly celebrates his victory as the latest demonstration of his own power and influence. 11 March 2020 After a relatively quiet first year in the governor’s mansion, Mr DeSantis faces a major crisis when the US Centers for Disease Control announces that Covid-19 is spreading in his state. Within days, the entire world is going into lockdown to control the spread of the contagious respiratory disease. While Mr Trump bungles the federal response to the crisis, making empty promises as to when society can reopen, openly speculating that injecting bleach might provide a cure and eventually contracting the coronavirus himself one month before Election Day, Mr DeSantis recognises opposition to masks and social restrictions as a culture war flashpoint and uses the mood to his political advantage. “We’re not shutting down, we’re gonna go forward, we’re gonna continue to protect the most vulnerable,” he said in a speech in June. “Particularly when you have a virus that disproportionately impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point I don’t think would likely be very effective.” 20 January 2021 Joe Biden succeeds Mr Trump as president, the latter leaving Washington two weeks after his two-month campaign to prove the false contention that the 2020 presidential election was rigged had ended with the Capitol riot in which his misled supporters laid siege to the legislative complex baying for blood and threatening to lynch vice president Mike Pence and kidnap House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Disgraced, discredited, twice-impeached and banned from social media, Mr Trump slinks off back to his Palm Beach estate, while the same state’s governor continues to make a name for himself, capitalising on his pandemic popularity among Republicans by eventually taking on LGBT+ rights and the might of the Walt Disney Corporation, cheered on by a movement looking for a less contaminated and compromised alternative to Mr Trump, who can only look on with envy. 29 April 2021 Mr Trump tells Maria Baritromo on Fox Business Network: “He’s a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship.” On the suggestion that Mr DeSantis might make a good successor to Mr Pence as a running mate, Mr Trump answers: “A lot of people like that – you know, I’m just saying what I read and what you read – they love that ticket. But certainly, Ron would be considered. He’s a great guy. 4 October 2021 Addressing the prospect of having to square up against Mr DeSantis in a future election race, rather than their joining forces, Mr Trump tells Yahoo! Finance he would beat the governor with ease. “I don’t think I will face him. I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out,” he says. “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else. If I do run, I think that I’ll do extremely well.” For his part, Mr DeSantis tells Fox News: “I’m not considering anything beyond doing my job. We got a lot of stuff going on in Florida.” 21 June 2022 Increasingly bothered by Mr DeSantis’ rise, Mr Trump begins to insist that the former owes his success entirely to his support. On the prospect of the governor running for the White House, as discussed at length in The New Yorker, its former occupant tells Newsmax: “I don’t know that he wants to run, you know, I have a good relationship with Ron. But I was very responsible for him getting elected, as you know… We’ll see what happens.” 14 September 2022 Mr DeSantis engages in a distinctly Trumpian stunt by sending approximately 50 Venezuelan asylum seekers by air from San Antonio, Texas, to Crestview airport in Florida and then on to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, a Democratic stronghold. A piece of provocative political theatre, Mr Trump gripes that he thought of it first. 24 September 2022 While that episode brought liberal condemnation, including from President Biden, who called it “inhumane”, Mr DeSantis wins praise soon after by declaring a state of emergency when Hurricane Ian strikes his state. He would later be praised for his swift and decisive response to the natural disaster. 8 November 2022 The two men hold competing rallies in Florida in the final days before the midterm elections, with Mr Trump debuting his prized “Ron DeSanctimonious” nickname at his. But the governor goes on to win re-election in commanding fashion, beating Democrat Charlie Crist by a nearly 20-point margin and drawing in previously untapped support from Latinos and suburban voters. By contrast, Mr Trump’s preferred candidates lose races across the country from Pennsylvania to Arizona as the widely predicted “red wave” fails to materialise, causing the GOP to miss out on the Senate and only narrowly win a majority in the House of Representatives and prompting many to question the former president’s continued stranglehold over their party and begin to look elsewhere for alternative leadership. 11 November 2022 The fallout from the midterms really sets the rivalry simmering, with Mr Trump resorting to suggesting he had deployed the FBI to secure Mr DeSantis’ win over Mr Gillum in 2018. Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump calls his rival an “average Republican governor with great public relations” who was “politically dead” until he helped turn his fortunes around. He writes: “I was all in for Ron, and he beat Gillum, but after the Race, when votes were being stolen by the corrupt Election process in Broward County, and Ron was going down ten thousand votes a day, along with now-Senator Rick Scott, I sent in the FBI and the US attorneys, and the ballot theft immediately ended, just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win. I stopped his Election from being stolen…” The post, inevitably, invites calls for the matter to be investigated urgently. 16 November 2022 Mr Trump announces his intention to run again for the US presidency in a low-key televised address from Mar-a-Lago that many feel lacks the energy of his earlier political speeches. Doubts remain over whether the myriad civil and criminal investigations into his affairs could yet derail him. 29 January 2023 Continuing to obsessively re-litigate Mr DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial win in order to bolster his own role in it, Mr Trump accuses his rival of “trying to rewrite history” over his record in responding to Covid, claiming he had “changed his tune a lot” on the introduction of vaccine mandates. Speaking to reporters while campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Mr Trump griped: “Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me. When I hear that he might [run] I think it’s very disloyal… There are Republican governors that did not close their states. They’re trying to rewrite history.” 8 February 2023 Clearly preparing to get nasty, Mr Trump resorts to amplifying a nasty, unfounded claim about Mr DeSantis on Truth Social relating to his short-lived career as a high school teacher in Georgia as a younger man. 18 February 2023 A new nickname, “Meatball Ron”, is reported to have been trialled by Mr Trump, still seeking a way to trash-talk his likely opponent, as he had done so many times before, but this time he unexpectedly denies it is his coinage. “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will,” he raves on Truth Social. “Even though FoxNews-killing lightweight Paul Ryan is revered by him, Low Energy Jeb Bush is his hero and always at his side, his beaches and State were closed for long periods of time, his testing, testing, testing for the China Virus didn’t work out too well, and his loyalty skills are really weak, it would be totally inappropriate to use the word ‘meatball’ as a moniker for Ron!” 8 March 2023 Another new nickname, “Tiny D”, is reported by Bloomberg as being workshopped by Mr Trump, this time either a lewd reference to the governor’s manhood or an allegation that he had been spotted wearing heeled cowboy boots in order to increase his height. 30 April 2023 Responding to Mr DeSantis setting out on a global tour, visiting the UK and Japan in the interest of looking statesmanlike on the world stage, Mr Trump tries a new attack line, saying he “couldn’t care less” if the governor runs against him. “I couldn’t care less if Ron DeSanctus [sic] runs, but the problem is the Bill he is about to sign, which allows him to run without resigning from being Governor, totally weakens Election Integrity in Florida,” he posted. 16 May 2023 Still searching for that killer attack line, Mr Trump tells The Messenger his political opponent is a “rank amateur”. “I think the media has said he’s doing a terrible job and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. You know, the media has not been friendly to him. They’re saying that he’s a rank amateur. And you know, he started off fine, but then he hasn’t done very well. You look at the polls.” Returning to the disloyalty argument, Mr Trump manages so sound genuinely wounded as he complains: “He’s very disloyal. He was a dead man walking. He was dead, dead as a doornail. And I revived him. “I’m a loyal person. If that happened to me, I would never run against the guy that did that. He’s got plenty of years left. And I think if he runs, he’s gonna lose MAGA votes forever. That’s my opinion. And the MAGA votes are almost everything in the Republican Party, far bigger than you think.” Mr Trump added that it was “too early” to say if he would endorse Mr DeSantis if he won the GOP primary. “So far, I’m not a fan of the way that he’s running. First of all, he shouldn’t be running right now because he hasn’t filed. The guy’s doing ads. He’s acting as a candidate, but he doesn’t have to play by the rules because he hasn’t filed, which is a total violation. I mean, this guy’s doing interviews as a candidate, but he hasn’t filed, which is really not appropriate.” In the same interview, he said Florida’s new six-week abortion ban was “too harsh” and likely to alienate voters. Unusually, Mr DeSantis did respond to that one by arguing: “Protecting an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat is something that almost 99 per cent of pro-lifers support. As a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about, ‘Would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did, that had all the exceptions that people talk about?’” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung came back with: “Ron DeSantis is flailing in the polls and is closer to the bottom of the pack than he is to President Trump, who is dominating in every single poll.” The feud continues as Mr Trump claims “Ron’s magic is GONE” after two candidates endorsed by Mr DeSantis suffer embarrassing election defeats within a week: Daniel Davis fails to become mayor of Jacksonville and Kelly Craft loses out on the Republican nomination to be the next governor of Kentucky. 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