List of All Articles with Tag 'americas'

The Department of Justice warned Texas on Thursday it plans to sue over the state’s decision to install a floating wall in the middle of the Rio Grande river, which forms the international border between the US and Mexico. “The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” the DoJ wrote in a letter to state officials, which was obtained by CNN. The letter says US law “prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”).” “Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution,” Texas governor Greg Abbott said in a statement on twitter on Friday. “We have sent the Biden Administration numerous letters detailing our authority, including the one I hand-delivered to President Biden earlier this year.” (The governor claimed last year he is authorised under the US Constitution to carry out military-style actions along the border because of a clause concerning states under “invasion,” though legal scholars have said this is not an accurate interpretation of the provision.) The warning from the federal government is the latest challenge to the governor’s plan to install a 1,000-foot long aquatic wall of buoys and netting across the river at Eagle Pass, Texas, a busy border-crossing site. As The Independent reported, a local kayak guide has also sued the state, arguing that Texas doesn’t have jurisdiction to build an impediment along an international borderline. Mexico has also said it is investigating whether Texas broke international law with the barriers. “You’ve taken a beautiful waterway and you’ve converted it into a war zone,” Jessie Fuentes, a kayak guide who works on the Rio Grande, told The Independent. Migrant advocates have also strongly criticised the buoys. They argue such installations don’t actually slow down immigration, but rather will push migrants towards ever more remote places to cross the border, increasing the likelihood they will face a perilous and potentially lethal crossing. An estimated 250 people died crossing the Rio Grande last year, and that was before Texas installed what amounts to a giant net in the river. “It’s been proven time after time that these so-called prevention through deterrence strategies don’t work,” Fernando García of the Border Network for Human Rights told The Independent. “They have not stopped immigration flows, but what they have done is they have put immigrants at risk.” “All of this is death by policy.” Criticisms have also come from the inside. A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) trooper, one of countless state officers deployed to the border under Mr Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, wrote in a message to superiors that the obstacles at the border, as well as alleged orders from the state to push migrants back into the water, showed that Texas has “stepped over a line into the inhumane.” The medic also detailed multiple instances in June and July in which military-style barriers along the Rio Grande caused migrants to suffer severe injuries and medical issues. He described a man who lacerated his leg on razor wire attached to a buoy while trying to rescue his son, a 15-year-old who broke his leg trying to avoid the floating barrier, and a 19-year-old who had a miscarriage while trapped in razor wire. “We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God,” Trooper Nicholas Wingate told the Texas DPS. “We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such." Texas officials have denied ordering troopers to push migrants into the water, and the claims from the trooper are under investigation. Read More Buoys, razor wire, and a Trump-y wall: How Greg Abbott turned the Rio Grande into an immigration ‘war zone’ White House condemns ‘abhorrent’ reports of Texas troopers being told to push migrant children into Rio Grande Border Patrol fails to assess medical needs for children with preexisting conditions, report says Trump demands cameras in courtroom for potential election fraud case Trump probe ‘subpoenaed CCTV from Georgia 2020 ballot counting centre’ DeSantis says charging Trump for Jan 6 is ‘criminalising political differences’

Alabama police have expressed doubt over Carlee Russell’s claim that she was abducted from the side of an interstate highway last week, saying she appears to have made internet searches relating to kidnappings prior to the incident. Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said during a press conference that investigators were “unable to verify” most of the 25-year-old’s statements relating to the events. Mr Derzis detailed Ms Russell’s peculiar search history on Wednesday, saying she had searched for the movie Taken and Amber Alerts, raising the possibility she may have faked her alleged ordeal. Before she disappeared for a mysterious 49 hours, she posted a series of bizarre tweets. On the day she went missing on 13 July, she tweeted at 8.55pm: “today was a GREAT day God be looking out im telling you!!” One minute later, Ms Russell wrote: “someone to tell you ‘i love you’ and don’t got a reason.” Finally, she tweeted, “yeah i want a family now” at 9.19pm. Just moments later, around 9.30pm, the Alabama woman called 911 and told detectives that she was following a lost toddler along the interstate. Read More Carlee Russell claimed she was kidnapped by a man with orange hair. Police say they can’t verify any of it Boyfriend of Carlee Russell deletes social media posts after police cast doubt over her kidnapping story Police doubt Carlee Russell’s kidnapping claims. Could she face consequences? Carlee Russell searched for Amber Alerts and the movie ‘Taken’ before disappearing, say police

Former president Donald Trump bashed his main rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination late Thursday evening. The former president posted on his Truth Social platform that businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is now beating Florida Gov Ron DeSantis in some polling. He also poked fun at former Arkansas Gov Asa Hutchinson and attacked former New Jersey Gov Chris Christie over his weight. “Vivek Ramaswamy is now beating DeSanctimonious,” he said. “Christie dead as his stomach band. ‘Aida’ Hutchinson a solid minus 1%. I’m up 44 points!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” In 2013, Mr Christie underwent bariatric surgery to help with his weight. Mr Trump in the past seemed to mock the former governor when he said he would no longer eat Oreo cookies. Mr Christie and Mr Trump have had a long and sordid relationship. In 2016, Mr Christie was one of a cadre of Republican presidential candidates running against Mr Trump for the Republican nomination for president. But shortly after the New Hampshire presidential primary, Mr Christie dropped out of the race and became of the first major elected officials to back Mr Trump. Since then, Mr Christie has mostly turned against Mr Trump and has largely staged his longshot presidential candidacy in an effort to neutralise the former president. Mr Trump also continued to use his preferred nickname for Mr DeSantis, calling him “DeSanctimonious.” But a new poll from Kaplan Strategies showed Mr Ramaswamy was tied, not beating, Mr DeSantis. Since announcing his candidacy in May, Mr DeSantis has failed to catch fire and his polling numbers have either stayed stagnant or even declined. Mr Hutchinson, for his part, has also largely run in opposition of Mr Trump and has failed to rise in the polls in a crowded field that also includes Sen Tim Scott (R-SC), former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and former vice president Mike Pence. Read More Truth Social’s merger partner reaches $18m settlement with SEC Trump taunts DeSantis and Christie as deadline to appear before Jan 6 grand jury passes – latest Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’

He may be suing the governor of Texas, but Jessie Fuentes isn’t really a political guy. His disagreement with Greg Abbott is personal. Continental, in a sense. Spiritual even. On 7 July, Mr Fuentes, who owns a small kayaking business, sued the state for its decision to install a 1,000-foot buoy wall in the town of Eagle Pass, within a stretch of the Rio Grande river. In Texas, the river forms the legal border between the US and Mexico. More than just a legal argument that a state politician doesn’t have jurisdiction over an international borderline, Mr Fuentes, who grew up along the Rio Grande, feels Mr Abbott has crossed a moral line. The governor, he says, is violating a river that nourishes ecosystems, people, and a vibrant transborder culture that’s existed far longer and far more freely than the rolls of razor wire multiplying across the banks suggest. “I’m not a politician. I just say listen, I love that river. Nobody speaks up for it. I’m speaking up for the river. Man, I have the right to try to prosper from my love of the river, that allows me the opportunity to get out there, to bring people to the river,” he told The Independent. “They don’t live here. I do,” he added of Texas’s state leaders. “You’ve taken a beautiful waterway and you’ve converted it into a war zone.” Mr Fuentes is part of a group of local residents, human rights activists, and international officials who are pushing back on the floating barrier project. They face challenging waters ahead, though. Governor Abbott is a shrewd operator. He has combined media savvy and audacious use of government funds and powers to secure billions of dollars and heaps of political capital for his notion of a military-style crackdown at the border. He has charged ahead with little resistance, even though governors and presidents have spent decades taking this iron-fisted approach with little empirical success to show for it. In mid-July, state contractors were nearly complete installing the floating border barrier, a $1m, 1,000-foot pearl string of giant orange buoys with strong netting in between, anchored to the river floor. Discussing the plan in June, Mr Abbott described the floating wall as a key part of his larger buildup at the border, which has featured mass deployment of as many as 10,000 state troopers and national guardsmen at a time, as well as razor wire and sections of a new border wall on private lands. "When we’re dealing with 100 or 1,000 people, one of the goals is to slow down and deter as many of them as possible," Mr Abbott said on 8 June. "Some may eventually get to the border where they are going to face that multilayered razor wire and a full force of National Guard and DPS [Department of Public Safety] officers." An estimated 250 people died crossing the Rio Grande last year, but Texas officials have nonetheless claimed that installing what amounts to a giant net in the river will “prevent the loss of life due to drownings.” The barrier technology, like much of Mr Abbott’s border agenda, is a retrofitted version of what the Trump administration was pursuing. In 2020, the Border Patrol advertised on Twitter, then quickly deleted, a post showing a demo of a floating barrier system from the same company that built Mr Abbott’s wall, Cochrane USA, only the Trump version had large black spikes that wouldn’t look out of place in a dungeon. The Texas buoy plan dropped the spikes but kept the same controversy that Mr Trump’s attempts to seal off the border attracted. Last week, Mexico’s diplomat said the barrier plan may violate international treaties over the Rio Grande-based border, and said she will send an inspection team to investigate the buoy wall. Migrant advocates say the buoys, like generations of border installations before them, won’t actually slow down immigration, but rather will push migrants towards ever more remote places to cross the border, increasing the likelihood they will face a perilous and potentially lethal crossing. This strategy, known as “prevention through deterrence” has more or less been the explicit policy of the US government since the Clinton administration in the 1990s, a policy choice many on the ground say is causing unnecessary deaths. “It’s been proven time after time that these so-called prevention through deterrence strategies don’t work,” Fernando García of the Border Network for Human Rights told The Independent. “They have not stopped immigration flows, but what they have done is they have put immigrants at risk.” “It’s very likely that with [the floating buoy wall] they are looking for more remote and isolated places to come across so that whenever they are in danger by heat exhaustion, by drowning, they will not have anybody to help them,” he added, saying he worries it could be a record year for migrant deaths in the Rio Grande. “All of this is death by policy.” According to leaks from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state’s border scheme, this policy includes intentionally putting migrants into harm’s way. In a series of emails shared with news outlets including The Independent, a border medic described questioning orders from superiors to push exhausted migrants back into the river and to refrain from giving them water if captured. “We were given orders to push the people back into the water to go to Mexico. We decided that this was not the correct thing to do. With the very real potential of exhausted people drowning,” the trooper wrote. The DPS source also claimed in the span of one week in late June, a teen mother was trapped in razor wire at the border while having a miscarriage, a 15-year-old broke his leg as he tried to find a way around the deterrence buoys, and a man lacerated his leg while trying to rescue his child from razor wire placed on a buoy. Texas officials have defended the use of the razor wire while denying reports troopers were told to push people into the river. “The Texas National Guard mission is to work alongside our Texas law enforcement partners to prevent, deter and interdict transnational criminal activity between ports of entry,” the Texas Military Department told The Independent in response to news about the emails. “There is no order or directive instructing Service Members to push illegal immigrants back into the river or deny them drinking water.” “Texas is deploying every tool and strategy to deter and repel illegal crossings between ports of entry as President Biden’s dangerous open border policies entice migrants from over 150 countries to risk their lives entering the country illegally,” a spokesperson for the governor told The Independent earlier this week. The Texas Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for comment on this story from The Independent. Beyond just putting migrants at risk, the border barriers are cutting into the deep cross-border cultural ties in the region, residents said. Mr Fuentes, the business owner suing the state, said the locked-down border is only a recent historical development. His grandfather used to be able to casually ride into Mexico on a donkey to get supplies. He says that Texas politicians fomenting fear about immigration miss the fact that many who live along the US-Mexico border don’t feel the same way. The walls aren’t stopping some hypothetical invasion of immigrants. They’re dividing a community that’s older and bigger than boundaries on a map. “That’s the beautiful thing about America,” he said. “We’ve got our culture on the border. The way it’s being misinterpreted right now, them saying we’re a war zone, things are out of control. We’re not that. We’re a community on the river. We get along with our neighbours.” “I don’t think we’re under siege from an inflow of immigrants,” he added. “We’re under siege by law enforcement.” When Mr Fuentes encounters migrants on the river, he offers them a blessing and any spare water if it he has it. You wouldn’t know about these sorts of ties by watching the governor on TV. The Fox News regular frequently describes the situation in places like Eagle Pass as an “invasion” of drug-pushing cartel members, though drugs like fentanyl are overwhelmingly brought across the border by US citizens at official points of entry. It’s not an accidental choice of words calling the situation an “invasion.” In November, the governor invoked a clause in the US Constitution allowing states to take military actions if they are under “invasion” to defend his policies, a theory legal scholars and critics say is both nonapplicable to immigration and an echo of the white-supremacist rhetoric that fueled incidents like the 2019 El Paso shooting, where 23 mostly Latino people were killed. It may not be legally bulletproof, but it’s another savvy move from Mr Abbott, who has proved adept at using crises in recent years to further his border agenda. The governor declared a state disaster at the US-Mexico border in 2021, freeing him up to use additional emergency powers, and used creative accounting to funnel an estimated $1bn in federal Covid relief funds to Operation Lone Star, the umbrella plan Mr Abbott has used to send troopers to the border and bus thousands of migrants out of Texas to liberal states. Despite massive investments from the state and the federal government over decades from leaders of both parties, immigration levels at the US-Mexico border in late 2022 and 2023 are about the same as they were during their previous most recent peak around the year 2000. A spokesperson for the governor’s office declined to answer specific questions from The Independent about the floating border barrier, and criticisms that it’s illegal and dangerous for migrants. The governor’s office said Operation Lone Star had led to the apprehension of more than 393,000 unauthorised immigrants and the repelling of more than 49,000 illegal immigrants, as well as over 31,000 arrests, “all of which would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and our country thanks to President Biden’s open border policies,” according to spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris. The Department of Justice is investigating Operation Lone Star for alleged civil rights abuses. Immigration is a concern of federal law, but thousands of immigrants have been arrested by state personnel for trespassing on private property, allegedly being held in jail for weeks without facing charges. According to an investigation by the Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and The Marshall Project, state officials were arresting far more trespassers than cartel members, and allegedly inflated data on Operation Lone Star by citing arrests on crimes like cockfighting, sexual assault, and stalking in their success statistics, even though these offences had no clear link to immigration enforcement. “We’ve spent $12bn over the last decade, and we have nothing to show for it,” Jaime Puente, director of economic opportunity programmes at the advocacy group Every Texan, which monitors the state budget, told The Independent. “People are not being deterred from coming to the US to seek a better life and opportunities…no matter how deadly we make that journey.” Ironically, according to Mr Puente, the governor’s border crackdown has finally driven resources towards borderland communities that have historically suffered from under-investment. However, these resources are coming in the form of armed police officers and contracts to build military infrastructure, rather than investments in things like education or healthcare. “Texas has historically undervalued and underserved border communities over the last century or more, and now, because it’s politically viable, because it makes for a great 7pm Fox News clip, these communities are being inundated with billions and billions of dollars,” Mr Puente said. He points to the example of Uvalde, Texas, the site of a horrific 2022 school shooting, as a place that needs a different kind of investment from the state. “That community doesn’t have a hospital,” he said. “That community doesn’t have some basic services, but they have 350 DPS troopers and Border Patrol agents just roaming around. That didn’t help 19 kids and 2 teachers a year ago.” In fact, according to some local residents, the influx of state personnel to border communities has made the residents there feel less safe. Operation Lone Star has driven a spike in the racial profiling of Latinx drivers in South Texas, according to the ACLU. According to an analysis from NBC News of Latinx-majority border areas, traffic citations have shot up, in one county by a factor of six, since Operation Lone Star came online in 2021. Despite the governor’s ever-expanding footprint on the border, Jessie Fuentes still believes in the magic of the Rio Grande. He ends our interview by inviting me to come onto the river with him sometime, though he notes it’s getting harder and harder for him to access the water because of all the fences, walls, and razor wire deployed around Eagle Pass. He has a bitter chuckle at the difference between the US and Mexico sides of the river. On the Mexico side, it’s parkland, with families out for walks or fishing on the river. On the US side, it’s a practically medieval tableau of walls and spikes, overseen by a group of state officials, one of whose title is literally Border Czar. “I invite anyone to come if they’ll let me,” he said. That’s the thing about the US border: what happens there often has deep roots. Border walls, once built, are rarely taken down, and connections to the land, built over generations, don’t disappear from one administration to the next. Governor Abbott has vowed to fight Mr Fuentes all the way to the US Supreme Court. In the coming months, we will see whose vision of this complicated, beautiful region prevails. Read More Texas trooper's accounts of bloodied and fainting migrants on US-Mexico border unleashes criticism Border Patrol fails to assess medical needs for children with preexisting conditions, report says Mexico files border boundaries complaint over Texas' floating barrier plan on Rio Grande Inside Greg Abbott’s controversial plan to wall off the Rio Grande from immigration Texas trooper's accounts of bloodied and fainting migrants on US-Mexico border unleashes criticism Texas troopers allegedly told to push migrant children into the Rio Grande

The Florida federal judge overseeing the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice case against former president Donald Trump has rejected the disgraced ex-president’s bid to delay his trial until after the 2024 election. US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday issued an order granting the government’s request to set a speedy trial date and schedule for pretrial motions, with a start date of 20 May 2024. More follows...

Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections after failed executions prompted the governor to order an internal review of procedures. James Barber, 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. "Justice has been served. This morning, James Barber was put to death for the terrible crime he committed over two decades ago: the especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel murder of Dorothy Epps," Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing the 75-year-old with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. Before he was put to death, Barber told his family he loved them and apologized to Epps' family. "I want to tell the Epps' family I love them. I'm sorry for what happened," Barber said. "No words would fit how I feel." Barber said he wanted to tell the governor "and the people in this room that I forgive you for what you are about to do." It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions in November. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions to conduct an internal review of procedures. The move came after the state halted two lethal injections because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men's veins. Attorneys for inmate Alan Miller said prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour as they unsuccessfully tried to connect an IV line during Miller's aborted execution in September, at one point leaving him hanging vertically on a gurney. State officials called off the November execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith after they were unsuccessful in connecting the second of two required lines. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problems, also was botched, a claim the state has disputed. Barber's execution came hours after Oklahoma executed Jemaine Cannon for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center. Alabama's governor announced in February that the state was resuming executions. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison system had added to its pool of medical professionals, ordered new equipment and conducted additional rehearsals. The last-minute legal battle centered on Alabama's ability to obtain intravenous access in past executions. Barber's attorneys unsuccessfully asked the courts to block the execution, saying the state has a pattern of failing "to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner." The state wrote in legal filings that it was using different IV team members. The state also changed the deadline to carry out the execution from midnight to 6 a.m. to give more time for preparations and to carry out last-minute appeals. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the two intravenous lines were connected to Barber with "three sticks in six minutes." The Supreme Court denied Barber's request for a stay without comment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent from the decision that was joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She said the court was allowing "Alabama to experiment again with a human life." "The Eighth Amendment demands more than the State's word that this time will be different. The Court should not allow Alabama to test the efficacy of its internal review by using Barber as its 'guinea pig,'" Sotomayor wrote. The Alabama attorney general's office had urged the Supreme Court to let the execution proceed. The state wrote that the previous executions were called off because of a "confluence of events including health issues specific to the individual inmates and last-minute litigation brought by the inmates that dramatically shortened the window for ADOC officials to conduct the executions." In the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, Barber had 22 visitors and two phone calls and ate a final meal, a prison spokesperson said. After his last words, Barber spoke with a spiritual adviser who accompanied him into the death chamber. As the drugs were administered, Barber's eyes closed and his abdomen pulsed several times. His breathing slowed until it was no longer visible.

Donald Trump has been busy bullying his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, including Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, on Truth Social as he braces for an imminent grand jury indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his role in inciting the Capitol riot of 6 January 2021. Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that he had been sent a letter by special prosecutor Jack Smith informing him that he is the “target” of the investigation, citing three statutes under which he could be charged, including conspiracy to commit offence or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under colour of law and tampering with a witness, victim or informant. That indictment, Mr Trump’s third in four months, could be handed down as soon as this week, The Independent has learned. William Russell, a former White House aide who now works for the Trump presidential campaign and spent much of 6 January with the then-president, is believed to have testified before the grand jury on Thursday. The former president was given until midnight on Thursday to report to the Washington, DC, federal courthouse but did not appear. Read More Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Deadline for Trump to give evidence in Jan 6 probe passes as third indictment looms Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist DeSantis says he’d accept Trump being prosecuted for a ‘traditional crime’ like ‘robbing a bank’

A midnight deadline for Donald Trump to signal his intent to testify before a Washington, DC grand jury hearing evidence against him has come and gone, moving the twice-indicted ex-president a step closer to facing yet another set of criminal charges stemming from his effort to remain in office against the will of voters after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Mr Trump publicly acknowledged receipt of a so-called “target letter” from the office of Jack Smith, the Department of Justice special counsel who is charged with overseeing multiple investigations into the former president’s conduct. Mr Smith, who in June obtained a 38-count indictment against Mr Trump and longtime aide Walt Nauta arising out of a probe into the ex-president’s alleged unlawful retention of national defence information at his Palm Beach, Florida home, has also been presenting evidence to a grand jury in the nation’s capital that has been focused on the events leading up to the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, including Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Mr Biden. According to sources familiar with the matter, the letter to Mr Trump informed him that the department is considering charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law, and set a midnight Thursday deadline for the ex-president to say whether he would appear before the grand jury to give evidence on his own behalf. While the first two potential charges are brought frequently in federal court and have been used against a significant number of the hundreds of defendants who’ve faced charges for participating in the Capitol attack, the third potential charge – deprivation of civil rights under colour of law – would be brought under an 1871 statute first enacted for use against the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. While that century-old statute was first enacted to give the government tools to fight the Klan’s racist terrorism in the post-Civil War era, in modern times it has routinely been deployed by prosecutors in cases of voter suppression or election fraud. A member of the ex-president’s legal team contacted by The Independent did not say whether Mr Trump would indeed testify, but it is highly unlikely that he would do so since his answers before the grand jury could be used against him. Grand jury probe examines Trump’s involvement in fake elector scheme and pressure campaign against Mike Pence The deadline for Mr Trump to avail himself of the invitation to appear before the grand jury, that could soon add significantly to the legal burden he is facing as he seeks his party’s nomination in next year’s election, comes as prosecutors have continued to present evidence pertaining to the ex-president’s actions before and during the Capitol attack. A crowd of Trump supporters temporarily interrupted the joint session of Congress at which the electoral votes cast in line with voters’ preferences were opened and counted under the supervision of then-vice president Mike Pence. Mr Pence, who was forced to retreat to an underground parking area while a riotous mob rampaged through the building and called for him to be hanged, is one of the numerous witnesses who have given evidence under questioning from Mr Smith’s team. In April, he testified for more than five hours regarding his interactions with Mr Trump in the period leading up to the joint session, though a federal judge ruled that he did not have to give evidence on anything pertaining to his actions while presiding over the Senate or the January 2021 joint session. Prosecutors have been questioning witnesses and gathering evidence to shed light on what Mr Trump knew, said and did in the period between the 3 November 2020 general election and the January 2021 Capitol attack. In particular, they have been attempting to elicit answers from witnesses regarding what Mr Trump knew about efforts being made on his behalf to submit forged electoral college certificates indicating he had prevailed in swing states that were actually won by Mr Biden to the National Archives and to Mr Pence in his role as president of the Senate. They have also been investigating the pressure campaign the former president mounted to convince the then-vice president that he had the power to unilaterally disregard the legitimate electoral certificates in favour of the fake ones as a way to declare himself and Mr Trump victorious even though they had not won the election. Prosecutors have also reportedly questioned multiple elected officials from swing states won by Mr Biden, including Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who Mr Trump infamously pressured to “find” enough non-existent votes to reverse his loss in a recorded phone call that was first reported by The Washington Post. A subpoena to Mr Raffensperger’s office demanded that he turn over election-related CCTV footage from State Farm Arena, the Atlanta sports venue that was used as a polling location and ballot counting site. Prosecutors sought testimony from Trump’s inner circle in Jan 6 probe In addition to Mr Pence, Mr Smith’s team has also questioned multiple former Trump administration officials who served at the highest levels. The former senior Trump White House officials who’ve been called before the grand jury include Marc Short, a longtime aide to and confidante of Mr Pence who served as the ex-vice president’s chief of staff during the time period at issue, former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Mr Pence’s former counsel, Greg Jacob, and ex-Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. Mr Smith’s team has also compelled testimony from Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law who served in the White House and on Mr Trump’s 2020 campaign as a senior adviser, former counsellor to the president Hope Hicks and Mark Meadows, the ex-North Carolina congressman who served as Mr Trump’s final White House chief of staff from April 2020 through January 2021. The Independent has previously reported that Mr Meadows has been testifying pursuant to a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. Even as recently as Thursday afternoon, Mr Smith’s team was still questioning one ex-White House staffer, ex-special assistant to the president and deputy advance director William Russell. Mr Russell, who still serves as one of Mr Trump’s personal aides, was making a repeat appearance before the grand jury, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because grand jury proceedings are secret. It is understood that prosecutors also intended to spend part of Thursday questioning a former Trump campaign staffer who specialised in election data analysis. Although prosecutors could have asked grand jurors to vote on whether to approve an indictment of the ex-president this week, it is understood that prosecutors are more likely to take that final step on either Tuesday or Thursday of next week, the two days on which the grand jury is scheduled to meet. Read More Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist DeSantis says he’d accept Trump being prosecuted for a ‘traditional crime’ like ‘robbing a bank’ Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Former Trump State Department official convicted for attacking police during Capitol riot

Actor Jim Caviezel has proclaimed Donald Trump “the new Moses” after visiting him in New Jersey. Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, made the biblical comparison to the twice-indicted and twice-impeached one-term president on Fox News. The conservative actor appeared on Fox & Friends on Fox News on Thursday to promote his new anti-trafficking movie Sound of Freedom. The move has already made more than $100m at the box office despite costing only $4.5m to make. Caviezel told host Brian Kilmeade that Mr Trump, who is leading GOP 2024 presidential hopefuls, had to be returned to the White Office as a matter of urgency. “Well, he’s got to be in there because he’s going to go after the traffickers,” he insisted. The actor said that he and producer Eduardo Verástegui had screened the film for Mr Trump the previous night at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “This is the new Moses,” Caviezel said. “I mean, I’m still Jesus, but he’s the new Moses. Pharaoh, let my children go free.” The movie is loosely the work of anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard, and in the fictional story, he sets out to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. Between late 2019 and 2020, Mr Ballard served on an anti-trafficking White House advisory council while Mr Trump was president. Caviezel has been accused of referencing baseless claims by the QAnon conspiracy movement, which has claimed that Mr Trump is a saviour figure. While promoting the movie, he told Steve Bannon on his podcast that children were trafficked for their blood, which is a QAnon claim, and in the past has referenced “the storm”, a QAnon theory that Mr Trump would release a secret plan to defeat the deep state, his opponents and sweep back into power. Read More Poll suggests third-party bid wouldn’t derail Biden’s shot at re-election Trump shares sinister new video issuing apocalyptic threat to anyone who ‘f***s around with us’ Buoys, razor wire, and a Trump-y wall: How Greg Abbott turned the Rio Grande into an immigration ‘war zone’ Trump bid to toss E Jean Carroll ruling backfires as judge says ex-president did ‘rape’ columnist SEC announces settlement with merger partner of Trump’s Truth Social app Marjorie Taylor Greene roasted for claiming ‘prayer’ can end child sex trafficking Heat is biggest weather-related killer, but US officials won’t declare disaster Poll suggests third-party bid wouldn’t derail Biden’s shot at re-election

Dallas police have arrested a man they believe killed three women whose bodies were found over three months in the city. Oscar Sanchez Garcia, 25, was charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Kimberly Robinson, 60, and an unidentified woman, according to the Dallas Police Department. He is also the main suspect in the slaying of a third woman, Cherish Gibson, 25. Mr Sanchez Garcia is being held on a $4m bond at the Dallas County Jail. Robinson’s body was found on 22 April 22 in a grassy area under a SART train bridge in the city. Gibson’s body was found on 24 June on the same block near the DART station. The third victim was found on Saturday less than five miles from where the other two bodies were located. An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA states that police linked the suspect to the killings using phone records, video and data from a licence plate reader that put his vehicle and phone in the areas where all three victims were last seen alive and where their bodies were found. The bodies of both Robinson and Gibson, who are both thought to have been working as sex workers, were both found partially undressed with stab injuries. Investigators say a blue Ford Truck with “distinct stickers on the rear windshield” was seen at all locations and was registered to the suspect, who lived near where the bodies of Gibson and Robinson were discovered. Christina Martinez told the news station that she has known Mr Sanchez Garcia and his family for two years and lives in the same triplex building. “He’s a calm guy, chilling guy,” she said. “He likes to play with the kids. That’s why we were like in shock.” Ms Martinez added that the suspect’s wife was in “shock” following his arrest. “She’s in shock. And the son is just asking for his daddy. She doesn’t know what to tell him. He does not look like that person that would do something like that.” It is not the suspect’s first interaction with police in the city. Records show that in March the suspect was arrested for allegedly punching his wife twice in the face after she used his bank card to buy diapers without asking, reported WFAA. Robinson’s daughter, Janetria Oliver, says she is grateful that an arrest has been made in the case. “My mother did not deserve that, and I’m so glad that he’s off the streets where he won’t be able to hurt anyone else,” Ms Oliver said. “I’ve also been praying for the other families involved. No one deserves for their life to be cut short like that, and we pray that full justice is served.” Read More Person of interest in Portland serial killer case fought his way through ‘10 officers’ before arrest, witness says Portland ‘serial killer’ – live: Jesse Calhoun’s ‘girlfriend’ reveals his relationships to two of the victims Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann tells jail officials he ‘won’t be an issue to them’ Woman claiming to be girlfriend of person of interest in Oregon deaths reveals alleged links to victims Mothers of women in Portland ‘serial killer’ case cling to hope of accountability

Former President Donald Trump shared a menacing new video on his Truth Social account on Thursday in which he promises to “do things that have never been done before” to people who “f*** around with us.” The video, produced by MAGA.com, features audio of the former president’s appearance on the late Rush Limbaugh’s radio show three years ago. During that appearance, Mr Trump was discussing Iran. Now, with Mr Trump set to face another federal indictment over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, the audio has been repurposed. The nine-second video features a close-up, black and white image of Mr Trump’s face set to ominous music and Mr Trump saying, “If you f*** around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.” MAGA.com captioned its post featuring the video with the words, “We aren’t afraid of them.” That caption echoed comments Mr Trump made during a town hall on Fox News. “They feel, I guess, they want to try to demean, diminish, and frighten people, but they don’t frighten us, because we’re going to Make America Great Again,” Mr Trump said. On social media, however, Mr Trump has reacted with anger to news that he is a target of a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election and has to decide whether to appear before a grand jury. Mr Trump has already been indicted in New York for allegedly falsifying business records as part of a hush money payment scheme and is under federal indictment in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents. But despite his mounting legal problems, Mr Trump continues to run and lead the race for the Republican nomination for president. Mr Trump has led recent national polls of the race by more than 25 points, and also has a commanding lead in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr Trump’s lawyers have attempted to delay many of his legal proceedings until after next year’s election, at which point he or another Republican may be in a position to squash the Department of Justice-led investigations and shield him from prosecution entirely. It remains to be seen, however, whether judges across the country will be willing to delay possible trials that would take Mr Trump away from the campaign trail and make something like his alleged attempt to subvert democracy the centre of national attention. For now, the former president and many of his supporters are adopting a defiant tone. Read More Trump defends Jason Aldean amid music video backlash Trump shares threatening video as midnight deadline to appear before Jan 6 grand jury closes in - live

A new set of standards for African American history in Florida schools will teach middle schoolers how enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit”. Another guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre led by white supremacists against Black residents in Ocoee to stop them from voting in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” Members of the Florida Board of Education have defended the standards for African American history lessons they unanimously approved, with Ron DeSantis-appointed board member MaryLynn Magar assuring the attendees at a hearing in Orlando on 19 July that “everything is there” and that “the darkest parts of our history are addressed” in the curriculum. But civil rights advocates, educators and Democratic state lawmakers have warned that elements of the guidelines present a distorted, revisionist picture of the state’s history of racism. “The notion that enslaved people benefitted from being enslaved is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our education system,” Democratic state Rep Anna Eskamani told the board. State Senator Geraldine Thompson said that a recommendation suggesting that Black people sparked the Ocoee massacre is “blaming the victim”. Ms Thompson helped pass a law in 2020 that requires schools to teach lessons about the massacre. The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said in a statement that the standards represent “a big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history” for more than three decades. “Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson added in a statement. “It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history. We refuse to go back.” The new standards add another victory in the DeSantis administration’s radical education overhaul and a “parents’ rights” agenda that has restricted honest lessons of race and racism in state schools, reshaped local school boards, and banned public colleges from offering classes that “distort significant events” or “teach identity politics”. Florida’s Board of Education also adopted five rules targeting LGBT+ students, including punishing transgender students and staff who use restrooms that align with their gender and add barriers to students who want their names and pronouns respected in and out of the classroom. LGBT+ advocates have accused the board and the governor’s administration of weaponizing state agencies to implement the DeSantis agenda as he mounts a national campaign, fuelled in part by what opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation adopted by several other states. That bill, which Mr DeSantis signed into law in 2022 and expanded earlier this year, has sparked fears that its broad scope could be used to effectively block discussion of LGBT+ people, history and events from state schools, and threaten schools with potential lawsuits over perceived violations. “This politically motivated war on parents, students, and educators needs to stop,” said Jennifer Solomon with Equality Florida. “Our students deserve classrooms where all families are treated with the respect they deserve and all young people are welcomed,” she said in a statement. “Let parents be parents. Let educators be educators. And stop turning our kids’ classrooms into political battlefields to score cheap points.” The African American history curriculum advanced by the board does not fully adopt the recommendations from the African American History Task Force, which urged the board to consider “contemporary issues impacting Africans and African Americans”. Education Commissioner Manny Diaz defended the standards as an “in-depth, deep dive into African American history, which is clearly American history as Governor DeSantis has said, and what Florida has done is expand it.” Under the new standards, students will be taught to simply “identify” famous Black people, but it fails to add requirements for students to learn about their contributions, challenges and stories overall. “We must do better in offering a curriculum that is both age-appropriate and truthful,” according to Democratic state Rep Dianne Hart, chair of Florida’s Legislative Black Caucus. “Education is a critical part of an individual’s personal foundation and when you chose to build a foundation on falsehoods, lies, or by simply erasing history, you’ve laid a foundation that will ultimately fail,” she said in a statement. The board’s adoption of the standards follow the board’s decision to ban the teaching of Advanced Placement African American Studies in high schools, claiming that the course “significantly lacks educational value” and “inexplicably” contradicted Florida law. A letter dated 12 January from the Florida Department of Education to the College Board, which administers AP exams, said the board is welcome to return to the agency with “lawful, historically accurate content”. Read More DeSantis campaign video crossed a line for gay right-wing pundits despite governor’s record on LGBT+ rights Florida schools remove books by John Milton and Toni Morrison and restrict Shakespeare under DeSantis rules Jury awards Florida girl burned by McDonald's Chicken McNugget $800,000 in damages Florida rulings ease concerns about drag performers at Pride parades, drag queen story hours What are the 10 largest US lottery jackpots ever won?