WASHINGTON DC: Donald Trump has warned that sending him to prison could prove a “breaking point” for his supporters — remarks that will fuel concerns of political violence around the US presidential election on November 5.
In an interview aired Sunday on Fox News, the former president and current Republican White House hopeful acknowledged the possibility of jail time or house arrest following his historic criminal conviction in a hush money trial.
“I’m ok with it,” Trump said, but added he was “not sure the public would stand for it.”
“I think it would be tough for the public to take. You know at a certain point there’s a breaking point,” he added.
The warning will resonate in a country already concerned about the prospect of civil unrest and political harassment in the run-up to the November ballot.
Trump will now be running as a convicted felon, and he has repeatedly made it clear he will not accept the result should he lose to President Joe Biden.
A New York jury on Thursday convicted Trump on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up a sex scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.
It was the first criminal conviction of a former president in US history, and sentencing has been set for July 11 — just days before the Republican convention that will formally anoint Trump as the party’s presidential nominee.
Although each charge carries a possible four-year jail term, experts say it is extremely unlikely that the judge will hand down a custodial sentence.
Trump faces three other criminal trials, including one related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Biden.
Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 after he delivered a fiery speech urging the crowd to “fight like hell.”
Speaking to Fox, Trump repeated his assertions that the hush money trial was a “scam” and that his political opponents had “weaponized” the justice system to keep him from returning to the White House.
Biden has called Trump’s attacks on the judiciary and his trial judge reckless, irresponsible and “dangerous.”
Breaking her silence following Trump’s conviction, Stormy Daniels said the former president should be put in prison.
“I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate, or being the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter,” Daniels said in an interview with the British tabloid The Mirror published late Saturday.
After years of exchanging insults with Trump on social media, Daniels now says she finally has been “vindicated,” although she admitted she was “shocked” at how quickly the jury rendered its verdict.
Daniels also accused the White House hopeful of being “completely and utterly out of touch with reality” and compared him to a child at one point in the interview.
The former adult film actor and director helped bring Trump down in court with her gripping testimony, which included graphic descriptions of what she says was a casual sexual encounter in 2006.
“Being in court was so intimidating with the jurors looking at you,” she said in the interview, adding that she was glad it was proved that she had been “telling the truth the entire time.”
“It’s not over for me. It’s never going to be over for me. Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy.”
Trump has continued to deny the sexual encounter, which prosecutors at his trial said had taken place shortly after his wife Melania had given birth.
In his interview with Fox News, Trump said the criminal trial had taken a toll on his wife, who was notably absent as other close family members attended the court proceedings in support.
“She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her,” Trump said. “She has to read all this crap.”
Melania Trump has barely engaged with her husband’s current White House campaign, failing to appear at a single Trump rally, and rarely joins him in public.
Trump says prison could be ‘breaking point’ for supporters
https://arab.news/jdpju
Trump says prison could be ‘breaking point’ for supporters
- Former president tells Fox News he is personally ‘OK with’ the idea of being imprisoned over the 34 felony counts in his hush money trial
In their final meeting, Zelensky and Austin say military aid to Ukraine must continue under Trump
- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: US to send another $500 million in security assistance to Ukraine
- The US has provided about $66 billion of the total aid to Kyiv since February 2022
“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Zelensky said. “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased of the map.”
Austin also announced the US would send another $500 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including missiles for fighter jets, sustainment equipment for F-16s, armored bridging systems and small arms and ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from US stockpiles, and the Pentagon is pushing to get them into Ukraine before the end of the month.
This latest package leaves about $3.85 billion in funding to provide future arms shipments to Ukraine; if the Biden administration makes no further announcements, that balance will be available to President-elect Donald Trump to send if he chooses.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow,” Austin told the approximately 50 member nations who have been meeting over the last three years to coordinate weapons and military support for Ukraine. “If autocrats conclude that democracies will lose their nerve, surrender their interests, and forget their principles, we will only see more land grabs. If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.”
Austin leaves a consortium that now has more than a half dozen independent coalitions of those countries who are focused on Ukraine’s longer-term security capabilities and who have committed to continuing to stand up those needs through 2027.
Globally, countries including the US have ramped up domestic weapons production as the Ukraine war exposed that all of those stockpiles were woefully unprepared for a major conventional land war.
The US has provided about $66 billion of the total aid since February 2022 and has been able to deliver most of that total — between 80 percent and 90 percent — already to Ukraine.
“Retreat will only provide incentives for more imperial aggression,” Austin told the group. “And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder. Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world.”
Kremlin declines to accept responsibility for plane crash
- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said the Azerbaijani Airlines passenger jet was shot at ‘from the ground’ over the Russian city of Grozny where it had been due to land
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Thursday declined to say Russian forces accidentally shot at an Azerbaijani plane which crashed last month, despite Baku repeatedly urging it to accept responsibility for the fatal disaster.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said the Azerbaijani Airlines passenger jet, which crashed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 people, was shot at “from the ground” over the Russian city of Grozny where it had been due to land.
Russia has said its air defenses were working at the time repelling Ukrainian drones but has stopped short of saying it shot at the plane.
Aliyev, a close ally of Moscow, this week repeated that “guilt” lay with Russia and accused it of “concealment” of the real causes.
“We are interested in an absolutely objective and impartial investigation in order to establish the causes of this catastrophe,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
“We are waiting for the results of the commission,” he added, saying Russian “specialists are giving their full cooperation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Aliyev twice since the disaster.
The Kremlin said he had apologized for the fact the incident took place over Russian airspace but its account of the phone calls do not say Putin accepted responsibility.
Aliyev has expressed anger over Moscow’s handling of the crash.
He issued fierce criticism and demanded an apology earlier this week, calling on Moscow to punish those responsible for the “criminal” shooting of the plane.
Aliyev said air defense measures for Grozny – the capital of Russia’s Chechnya republic – were only announced after the plane had been “shot from the ground.”
Azerbaijan says the plane was riddled with holes and that preliminary results of its investigation show it was accidentally hit by a Russian air defense missile.
Pope Francis, ramping up criticism of Israel, calls situation in Gaza ‘shameful’
- Pope Francis: ‘We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians’
- ‘We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit’
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Thursday stepped up his recent criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “very serious and shameful.”
In a yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide, Francis appeared to reference deaths caused by winter cold in Gaza, where there is almost no electricity.
“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians,” the text said.
“We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”
The pope, 88, who was present for the address but asked an aide to read it as he is recovering from a cold, also condemned anti-Semitism; called for an end to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world; and expressed concern over climate change.
The comments were part of an address to Vatican-accredited envoys from some 184 countries that is sometimes called the pope’s “state of the world” speech. The Israeli ambassador to the Holy See was among those present for the event.
Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts.
But he has recently been more outspoken about Israel’s military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas, and has suggested the global community should study whether the offensive constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
An Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff in December for that suggestion.
The pope’s text said he condemns anti-Semitism, and called the growth of anti-Semitic groups “a source of deep concern.”
Francis also called for an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia, which has killed tens of thousands.
“My wish for the year 2025 is that the entire international community will work above all to end the conflict that, for almost three years now, has caused so much bloodshed,” he said.
The pope also addressed conflicts in places including Sudan, Mozambique, Myanmar, and Nicaragua and reiterated his frequent calls for action to confront the impacts of global climate change, and the spread of misinformation on social media.
Russia battles Kyiv drone strike blaze for second day
- Kyiv hit the depot in the city of Engels, some 500 kilometers from the two countries’ border
- Hours after the drone strike, Russia bombed the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia
MOSCOW: Russian firefighters on Thursday battled for a second day to put out a blaze caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil depot.
Kyiv hit the depot in the city of Engels, some 500 kilometers from the two countries’ border, in Russia’s southern Saratov region on Wednesday.
Moscow has said that two fire firefighters died trying to extinguish the blaze.
Hours after the drone strike, Russia bombed the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 100.
“Emergency services are continuing to put out the consequences of the drone attack,” Saratov governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram.
“Specialists say that it will take some time to complete the burnout process,” he added.
Busargin said there was “no threat” to residential buildings.
Russia declared an emergency situation in Engels on Wednesday.
Images on social media showed a giant plume of smoke rising over the city, which has a population of around 220,000.
Ukraine has hit Russian infrastructure – sometimes deep behind the front lines – throughout Moscow’s offensive.
It has said that hitting the depot will cause “serious logistical problems” for Moscow’s air force.
Hours after the drone strike, Russia struck Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian city close to Moscow-occupied territory, killing 13 people.
Kyiv on Thursday said that 113 people were also wounded in the Zaporizhzhia strike, in an updated toll.
Russian attacks on the southern Kherson region killed two people on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.
Prosecutors said the attacks killed a 54-year-old man in the village of Beryslav – on the Dnipro river that marks the front line – and a 60-year-old woman in Nezlamne, west of the city of Kherson.
The conflict in Ukraine – nearing its three-year mark – has escalated in recent months, with both sides seeking to gain an advantage ahead of Donald Trump returning to the US presidency.
Taiwan demonstrates sea defenses against potential Chinese attack as tensions rise with Beijing
- Kuang Hua VI fast attack missile boats and Tuo Chiang-class corvettes showcased in waters near Taiwan’s largest port of Kaohsiung
- Kaohsiung is a major hub for international trade considered key to resupplying Chinese forces should they establish a beachhead on the island
The island’s navy highlighted its Kuang Hua VI fast attack missile boats and Tuo Chiang-class corvettes in waters near Taiwan’s largest port of Kaohsiung, a major hub for international trade considered key to resupplying Chinese forces should they establish a beachhead on the island.
The Kuang Hua VI boats, with a crew of 19, carry indigenously developed Hsiung Feng II anti-ship missiles and displayed their ability to take to the sea in an emergency to intercept enemy ships about to cross the 44-kilometer limit of Taiwan’s contiguous zone, within which governments are permitted to take defensive action.
China routinely sends ships and planes to challenge Taiwan’s willingness and ability to counter intruders, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets, activate missile systems and dispatch warships. Taiwan demanded on Wednesday that China end its ongoing military activity in nearby waters, which it said is undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and disrupting international shipping and trade.
Mountainous Taiwan’s strategy is to counter the much larger Chinese military with a relatively flexible defense that can prevent Chinese troops from crossing the strait. Landing sites are few on Taiwan’s west coast facing China, forcing Beijing to focus on the east coast.
Hsiao Shun-ming, captain of a Tuo Chiang-class corvette, said his ship’s relatively small size still allows it to “deliver a formidable competitive power” against larger Chinese ships. The Tuo Chiang has a catamaran design and boasts high speeds and considerable stealth ability.
Taiwan has in recent years reinvigorated its domestic defense industry, although it still relies heavily on US technology such as upgraded fighter jets, missiles, tanks and detection equipment. US law requires it to consider threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” and American and allied forces are expected to be a major factor in any conflict.
Thursday’s exercise “demonstrates the effectiveness of asymmetric warfare, and Taiwan’s commitment to defense self-reliance,” said Chen Ming-feng, rear admiral and commander of the navy’s 192 Fleet specializing in mine detection. “We are always ready to respond quickly and can handle any kind of maritime situation.”
China’s authoritarian one-party Communist government has refused almost all communication with Taiwan’s pro-independence governments since 2016, and some in Washington and elsewhere say Beijing is growing closer to taking military action.
China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de facto independence and democratic status.
