Judge limits Trump’s ability to share Jan. 6 evidence
The federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election rejected his request Friday to be able to speak broadly about evidence and witnesses — and warned Trump she would take necessary “measures” to keep him from intimidating witnesses or tainting potential jurors. The caution from Judge Tanya Chutkan came during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington to discuss the scope of a protective order over discovery evidence in the case. Later Friday, Chutkan imposed the order but agreed to a modification requested by Trump’s lawyers it apply only to “sensitive” materials and not all evidence turned over to the defense.
Dozens of weapons seized as California judge is charged in killing of his wife
A Southern California judge accused of killing his wife texted his court clerk and bailiff admitting to the killing, prosecutors said Friday as they charged him with murder and weapon possession. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 72, was arrested Aug. 3 after police found his wife, Sheryl Ferguson, 65, dead from a gunshot wound in the couple’s home in Anaheim, California. On Friday, prosecutors charged Ferguson with murder and two weapons charges, according to a criminal complaint. The shooting came after an argument that started at a restaurant that evening and continued at home, according to court documents.
Illinois Supreme Court clears way for state’s sharp gun limits
The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday upheld the state’s ban on certain high-powered guns, including AR-15-style rifles, a major victory for supporters of gun limits. The legislation, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, signed into law in January, is the broadest set of gun restrictions in the Midwest. Residents of Illinois are no longer allowed to purchase many types of semi-automatic weapons. People who own weapons that are now banned were given a deadline to register them with Illinois State Police. Illinois is now one of 10 states with some form of what advocates call an assault weapons ban, according to the Giffords Law Center.
Bankman-Fried sent to jail After judge revokes bail
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sent to jail Friday after a federal judge in New York revoked his bail, accusing him of trying to influence witnesses who are poised to testify against him at a widely anticipated trial in less than two months. Bankman-Fried had been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, since he was arrested in December on fraud charges stemming from FTX’s implosion. But at a hearing Friday, Judge Lewis Kaplan of U.S. District Court in New York said that arrangement would have to end.
China’s stalling economy puts the world on notice
For more than a quarter-century, China has been synonymous with relentless development and upward mobility. As its 1.4 billion people gained an appetite for the wares of the world — Hollywood movies, South Korean electronics, iron ore mined in Australia — the global economy was propelled by a seemingly inexhaustible engine. Now that engine is sputtering, posing alarming risks for Chinese households and economies around the planet. Long the centerpiece of a profit-enhancing version of globalization, China has devolved into the ultimate wild card in a moment of extraordinary uncertainty for the world’s economy.
China intensifying military pressure on Taiwan
China has been steadily intensifying military pressure on Taiwan over the past year, extending an intimidating presence all around the island. Chinese naval ships and air force planes have also been operating more frequently in skies and waters off the island’s eastern coast, signaling its intent to dominate an expanse of sea that could be vital for the island’s defenses, experts say. Beijing may put on another show of force in the coming days, when Taiwan’s vice president, Lai Ching-te, passes through the United States. Since 2019, Chinese fighter jets, bombers, drones and other military aircraft have routinely entered Taiwan’s “air defense identification zone.”
Zuma released after brief return to prison in South Africa
Former South African President Jacob Zuma returned to prison early Friday to continue serving a sentence for contempt, but was released almost immediately under a program to relieve overcrowding in the country’s jails, authorities said. It is unlikely Zuma will serve more time in prison on the contempt charge. Political opponents accused the government, run by Zuma’s political party, of giving him preferential treatment. Zuma had served just two months of a 15-month sentence in 2021 for defying a court order to testify before a national inquiry on corruption when he was released on medical parole by the corrections commissioner at the time, a close political ally.
Fresh fighting in Ethiopia leads Israel to evacuate more than 200
Fighting between Ethiopia’s military and a local ethnic militia in the northwestern Amhara region has intensified, pushing the government to block the internet and declare a state of emergency and leading Israel to evacuate more than 200 Ethiopian Jews and Israelis. The clashes follow monthslong tensions over Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s proposal to dismantle special regional forces nationwide and integrate them into the army — a move Amhara nationalists said would undermine security. The ethnic militia, known as Fano, had been allied with Abiy in his two-year effort to crush rebel fighters in the neighboring Tigray region but it is battling the military in an effort to preserve Amhara’s regional forces.
Ukraine fires top military enlistment officers after bribery scandal
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday announced that his government was dismissing the country’s regional military recruitment chiefs to crack down on corruption, after revelations of officers taking bribes to let men evade being drafted into fighting the Russian invasion. The announcement this week that since the invasion, prosecutors had opened 112 cases against 33 officials involved in recruitment offered the latest evidence that the war had provided new avenues for the entrenched governmental corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Two recruitment officers have been accused in recent days of enriching themselves by falsifying documents that label men as unfit for service — in some cases collecting $10,000 per head.
U.K. evacuates asylum-seekers from barge over bacteria in water
Just four days ago, asylum-seekers were moved onto an austere barge moored off the British coast as the government rolled out a new policy aimed at illustrating its tough approach on migration. On Friday, that vessel was evacuated, after bacteria that can cause Legionnaires’ disease was found in the water system, leaving in disarray plans to showcase the government’s strategy. The evacuation was an embarrassing end to what some in government had called “small boats week,” a publicity blitz intended to prove it was delivering on a promise to make changes that would stop migrants from crossing the English Channel in often unseaworthy vessels.
Decaying tanker in Mideast is emptied of oil, averting catastrophic spill
A United Nations operation to transfer more than 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker into another ship off the coast of Yemen has been completed, officials said Friday, averting a catastrophic spill that could have devastated marine life and communities across the Red Sea. But with one crisis averted, another looms: The recovery vessel could be stranded until thorny negotiations over who owns the transferred oil are resolved. Yemen, the world’s poorest Arab country, has been fractured by a war that has stretched on for eight years, with territory carved up under the control of two rival governments and various militias.
By wire sources