WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear Donald Trump’s claim that as a former president he enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution, as the 2024 White House candidate faces dozens of state and federal charges.
The court scheduled arguments in the high-stakes case for the week of April 22 and said Trump’s trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election would remain on hold for now.
Trump had been scheduled to go on trial for election interference on March 4 but the proceedings have been frozen as his presidential immunity claim wound its way through the courts.
The Supreme Court said it would address the question of “whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
It will be among the most consequential election law cases to reach the court since it halted the Florida vote recount in 2000 with Republican George W. Bush narrowly leading Democrat Al Gore.
A three-judge appeals court panel ruled earlier this month that the 77-year-old Trump has no immunity from prosecution as a former president.
Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal liability for actions he took while in the White House is “unsupported by precedent, history or the text and structure of the Constitution,” the judges said in a unanimous opinion.
“We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,” they said.
The ruling was a major legal setback for Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and the first ex-president to be criminally indicted.
The appeals court put the immunity ruling on hold to give Trump the opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed the election conspiracy case against Trump in August and had been pushing hard for the March start date for his trial.
Lawyers for the former president have sought repeatedly to delay the trial until after the November election, when Trump could potentially have all of the federal cases against him dropped if he wins the White House again.
Trump also faces 2020 election interference charges in Georgia, and has been indicted in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified information.
He was impeached twice by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives while in office — once for inciting an insurrection — but acquitted both times by the Senate.
The immunity case is one of two election-related cases before the Supreme Court.
The Colorado Supreme Court barred Trump in December from appearing on the Republican presidential primary ballot in the state because of his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Trump appealed the Colorado ruling and the conservative-majority Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in early February.
Both conservative and liberal justices expressed concern during arguments about having individual states decide which candidates can be on the presidential ballot this November.
US Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump presidential immunity claim
https://arab.news/2kye6
US Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump presidential immunity claim
- Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal liability for actions he took while in the White House is “unsupported by precedent, history
Thai and Cambodian soldiers clash briefly in a disputed border area, killing one
- Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire
- Thai army says Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed area and Thai soldiers approached the area to negotiate but were fired upon
Cambodian army spokesperson Mao Phalla said the Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire.
The Thai army’s statement said the Cambodian soldiers entered a disputed area and Thai soldiers approached the area to negotiate but due to misunderstanding, the Cambodian side opened fire and the Thai soldiers then retaliated.
The clash lasted about 10 minutes until local commanders spoke to each other and ordered a ceasefire, the Thai army said, adding that the two were negotiating.
The talk between the two countries’ army chiefs would be held on Thursday, the Thai army said.
Cambodia said one of its soldiers was killed during the fight, and the body has been transported from the border for a funeral. The Thai army said it had no casualties.
Thai Defense Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said the situation has been resolved and that both sides did not intend to open fire at each other.
Neighboring Thailand and Cambodia have a long history of land disputes. The most prominent involved the Preah Vihear promontory, an area around a 1,000-year-old temple that was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008. The UN’s International Court of Justice granted sovereignty over the area to Cambodia in 2013.
There have been recent border incidents between the two countries, including in February when Cambodian troops and their family members entered an ancient temple along the border and sang the Cambodian national anthem, leading to a brief argument with Thai troops. The incident was recorded on video and went viral on social media.
East Timor to deport former Philippine lawmaker wanted in 2023 killings
- Former Philippines congressman Arnolfo Teves allegedly masterminded a March 2023 attack that killed then-provincial governor Roel Degamo and nine others
MANILA: East Timor has agreed to deport an Interpol-wanted Philippines murder suspect after two years of political wrangling, with the government linking the case to its aspirations to join the regional ASEAN bloc.
Former Philippines congressman Arnolfo Teves allegedly masterminded a March 2023 attack that killed then-provincial governor Roel Degamo and nine others.
Teves was detained at a driving range in Dili last year, but a Timorese court blocked his extradition. Manila’s justice secretary suggested the decision may have been bought, saying it was “obvious that some people are making money out of this.”
In an abrupt turnaround, East Timor late on Wednesday announced Teves’ impending deportation, saying his continued presence represented a security risk.
“The Government hereby informs that Arnolfo Teves Jr. will be deported from Timor-Leste,” it said in a statement, using the country’s alternate name.
It added that East Timor’s “imminent full accession” to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had reinforced its responsibility to collaborate regionally on legal matters.
On Thursday, Manila’s Department of Justice said it was preparing a team to facilitate Teves’ repatriation based on deportation documents from East Timor.
Ex-lawmaker Teves is the prime suspect in the murder of former Negros Oriental governor Degamo.
Degamo had been distributing aid at his home in Pamplona when six people carrying rifles and dressed in military fatigues entered the compound and opened fire on March 4, 2023.
The killings came months after Degamo was declared winner of a disputed vote, unseating Henry Teves, the ex-lawmaker’s brother.
Arnolfo Teves was expelled from the House of Representatives after refusing to return to the Philippines to face murder charges.
On Wednesday, Teves’ son Axl posted videos on social media of his father being dragged away by Timorese police, claiming he had been “kidnapped.”
Degamo’s widow Janice, meanwhile, called the arrest a “significant step toward justice.”
Teves is currently being held in detention while awaiting administrative processing, a source at Dili’s interior ministry said.
German leader offers to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missiles to hit Russia
- But some of the advanced weapon systems that allies have supplied to Ukraine were subject to range and target restrictions2
- After the United States, Germany has been the biggest individual supplier of military aid to Ukraine
BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged Wednesday to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets as the Kyiv government fights to repel Russia’s invasion.
Some of the advanced weapon systems that allies have supplied to Ukraine during the 3-year war were subject to range and target restrictions — a fraught political issue stemming from fears that if the weapons struck deep inside Russia, the Kremlin might retaliate against the country that provided them and draw NATO into Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
Standing beside visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Merz said that under an intensified cooperation agreement, Germany “will strive to equip the Ukrainian army with all the capabilities that truly enable it to successfully defend the country,” including upgraded domestic missile production.
After the United States, Germany has been the biggest individual supplier of military aid to Ukraine.
“Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself, including against military targets outside its own territory” with its own missiles, Merz said at a joint news conference.
Hours after Merz’s pledge, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct peace talks with Moscow in Istanbul on June 2.
In a video statement, he said that Russia would use the meeting to deliver a memorandum setting out Moscow’s position on “reliably overcoming the root causes of the crisis.” He also said any Russian delegation would again be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
“We hope that all those who are sincerely interested in the success of the peace process in more than just words will support a new round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul,” Lavrov said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said his country isn’t opposed to such direct peace talks but it still hasn’t seen the memorandum promised by Russia and that further meetings would be “empty” without it.
“We call on them to fulfill that promise without delay and stop trying to turn the meeting into a destructive one,” Umerov wrote on X. He said he had handed such a document with the Ukrainian position to the Russian side.
Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul on May 16. The talks, which lasted two hours, brought no significant breakthrough, although both sides agreed to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. It was carried out last weekend and freed 1,000 captives on each side.
Germany doesn’t mention its Taurus cruise missiles
Merz declined to say whether Germany will supply its advanced Taurus long-range cruise missile to Ukraine — long a request by Kyiv and a step that Berlin has resisted.
The decision not to commit to giving Taurus missiles to Ukraine was a “big disappointment,” said lawmaker Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior member of Merz’s party, the Christian Democratic Union.
Merz loves “very strong personal statements” but is not able to back them up with support from his coalition partners, Kiesewetter told The Associated Press.
“We have a Moscow connection in Germany,” Kiesewetter said, suggesting some politicians are in favor of Ukraine ceding territory to Russia to end the war, along with lifting some sanctions.
Asked about Germany’s offer to fund long-range missile production in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that the move was an obstacle to reaching a peace agreement.
Both Merz and Zelensky criticized the Kremlin’s effective rejection of an unconditional ceasefire proposed by the US, which Kyiv accepted. Kyiv says Moscow has been slow to respond to proposals for a settlement.
Merz said last Monday that Germany and other major allies were no longer imposing range limits on weapons they send to Ukraine, although he indicated their use was limited to Russian military targets. Ukraine has launched its own long-range drones against sites that support Russia’s military efforts, including refineries and chemical plants.
Then-US President Joe Biden last year authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied missiles for limited strikes in Russia. The decision allowed Ukraine to use the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, against Russia.
In Berlin, Zelensky called for deeper defense cooperation across Europe and with Washington, stressing the need for long-range capabilities and sustained military funding to ensure Ukraine’s resilience.
He said the cooperation projects already exist. “We simply want (the missiles) to be produced in the quantity we need,” Zelensky told reporters.
Zelensky said Tuesday that Ukraine is ready to hold peace talks at the highest level, including a trilateral meeting with himself, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
“We are ready to meet at the level of leaders. Both the American side knows this, and the Russian side knows this,” he said. Zelensky said he would accept any configuration of talks, whether that includes one trilateral meeting or separate meetings with Trump.
Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Russia is grateful to Trump for his mediation efforts.
“At the same time, there is a big number of nuances to be discussed that can’t be neglected and which neither party is going to sacrifice, because of its national interests,” Peskov told reporters. “Just like the United States, Russia has its national interests that are of primary importance to us.”
Front-line fighting, deep strikes continue
Meanwhile, fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukraine’s army is shorthanded against its bigger adversary. Zelensky claimed Tuesday that Russia is mobilizing up to 45,000 men every month, while Ukraine mobilizes between 25,000-27,000.
Both sides are continuing to conduct deep strikes. Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the war against Ukraine on Sunday.
Russian air defenses downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 Russian regions late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said, in what appeared to be one of the biggest Ukrainian drone assaults of the war.
Ukraine is increasing its domestic production of drones and missiles, according to Zelensky. He said late Tuesday that Ukraine wants European countries to help it invest in the manufacture of attack drones, air defense interceptors, cruise missiles and ballistic systems.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses shot down Ukrainian 33 drones heading toward the capital. Moscow regional Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said 42 drones were downed. He said drone fragments damaged three residential buildings in the village of Troitskoye, but no one was hurt.
More than 60 flights were canceled Wednesday in Moscow as the capital’s airports were forced to ground planes amid drone warnings, said the federal aviation agency, Rosaviatsiya.
Overnight, Russian forces launched an attack on Ukraine using five Iskander ballistic missiles, one guided air-launched missile and 88 drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defense units shot down 34 drones, and 37 drones were jammed.
Trump again criticizes Putin as Ukraine war heats up; Kremlin proposes June 2 direct talks with Ukraine
- Trump says he is not yet prepared to order new sanctions
- Zelensky says Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near Sumy
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV: US President Donald Trump again expressed frustration on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the intensifying Ukraine conflict, a day after warning that Putin was “playing with fire” by resisting ceasefire talks while escalating drone and missile attacks.
But Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that he was not yet prepared to impose new sanctions on Russia because he did not want the penalties to scuttle a potential peace deal.
Russia has proposed holding the next round of direct talks with Ukraine on June 2 in Istanbul, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from Kyiv.
The public squabble between the US and Russia unfolded as the three-year-old war heats up, with swarms of drones launched by both Russia and Ukraine and Russian troops advancing at key points along the front.
Delegates from Russia and Ukraine met earlier this month in Istanbul under pressure from Trump to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two, but the talks failed to yield the ceasefire that Kyiv and its Western allies have pushed for. Moscow said certain conditions needed to be met before a ceasefire agreement.
Asked whether the Russian leader might be intentionally delaying negotiations, Trump said, “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little differently.”
After speaking to Trump on May 19, Putin said he had agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum which would set out the contours of a peace accord including the timing of a ceasefire.
Ukraine has not yet officially agreed to Russia’s proposed meeting on June 2. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday that Kyiv had already submitted its memorandum on a potential settlement and called on Russia to produce its version immediately, rather than waiting until next week.
“We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their ‘memorandum’, so that the meeting won’t be empty and can truly move us closer to ending the war,” Umerov said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday about Moscow’s preparation of “concrete proposals” for upcoming talks in Istanbul but gave no details.
Putin’s demands for ending the war include a written pledge from Western leaders that NATO will not expand eastward to former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia and the lifting of some sanctions on Russia, according to Russian sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump had warned Putin that he was “playing with fire” and that “really bad” things would have happened to Russia already if not for Trump himself.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told a state TV reporter that Trump’s remark suggested he is not well-briefed on the realities of the war.
War heating up
Russia said on Wednesday it had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine’s military said it had struck several Russian weapon production sites.
Ukraine said Russia had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles.
After Russia said in late April it had ejected Ukrainian forces from the western Kursk region, Moscow’s forces have pushed over the border into the neighboring Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine and taken several villages there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near the northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there.
Speaking in Berlin during a visit by Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany and Ukraine will develop the joint production of long-range missiles, a move the Kremlin said was irresponsible and amounted to stoking the war.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the US-led NATO military alliance was using the Ukrainian crisis to build up its presence across eastern Europe and the Baltic but that Russia was advancing along the entire front in Ukraine.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Russia currently controls just under one fifth of Ukraine. Though Russian advances have accelerated over the past year, the war is costing both Russia and Ukraine dearly in terms of casualties and military spending.
US court blocks Trump’s tariffs, says president exceeded his authority
- Court cites that Constitution grants Congress power to regulate international commerce
- Trump spokesman slams ‘unelected judges’ over tariff ruling
NEW YORK: A US trade court on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s tariffs from going into effect in a sweeping ruling that the president overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board duties on imports from nations that sell more to the United States than they buy.
The Court of International Trade said the US Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries that is not overridden by the president’s emergency powers to safeguard the US economy.
“The court does not pass upon the wisdom or likely effectiveness of the President’s use of tariffs as leverage. That use is impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it,” a three-judge panel said in the decision.
The Trump administration minutes later filed a notice of appeal and questioned the authority of the court. The decisions of the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade, which hears disputes involving international trade and customs laws, can be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., and ultimately the US Supreme Court.
Trump has made charging US importers tariffs on goods from foreign countries the central policy of his ongoing trade wars, which have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets.
Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump’s swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices.
White House reacts
A White House spokesperson on Wednesday said US trade deficits with other countries constituted “a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base – facts that the court did not dispute.”
“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” Kush Desai, the spokesperson, said in a statement.
Financial markets cheered the ruling. The US dollar rallied following the court’s order, surging against currencies such as the euro, yen and the Swiss franc in particular.
Wall Street futures rose and equities across Asia also rose.
The ruling, if it stands, blows a giant hole through Trump’s strategy to use steep tariffs to wring concessions from trading partners, draw manufacturing jobs back to US shores and shrink a $1.2 trillion US goods trade deficit, which were among his key campaign promises.
Without the instant leverage provided by the tariffs of 10 percent to 54 percent that Trump declared under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — which is meant to address “unusual and extraordinary” threats during a national emergency — the Trump administration would have to take a slower approach of lengthier trade investigations under other trade laws to back its tariff threats.
The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits, one filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties and the other by 13 US states.
The companies, which range from a New York wine and spirits importer to a Virginia-based maker of educational kits and musical instruments, have said the tariffs will hurt their ability to do business.
“There is no question here of narrowly tailored relief; if the challenged Tariff Orders are unlawful as to Plaintiffs they are unlawful as to all,” the trade court wrote in its decision.
At least five other legal challenges to the tariffs are pending.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, a Democrat whose office is leading the states’ lawsuit, called Trump’s tariffs unlawful, reckless and economically devastating.
“This ruling reaffirms that our laws matter, and that trade decisions can’t be made on the president’s whim,” Rayfield said in a statement.
Trump has claimed broad authority to set tariffs under IEEPA. The law has historically been used to impose sanctions on enemies of the US or freeze their assets. Trump is the first US president to use it to impose tariffs.
The Justice Department has said the lawsuits should be dismissed because the plaintiffs have not been harmed by tariffs that they have not yet paid, and because only Congress, not private businesses, can challenge a national emergency declared by the president under IEEPA.
In imposing the tariffs in early April, Trump called the trade deficit a national emergency that justified his 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports, with higher rates for countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits, particularly China.
Many of those country-specific tariffs were paused a week later. The Trump administration on May 12 said it was also temporarily reducing the steepest tariffs on China while working on a longer-term trade deal. Both countries agreed to cut tariffs on each other for at least 90 days.
