AFP

The US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by former US president Donald Trump that it intervene in the legal tussle over classified documents seized in the FBI raid of his Florida home.

Trump had urged the conservative-dominated court to stay a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that restored the Justice Department’s access to the classified documents.

In a one-sentence order on Thursday, the Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment.

The FBI, in the affidavit used to justify the August 8 raid on Trump’s home, said it was conducting a criminal investigation into “improper removal and storage of classified information” and “unlawful concealment of government records.”

The search warrant said the probe was also related to “willful retention of national defense information,” an offense that falls under the Espionage Act, and potential “obstruction of a federal investigation.”

A “special master” has been appointed by a District Court judge in Florida to screen the seized files for materials potentially subject to attorney-client privilege.

A three-judge appellate panel ruled that while the special master, a senior New York judge, conducts his review, the government should be able to continue using documents marked as classified for its criminal investigation.

Trump, in his October 4 emergency request to the Supreme Court, appealed that unanimous ruling by the appellate panel — made up of two judges appointed by Trump and one by Barack Obama.

Trump nominated three of the justices on the nine-member Supreme Court but it has delivered him several defeats in high-profile cases, most notably by refusing to hear his claims alleging fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.

Lawmakers investigating Donald Trump’s involvement in last year’s US Capitol insurrection offered fresh evidence Thursday that the defeated president had planned to declare victory in the 2020 election — regardless of the outcome.

Trump had a “premeditated plan” formulated months before the vote to claim he had won on election night, whatever the vote tally showed, panel member Zoe Lofgren told the hearing.

“The evidence shows that his false victory speech was planned well in advance, before any votes had been counted,” Lofgren said, citing evidence gathered by the committee, including testimony from Trump’s one-time campaign manager. 

Individual panelists have publicly suggested Attorney General Merrick Garland should charge Trump over the Capitol attack.

Although the committee has not announced formally whether it will make criminal referrals, multiple US media reported Thursday that members planned to vote to subpoena Trump during the hearing.

The House of Representatives panel has already unveiled reams of evidence on the former president’s involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.

In what could be its last public pitch before it issues a report on its findings, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans offered fresh damning evidence on the January 6 insurrection.

“The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of January 6 was one man — Donald Trump — whom many others followed,” said committee deputy chair Liz Cheney.

The committee also pressed its position that Trump — who continues to be a wellspring of disinformation about the 2020 presidential election — represents what it called a “clear and present” threat to democracy.

“Why would Americans assume that our constitution and our institutions and our Republic are invulnerable to another attack?” said Cheney.

“A key lesson of this investigation is this our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold, regardless of the political cost.”

Blockbuster witness testimony across eight hearings in the summer provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully-cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump’s inertia amid the mob uprising.

– ‘Right to the violence’ –

The panel plans to release its final report by the end of the year, but after the November 8 elections that decide which party controls Congress. A preliminary report may come out beforehand.

It was the first hearing without live witnesses — instead featuring new video evidence, including footage from a Danish film crew shot for a documentary about longtime Trump ally Roger Stone.

In one clip from the day before the 2020 election played to the packed hearing room, the notorious self-styled “dirty trickster” was seen telling the filmmakers he has no interest in waiting to contest the vote tally.

“Let’s get right to the violence,” says the 70-year-old Republican operative, who has not been charged in connection with the riot.

The panel said Stone had “maintained extensive direct connections to two groups responsible for violently attacking the Capitol, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.” 

Leaders of both groups have been charged with seditious conspiracy over the insurrection.

The panel also unveiled evidence developed from nearly one million pages of documents surrendered by the Secret Service, as lawmakers seek to understand why certain agents’ text messages from the eve of the insurrection and the day itself went missing.

The records confirm evidence from earlier hearings that Trump riled up his supporters despite being repeatedly warned of mounting violence on January 6, said panel member Adam Schiff.

– ‘This is embarrassing’ –

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed that some of his supporters had turned up armed, and demanded they be permitted into his rally anyway.

Secret Service emails obtained by investigators confirm Cassidy’s evidence that Trump wanted to lead the mob at the Capitol — a move that would have escalated a riot into an attack by one branch of the government on another, potentially upending the republic.

And they prove that agents were aware in the run-up to January 6 of planning by the Proud Boys and other extremists to lead an assault on the Capitol, Schiff said.

Trump, who urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to “fight like hell,” was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.

The panel showed never-before-seen footage of Hutchinson testifying that Trump said he “didn’t want people to know we lost” after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging the election.

“This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost,” Trump is alleged to have told chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Netflix on Thursday said a subscription option subsidized by ads will debut in November in a dozen countries as the streaming service strives to jumpstart growth.

Basic with Ads subscriptions will be priced at $6.99 in the United States, three dollars less than a basic option without ads, Netflix chief operating officer Greg Peters said in a briefing.

“The timing is great because we really are at this pivotal moment in the entertainment industry and evolution of that industry,” Peters said.

“Now streaming has surpassed both broadcast and cable for total TV time in the United States.”

The ad-discounted tier, a first for Netflix, will roll out in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

Nearly all of the Netflix library will be available, with some offerings held back until licensing deals are renegotiated.

Video ads will be from 15 seconds to 30 seconds long.

“We are looking at a very light ad load with no more than four to five minutes of ads per hour, and including some very tight frequency caps so that members don’t see the same ad repeatedly,” Peters said.

After long shunning advertising, Netflix pushed ahead as competition in the streaming television market intensifies and as consumers recoil from soaring inflation.

With the launch of cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions, Netflix and Disney+ are expected to bite into the revenue of traditional television channels.

Netflix rival Disney+ is expected to launch its own ad-subsidized subscription soon.

“These launches are going to create the biggest premium advertising space in more than a generation,” said analytics company Samba TV senior vice president Dallas Lawrence.

“It’s going to be a major moment for advertisers.”

Russia agreed Thursday to help residents leave a region it has “annexed” in a new sign Kyiv’s counter-offensive is advancing, as a top EU official warned Moscow’s army would be “annihilated” by the West if the Kremlin uses nuclear weapons in the war.

Russia’s decision came a day after Kyiv said it had retaken five settlements in the southern Kherson region.

“The government took the decision to organise assistance for the departure of residents of the (Kherson) region,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said.

The Moscow-appointed head of the area in southern Ukraine — which Russia says it has annexed — had appealed for Russian intervention.

Vladimir Saldo suggested residents “leave to other regions to protect themselves from missile strikes”.

Kherson was being hit by an increasing amount of rockets causing “serious damage”, added Saldo, with civilian infrastructure being targeted.

Those departing would go to Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014, and southern Russian regions.

Kyiv, which announced its counter-offensive in the south in August, said it has already recaptured over 400 square kilometres (155 miles) in the Kherson region in under a week.

The city of Kherson, which lies near Crimea, was the first major Ukrainian city to fall to Russian forces after the February 24 invasion.

In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell sent a strong message to the Kremlin after President Vladimir Putin’s veiled threats of resorting to nuclear weapons to stem growing battlefield losses.

“Putin is saying he is not bluffing. Well, he cannot afford bluffing, and it has to be clear that the people supporting Ukraine and the European Union and the Member States, and the United States and NATO are not bluffing neither,” Borrell said.

“Any nuclear attack against Ukraine will create an answer, not a nuclear answer but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated,” Borrell added.

The NATO alliance has stopped short of threatening to use its nuclear arsenal to respond as non-member Ukraine is not covered by its mutual self-defence clause.

The United States and NATO have steered clear of intervening militarily in the Ukraine conflict for fear of sparking a catastrophic nuclear conflict with Moscow.

– Booming trade –

In Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey’s booming trade ties with Moscow during an in-person meeting with Putin on the sidelines of a summit of regional leaders in Kazakhstan.

But Erdogan did not deliver an offer to mediate negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv — expected by the Kremlin.

Comments between the leaders made no mention of Ukraine and focussed instead on economic ties.

Putin proposed to create a “gas hub” in Turkey as Russia’s supplies to Europe have been disrupted by Ukraine-related sanctions.

NATO member Turkey has sought to retain dialogue with its Western allies as well as Moscow, and has not joined sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Erdogan also refrained from commenting on mass Russian strikes on Ukraine earlier this week that mostly targeted energy infrastructure and left at least 20 dead. 

The attacks caused power and hot water cuts across the country, but the head of Ukraine’s energy operator Ukrenergo said Thursday the power grid had “stabilised”, reassuring users emergency power cuts would be unneccessary.

– Rebels push to Bakhmut –

On the battlefield, Russian-backed separatist forces in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine said they had captured two villages near the industrial city of Bakhmut, posting small gains against Kyiv’s counter-offensive.

The villages lie just south of Bakhmut, a wine-making and salt-mining city that used to be populated by some 70,000 people and which Russian forces have been pummelling for weeks to capture.

The reported gains came after Ukrainian troops had for weeks been clawing back large swathes of territory in the south and east of Ukraine — including Donetsk — controlled by Russian forces for months.

The Ukrainian military countered in an update that it had repelled attacks near several frontline villages.

– Boy pulled from rubble –

Ukraine troops told AFP this week near the frontline south of Bakhmut that they were still outgunned by Russian artillery on their section of the frontline. 

Russian supply lines from the part of Donetsk occupied since 2014 are still intact. 

AFP reporters in Yampil just outside the recently liberated town of Lyman on Thursday heard heavy exchanges of artillery fire to the southeast. 

A Ukrainian soldier returning from the frontline said positions in Torske village were under fire from Russian guns guided by spotter drones.

Also in the south, the town of Mykolaiv was again rocked by Russian bombardments.

The head of the city Oleksandr Sienkevych said on social media a five-storey residential building was hit, with two upper floors destroyed completely.

“An 11-year-old boy was recovered from under the rubble and another seven people may still be there,” he said, adding a security guard was killed at a sea rescue station.

Bob Dylan fans on Thursday got a glimpse into the nobel laureate and folk-rock legend’s new book, “The Philosophy of Modern Song,” set for publication next month.

The collection of essays is his first book of new writing since 2004, when he released “Chronicles, Volume One.”

The book exploring songwriting’s power is set for release on November 8 with the publisher Simon and Schuster.

Excerpts published in The New York Times offer musings from the beloved American poet and musician on Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” and The Who’s anthem “My Generation.”

Many of the essays include “riffs” that see Dylan expand on his words with a shorter, looser piece where the artist waxes poetic on the track in question.

“Something in your vital spirit, your pulse, something that runs in the blood, tells you that you must have this tender feeling of love now and forever, this essence of devoted love held tightly in your grip — that it’s essential and necessary for staying alive and cheating death,” Dylan riffs on Sinatra.

The book is also set to include musings on artists including Hank Williams and Nina Simone.

Dylan says “My Generation,” the 1960s smash that’s one of The Who’s most recognizable songs, “does no favors for anyone, and casts doubt on everything.”

He says “fear” — of getting old, namely — “is perhaps the most honest thing about the song.”

“We all rail at the previous generation but somehow know it’s only a matter of time until we will become them ourselves.”

Dylan, who burst onto the folk scene in New York in the early 1960s, has sold more than 125 million records around the world.

Rumors of a “Chronicles, Volume Two” have swirled for years but fans will now have “Philosophy” to tide them over until — or if — that sequel is published.

The 81-year-old has maintained a rigorous touring schedule, and is currently on a global itinerary set to continue into 2024.

In 2020 he released his 39th studio album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” to critical acclaim.

He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

The G20 held talks in Washington on Thursday, but Russia’s presence in the club made any consensus unlikely despite the multiple crises facing the world.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 major economies are gathered in the US capital during annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank that have focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, soaring inflation and a climate crisis.

But the G20 is unlikely to agree on many issues, with the group now facing tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States over OPEC+ oil production cuts that Washington fears will further fuel inflation.

Despite the divisions, Western officials said the G20 remains a useful forum.

“Even if there are different opinions — including those that you don’t share, some even that you don’t understand — it’s still a good forum for a conversation,” said German Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

“It is better to have a forum to speak in than none,” he told reporters.

But the G20 is expected to close its meeting without a joint communique, as in its previous gatherings presided by Indonesia this year. A press conference is scheduled for later Thursday.

“We could do a communique that doesn’t mention the war in Ukraine, but we don’t want a communique that sweeps things under the rug,” a source close to the discussions told AFP.

– Saudi-US spat –

While Western nations have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, other countries have maintained economic ties with Moscow, with India and China stepping up their purchases of Russian oil.

The Group of Seven wealthy democracies is now looking to cap the prices of Russian crude exports, a move aimed at stripping the country of a major source of funding for its war effort.

The G7 — which includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — said Wednesday it had made “significant progress” in key parts of its proposal, noting that it had added Australia to its coalition.

Gaining broad global approval for a price cap is a key challenge for the proposal.

The Saudi-led OPEC group of oil exporters has angered the United States by agreeing on a drastic production cut with Russia and other allies, which could send energy prices soaring even higher.

Washington has accused OPEC+ of aligning itself with Moscow, and on Wednesday President Joe Biden threatened “consequences” for Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, the Saudi foreign ministry denied that the decision was “politically motivated against the United States” and expressed its “total rejection of these statements that are not based on facts.”

But US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded that Ryiadh knew the cut “would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions. That is the wrong direction.”

The source close to the G20 discussions said Western nations explained at the meeting that they were “disappointed” and that it went against Saudi interests “because the risk for them is that they cause a recession.”

“It’s hard to understand,” the source said.

– ‘We’re cooked’ –

The G20 also discussed the state of the global economy and debt at a dinner on Wednesday. On Thursday they talked about the financial sector, regulating cryptocurrencies, a global minimum tax on corporations and how to follow through on pledges in climate financing, the source said.

Tensions within the G20 come as leaders are due to meet at a summit in Bali, Indonesia, next month that could see Biden share the same venue as Russian President Vladimir Putin and another rival, Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The lack of consensus within the group also comes ahead of the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit in Egypt in November.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Wednesday that the world has to invest up to $6 trillion per year if it is to meet the Paris agreement goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“If we do not shift our trajectory this decade, we’re cooked. If we don’t want to be cooked, then we should speed up,” Georgieva said Wednesday in talks on climate change.