US Business

Donald Trump must testify in April as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says he raped her in the 1990s, a court said Tuesday.

The former US president, 76, faces twin allegations of rape and defamation in a case dating back to 2019 and brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll, who is now 78.

Both sides presented depositions in October before Judge Lewis Kaplan and on Tuesday he signed an order setting April 10 as the start of the defamation trial, as sought by Carroll. 

Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, sued then-president Trump for defamation in a New York civil court in 2019.

In an excerpt of her book published by New York Magazine that year, Carroll said she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in New York in the mid-1990s.

Trump denied the accusation, saying Carroll was “not my type” and that she was “totally lying.” Carroll sued him over that latter remark. 

Trump has said he never met Carroll and his lawyers have argued that Trump had immunity since he was president in 2019. 

At the time Carroll could not seek to have Trump charged with rape because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired.

But a new law has since taken effect in New York that protects victims of sexual assault decades after attacks may have occurred. It gives sexual assault victims in New York state a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers even when the abuse occurred long ago.

So lawyers for Carroll filed an upgraded civil suit last Thursday that accuses Trump of battery, “when he forcibly raped and groped” her, and for defamation in a post on his Truth Social platform last month where he denied the alleged rape. 

This suit seeks a civil trial in 2023 and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for psychological harm, pain and suffering, loss of dignity and damage to her reputation.

The introduction to the new lawsuit states: “Roughly 27 years ago, playful banter at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in New York City took a dark turn when Defendant Donald J. Trump seized Plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, forced her up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her.”

The trial now scheduled for April concerns only the defamation allegation.

In her new complaint, Carroll reiterated that she remained silent for more than 20 years out of fear of reprisals but changed her mind after the #MeToo movement beginning in 2017 against violence toward women.

Trump’s lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, said last Thursday that she respects and admires those who come forward under the new New York state law. 

But “this case is unfortunately an abuse of the purpose of this Act which creates a terrible precedent running the risk of delegitimizing credibility of actual victims,” Habba said.

In his October 12 posting on his Truth Social account, Trump said Carroll “completely made up a story that I met her at the doors” of Bergdorf Goodman. “It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me.”

Prince William and his wife Kate head to the United States this week for their first visit in eight years, and the popular couple’s inaugural trip as prince and princess of Wales.

The three-day visit to the northeastern city of Boston culminates on Friday evening with a star-studded ceremony for William’s Earthshot Prize initiative to tackle climate change.

The awards ceremony — described by royal insiders as William’s “Superbowl moment” — is now in its second year, and rewards five innovators with £1 million each ($1.2 million).

A host of stars are expected at Boston’s MGM Music Hall, including singers Billie Eilish and Annie Lennox, sisters Chloe x Halle, and actor Rami Malek.

As last year, the British naturalist and television presenter David Attenborough will contribute, alongside the actress Cate Blanchett, who is on the judging panel.

The trip is the most high-profile since 40-year-old William became heir to the throne in September, when his father succeeded queen Elizabeth II to become King Charles III.

The new monarch soon made his eldest son prince of Wales — the traditional title of heirs apparent dating back to the 13th century.

The last princess of Wales was William’s mother, Diana.

In Boston, the couple will meet the city’s mayor, Michelle Wu, and tour the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum with the former president’s daughter, Caroline.

Caroline Kennedy is currently Washington’s top envoy to Australia.

Other engagements include discussions with local officials about rising sea levels in the city on the North Atlantic coast.

They will also meet charities working with disadvantaged young people and a laboratory specialising in green technologies.

Kate, who has three children aged four to nine with William and has an interest in early years education, will visit Harvard University’s Child Development Centre.

– No Harry or Meghan –

No meeting has been announced between Prince William and his estranged younger brother Harry, 38, who lives in California with his wife Meghan, 41, and their two young children.

The two couples have been at loggerheads particularly since Harry and Meghan — also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — sensationally quit the royal family in 2020.

Relations soured further after they gave a television interview to Oprah Winfrey last year and accused the royal family of racism, prompting a public denial from William.

The death of William and Harry’s grandmother failed to bring about any visible meaningful reconciliation.

The two couples made a frosty joint appearance at Windsor Castle to view floral tributes and both attended the queen’s state funeral.

Unusually though for William and Kate, who are used to their public appearances dominating headlines in the UK, they may have to deal with playing second fiddle to Harry and Meghan in the United States.

The Sussexes are more popular in the United States and on December 6 are due to receive a major humanitarian award from the Robert Kennedy foundation in New York.

Comparisons between the two couples will inevitably fuel interest in the royal soap opera even before the expected release next month of a documentary about Harry and Meghan on Netflix.

The royal family is also bracing for the release of Harry’s memoirs “Spare” on January 10 in which he promises to lift the lid on his life in Britain’s most famous institution.

William and Kate’s US visit will be seen as a more conventional approach to royal outreach.

Among the 15 Earthshot finalists are a Kenyan initiative for a cleaner-burning stove and a Dutch invention to stop maritime plastic pollution.

A pair of French and Spanish entrepreneurs is also in the running with their biodegradable seaweed packaging.

The couple made their first official visit to the United States in 2011, when they met Hollywood A-listers in California.

In 2014, they visited New York and Washington, in a trip that included a reception at the White House with the then-president Barack Obama and his deputy, Joe Biden.

Twitter said it has stopped enforcing a policy intended to prevent the spread of Covid misinformation, as new owner Elon Musk — who has clashed previously with US officials over pandemic safety rules — continues to remake its content moderation policies.

The move comes after the mercurial billionaire reinstated a slew of accounts on the social media network that had previously been banned for violating its content rules, such as that of former president Donald Trump. 

“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the Covid-19 misleading information policy,” read a message posted at a Twitter transparency web page.

During the pandemic, Twitter took to labeling misleading tweets about Covid and booting users who persisted in spreading such misinformation.

Banned content included statements intended to influence people to violate health authority guidelines, along with bogus cures or denial of scientific facts, according to a Twitter blog.

As of September of this year, Twitter had suspended 11,230 accounts under the policy, the blog stated.

Musk, who also runs Tesla, clashed with officials in 2020 over pandemic safety orders which temporarily shut down the electric car giant’s plant in California, calling shelter in place orders “fascist” and “an outrage” that infringed on personal freedom.

Under Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” Twitter has begun reinstating roughly 62,000 accounts in what is being referred to internally as “the Big Bang,” according to Platformer news blog.

Since taking over the platform last month, Musk has cut around half of Twitter’s workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation, while an unknown number of others have voluntarily quit.

Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter who left after Musk took over, said during an interview Tuesday at a Knight Foundation conference that he was not certain how many employees were left at the company to moderate content.

“I couldn’t tell you, because our corporate directory had been turned off since the acquisition and it was nearly impossible to actually know conclusively who was still left at Twitter,” Roth said when asked by interviewer Kara Swisher.

“It was that chaotic.”

Musk believes that all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter, and on Monday described his actions as a “revolution against online censorship in America.”

Though Musk says Twitter is seeing record high engagement with him at the helm, his approach has startled the company’s major moneymaker — advertisers.

In recent weeks, half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers have announced they are suspending or have otherwise “seemingly stopped advertising on Twitter,” an analysis conducted by nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters found.

The US Senate passed a landmark bill Tuesday protecting same-sex marriage, as lawmakers from both parties moved to forestall the possibility of the conservative-led Supreme Court taking away this right as it did with abortion.

“With today’s bipartisan Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, the United States is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” President Joe Biden said in a statement released after the 61-36 vote.

The Senate vote sends the bill back to the House of Representatives, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi said would approve it next week before sending it to Biden to sign.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer hailed a “momentous step forward for greater justice for LGBTQ Americans.”

Twelve Republicans joined Democrats to pass the legislation on what had for decades been a deeply divisive issue in America.

In the United States, same-sex unions have been guaranteed by the Supreme Court since 2015. But after the court’s historic overturning of a longstanding ruling protecting the right to abortion in June, many progressives feared that same-sex marriage may also be under threat.  

Democrats have worked with urgency to get the bill passed while they still control Congress. 

They held on to the Senate in this month’s mid-term elections but lost the House to the Republicans, although the latter eked out a much thinner majority than they had expected. So when the new Congress takes power in January, gridlock is expected.

The bill passed Tuesday does not require states to legalize same-sex marriage. 

But it repeals previous legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and does require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

So if the Supreme Court were to overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriages, a state that bans them will still have to recognize such unions carried out in other states. The bill also applies to inter-racial marriages.

“Today’s vote is deeply personal for many of us in this chamber,” said Schumer, who wore the same tie he had on at his lesbian daughter’s wedding.

A similar bill was already passed in June by the House of Representatives. All the chamber’s Democrats voted in favor, along with 47 Republicans. 

The new vote in the House is needed to reconcile the two bills but this is seen as a formality.

The powerful American Civil Liberties Union hailed the “historic step forward” but denounced the rise of laws attacking the right of transgender people in several states.  

“While we welcome the historic vote on this measure, members of Congress must also fight like trans lives depend on their efforts because trans lives do,” James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, said in a statement.

Polls show a strong majority of Americans back same-sex marriage but it is still contentious. Thirty-six Republicans voted ‘no’ on Tuesday and the religious right remains mostly opposed to such unions.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Washington late Tuesday for a state visit hosted by President Joe Biden where hard-nosed disagreements about US-EU trade will overshadow the White House pomp and ceremony.

Due to Covid delays, this is the first formal state visit of Biden’s presidency and US officials say the choice of France for the honor reflects both deep historical ties and their intense current partnership in confronting Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Macron touched down at Joint Base Andrews, the air force facility used by Biden outside Washington.

While in the capital, the French leader will be given a full ceremonial military welcome to the White House, an Oval Office sit down with Biden and a state banquet on Thursday, where Grammy-award winning American musician Jon Batiste will perform.

Compared to Macron’s edgy first experience of a state visit as the guest of Donald Trump in 2018, this trip — concluding with a stop Friday to the once-French city of New Orleans — will be a carefully choreographed display of transatlantic friendship.

Certainly the diplomatic furor that erupted last year when Australia canceled a deal for French submarines and instead signed up for US nuclear subs is now buried.

But even with little risk of Trump-style fireworks, Macron has major grievances to air.

– Trade war? –

Top of these is tension over Biden’s signature green industry policy, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which will pump billions of dollars into climate-friendly technologies, with strong backing for American-made products. Similar effort is being put into microchip manufacturing.

Europeans fear an unfair US advantage in the sectors just as they are reeling from the economic consequences of the Ukraine war and Western attempts to end reliance on Russian energy supplies.

Talk in Europe is now increasingly on whether the bloc should respond with its own subsidies and championing of homegrown products, effectively starting a trade war.

“China favors its own products, America favors its own products. It might be time for Europe to favor its own products,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 3 radio on Sunday.

Biden was certainly in no mood to apologize, saying in a speech at a microchip factory in Michigan on Tuesday that the push for a revitalized US-based industrial base is “a game changer.”

“Companies began moving jobs overseas rather than moving product overseas,” he said. “We’re not going to be held hostage anymore.”

Another gripe in Europe is the high cost for US liquid natural gas exports — surged to try and replace canceled Russian deliveries.

Responding to accusations that the United States is effectively profiteering from the Ukraine war, a senior US administration official said this was a “false claim.”

The official also played down IRA-related tensions, saying a “very constructive set of conversations” is underway on how to prevent European companies from being shut out.

To underline the importance of the issue for Paris, Macron met with dozens of business executives ahead of his departure to Washington, urging them to keep investing in France. These included representatives from US giants Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s.

– Strategizing on China, Ukraine –

The breadth of Macron’s entourage — including the foreign, defense and finance ministers, as well as business leaders and astronauts — illustrates the importance Paris has put on the visit.

However, at the White House, a senior official said the main goal is to nurture the “personal relationship, the alliance relationship” with France — and between Biden and Macron.

That more modest sounding goal will include improving coordination on helping Ukraine to repel Russia and the even more vexing question of how to manage the rise of the Chinese superpower.

“We are not allies on the same page,” one adviser to Macron told AFP, forecasting “challenging” talks with Biden.

Despite his strong support for Kyiv, Macron’s insistence on continuing to maintain dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin has irked American diplomats.

The China question — with Washington pursuing a more hawkish tone and EU powers trying to find a middle ground — is unlikely to see much progress.

“Europe has since 2018 its own, unique strategy for relations with China,” tweeted French embassy spokesman Pascal Confavreux in Washington.

A senior US official said even if their approaches were “not identical,” they should be at least “speaking from a common script.”

It was — mostly — about the football for fans watching the Iran-USA game in the United States on Tuesday, a match played against the backdrop of soaring geopolitical tensions, which occasionally poked their way through the sport.

Scores of supporters packed a restaurant in a part of Los Angeles known locally as “Tehrangeles” because of the large number of Iranians and Iranian-Americans in the area, cheering their way through a lively meet-up happening half a world away.

Chants of “USA, USA” erupted periodically as the US men’s team dominated action on the pitch in Qatar, bagging their first win of the tournament by a score of 1-0 and securing a spot in the knock-out stage.

For some Iranian-Americans, either outcome would have worked.

“I support both,” said a woman who gave her name only as Shirin.

Iran’s team have been under intense scrutiny in Qatar, their players watched for signs that they are — or are not — showing support for mass anti-government demonstrations back home, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody of the notorious morality police on September 16.

Players opted not to sing their national anthem before Iran’s 6-2 defeat to England, in an apparent sign of support for the demonstrators at home, but did sing ahead of their 2-0 win against Wales.

As the anthem struck up ahead of Tuesday’s kick-off, some Iranian fans in Los Angeles raised their middle fingers to the screen as players mouthed the words.

Others were more reserved.

“Honestly, considering the situation in Iran I found myself torn, so I felt good about the game either way honestly,” said Aubteen Maroufi, an Iranian-American in his 20s.

In a bar in Washington DC, one Iranian-American who gave his name as Mike said he had mixed feelings about the game, but had been rooting for the United States.

“I didn’t want it to give another joy to the Iranian government,” he said. “My heart is with the Iranian people, not with the government.”

Iranian-American student Darius, 23, said Iran’s players were in a difficult position.

“With all that what’s going on in the country, they’re playing for more than just themselves, more than just a team,” he told AFP.

“They’re playing for the people back home.”

US fans in Los Angeles, basking in victory as “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen reverberated over the restaurant’s sound system, said the game and the politics were separate.

“I don’t think supporting the Iran players means you are supporting the regime. It’s two different things,” said supporter Max Spear. 

“I know some people used the game to show support to the revolution by booing the national anthem, but I don’t think this game is a West versus East thing.”

There was some animosity, with one group of younger men wearing Iranian jerseys making rude gestures every time a US player appeared on screen — although whether this was because of diplomatic tensions or good old-fashioned footballing rivalry was difficult to tell.

“We played hard,” said one of the men, kissing his jersey.

One Iranian-American, who gave her name as Rachel, said she was firmly in the US camp.

“I’ve been living here for so long, 30 years,” she told AFP.

But asked about the politics of her adopted homeland meeting its biggest international foe in metaphorical battle, she demurred.

“It’s a really complicated question, I don’t want to answer it,” she said.

burs-hg/dw

New York will start involuntarily hospitalizing mentally ill people who live in the street or on the subway, Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday in a new push to fight growing crime.

“If severe mental illness is causing someone to be unsheltered and a danger to themselves, we have a moral obligation to help them get the treatment and care they need,” said Adams, a moderate Democrat and former police officer who is making the battle against violent crime the centerpiece of his work running America’s largest city.

Next year the state legislature and executive branch will consider a bill allowing police, health care professionals and social workers to intervene and seek to hospitalize by force if necessary homeless people deemed to have psychiatric problems.

“A common misunderstanding persists that we cannot provide involuntary assistance unless the person is violent, suicidal, or presenting a risk of imminent harm,” the mayor said.

“This myth must be put to rest. Going forward, we will make every effort to assist those who are suffering from mental illness and whose illness is endangering them by preventing them from meeting their basic human needs,” he added.

After taking office in January, Adams quickly pledged to remove the many homeless people who live in the city’s vast subway system.

This came after a young Asian-American woman was pushed to her death in front of an oncoming train by a man with mental health issues who was known to police and hospital officials.

New York City has an estimated 50,000 homeless people.

Crime rose in New York in 2021 as the pandemic started to ease, and people’s sense of not being safe on the streets grew this year in some areas of the city after a number of shooting and stabbing deaths.

A total of 391 people have been killed in New York as of November 27, compared to 440 in all of 2021, according to New York Police Department statistics that are updated weekly.