We were expecting this moment, and it came on Friday, the eleventh day of the Hush Trump trial in New York City.
It was the moment when Donald Trump’s attorney looked at the judge and invoked the name of destroyed, defiant, and disgusting movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the poster boy of the #MeToo movement. It was, in baseball parlance, a brushback pitch by the Team Trump.
Given an impossibly short deadline to complete the initial report of the public inquiry on foreign interference in federal elections – just two weeks from the close of hearings to publication – Justice Marie-Josée Hogue has elected to punt on some of the key questions she was expected to address until her final report at the end of the year.
That, at least, must be the hope. This first instalment is, perhaps understandably, largely a “what we heard” exercise, summarizing the evidence while for the most part withholding judgment on what it all means.
At his press conference on May 1 following the April–May meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called it “unlikely” that the central bank would raise the short-term interest rates under its control at its next meeting in mid-June. The Federal Funds Rate is currently between 5.25 percent and 5 percent.
At the same time, Mr. Powell told reporters, “clearly, restrictive monetary policy needs more time to do its job” and Fed policymakers “didn’t see progress in the first quarter” against inflation. The Fed’s target is a 2 percent inflation rate—a goal that is a long way off.
It was quite a week in Canadian politics.
On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who polls suggests could win a majority government with more than 200 seats in the next election, suggested he will invoke the notwithstanding clause if he becomes prime minister.
Pro-Palestinian protesters taking part in an encampment at Princeton University began a hunger strike to raise awareness for starving people in Gaza.
The Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) student organization posted a series of photos on Instagram announcing that pro-Palestinian protests would be launching a hunger strike “in solitary with Gaza.”
A handful of candidates in Canada’s 2019 federal election “appeared willing” to go along with foreign interference schemes, a federal public inquiry has found.
Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s preliminary report, released Friday, concluded that while hostile states attempted to covertly influence the 2019 and 2021 general elections, those efforts did not change which party took power.
Islamic State fighters are pushed by armed guards through a labyrinth of windowless corridors. They trip over their tied ankles and tilt their heads to peek under their blindfolds, but see only the same dark hallway, with its peeling walls and broken tiles.
This is the notorious Hasakah prison complex in northeast Syria, now labelled “the world’s worst prison”. For years the media has been blocked from getting inside the facility and meeting its inmates, but The Times has been granted exclusive access.
I remember fondly a time when Tim Hortons truly was a “café and bake shop”. I would travel with my grandfather and brother to the nearby, small town location and sit by the window. My order was consistent. My brother and I would split a turkey bacon club. A sweet, tangy honey mustard was spread on the underside of a warm baguette. We’d order the chili as well, which came in a bread bowl at the time. And we’d cut a frosted cinnamon roll down the middle.
Efforts have intensified to secure a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, with talks resuming in Cairo on Saturday.
Hamas said its delegation was travelling in a “positive spirit” after studying the latest truce proposal.
“We are determined to secure an agreement in a way that fulfils Palestinians’ demands,” it said.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said “taking the ceasefire should be a no-brainer” for the militant group.
BREAKING: Full-time Ukraine War-Monger Chrystia Freeland claims the majority of Canadians who don't support funding for Ukraine's unwinnable war against Russia, are NOT REAL CANADIANS. pic.twitter.com/8Sxeeakymp
— Wiretap Media (@WiretapMediaCa) May 3, 2024
The Canadian Army learned some valuable lessons Friday: art is in the eye of the beholder and it pays to be precise, even on social media.
The military faced a huge backlash online after unveiling a new logo for the army on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The stock price of Hims & Hers Health, Inc. plummeted 8% after the company’s CEO said he and other executives were “eager” to hire anti-Israel student protesters who’ve faced disciplinary actions from their universities.
The online sexual health and pharmaceutical company dropped from its opening price of $12.24 to $11.26 on Friday — just two days after Palestinian-American CEO Andrew Dudum said companies would be happy to have the protesters and encouraged them to apply to Hims and Hers.
h/t Mauser
OTTAWA—A former Ontario university professor turned author warns that freedom of speech is under threat in Canada, saying there has been an “incremental creep” in regards to the changing definitions of words.
“What is it saying about our culture, that we’re so interested in doing this or that we’re so willing to accept these rapidly evolving definitions?” Julie Ponesse said during a panel discussion on free speech and ethics in Ottawa on April 28.
New York’s police department has declared that approximately 29% of the people it arrested at pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University were “not affiliated” with the institution, as the city’s mayor continues to face scrutiny over his claims that the hardline police response was due to the actions of “outside agitators”.
The NYPD also said 60% of arrestees at City College of New York (CCNY) on Tuesday night were unaffiliated with the college, though a CCNY spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that these arrest figures applied to protesters both on and off the college’s grounds.
The statements came as police across the US have arrested almost 2,200 people at campus protests in 43 different locations during a week of heightened tension and unrest that has often been met with tough action from law enforcement.
