Squeezed by investigations, Trump escalates violent rhetoric

Published

2 years ago

March 25, 2023

admin

Under increasing pressure from state and federal investigators, former President Trump escalated his violent rhetoric this week, heightening tensions as prosecutors weigh whether to bring criminal charges and sparking sharp criticism from Democrats, who are warning of another Jan. 6.

In several social media posts over the past two days, Trump appeared to threaten Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) with a baseball bat and warned any indictments brought against him may lead to “potential death & destruction” around the country.

The messages were remarkably direct, even for a figure with a long history of promoting violence, and they’ve led to new warnings from Trump’s critics that the former president is aggravating partisan hostilities and inflaming national unrest.

“It’s dangerous, and it’s obviously a sign that the pressure of the moment is getting to him,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who headed the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

“I’m hopeful that they won’t take him literally,” Thompson added, referring to Trump’s supporters. “You know, a lot of these people who came to Washington on Jan. 6 came at his invitation, and over time, he weaponized them to attacking the Capitol. And this is that same kind of weaponization — taken to another level.”

The concerns arrive just before Trump is scheduled to stage his first 2024 campaign rally on Saturday in Waco, Texas, exactly 30 years after a deadly standoff between federal law enforcement and the Branch Davidians, an apocalyptic cult led by David Koresh, took place just outside the city. The siege ended with a massive fire that engulfed the sect’s compound, left scores of adherents dead and has since become a rallying cry of those who view the government as an abusive force treading on individual liberties.

Some lawmakers see a connection between Trump’s increasingly violent rhetoric and his choice of Waco to kick-start his campaign.

“That comment, and being [at] the site of fanatic activity long ago in Texas, is really a dangerous combination,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) said Friday in the Capitol. “We saw the harm that it can cause right here in this building. And as usual, it’s only about Donald Trump; it’s not about the safety and security of families in Texas and around the country.”

On Friday, Trump allies also sought to draw attention to the plight of those arrested and charged for violent assaults on Jan. 6, visiting them in a local D.C. jail and claiming their constitutional rights are being violated.

Trump is facing a series of criminal investigations into his conduct, including his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his resort-residence in South Florida.

But the Manhattan case is the longest-running, based on a hush money payment to an adult film actress just before the 2016 election, and Bragg has given recent signals that an indictment against Trump might be imminent.

Trump has acknowledged that he reimbursed Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, for the $130,000 Cohen initially paid to Stormy Daniels in return for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier — an affair Trump denies. But his defense team has said the payment was made to preserve his marriage, not for purposes related to his political campaign.

Turning to social media late Thursday, Trump escalated already heated attacks toward Bragg, in one case sharing a pair of side-by-side photos: one of the prosecutor, the other with the former president holding a baseball bat.

Hours later — just after 1 a.m. on Friday — Trump posted another message to his Truth Social account, warning of a violent backlash if Bragg brings charges.

“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?” Trump wrote.

“Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA!”

The message drew immediate denunciations from Trump’s critics, most of them Democrats, who voiced concerns that it would serve as a call to violence for some members of Trump’s conservative base, thousands of whom had stormed the Capitol two years ago at his behest.

“Trump has succeeded in turning Lincoln’s GOP into a messianic and dangerous cult of personality,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who led Trump’s second impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack. “[He] knows how to activate the most violent and unstable elements of his following. And this kind of rhetoric, this serves as incitement to the most rabid and unhinged parts of his base.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Friday Trump’s “rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible.”

“It’s dangerous, and if he keeps it up, he’s going to get someone killed,” Jeffries said.

Other Trump critics have gone a step further, suggesting that his comments may have, themselves, violated the law.

“Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes,” Norm Eisen, counsel for Democrats in Trump’s first impeachment and an author on both, wrote on Twitter.

Eisen pointed to several statutes in particular, including harassment, menacing and stalking.

“And that’s just for starters,” he said.

Across the aisle, Republicans were much less willing to take on the former president, who leads the nascent GOP field vying for the White House in 2024.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) deflected questions about Trump’s “death and destruction” remarks, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a close Trump ally, told an NBC reporter that he couldn’t read the comments without his glasses. Greene, Democrats offer tale-of-two-jails after visit with Jan. 6 defendants House slated to take up major energy package next week

Some others took steps to condemn any talk of violence, though without criticizing Trump directly.

“I don’t condone political violence,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). “I haven’t seen those statements,” he continued, “but in general, I’ve been very outspoken because it relates just to political violence in general.”

Rebecca Beitsch and Mychael Schnell contributed.

Politics

Indian court sentences 14 to life in Bitcoin extortion case

Published

2 hours ago

August 30, 2025

admin

Indian court sentences 14 to life in Bitcoin extortion case

A former BJP legislator and 11 police officials have been convicted for the 2018 abduction of a Surat businessman in a plot to seize over 750 Bitcoin.

Business

City veteran Kheraj in contention to chair banking giant HSBC

Published

4 hours ago

August 30, 2025

admin

City veteran Kheraj in contention to chair banking giant HSBC

Naguib Kheraj, the City veteran, has been shortlisted to become the next chairman of HSBC Holdings, Europe’s biggest bank.

Sky News can reveal that Mr Kheraj, a former Barclays finance chief, is among a small number of contenders currently being considered to replace Sir Mark Tucker.

HSBC, which has a market capitalisation of £165.4bn, has been conducting a search for Sir Mark’s successor since the start of the year.

Money latest: How Gen Z investors are making their way in property

In June, Sky News revealed that the former McKinsey boss Kevin Sneader was among the candidates being considered to lead the bank, although it was unclear this weekend whether he remained in the process.

Mr Kheraj would, in many respects, be seen as a solid choice for the job.

He is familiar with HSBC’s core markets in Asia, having spent several years on the board of Standard Chartered, the FTSE-100 bank, latterly as deputy chairman.

He also possesses extensive experience as a chairman, having led the privately held pensions insurer Rothesay Life, while he now chairs Petershill Partners, the London-listed private equity investment group backed by Goldman Sachs.

Mr Kheraj’s other interests have included acting as an adviser to the Aga Khan Development Board and The Wellcome Trust, as well as the Financial Services Authority.

He spent 12 years at Barclays, holding board roles for much of that time, before he went on to become chief executive of JP Morgan Cazenove, the London-based investment bank.

HSBC’s shares have soared over the last year, rising by close to 50%, despite the headwinds posed by President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs regime.

In June, the bank said that Sir Mark would be replaced on an interim basis by Brendan Nelson, one of its existing board members, while it continued the search for a permanent successor.

Ann Godbehere, HSBC’s senior independent director, said at the time: “The nomination and corporate governance committee continues to make progress on the succession process for the next HSBC group chair.

“Our focus is on securing the best candidate to lead the board and wider group over the next phase of our growth and development.”

Sky News revealed late last year that MWM, the headhunter founded by Anna Mann, a prominent figure in the executive search sector, was advising HSBC on the process.

Since then, at least one other firm has been drafted in to work on the mandate.

Sir Mark, who has chaired HSBC since 2017, steps down at the end of next month to become non-executive chair of AIA, the Asian insurer he used to run.

He will continue to advise HSBC’s board during the hunt for his long-term successor.

As a financial behemoth with deep ties to both China and the US, HSBC is deeply exposed to escalating trade and diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

When he was appointed, Mr Tucker became the first outsider to take the post in the bank’s 152-year history – which has a big presence on the high street thanks to its acquisition of the Midland Bank in 1992.

He oversaw a rapid change of leadership, appointing bank veteran John Flint to replace Stuart Gulliver as chief executive.

The transition did not work out, however, with Mr Tucker deciding to sack Mr Flint after just 18 months.

He was replaced on an interim basis by Noel Quinn in the summer of 2018, with that change becoming permanent in April 2020.

Mr Quinn spent a further four years in the post before deciding to step down, and in July 2024 he was succeeded by Georges Elhedery, a long-serving executive in HSBC’s markets unit, and more recently the bank’s chief financial officer.

The new chief’s first big move in the top job was to unveil a sweeping reorganisation of HSBC that sees it reshaped into eastern markets and western markets businesses.

He also decided to merge its commercial and investment banking operations into a single division.

The restructuring, which Mr Elhedery said would “result in a simpler, more dynamic, and agile organisation” has drawn a mixed reaction from analysts, although it has not interrupted a strong run for the stock.

During Sir Mark’s tenure, HSBC has also continued to exit non-core markets, selling operations in countries such as Canada and France as it has sharpened its focus on its Asian businesses.

On Friday, HSBC’s London-listed shares closed at 946.7p.

HSBC has been contacted for comment.

Technology

Global movement to protect kids online fuels a wave of AI safety tech

Published

5 hours ago

August 30, 2025

admin

Global movement to protect kids online fuels a wave of AI safety tech

Spotify, Reddit and X have all implemented age assurance systems to prevent children from being exposed to inappropriate content.

STR | Nurphoto via Getty Images

The global online safety movement has paved the way for a number of artificial intelligence-powered products designed to keep kids away from potentially harmful things on the internet.

In the U.K., a new piece of legislation called the Online Safety Act imposes a duty of care on tech companies to protect children from age-inappropriate material, hate speech, bullying, fraud, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Companies can face fines as high as 10% of their global annual revenue for breaches.

Further afield, landmark regulations aimed at keeping kids safer online are swiftly making their way through the U.S. Congress. One bill, known as the Kids Online Safety Act, would make social media platforms liable for preventing their products from harming children — similar to the Online Safety Act in the U.K.

This push from regulators is increasingly causing something of a rethink at several major tech players. Pornhub and other online pornography giants are blocking all users from accessing their sites unless they go through an age verification system.

Porn sites haven’t been alone in taking action to verify users ages, though. Spotify, Reddit and X have all implemented age assurance systems to prevent children from being exposed to sexually explicit or inappropriate materials.

Such regulatory measures have been met with criticisms from the tech industry — not least due to concerns that they may infringe internet users’ privacy.

Digital ID tech flourishing

At the heart of all these age verification measures is one company: Yoti.

Yoti produces technology that captures selfies and uses artificial intelligence to verify someone’s age based on their facial features. The firm says its AI algorithm, which has been trained on millions of faces, can estimate the age of 13 to 24-year-olds within two years of accuracy.

The firm has previously partnered with the U.K.’s Post Office and is hoping to capitalize on the broader push for government-issued digital ID cards in the U.K. Yoti is not alone in the identity verification software space — other players include Entrust, Persona and iProov. However, the company has been the most prominent provider of age assurance services under the new U.K. regime.

“There is a race on for child safety technology and service providers to earn trust and confidence,” Pete Kenyon, a partner at law firm Cripps, told CNBC. “The new requirements have undoubtedly created a new marketplace and providers are scrambling to make their mark.”

Yet the rise of digital identification methods has also led to concerns over privacy infringements and possible data breaches.

“Substantial privacy issues arise with this technology being used,” said Kenyon. “Trust is key and will only be earned by the use of stringent and effective technical and governance procedures adopted in order to keep personal data safe.”

Child-safe smartphones

The wave of new tech emerging to prevent children from being exposed to online harms isn’t just limited to software.

Earlier this month, Finnish phone maker HMD Global launched a new smartphone called the Fusion X1, which uses AI to stop kids from filming or sharing nude content or viewing sexually explicit images from the camera, screen and across all apps.

The phone uses technology developed by SafeToNet, a British cybersecurity firm focused on child safety.

Finnish phone maker HMD Global’s new smartphone uses AI to prevent children from being exposed nude or sexually explicit images.

HMD Global

“We believe more needs to be done in this space,” James Robinson, vice president of family vertical at HMD, told CNBC. He stressed that HMD came up with the concept for children’s devices prior to the Online Safety Act entering into force, but noted it was “great to see the government taking greater steps.”

The release of HMD’s child-friendly phone follows heightened momentum in the “smartphone-free” movement, which encourages parents to avoid letting their children own a smartphone.

Going forward, the NSPCC’s Govender says that child safety will become a significant priority for digital behemoths such as Google and Meta.

The tech giants have for years been accused of worsening mental health in children and teens due to the rise of online bullying and social media addiction. They in return argue they’ve taken steps to address these issues through increased parental controls and privacy features.

“For years, tech giants have stood by while harmful and illegal content spread across their platforms, leaving young people exposed and vulnerable,” she told CNBC. “That era of neglect must end.”