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The tag #sexoffender will surely trend for Donald Trump all the way from this New York court to a November 2024 election.

E Jean Carroll laid out a horrific tale of sexual assault, a brutal attack by the former president that has left her forever scarred.

The jury’s finding in her favour, albeit not on her allegation of rape, will surely resonate throughout the coming White House campaign.

Accuser awarded millions in damages – latest updates

Mr Trump was, of course, dismissive of both accuser and accusation long before this case came to court.

It’s what he does, successfully.

His counter-attack on separate, criminal charges gave him a bounce in the polls and in his fundraising.

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Playing the victim plays to a support base that buys into the claims of political persecution and views their hero and his actions through the prism of injustice.

Will this make a difference? It’s sexual assault, after all.

On a criminal scale, sex offenders register a particular revulsion; there’s a reason they are segregated in prisons.

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Moment Trump confuses rape accuser with ex-wife

Reputational fallout?

The stigma cuts across society – the question that will concern Mr Trump is how it cuts into the political debate.

Consider a case with similarities in the UK, albeit to a lesser degree with regard to the offence.

David Goodwillie, a footballer, was ruled to be a rapist by a civil court in Scotland in 2017. When he was transferred to Raith Rovers just over a year ago, there was a national outcry and the club was forced to rip up his contract.

Goodwillie was deemed unfit to be a striker for a lower-league Scottish football club, and yet, Mr Trump remains in the running to be president of the United States.

Trump has counted on drumbeat of victimhood

It is a double standard that stretches logic, given attitudes shared across the Atlantic.

It is explained, in part, by a political culture fashioned by Mr Trump.

In times of scandal, he has counted on the drumbeat of victimhood to drown out the noise.

We will find out soon enough if it works with a New York court verdict that screams “sex offender”.

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Manhunt after couple hiking with their children killed in Arkansas park

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Manhunt after couple hiking with their children killed in Arkansas park

A manhunt is under way after a married couple were killed while hiking with their children in an Arkansas state park.

Clinton Brink, 43, and Cristen Brink, 41, were walking with their daughters, who are aged seven and nine, when they were attacked in Devil’s Den State Park on Saturday afternoon, according to Arkansas State Police.

Officers were called to reports of two people dead in the park at around 2.40pm, before their bodies were found on a walking trail.

Arkansas’s state lab are working to determine their cause of death, officials said.

Their children were not injured and are safe with relatives, authorities added.

A statement from the Brink family said the couple “died heroes, protecting their little girls”.

“They deserve justice. They will forever live in all our hearts,” the family added, asking for privacy as they “grieve and learn to navigate this new reality”.

The couple had only moved to Arkansas three weeks ago, having previously lived in California and eastern Montana, Mr Brink’s sister Karina Hutchins said.

Officials have not said how the couple were killed and have not provided a possible motive for the attack.

The suspect has been described as white, of medium build, and was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, a dark baseball cap, and sunglasses.

He was also carrying a black backpack and wearing fingerless gloves.

Police said he could have sustained injuries during the attack and exited the park in a black, four-door car, possibly a Mazda, with the number plate covered with duct tape.

He is then believed to have travelled on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220 to escape.

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Police have urged anyone who was in or near the park that day with smartphone or GoPro footage to come forward.

The park has been closed until further notice.

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Has Trump broken from Netanyahu over Gaza?

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Has Trump broken from Netanyahu over Gaza?

Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Scotland for talks with Donald Trump, with the US president publicly distancing himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said there is no starvation in Gaza. How significant is this moment, as renewed UK-US aid efforts to the Strip are announced?

Plus, Trump cuts down Putin’s deadline to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine. And Martha speaks to one of the 252 Venezuelans deported by Trump to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. He describes brutal torture and dehumanisation – this despite not ever having committed a crime.

If you’ve got a question you’d like the Trump100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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US and EU agree trade deal – with bloc facing 15% tariffs on goods into America

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US and EU agree trade deal - with bloc facing 15% tariffs on goods into America

A number of European leaders have hit out at the terms of the United States and European Union trade deal.

Speaking after talks in Turnberry, Mr Trump told reporters it was the “biggest deal ever made” and will be “great for cars” as well as having a “big impact” on agriculture.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the “big deal” would help bring “stability” to trade after months of turmoil over the threat of a trade war.

The US will impose 15% tariffs on most EU goods entering America, after Mr Trump had threatened a 30% levy.

But French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said of the terms: “It is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission.”

Long-time EU critic, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, responded: “This is not an agreement … Donald Trump ate von der Leyen for breakfast, this is what happened and we suspected this would happen as the U.S. president is a heavyweight when it comes to negotiations while Madame President is featherweight.”

President Trump shakes hands with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry. Pic: Reuters
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Turnberry. Pic: Reuters

Others welcomed news of an agreement but seemed resigned to the terms.

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The deal includes $600bn (£446bn) of EU investments in the US, and the bloc will buy $750bn (£558bn) of US energy and also purchase American military equipment.

Mr Trump said: “I think it’s great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all.”

He said: “We are agreeing that the tariff… for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%.” However, the 15% baseline rate would not apply to steel and aluminium, for which a 50% tariff would stay in place.

Ms Von der Leyen said: “We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world and it’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal. It will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

She said the agreement would include 15% tariffs “across the board”, and it would help rebalance trade between the two large trading partners.

She said the levy rate was the “best we could get” regarding the car sector.

But she added that there was “no decision” on the spirits sector, which was one of those areas where the details in the framework trade deal would have to be examined in the coming weeks.

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Mr Trump had earlier said the main sticking point was “fairness”, citing barriers to US exports of cars and agriculture.

He went into the talks demanding fairer trade with the 27-member bloc and threatening steep tariffs to achieve that, while insisting the US will not go below 15% import taxes.

For months, Mr Trump has threatened most of the world with large tariffs in the hope of shrinking major US trade deficits with many key trading partners, including the EU.

In case there was no deal and the US had imposed 30% tariffs from 1 August, the EU has prepared counter-tariffs on €93bn (£81bn) of US goods.

Ahead of their meeting on Sunday, Ms Von der Leyen described Mr Trump as a “tough negotiator and dealmaker”.

The deal mirrors parts of the framework agreement the US clinched with Japan last week.

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