Donald Trump urged election officials in Michigan to “fight for our country” and not certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in 2020, according to local media.
The Detroit News reports a phone call made by the former president to two fellow Republicans on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, in which he claims his party was “cheated”.
He reportedly added “everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell” to the officials overseeing the county, which is Michigan’s most populous and includes Detroit, a Democratic city.
Mr Trump – who is the favourite to secure the Republican nomination for the 2024 election – currently faces criminal charges over allegations he conspired to overturn the 2020 results.
He argues he shouldn’t be prosecuted on the grounds former presidents cannot face criminal charges for conduct related to official responsibilities.
On Friday, the US Supreme Court declined to rule on his claims – leaving the matter for a lower court – as prosecutors try to fast-track a ruling and prevent Mr Trump from potentially delaying until he is back in office, when he could seek to pardon himself.
Asked about the latest audio, Mr Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said his actions were taken “in furtherance of his duty as president of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws”.
He described the 2020 election as “rigged and stolen”.
The Detroit News’s report is reminiscent of Mr Trump’s tactics in Georgia, where he is charged with calling the Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat there.
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Michigan authorities have filed charges against 16 Republican state residents for their role in an alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 presidential election, but they haven’t charged Mr Trump.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – who was not aware of the recordings until the report was published – said her office will continue to support investigations for “every crime committed in the attempt to overturn the will of Michigan voters”.
“We must recognise the direct line between these recordings and the tragedy that occurred at our US Capitol on 6 January 2021,” she added, referring to Mr Trump’s supporters’ attack as lawmakers met to certify Mr Biden’s win.
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Mr Trump’s trial over claims he tried to overturn the 2020 election is due to begin in March, but prosecutors are trying to nullify his claims of immunity in the meantime.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the claims on 1 December, which prompted Mr Trump’s appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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In a bid to avoid delaying the trial, US Special Counsel Jack Smith on 11 December urged the Supreme Court to make an expedited ruling – even as the DC Circuit court races to rule on the issue.
If Mr Trump is re-elected to the White House on 5 November next year, he could seek to pardon himself of any federal crimes.
The swimmer who was the first victim in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws has died.
Susan Backlinie died in her home in California at the age of 77, according to her agent. Her death was first reported by The Daily Jaws website.
The opening scene of Steven Spielberg‘s classic features Ms Backlinie running along the beach and before diving into the water and skinny dipping.
Her character Chrissie Watkins is then suddenly pulled under the water and she screams as she is violently attacked by an unseen great white shark.
Ms Backlinie had been a champion swimmer when cast in the film. She told The Palm Beach Post in 2015 that Spielberg told her: “When your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubblegum.
“I think we did that,” she said.
In the documentary, Jaws: The Inside Story, Spielberg called Ms Backlinie’s sequence “one of the most dangerous” stunts he’s ever directed.
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“She was actually being tugged left and right by 10 men on one rope and 10 men on the other back to the shore, and that’s what caused her to move like that.”
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It marked the first time a genetically modified pig kidney was transplanted into a living patient. Surgeons said they believed the organ would last for at least two years.
Slayman’s family announced his death yesterday, thanking the doctors who carried out the world-first surgery for their “enormous efforts”.
They said the animal-to-human transplant – known as a xenotransplant – gave them “seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts”.
The transplant team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) said they did not have any indication he died as a result of the transplant.
Slayman, from Weymouth, Massachusetts, previously had a kidney transplant at MGH in 2018, but had to go back on dialysis last year after it showed signs of failure.
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As he needed frequent procedures as a result of dialysis complications, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant.
His family said Slayman wanted to undergo the procedure to give hope to those on waiting lists for transplants, adding: “Rick accomplished that goal and his hope and optimism will endure forever.”
Pig kidneys had previously been transplanted into brain-dead donors, but only temporarily. Two men have also received hearts from pigs, with both dying within months of their prodecures.
More than 100,000 people are on the transplant waiting list in the US – most need a kidney, but thousands die waiting.
In the UK, the NHS said that in the year to March last year, there were 6,959 patients waiting for an organ transplant.
It said 439 patients died while on the active list waiting for it and a further 732 were removed from the transplant list, “mostly as a result of deteriorating health and ineligibility for transplant”.
Oprah Winfrey has admitted playing a role in perpetuating diet culture during her career and said a dieting item from a 1980s show was one of her “biggest regrets”.
The 70-year-old star – who has been ranked among the most influential women in the world – has been open about her struggles to maintain a healthy weight and attempts to lose weight.
In March she said “making fun of my weight was a national sport” for more than two decades.
In comments reported by NBC, Sky’s US partner, the talk show host told a livestream and live audience: “I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years.
“I’ve been a major contributor to it. I cannot tell you how many weight loss shows and makeovers I have done and they have been a staple since I’ve been working in television.”
But she admitted an item on a 1988 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show was one of her “biggest regrets” when she rolled a wagon of fat on to the stage to represent the weight she had recently lost thanks to a liquid diet and exercise.
She had starved herself for months, she said, admitting that it “sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet and set a standard for people watching that I, nor anybody else, could uphold. The very next day, I began to gain the weight back.
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“I own what I’ve done, and now I want to do better.”
Winfrey was speaking on Thursday at an event organised by WeightWatchers, whose board of directors she joined in 2015, before saying in February she was leaving.
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In 2016, she used an interview in the magazine O to reveal she had lost 12kg, sharing the cover with nine other woman to celebrate their “best body”.
In the issue, Winfrey said, “It was my idea to share the cover with other women who are on the same journey that I am. My own struggles with the scale are well known. I’ve never believed in hiding them.”
In December, she told People she had started taking a weight loss drug, saying she used it “as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for.”