Donald Trump described the hush money case against him as an “assault on America” as he arrived at court in New York ahead of his historic trial.
The former US president is accused of criminally altering business records to cover up a $130,000 (£104,200) payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, during his 2016 election campaign.
Trump then continued to attack US President Joe Biden and repeated claims that the trial is political persecution, saying: “It’s a country that’s run by an incompetent man who is very much involved in this case.”
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Before proceedings began Judge Juan M Merchan denied a request by the defence to recuse himself from the case.
Defence lawyers had renewed a motion from last summer arguing that an interview Mr Merchan gave to the media, his daughter’s work at a political consultancy firm and his daughter’s social media activity created a conflict of interest that merited recusal.
But Mr Merchan said Trump had “failed to provide” evidence of a conflict and instead relied on a “series of inferences [and] innuendos”.
“Defendant’s second motion for recusal is denied,” the judge ruled in court.
He added that he will not yet rule on Trump’s request to skip the trial on 17 May in order to attend his son’s high school graduation.
“It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Mr Merchan said.
The trial begins with the selection of the jury, which Sky News’ US partner network, NBC, said could take up to two weeks because of the large pool of prospective jurors.
Both the defence and prosecution agreed to a “hybrid” approach to the selection process, involving jurors being asked separate questions – one about conflicts with the trial, and another on whether jurors identify as impartial or unbiased.
Mr Merchan said the process – first requested by Trump’s lawyers – would not delay anything.
Around 200 Trump supporters gathered outside the courthouse as well as roughly 40 other individuals who were protesting against the former president.
One group of demonstrators carried a banner that read, “no one is above the law”.
Monday’s proceedings mark the first of four indictments against the former president to go to trial, and is the first to be held ahead of this year’s presidential election.
Trump faces two other criminal trials accusing him of trying to subvert his 2020 election loss to Mr Biden, and another that accuses him of mishandling classified information after he left the White House in 2021.
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He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. No other former US president has ever faced criminal charges.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, said he co-ordinated with Trump on payments to Ms Daniels and to Ms McDougal.
Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018 in relation to the payments and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was released into house arrest after one year.
Pro-Palestinian students in the US have defied an order by university officials to dismantle a tent camp set up to protest Israel’s war in Gaza or face suspension.
College authorities at Columbia University in New York, sent students a letter on Monday demanding they sign a form agreeing to obey university policies until June 2025 or an earlier graduation, if they wish to finish the term in good standing.
If they failed to comply by 2pm, local time, the letter said, they would be suspended, pending further investigation and would not finish the term, the note said.
But those at the camp, now in its second week, voted nearly unanimously to stay put, NBC, Sky’s US partner, said.
Around 2.45pm, protesters were seen marching on the quad and chanting “Disclose! Divest! We will not slow, we will not rest!'”, NBC said.
More than 300 people and at least 120 tents remained.
Noting that exams are starting and graduation is coming up, the letter said: “We urge you to remove the encampment so that we do not deprive your fellow students, their families and friends of this momentous occasion.”
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Mahmoud Khalil, the protesters’ lead negotiator, said university representatives began passing out the notices at the encampment shortly after 10am on Monday.
Demonstrators set up tents in the centre of the Columbia campus in one of the early pro-Palestinian protests over the Israel-Hamas war and its mounting death toll, but dissent quickly spread to other colleges, sparking clashes with police and arrests.
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At least 25 killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah
More than 900 people have been arrested across the US since police in New York removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia, arresting more than 100 demonstrators as they did so, on 18 April.
Clashes have continued, with about 275 people arrested on Saturday at various campuses including Indiana University at Bloomington, Arizona State University and Washington University in St Louis.
On Sunday night and Monday, people at an encampment near George Washington University in the US capital, protested, breaching and dismantling barriers.
Protesters at Yale University set up a new encampment with dozens of tents on Sunday afternoon, nearly a week after police arrested nearly 50 demonstrators and cleared a similar camp.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to local health officials, who say about two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
Israel declared war on Hamas and unleashed an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel on 7 October.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took another 250 hostages in its assault.
A four-month-old baby was among at least five people killed after dozens of tornadoes swept across central parts of the US.
Officials said at least 100 people were injured in Oklahoma, where four of the five died, as the extreme weather flattened buildings, ripped off roofing and threw vehicles down the street.
The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a rural town of about 5,000 people, as experts said nearly 40 twisters are believed to have carved their way through central areas across the weekend.
It comes after extreme weather left a trail of destruction in other central areas on Friday.
Officials confirmed a man died from injuries sustained in Iowa from a tornado in Pottawattamie County.
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt was in Sulphur to assess the damage when he declared a disaster emergency for 12 counties.
“You just can’t believe the destruction. It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed,” he said.
“Definitely the most damage since I’ve been governor.”
He added about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck, while thousands of residents were left without power.
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President Joe Biden has offered the full support of the federal government to help with the recovery efforts, the White House said in a statement.
Storm warnings for high winds, heavy rain and hail were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) on Sunday for more than 47 million people stretching across a large part of the US from eastern Texas towards Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin.
The NWS reported 38 possible twisters struck the central belt with Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri enduring the worst of the weather.
At one point, more than seven million people were placed under tornado warnings.
The authorities said the tornado in Sulphur began in a city park before sweeping through the town, flipping cars and ripping the roofs and walls from buildings.
Sulphur resident Kelly Trussell said: “How do you rebuild it? This is complete devastation. It is crazy, you want to help but where do you start?”
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0:31
Tornado wreaks havoc in Nebraska on Friday
On Friday, a tornado forced an industrial building in Lancaster County, Nebraska, to collapse with 70 people inside.
Several people were trapped, but everyone was rescued, the authorities said. Three people had injuries which were not life-threatening.
The NWS later said there had been possibly two tornadoes which spent around an hour creeping through Nebraska, leaving behind carnage with winds of up to 165mph.
US President Joe Biden has delivered an election-year roasting of his rival Donald Trump, criticising his immaturity.
Speaking at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, the 81-year-old responded to concerns that he is too old for a second presidential term.
“Yes, age is an issue – I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old,” he said, referring to his 77-year-old Republican opponent.
But in a more serious moment, the president told the gathered reporters: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides.
“I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.
“Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalise our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake.”
Mr Biden did not acknowledge the hundreds of demonstrators standing outside the event calling for an end to US support of Israel.
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Earlier, he had arrived at the venue through a back entrance, avoiding most of the protesters.
Outside the main entrance, some shouted “Shame on you!”, running after well-dressed attendees as they hurried inside for the dinner.
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Some chanted accusations that US journalists are not paying enough attention to the war and are misrepresenting it, shouting: “Western media, we see you and all the horrors that you hide”.
They were not alone – more than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their US-based colleagues to boycott the dinner.
The letter said: “The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering.
“We are subjected to detentions, interrogations and torture by the Israeli military – all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”
Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel on 7 October, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took another 250 hostages.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for a possible offensive in the city.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
At the beginning of April, Reporters Without Borders said more than 105 journalists had been killed in the area since 7 October, with at least 22 of them killed in the course of their work.
The protests outside the correspondents’ dinner come as a protest movement sweeps across US universities – a growing revolt within a demographic Mr Biden will need to beat Mr Trump.