While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 17, 2024
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E. Jean Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, accused former US President Donald Trump of rape.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Trump back in court for second defamation trial after Iowa victory
Fresh off a campaign victory in Iowa, Donald Trump sat in a New York courtroom on Tuesday to defend himself for a second time against charges that he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her decades ago.
Trump watched from the defendant’s table as Carroll’s lawyer told a jury that the then-US president made her life miserable when she went public in 2019 with her story that he had attacked her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan.
“He used the world’s biggest microphone to attack Ms. Carroll, to humiliate her, and to destroy her reputation,” lawyer Shawn Crowley said.
Carroll, 80, is seeking at least US$10 million in damages in a civil case that will put the allegations of sexual assault back in the headlines while he pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Macron seeks to revive presidency with vow for ‘stronger’ France
AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday sought to breathe new life into his final term in power with a promise for a “stronger and fairer” France at a rare news conference.
With over three years of his second and final term to run, Macron has been on the back foot in recent weeks after a series of crises and a growing challenge from the far-right.
Last week he announced a new cabinet with a pronounced tilt to the right, naming Gabriel Attal, 34, as France’s youngest-ever prime minister, and followed this with his first full-scale domestic press conference in half a decade.
Arctic blast ends New York snow drought, brings record cold to West
REUTERS
Millions of Americans awoke on Tuesday to snow, freezing rain and frigid temperatures as an Arctic blast gripped much of the United States, ending a nearly two-year “snow drought” in New York City and putting much of the West into a deep freeze.
Record-breaking cold was expected across the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains and Midwest on Tuesday, with wind chills below minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius) reaching the mid-Mississippi Valley in the morning.
The lowest temperature in the country on Tuesday morning was -36 deg F (-38 deg C) in the small Colorado town of Briggsdale, population 134.
Scientists in China clone first rhesus monkey using new method
AFP
Scientists in China on Tuesday announced that they have cloned the first healthy rhesus monkey, a two-year-old named Retro, by tweaking the process that created Dolly the sheep.
Primates have proved particularly difficult to clone, and the scientists overcame years of failure by replacing the cloned cells that would become the placenta with those from a normal embryo.
They hope their new technique will lead to the creation of identical rhesus monkeys that can be experimented on for medical research.
Stolen Picasso, Chagall paintings worth $1.2 million found in Belgian house
via REUTERS
Belgian police have found stolen Picasso and Chagall paintings in a basement in the city of Antwerp, local authorities said on Tuesday, adding that the artworks are still in good condition.
The paintings, Picasso’s “Tête” and Chagall’s “L’homme en prière”, were stolen from an art collector in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2010 and are worth US$900,000 (S$1.2 million).
At the time of the theft, US$680,000 worth of jewellery was stolen as well but only the paintings have been found.
