While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 14
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Former US president Donald Trump waving at supporters after he was arraigned in Miami, Florida.
PHOTO: AFP
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Trump pleads not guilty in federal documents case
Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them.
Trump’s plea, entered before US Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman in a federal court in Miami, sets up a legal battle likely to play out over coming months as he campaigns to win back the presidency in a November 2024 election.
Experts say it could be a year or more before a trial takes place.
Trump, wearing a blue suit and a red tie, frowned and leaned back in his chair but did not speak during the 47-minute hearing. He was allowed to leave court without conditions or travel restrictions and no cash bond was required.
Ukrainian flag, Russian corpses evidence of Kyiv’s advance
Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag flew over a ruined grocery store and Russian soldiers lay dead in the street of the village of Neskuchne, reached by Reuters journalists on Tuesday in the first independent confirmation of Ukraine’s biggest advances for seven months against Russia’s invasion.
Russia has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains, and President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that for now he saw no need for a new mobilisation of fighting men to confront the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched last week.
“There is no such need today,” Mr Putin told a televised meeting of Russian war correspondents and military bloggers when asked about another mobilisation. But he added that it all depended on what Russia wanted to achieve in what it has described as a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
UN food agency will slash Syria aid by about half
REUTERS
The UN food agency said on Tuesday it will slash aid to Syrians in need of basic food supplies by around half due to a lack of funding.
“An unprecedented funding crisis in Syria is forcing the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut assistance to 2.5 million of the 5.5 million people who rely on the agency for their basic food needs”, the organisation said.
It said it took the decision “after exhausting all other options” and planned to stretch its “extremely limited” resources by prioritising “three million Syrians who are unable to make it from one week to the next without food assistance”.
Kyrgios vents over lack of white towels in Stuttgart opening loss
EPA-EFE
Nick Kyrgios got upset over a lack of white towels as he made a losing return to tennis on Tuesday, ambushed by grass-court debutant Wu Yibing 7-5, 6-3 at the ATP Stuttgart event.
The 25th-ranked Australian, who finished runner-up 11 months ago at Wimbledon to Novak Djokovic, was playing for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in January.
His mood turned sour in the first set, with complaints about the colour of the towels, the bounce of the grass court and a shortage of sideline water from an eco-dispenser.
Avatar, Star Wars fans will have to wait years to see next films
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
The Walt Disney Company updated its film release schedule on Tuesday, delaying some major films by as long as three years.
The third installment of Avatar moves to December 2025 from an earlier date of December 2024. Two other Avatar sequels were pushed back by three years to 2029 and 2031 respectively.
The next Star Wars film was pushed back a year, to May of 2026. Disney has not released a Star Wars film since 2019.
