US Supreme Court rules Trump has immunity for official, not private acts - CNA

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court for the first time on Monday (Jul 1) recognised that ex-presidents have immunity from prosecution for certain actions taken in office, as it threw out a judicial decision rejecting Donald Trump's bid to shield himself from criminal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.

The court ruled 6-3 that while former presidents enjoy immunity for actions they take within their constitutional authority, they do not for actions taken in a private capacity. The ruling marked the first time since the nation's 18th century founding that the Supreme Court has declared that former presidents may be shielded from criminal charges in any instance.

Chief Justice John Roberts announced the landmark ruling on behalf of the court's six-justice conserverative majority. The court's three liberal justices dissented.

The decision came in Trump's appeal of a lower court ruling rejecting his immunity claim. The court decided the case on the last day of its term.

Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov 5 US election in a rematch from four years ago. The court's slow handling of the blockbuster case already had helped Trump by making it unlikely that any trial on these charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith could be completed before the election.

Trump had argued that he is immune from prosecution because he was serving as president when he took the actions that led to the charges. Smith had opposed presidential immunity from prosecution based on the principle that no one is above the law.

During Apr 25 arguments in the case, Trump's legal team urged the justices to fully shield former presidents from criminal charges - "absolute immunity" - for official acts taken in office. Without immunity, Trump's lawyer said, sitting presidents would face "blackmail and extortion" by political rivals due to the threat of future prosecution.

The court's 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices Trump appointed. Smith's election subversion charges embody one of the four criminal cases Trump has faced.

Trump, 78, is the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted as well as the first former president convicted of a crime.

In the special counsel's August 2023 indictment, Trump was charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, corruptly obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do so, and conspiring against the right of Americans to vote. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trump's trial had been scheduled to start on Mar 4 before the delays over the immunity issue. Now, no trial date is set. Trump made his immunity claim to the trial judge in October, meaning the issue has been litigated for about nine months.

In a separate case brought in New York state court, Trump was found guilty by a jury in Manhattan on May 30 on 34 counts of falsifying documents to cover up hush money paid to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal before the 2016 election. Trump also faces criminal charges in two other cases. He has pleaded not guilty in those and called all the cases against him politically motivated.

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2024-07-01 15:02:00Z
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China offers foreign permanent residents of Hong Kong, Macao five-year visas - CNA

BEIJING: Foreigners who are permanent residents of Hong Kong and Macao and are looking to visit mainland China can apply for multiple-entry travel visas with a validity of five years, China's National Immigration Administration said on Monday (Jul 1).

From Jul 10, foreign permanent residents of the two Chinese-ruled cities will be eligible to apply for such visas to enter the mainland, according to the administration.

Each stay shall not exceed 90 days.

Foreigner permanent residents intending to work, study, or engage in news reporting on the mainland, must apply for other visas or residence permits, the administration said.

The move announced on the 27th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to Chinese from British rule, is one of many steps taken since China reopened its borders post-COVID to woo back foreign tourists and business travellers.

The special travel permit is also a reward for foreigners who are permanent residents in Macao and more so for Hong Kong, whose international appeal has waned due to criticism over the city's handling of the pandemic and Beijing's crackdown on street protesters in 2019-2020.

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2024-07-01 07:12:29Z
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France election: Macron, Le Pen and a political system under strain - CNA

WHO ARE THE CONTENDERS?

• RENAISSANCE AND ALLIES

Macron first pieced together his centrist party in 2016 in his initial run for president.

He poached politicians from the old center-left Socialist and center-right Gaullist parties to lead a technocratically minded government that said it would tackle entrenched interest groups, reinvigorate the economy and slash unemployment. It is still a work in progress.

• NATIONAL RALLY

The far-right, nationalist party was formerly known as the National Front. Its leader Marine Le Pen has tried to make the brand less toxic and more electable since taking over in 2011 from her father Jean-Marie, who was notorious for his racist and antisemitic comments.

Marine Le Pen has largely maintained the party’s hostility to immigrants but stopped campaigning for France to leave the European Union.

She’s brought more discipline to the movement, both in its language and attire in an effort to make it look and sound more like a government in waiting.

Opinion polls suggest the National Rally will win the biggest share of the vote in its best showing ever.

• NEW POPULAR FRONT

This coalition of leftist parties has called for a cut in the official retirement age to 60 from 62, reversing the law pushed through by Macron that will raise it to 64, a higher minimum wage and the return of wealth taxes.

Whether it would actually do all this in office would depend partly on which of its heavyweights became prime minister.

The movement is a coalition ranging from the far-left - personified by radical firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon - to more traditional social-democrats including former President Francois Hollande.

• THE REPUBLICANS

Inheritors of the center-right tradition established by de Gaulle and perpetuated by former Presidents Jacques Chirac and Georges Pompidou, the Republicans are now in turmoil.

When their leader Eric Ciotti defied his party colleagues and called for a tie-up with the National Rally, they fired him, only for Ciotti to insist he was staying on.

The party was trailing well behind its three main rivals in opinion polls, but could still play a decisive role if none can secure a majority in the assembly.

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2024-07-01 04:08:00Z
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Joe Biden's disastrous debate blamed on bad preparation, exhaustion - CNA

President Joe Biden's train-wreck debate with Republican opponent Donald Trump followed a series of decisions by his most senior advisers that critics now point to as wrong-headed, interviews with Democratic allies, donors and former and current aides show.

Trump, 78, repeated a series of well-worn, glaring falsehoods during the 90-minute debate on Thursday (Jun 27), including claims that he actually won the 2020 election.

Biden, 81, failed to refute them and his fumbling, halting performance has sparked calls from Democrats for him to end his quest for a second term and for "soul-searching" or resignations among top aides.

"My only request was make sure he's rested before the debate, but he was exhausted. He was unwell," said one person who said they appealed to Biden's top aides in the days before, to no avail. "What a bad decision to send him out looking sick and exhausted."

Others were even more pointed.

"It is my belief that he was over-coached, over-practiced. And I believe (senior aide) Anita Dunn ... put him in a venue that was conducive for Trump and not for him,” said John Morgan, a Florida-based attorney and major Biden fundraiser.

Morgan said Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, the president’s attorney who played Trump in pre-debate rehearsals, should "be fired forever and never let back anywhere near the campaign".

Biden's debate strategy was signed off on by campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, who helped him win in 2020 and was appointed in January to boost an uneven reelection campaign. Dunn, a longtime Biden aide and former Barack Obama campaign strategist, backed that strategy.

Confidence going into the event was high. Trump was convicted of falsifying documents by a jury in New York on May 31, while Biden held back-to-back visits in Europe.

To the surprise of some Biden aides, his stubbornly low poll numbers began to inch up nationally in the weeks that followed.

Advisers set up a rigorous debate prep calendar, with Biden sequestered at Camp David for six days.

An inner circle, some close to Biden for decades, were involved: Ron Klain, his first White House chief of staff, Dunn, former White House counsel and Dunn's husband Bob Bauer and long-time adviser Mike Donilon, as well as about a dozen other policy and political experts.

Biden's campaign said on Friday that no staff shake-up was under consideration. Multiple aides, not just Dunn and Bauer, were involved in the preparation, said a campaign official, who also noted that Morgan was not there.

In an email to supporters on Saturday, O'Malley Dillon said internal polls and focus groups showed no change in voters' opinions in battleground states after the debate. She warned "overblown media narratives" may drive "temporary dips in the polls," but said she was confident Biden would win in November.

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2024-06-30 23:26:00Z
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Far-right wins first round in France election, run-off horsetrading begins - CNA

At Le Pen's Henin-Beaumont constituency in northern France, supporters waved French flags and sang the Marseillaise.

"The French have shown their willingness to turn the page on a contemptuous and corrosive power," Le Pen told the cheering crowd.

The RN's chances of winning power next week will depend on the political dealmaking made by its rivals over the coming days. In the past, centre-right and centre-left parties have teamed up to keep the RN from power, but that dynamic, known as the "republican front", is less certain than ever.

If no candidate reaches 50 per cent in the first round, the top two contenders automatically qualify for the second round, as well as all those with 12.5 per cent of registered voters. In the run-off, whoever wins the most votes takes the constituency.

The high turnout on Sunday suggests France is heading for a record number of three-way run-offs. These generally benefit the RN much more than two-way contests, experts say.

The horsetrading began almost immediately on Sunday night.

Macron called on voters to rally behind candidates who are "clearly republican and democratic", which, based on his recent declarations, would exclude candidates from the RN and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party.

Political leaders from the centre-left and far-left all called on their third-placed candidates to drop out.

"Our guideline is simple and clear: Not a single more vote for the National Rally," France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said.

However, the centre-right Republican party, which split ahead of the vote with a small number of its lawmakers joining the RN, gave no guidance.

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2024-06-30 19:41:00Z
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France votes in crucial polls as far right eyes power - CNA

"FIGHT AGAINST HATRED"

As of noon, turnout in mainland France stood at 25.90 per cent, an increase from the 18.43 per cent recorded in legislative elections in 2022.

The shape of the new parliament will become clear after the second round on Jul 7.

Voters in France's overseas territories had cast ballots earlier in the weekend.

Electors lined up to cast ballots in France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where tensions remain high following deadly riots there last month.

"It should be well attended, but I don't know if everyone will play along and come out to vote," said nurse Cassandre Cazaux.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, Greens party leader Marine Tondelier and former prime minister and Macron ally Edouard Philippe were among the first high-profile politicians to vote.

Philippe, the mayor of Le Havre in northern France who has made little effort to hide his ambitions for the presidency, was seen smiling and chatting to locals.

Macron's decision to call the snap vote plunged the country into political turmoil and sparked uncertainty in Europe's second-biggest economy.

The Paris stock exchange suffered its biggest monthly decline in two years in June, dropping by 6.4 per cent, according to figures released on Friday.

In an editorial, French daily Le Monde said it was time to mobilise against the far right.

"Yielding any power to it means nothing less than taking the risk of seeing everything that has been built and conquered over more than two and a half centuries gradually being undone," it said.

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2024-06-30 13:38:00Z
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Supercar driver dies after car crashes, bursts into flames on Karak Highway - The Star

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2024-06-30 09:00:01Z
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