Tuesday Briefing: New York prosecutors to indict Trump Organization insider - but not Trump

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

Hopes fade for scores missing under Florida condo rubble, a ceasefire in Ethiopia, and an old U.S. foe grows his political power in Iraq

Today's biggest stories

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump holds his first post-presidency campaign rally at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington, Ohio, June 26, 2021. REUTERS/Gaelen Morse

U.S.

New York prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump's business practices are likely to issue one or more criminal indictments this week – but not against Trump himself, according to people involved in the case.

Search-and-rescue operations continue at the site of a partly collapsed Florida condominium complex where at least 11 people were killed, with another 150 missing and feared dead. Hopes are fading by the hour of pulling anyone else alive from the rubble.

President Joe Biden will visit Wisconsin today to drum up support for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package hammered out by a bipartisan group of legislators but still in need of wide support in Congress to become reality.

New York will take Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and the nation's largest drug distributors to trial today, seeking to hold them liable for fueling an opioid crisis that has caused nearly half a million U.S. deaths over a decade.

The cities of Portland and Salem in Oregon, and Seattle in Washington set new temperature records as the Pacific Northwest baked under a heatwave that has shut down much of daily life for residents.

Members of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces carry the mock coffins of fellow members, who were killed by U.S. air strikes on the Syria-Iraq border, during a symbolic funeral in Baghdad, June 29, 2021. REUTERS/Saba Kareem

WORLD

MIDDLE EAST

The political movement of nationalist Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has quietly come to dominate the apparatus of the Iraqi state. This could pose problems for the United States and Iran. Read our special report on the old U.S. foe growing his political power.

Biden's latest strikes against Iran-backed militia in Syria and Iraq are not the first nor likely the last of his young presidency. We take a look at how America's battles with Iran-backed militia are escalating again.

The U.N. investigator on human rights in Iran has called for an independent inquiry into allegations of state-ordered executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 and the role played by President-elect Ebrahim Raisi as Tehran deputy prosecutor.

AFRICA

The former rulers of Ethiopia's Tigray region said they were back in control of the regional capital Mekelle after nearly eight months of fighting, and the government which ousted them declared a unilateral ceasefire with immediate effect.

South Africa's highest court sentenced ex-president Jacob Zuma to 15 months in jail for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry, as Zuma appeared to run out of options in his battle to escape prosecution.

Demonstrators in the small southern African kingdom of eSwatini demanded reforms to its system of absolute monarchy, and security forces tried to repel them with gunfire and tear gas. Campaigners say King Mswati III has consistently evaded calls for meaningful reforms that would nudge eSwatini, which changed its name from Swaziland in 2018, in the direction of democracy.


CHINA

President Xi Jinping urged Chinese Communist Party members to remain loyal and continue to serve the people as he awarded a new medal of honour to 29 members as part of the ruling party's 100th anniversary celebrations.

An extravaganza of song, dance and theater credited the party with guiding China's rise into a great power over the past century.

Read how China's ruling party is censoring its past as the centenary nears, and see our photo essay from a scarred Hong Kong where "beautiful things are gone".

BUSINESS

United Airlines unveiled its largest ever order for 270 Boeing and Airbus jets worth more than $30 billion at list prices as it seeks to grow domestically after the pandemic.

A U.S. judge dismissed federal and state antitrust complaints against Facebook that sought to force the social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the federal complaint was "legally insufficient."

TP ICAP, the world's biggest interdealer broker, is launching a cryptocurrency trading platform with Fidelity Investments and Standard Chartered's digital assets custody unit. The platform will initially allow institutional investors to trade bitcoin, with second-largest token ether to be added later.

French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated JPMorgan's new trading hub in Paris, as France pitches for more banking jobs and tries to lure finance workers looking to leave London after Brexit.

Quote of the day

"The risk is real and we need to act quickly, we need to go hard, we need to go fast"

Annastacia Palaszczuk

Queensland premier

Australia tightens lockdown amid Delta virus outbreak

Video of the day

Furloughed Londoner finds fortune in the Thames

Confined to London by coronavirus lockdowns, Flora Blathwayt founded a business based on rubbish she retrieves from the muddy banks of the River Thames.

And finally…

When do electric vehicles become cleaner than gasoline cars?

You glide silently out of the Tesla showroom in your sleek new electric Model 3, satisfied you're looking great and doing your bit for the planet. But keep going - you'll have to drive another 13,500 miles before you're doing less harm to the environment than a gas-guzzling saloon.

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