Trump’s first trial, aid to Ukraine and other surprises from major news weeks

A version of this article appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter.Sign up for free to receive it in your inbox here.

CNN
—

It was a week of unexpected twists in an unpredictable but consequential election year.

Here’s a surprising development and what it could mean for the future.

Unless you’ve ever been stranded off the power grid in Antarctica, you probably know that former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York for falsifying business records related to hush money paid before the 2016 election. . This all-important lead story was the subject of full-page television coverage and banner headlines.

What was surprising was that the jury selection process, which was expected to take several weeks, was completed in a few days. Twelve jurors and six alternates will decide the former president’s sentence.

There were multiple issues, including one juror reconsidering his ability to be impartial and a self-immolation causing a commotion outside the courtroom.

But the end result is what matters most. The first of four potential criminal trials against Trump is underway. First arguments will begin next week.

Prosecutors have not told the Trump campaign which witnesses they will call first, so it is impossible to say exactly who will testify. They expect President Trump to violate gag orders and trash talk no matter who takes the stand.

What we do know is that Trump was already trying to promote a conspiracy theory that the jury was somehow biased against him. This was despite the public process that led to the seating of anonymous jurors.

“Help” is probably the wrong word. When 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voted in favor of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to hold votes on aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, anger at Johnson on the right wing of the party intensified.

Three Republicans – Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, and Paul Gosar of Arizona – said they supported the plan to oust Mr. Johnson from the speaker’s seat.

Mr Johnson, meanwhile, refused to protect himself by changing the rules of the House of Commons to make it harder to remove him. He has maintained the support of most Republicans and Mr. Trump. At least for now.

Faults within the Republican Party have been evident for years and are under immense stress. Mr Johnson will need support from Democrats to do so, possibly as soon as next week, if he retains his chair.

That’s the kind of bipartisanship and coalition government that will be music to the ears of moderate Americans. And if Mr. Johnson stands his ground and passes what many Americans and members of Congress want, his leadership skills will deserve a second look. More to come next week.

Most members of the House and Senate support increasing military aid to Ukraine to fend off Russian aggression. But the aid has been delayed since the White House requested it in October due to opposition from the right wing of the Republican Party.

Mr. Johnson, a true conservative who was skeptical about aiding Ukraine, is finally on the verge of a vote in the House of Commons. That’s a big improvement.

But the fight over aid has also revealed uncomfortable truths, including the rise of a nationalist-leaning right wing of the Republican Party that is unafraid to openly say it is doing less to support democracies around the world.

Israel and Iran may have avoided all-out war, at least for now

Retaliatory attacks and responses between Israel and Iran in recent weeks threaten to spark an all-out conflagration between the two countries.

Iran responded this week to an Israeli attack on a Syrian diplomatic facility with an attack of its own, and on Friday Israel responded with an attack on Iran. But the conclusion of many analysts was that it might continue for some time.

These are the words of Tamara Kiblawi of CNN’s “On the Middle East” newsletter.

This month’s dramatic escalation apparently began with an Israeli airstrike Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Since then, most of the Iranian attacks have been thwarted. 300 airborne weapons It appears to have given way to a rapid downhill slide in Israel. Immediately after Friday morning’s attack on Iran, regional sources told CNN’s Nick Robertson that no further reaction was expected from Iran and that direct state-to-state attacks between the two adversaries had ended. Read more on Kibrawi.

With so much coverage of the Trump trial, you may have missed that President Joe Biden is conducting a vigorous presidential campaign. While Mr. Trump spends most of his days in court, Mr. Biden is active elsewhere.

This week, he was in Philadelphia and went to Wawa, and he was in Pittsburgh and went to Sheetz. He was in Pennsylvania for three days promoting economic populism. If he can maintain the blue wall that helped Democrats win recent presidential elections, this kind of tailored campaign will make it possible.

While Trump has spread conspiracy theories out of court, Biden has adopted some of Trump’s message on issues such as tariffs, while there are clear differences between the two on important American issues of protecting democracy. I was drawing the line.

Biden’s hard work hasn’t quieted the voices of critics who point to his age and question his fitness for the job, but he’s still trying to convince Americans he wants to remain president. It is impossible to claim that you are not trying hard.

The term “Bidenomics” can be an insult or a boast, depending on the context.

Biden’s economic speeches were serious again this week, but for Americans who are still feeling the pinch of inflation and a sense of affordability in everything from the housing market to the restaurant industry. It may be a difficult sell.

Meanwhile, a report released this week says the International Monetary Fund is concerned not about a recession in the U.S. but rather that the U.S. economy is overheating relative to other countries. While Europe and other developed countries have not yet reached pre-pandemic growth levels, data suggests the U.S. economy has surpassed them.

“Remarkably, the U.S. economy is already growing faster than its pre-pandemic (growth) trends,” IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Grinchat said in a blog post accompanying the agency’s World Economic Outlook. mentioned in. This means any discussion of a Fed rate cut is likely to end in the near future.