Trump ‘threatens’ Mark Milley and praises Rishi Sunak for climate rollbacks in Truth Social rants – live

Justice Clarence Thomas secretly took part in events for the right-wing Koch donor network despite the group supporting cases brought before the Supreme Court, according to a report.

Justice Thomas flew on a private jet in 2018 to speak to the conservative network’s annual winter donor summit in Palm Springs, California, according to ProPublica.

While at the event, he was a guest at a private dinner for donors, the outlet reported on Friday. It was at least the second event attended by Justice Thomas and he did not publicly declare it.

Justice Thomas has been criticised over a string of expensive vacations and gifts that he has received from billionaire and Republican donor Harlan Crow, which he also failed to disclose.

These include a trip on a luxury yacht, the renovation of his mother’s home, and private school tuition for his nephew. In his 2022 financial disclosure, Justice Thomas revealed that Mr Crow had paid for his travel expenses and meals three times last year.

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Donald Trump Jr returned to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after his account was hacked, only to blame Hunter Biden for the incident.

“I’M BACK... Hunter Biden must have hacked my account!!!” Mr Trump Jr tweeted on Friday morning.

This comes after his account appeared to have been taken over on Wednesday morning as it falsely announced the death of former President Donald Trump and said Mr Trump Jr would be running for president in 2024 instead.

“I’m sad to announce, my father Donald Trump has passed away. I will be running for president in 2024,” the account posted to immediate assumptions from other users that the ex-president’s oldest son had had his account hacked.

The account of Mr Trump Jr also wrote: “Some interesting messages with Jeffrey Epstein...”

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has accused Donald Trump of hiding behind his “failed social media site” Truth Social.

Mr Christie branded the former president a “coward” after he shared notorious images of Mr Christie that prompted the so-called “beachgate” scandal.

In the infamous photos, the then-governor was seen sunbathing on a New Jersey beach in 2017 – at a time when beaches were closed to the public due to a state government shutdown.

Mr Trump called Mr Christie, who is running against him in the 2024 presidential election, a “grifter” and attacked his record as governor of New Jersey as he reshared the images to his Truth Social followers earlier this week.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Mr Christie responded to the attack, blaming the former president’s late-night Truth Social rants on “bad Chinese food” and challenging him to face him in a debate.

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President Joe Biden will head to Michigan to support striking autoworkers on Tuesday.

Mr Biden the made a statement on X as the United Auto Workers expands its strike across multiple plants.

“Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create,” he said. “It’s time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs.”

Leaders for the United Auto Workers had previously invited the president to join the picket line.

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A federal contractor is facing the death penalty after he was charged with spying and sending US government secrets to Ethiopia.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was charged with gathering or delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government, conspiracy to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government, and having unauthorized possession of national defense information and willfully retaining it, the Department of Justice said.

The 50-year-old, originally from Ethiopia, was arrested last month and could face the death penalty if convicted of espionage.

Mr Lemma worked as an IT administrator for the Department of State, and as a management analyst for the Department of Justice.

In these positions, Mr Lemma was granted high level security clearance and granted access to classified documents.

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House Republicans have grown so dysfunctional that far-right members of the party appear to be on the same side as President Joe Biden.

On Thursday, both Mr Biden and Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert slammed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California for allowing the House to end its business for the week and lawmakers to set off on long weekends – even as a government shutdown looks increasingly inevitable.

“Last time there was a government shutdown, 800,000 Americans were furloughed or worked without pay. But enjoy your weekend,” Mr Biden wrote on X on Thursday.

In a rare moment of agreement with the president, Ms Boebert also took to X to make a similar comment.

“Congress should not be sent home this week without passing any individual appropriations bills that slash spending and show the American people we are making progress and can govern,” she wrote.

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Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin has said that Rudy Giuliani was known to be a “liability” within the Trump administration – after he was accused of sexually assaulting a White House aide on January 6 2021.

Ms Griffin told CNN that it was an open secret that Mr Giuliani was a “wild card” who would often show up drunk to the White House and that women were warned to stay away from him.

Her comments came after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mr Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and a star witness before the January 6 committee, accused Mr Giuliani of sexually assaulting her on the day of the insurrection.

In an excerpt from her upcoming book Enough obtained by The Guardian, Ms Hutchinson, 27, wrote that Mr Giuliani, 79, put his hand “under my blazer, then my skirt” backstage at a rally before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.

“I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh. He tilts his chin up. The whites of his eyes look jaundiced,” Ms Hutchinson wrote.

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Representative Dean Phillips became the first congressional Democrat to call for the resignation of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez on Friday, following the filing of corruption charges against the Foreign Relations Committee chair.

“I’m appalled,” Mr Phillips told CNN, adding that Democratic leadership should “absolutely” force Mr Menendez from his office.

General Mark Milley, the soon-to-retire chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made a claim exposing Donald Trump for making “disturbing” comments about a wounded US Army veteran as well as other eye-popping statements.

Mr Milley is the 20th chairman, a role which he started when Mr Trump gave it to him in 2019. Before this, he was the 39th chief of staff of the Army and served in multiple commands throughout his career

In a tell-all interview with The Atlantic to commemorate the end of his 43-year career in the armed services, he recounted the times the former president made astonishing comments about former Army Captain Luis Avila, who was seriously wounded after five combat tours and appeared in a ceremony with Trump and Milley.

“Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.” Mr Trump allegedly told Mr Milley, asking him to never let the soldier make a public appearance again.

Mr Avila, who had “lost his leg in an IED attack in Afghanistan and had suffered two heart attacks, two strokes, and brain damage as a result of his injuries,” was invited by Mr Milley to sing at an Armed Forces Welcome Ceremony in September 2019.

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A local journalist’s adult child has been arrested for spitting on a Utah mayor after he went on a disparaging rant about their mother’s reporting on him.

Linnea Pugmire, who uses they/them pronouns, was caught on video allegedly assaulting Orem Mayor David Young during an argument about a council meeting.

Pugmire’s mother Genelle Pugmire is a journalist for The Utah Daily Herald who often writes articles about Mr Young.

In a council meeting on Tuesday, Mr Young went on a 20-minute rant about the journalist’s articles, claiming that they were deceptive and made a lot of false claims about the council and himself.

Following the meeting, Pugmire confronted Mr Young outside the city council chambers, according to Fox 13.

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