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Donald Trump's mounting legal troubles have not dented his status as the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. In fact, the criminal charges have strengthened his position. Why? The former US president has been indicted twice in the past four months - once in New York for alleged financial crimes and once in a federal court on charges that he mishandled sensitive government documents and obstructed an investigation. He may be on the verge of a third indictment, for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and a fourth in Georgia for pressuring state officials to reverse his 2020 defeat there. Through this all, Mr Trump's campaign has not just continued unabated, it has thrived. An average of opinion polls from 31 July shows he has a commanding lead of 37 points over his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. No-one else in the crowded field of 14 candidates scores over 6%, and more than half of them are not even at 1%. Back in mid-February, Mr Trump's lead over Mr DeSantis in the average of polls was just two points (41% to 39%). That turned out to be the Florida governor's high point so far, however. While his star has faded and his poll numbers have plummeted, Mr Trump's support has remained rock solid. And since the first indictment was brought in the first week of April - making Mr Trump the first former US president to face criminal charges - it has actually grown. According to the average of polls, Mr Trump has been the first choice of a majority of Republican voters ever since that first arrest and court appearance. FULL STORY

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has sometimes raised the spectre of a nuclear conflict over Ukraine, said on Sunday that Moscow would have to use a nuclear weapon if Kyiv's ongoing counter-offensive was a success. Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, a body chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said in a message on his official social media accounts that Russia would be forced to fall back on its own nuclear doctrine in such a scenario. "Imagine if the.. offensive, which is backed by NATO, was a success and they tore off a part of our land then we would be forced to use a nuclear weapon according to the rules of a decree from the president of Russia. "There would simply be no other option. So our enemies should pray for our warriors' (success). They are making sure that a global nuclear fire is not ignited," he said. Medvedev, who has cast himself as one of Moscow's most hawkish voices, appeared to be referring to part of Russia's nuclear doctrine which sets out that nuclear weapons can be used in response to aggression against Russia carried out using conventional weapons which threatens the existence of the Russian state. Ukraine is trying to retake territory which Russia has unilaterally annexed and declared to be part of its own territory, a move condemned by Kyiv and much of the West. FULL STORY

Next year, Americans will be required to obtain travel authorization to enter 30 countries, ending visa-free travel in Europe for U.S. citizens. The European Union announced this week a new security program that would mandate U.S. passport holders to obtain visas before traveling to any of the visa-required countries, including Spain, France and Greece. Here is everything Americans need to know. Application process Before you secure your flights to your European destination, visit the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). The earlier you apply and are approved for the visa, the sooner it will arrive, providing peace of mind. Keep in mind that the new rules will be enforced starting in January 2024. FULL ARTICLE

A federal judge in Florida on Friday dismissed a $475 million defamation lawsuit former President Donald Trump brought against CNN that accused the network of defaming him by using the phrase “the big lie” and allegedly comparing him to Adolf Hitler. District Judge Raag Singhal, a 2019 appointee of Trump’s, said that use of the phrase or similar statements are opinion that don’t meet the standard for defamation. “CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people. No reasonable viewer could (or should) plausibly make that reference,” Singhal wrote. “Being “Hitler-like” is not a verifiable statement of fact that would support a defamation claim,” Singhal added. The lawsuit is one of many Trump has filed against media outlets, including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, objecting to coverage during his presidency and in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden. Trump had accused CNN of a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” and of creating a “false and incendiary association” between him and Hitler. “Like Trump and CNN personalities … the Court finds Nazi references in the political discourse (made by whichever ‘side’) to be odious and repugnant,” Singhal wrote. “But bad rhetoric is not defamation when it does not include false statements of fact.” FULL STORY

The Biden White House has tried to present itself as being above the fray of day-to-day squabbles, but increasingly, it’s jumping in, bashing the GOP and other critics at every opportunity. The administration didn’t miss a chance this week to hammer Republicans over Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floating that the House would move towards an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. They were quick with memos and statements to criticize the GOP attacks as a “clown carousel” and the idea of pursuing impeachment as “baseless.” And the White House issued a scathing rebuke of Fox New host Greg Gutfeld, who said that Jews captured and tortured during the Holocaust survived by having skills and being useful, calling out his comments as a “dangerous, extreme lie.” The new levels of punchy rhetoric preview the White House messaging strategy going into 2024, which is to fight back and call out what they consider extreme. It’s a shift from their previous attitude, which was to let what they considered to be Republican chaos speak for itself. FULL STORY

Donald Trump is facing two indictments, with the potential for more. Political wisdom may have once suggested the former president’s bid for a second White House term would be nothing but a pipe dream. But most of us know better by now. Trump is not only in a historically strong position for a nonincumbent to win the Republican nomination, but he is in a better position to win the general election than at any point during the 2020 cycle and almost at any point during the 2016 cycle. No one in Trump’s current polling position in the modern era has lost an open presidential primary that didn’t feature an incumbent. He’s pulling in more than 50% of support in the national primary polls, i.e., more than all his competitors combined. Three prior candidates in open primaries were pulling in more than half the vote in primary surveys in the second half of the calendar year before the election: Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Gore remains the only nonincumbent to win every single presidential nominating contest, while Bush and Clinton never lost their national polling advantage in their primaries. FULL ARTICLE

As the Northern Hemisphere swelters under a record-breaking summer heat wave, much further south, in the depths of winter, another terrifying climate record is being broken. Antarctic sea ice has fallen to unprecedented lows for this time of year. Every year, Antarctic sea ice shrinks to its lowest levels towards the end of February, during the continent’s summer. The sea ice then builds back up over the winter. But this year scientists have observed something different. The sea ice has not returned to anywhere near expected levels. In fact it is at the lowest levels for this time of year since records began 45 years ago. The ice is around 1.6 million square kilometers (0.6 million square miles) below the previous winter record low set in 2022, according to data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). In mid-July, Antarctica’s sea ice was 2.6 million square kilometers (1 million square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. That is an area nearly as large as Argentina or the combined areas of Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado FULL STORY

Italy made an "improvised and atrocious" decision in joining China's Belt and Road (BRI) initiative, defence minister Guido Crosetto has said. Mr Crosetto claimed the initiative had done little to boost Italy's exports, making China the only winner. China has previously said both nations have seen "fruitful results" as a result of the BRI. Italy became the first developed economy to join the BRI in 2019 - a move criticised by its Western allies. The global investment programme envisions connecting China with Europe and beyond through rebuilding the old Silk Road trade route. Under it, China provides funding for major infrastructure projects around the world, in a bid to speed Chinese goods to markets further afield. Critics see it as a tool for China to spread influence. Both the EU and the US expressed concern when Italy decided to join the scheme four years ago. FULL STORY

At least 44 people have been killed in an explosion in Pakistan during a rally organised by an Islamist party. More than 100 people were also injured in the explosion in north-west Bajaur district, where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was holding a meeting. Police told the BBC that they have found evidence suggesting the explosion was a possible suicide attack. A rescue operation has been completed and all injured have been taken to hospital, officers said. Officials have warned the death toll may rise further, as 15 people are in a critical condition. The motivation behind the attack is not yet clear. Security forces have cordoned off the area and an investigation into the explosion is taking place. Hundreds of people were attending the JUI-F workers' convention on Sunday in the town of Khar, in the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan. Pictures showed hundreds of people gathered under a canopy when the blast happened close to the stage. FULL STORY

China is pressuring Uyghurs living abroad to spy on human rights campaigners by threatening families back home, researchers say. Refugees and activists tell the BBC intimidating tactics are tearing communities apart. "My dearest son," said Alim's mother as she flickered into view. "I didn't think I'd see you before I died." Alim - not his real name - says he was overcome by the moment. The reunion over a video call was their first contact in six years, since he fled as a refugee to the UK. But it was bittersweet: someone else was in control of the call. Like all Uyghurs - a mostly Muslim minority from north-western China - Alim's mother lives under intense surveillance and control. They could never call each other directly. Instead, a middleman phoned Alim and his mother from two separate mobiles. He held the phone screens to face each other, so the pair could see wobbly images of each other - and hear muffled sound from the speakers. Alim says they barely spoke, and spent most of the call in tears. FULL STORY

Dnipro: Russian missiles hit apartment block and security service building At least nine people have been injured including two children after missiles hit two buildings in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials say. A BBC team on the ground confirmed the top floor of a large residential tower block was almost completely destroyed in the strike on Friday evening. A building belonging to Ukraine's security services (SBU) was also hit, President Volodymyr Zelensky says. He blamed "Russian missile terror". Mr Zelensky posted a video on Telegram showing smoke rising from damaged buildings and a fire at street level. He said he had convened emergency meetings with the SBU, interior ministry, emergency services and local officials following the incident.

WhatsApp will now let you record and send video clips directly in the messaging app, the Meta-owned platform announced this week. The instant video messages can be up to 60 seconds long, and are similarly protected with the app’s end-to-end encryption service. “We think these will be a fun way to share moments with all the emotion that comes from video, whether it’s wishing someone a happy birthday, laughing at a joke, or bringing good news,” the company said Thursday in a blog post. The new feature will be similar to sending a voice message on the platform, the company added, and there will also be a way to record the video hands-free.

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix despite an X-rated radio row with his race engineer. Verstappen was embroiled in a squabble with Gianpiero Lambiase after he only just made it through to Q3 during a wet-dry session at Spa-Francorchamps.9

The 2023 Emmy Awards are reportedly being postponed, marking the first time the ceremony has been pushed back since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Strikes by actors and writers that have effectively shut down Hollywood have prompted the move, with tens of thousands in the industry unable to promote their work due to the action.

President Joe Biden on Friday appeared at a textile factory in Auburn, Maine, to sign an executive order that encourages companies to manufacture inventions in the United States. However, he momentarily forgot to sign the order after speaking to the crowd, according to footage of the event. Fox News took notice of the moment, with conservative media figure Alex Lorusso sharing a clip to Twitter on Friday afternoon. In the clip, the president can be seen standing with the audience before announcing: "I'm coming back to shake your hand, but I forgot I didn't sign the order! All that talk and no action." Biden then returned to a desk to sign the order during what was his first trip to Maine as president. He won the state in the 2020 presidential election. Full Story

Unstable Diffusion is a NSFW AI image generator with minimal content restrictions.Unstable Diffusion Unstable Diffusion is an AI image generator with minimal content restrictions. The platform allows users to generate NSFW content, including pornographic images. Its CEO says that the service is putting out more than 500,000 images a day. Unstable Diffusion, the NSFW AI image generator that was booted off Kickstarter in December, is gaining quite a following: The program is generating more than 500,000 images every day, its CEO and cofounder Arman Chaudhry told Insider over email. Unstable Diffusion is similar to other AI image generators that create images from text inputs, but it has minimal content restrictions and can create NSFW images, including pornographic ones. It is based on Stable Diffusion, the popular text-to-image generator from Stability AI. The code underlying Stable Diffusion is public, so anyone can theoretically view and modify it to create new versions of the original model. That's what Chaudhry did when starting Unstable Diffusion in August 2022, the same month Stable Diffusion was released to the public. Unstable Diffusion began as a subreddit to share AI-generated porn. The group then moved to Discord, where members started building tools, eventually creating a bot that would become an early version of its image generator, TechCrunch reported. "We founded the discord group as a refuge for artists who wanted to create AI art without limitations, including those related to adult content," Chaudhry, CEO of Unstable Diffusion, told Insider in February over email. FULL STORY

A legal drama involving Hunter Biden on Wednesday showed how a presidential race already reeling from a possible third criminal indictment of Donald Trump is being defined more by courtroom action than campaign trail fireworks. President Joe Biden’s son – and a White House gearing up for a reelection bid – had hoped Wednesday would bring legal closure. But a judge balked at Hunter Biden’s plea deal agreed to with prosecutors, igniting new political rocket fuel for Republicans who claim that the younger Biden got a sweetheart deal from his dad’s Justice Department. But the surprising twist to what had been seen as rubber stamp court hearing in Delaware is not the most critical legal intrigue playing into one of the strangest presidential campaigns in history. Washington is braced for a possible third criminal indictment of Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the run up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The grand jury from which any charges will emerge is expected to meet again in Washington on Thursday – about a week after Trump said he received a target letter from the special counsel, which is a step that often precedes criminal charges. Trump is already the first former president to be criminally charged. His previous indictments – one in Manhattan on business fraud charges related to a hush money payment to an adult film star, and the other in federal court related to alleged mishandling of classified documents – have sent a shudder through the 2024 campaign since he’s also the front-runner for the GOP nomination. An indictment over events leading up to January 6 would mark a unique moment in America’s story, since for the first time, the United States could be putting an ex-president on trial for an attempt to destroy its democratic system. FULL STORY

The federal judge overseeing Hunter Biden’s federal criminal case on Friday ordered attorneys to raise issues with her chambers, not the court clerk, after bizarre accusations of impersonation. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika earlier in the week threatened sanctions, accusing an employee at a law firm representing Biden of apparently misrepresenting their identity to the clerk’s office during a phone call. Biden’s legal team has insisted it is all a misunderstanding. The employee submitted under penalty of perjury that they did not deceive anyone, suggesting the clerk’s office perhaps instead made a mistake. Noreika, a Trump appointee, ordered on Friday that “any issues or inquiries” in the case “shall be brought to my attention and not to the Clerk’s Office.” “The Clerk’s Office for this Court is staffed by many hardworking and dedicated employees,” she wrote. “They are often the public face of this Court and must address many different, and often difficult, issues on any given day. Their jobs are not always easy, but they do these jobs well. They have earned my trust and my respect. I will not tolerate or countenance them being ill-used, disrespected or lied to.” FULL STORY

Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker criticized special counsel Jack Smith after he laid three additional charges against former President Trump in a superseding indictment this week, calling the move “vindictive and petty.” “I think this last round of charges, to supersede this indictment, was to try to punish Donald Trump,” Whitaker said in a Fox News interview on Saturday. Smith originally indicted Trump on 37 counts related to mishandling of classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. The three additional counts relate to alleged attempts by Trump’s aides to delete security footage of the classified information being moved around the club. “It seems to me a little vindictive and petty,” he added. “The reason why I would say that is because these charges do not add anything, other than a new defendant, to a potential sentence if President Trump does get convicted.” Longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta was also charged in the original indictment alongside Mar-a-Lago club manager Carlos De Oliveira — who is a new addition to the case. Smith is also leading a separate investigation into Trump’s actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol and attempts by the former president and his team to overturn the 2020 election. FULL STORY

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave his strongest suggestion yet, in an interview that aired on Friday, that he would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump if elected to the White House next year. In the interview on The Megyn Kelly Show, DeSantis was asked by the host if he would commit to pardoning Trump on any federal charges. "Well, what I've said is very simple. I'm going to do what's right for the country. I don't think it would be good for the country to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison," DeSantis said. Pressed on whether that means he would pardon Trump, Desantis continued: "It doesn't seem like it would be a good thing. And I look at like, you know, Ford pardoned Nixon, took some heat for it, but at the end of the day, it's like, do we want to move forward as a country? Or do we want to be mired in these past controversies?" In May, shortly after he officially entered the presidential race, DeSantis said he would consider pardoning people involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection, if elected, including Trump. FULL STORY

The wreckage of an ancient Roman ship from more than 2,000 years ago has been found off the coast of Italy. The cargo ship was found off the port of Civitavecchia, about 50 miles (80km) north-west of Rome. It dates from about the 1st or 2nd Century BC and was found laden with hundreds of amphorae - a type of Roman terracotta jar. The pottery was found mostly intact, the Carabinieri police's art squad said in a statement. The ship, estimated to be more than 20m long, was discovered on a sandy seabed 160m (525ft) below sea level. "The exceptional discovery is an important example of the shipwreck of a Roman ship facing the perils of the sea in an attempt to reach the coast, and bears witness to old maritime trading routes," the Carabinieri said. The police art squad - which is in charge of protecting Italy's priceless cultural heritage - said the relic was found and filmed using a remotely operated robot. They did not say whether experts will now try and recover it, or its precious cargo, from the sea floor. FULL STORY

A court in Vietnam has jailed 54 people, including several high-ranking officials and a former minister, in one of the country's largest ever bribery and corruption cases. Judges said the accused had extorted money from people taking repatriation flights during the Covid-19 pandemic. One former minister was sentenced to 16 years in prison for receiving over $900,000 (£700,000) in bribes. The court's decision comes amid a major anti-graft drive across the government. After a trial of more than two weeks, the court in Hanoi convicted dozens of ex-officials - including several senior diplomats and a former deputy foreign minister - of receiving, offering or being complicit in bribes, fraud and abusing positions of power. The defendants were involved in a scheme in which diplomats and businesspeople took money from Vietnamese citizens abroad who wanted to return to the country on repatriation flights during the pandemic, when commercial travel was not available. The court said the defendants "must be punished seriously". State-run newspaper VTC reported that 25 state officials were found guilty of taking pay-offs worth a total of $7.4m (£5.8m). Life sentences were handed out to four former high ranking officials at the ministries of foreign affairs, health and public security, while ten businesspeople and civilians received suspended sentences. FULL STORY