- Barca hit nine in Women's Champions League, Bayern overcome Juve
- Harris courts Trump-skeptic Republicans with Fox interview
- Global stock markets diverge as investors focus on earnings
- Worms and snails handle the pressure 2,500m below the Pacific surface
- Serena Williams has grapefruit-sized cyst removed from neck
- Lavreysen wins record-equalling 14th world cycling track title
- School's out! Argentina students study in the street to protest budget cuts
- Lower rates, surging stock market fail to ignite US IPO market
- Pogba 'willing to give up money' to stay at Juve
- Few countries have drawn up nature protection plans: UN
- Biden to make farewell trip to Germany as Ukraine war rages
- EU announces 30 mn euros to stem Senegal irregular migration
- Italy extends surrogacy ban to couples seeking it abroad
- Panama Canal crossings down 29 percent due to drought
- 'Clear indications' India violated Canada's sovereignty: Trudeau
- World champion Springboks to host Italy in 2025, Moerat to miss November tour
- Trump claims to be 'father of IVF' at all-female campaign stop
- WHO demands space to finish Gaza polio vaccination
- Mitchell left out of England squad for Autumn internationals
- Real Madrid back Mbappe amid Swedish rape investigation reports
- Middle East crisis top-of-mind at first EU-Gulf summit
- Israeli minister criticises Macron over France defence show ban
- Global stock markets diverge as markets focus on earmings
- Who said what on Tuchel's appointment as England manager
- Amazon bets on nuclear power to fuel AI ambitions
- Zelensky plan will be 'on table' at NATO talks this week: Rutte
- Harris steps into lion's den with Fox interview
- Macron riles Netanyahu with jab on Israel's creation
- Britain bounce back in America's Cup as New Zealand suffer
- Turkey shuts down radio station in Armenia genocide row
- Global stock markets diverge as tech fears linger
- Tuchel targets trophies as England manager
- War piles pressure on roads, services in crisis-hit Beirut
- Israeli booths, equipment barred from defence show in France
- Tuchel hopes to deliver 'missing trophies' to England
- England 239-6 in second Test after Sajid strikes for Pakistan
- Britain off the mark in America's Cup as New Zealand suffer
- Lufthansa fined 'record' $4 mn for barring Jewish passengers
- First migrants arrive in Albania under contested Italy deal
- Zelensky rules out ceding Ukrainian land in Victory Plan, urges NATO invite
- Global stock markets fall as tech fears weigh
- Musk's X escapes tough EU competition rules
- Thomas Tuchel: Abrasive but effective
- Root could break 16,000-run barrier, says England great Cook
- Indian airplane forced to divert after latest bomb hoax
- Tuchel 'has to' win World Cup for England, says Shearer
- Duckett half-century as England make brisk reply to Pakistan's 366
- Israel strikes Hezbollah strongholds after rejecting Lebanon ceasefire
- India issues flood warnings as rain pounds south
- Saudi crown prince in Brussels for first EU-Gulf summit
Prosecutor urges guilty verdict in Trump trial, citing 'powerful evidence'
Donald Trump engaged in a "conspiracy and a cover-up" to hide hush money payments to a porn star, prosecutors told the jury on Tuesday in closing arguments at the first ever criminal trial of a former US president.
Less than six months before American voters choose whether to return Trump to the White House, the stakes riding on the verdict are hard to overstate -- for the 77-year-old personally, but also for the country.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, when her account of an alleged sexual encounter could have doomed his 2016 presidential campaign.
Assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass delivered the summation for the prosecution after Trump's defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, called for his acquittal, insisting that the historic case against the former president was based on lies.
Steinglass asked the jury to "tune out the noise and ignore the sideshows."
"If you've done that, you'll see that the people have presented powerful evidence of the defendant's guilt," he said.
Steinglass said Daniels's story about her 2006 tryst with the married Trump was the "motive" for his alleged crime but the "case at its core is about a conspiracy and a cover up."
"Her story is messy, it makes people uncomfortable to hear," he said. "That's the display to the American people the defendant wanted to avoid."
Steinglass addressed the jury after Blanche told them the trial "isn't a referendum on your views of president Trump" or "who you plan on voting for in 2024."
Prosecutors failed to prove their case, Blanche said, and the only outcome should be a "very quick and easy not guilty verdict."
"President Trump is innocent," he said.
Blanche spent much of his remarks attacking Cohen, the prosecution's star witness, who has spent time in prison for tax evasion and other crimes, calling him the "MVP of liars" consumed by "outright hatred for Trump."
"He told you a number of things on that witness stand that were lies, pure and simple," he said. "You cannot convict president Trump of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt on the word of Michael Cohen."
Blanche said Trump was "busy running the country" when the reimbursements were made to Cohen and he did not closely inspect all the invoices that came across his desk.
"There was no intent to defraud and beyond that there was no conspiracy to influence the 2016 election by president Trump," Blanche said.
Steinglass countered that Cohen's testimony was not the entire case and there is "a mountain of corroborating evidence."
"This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump and whether he should be held accountable," he added.
- Graphic testimony -
Speaking to reporters before entering the Manhattan courtroom, Trump said "this is a very dangerous day for America."
"We have a rigged court case that should have never been brought," he said as three of his five children -- Don Jr, Eric and Tiffany -- stood behind him.
The 12 anonymous jurors will start deliberations as early as Wednesday.
Polls show Trump neck and neck against President Joe Biden and the verdict will inject new tension into the White House race.
Speaking on behalf of the Biden campaign outside court, actor Robert De Niro berated Trump as a "clown" intent on destroying the country.
The first former or sitting president under criminal indictment, Trump faces charges ranging from the relatively minor hush money case to accusations he took top secret documents and tried to overthrow the 2020 election.
The New York case, which featured more than 20 witnesses over five weeks and days of gripping testimony by Daniels and Cohen, is the only one likely to come to trial by election day.
- Unanimity required -
If convicted, Trump faces up to four years in prison on each of 34 counts, but legal experts say that as a first-time offender he is unlikely to get jail time.
A conviction would not bar him from appearing on the ballot in November.
Trump chose not to testify in his defense.
Instead, he used his trips to court to stage tirades against "corrupt" Judge Juan Merchan, and to claim the trial is a Democratic ploy to keep him off the campaign trail.
A number of Republican Trump loyalists, including several vying to be his vice president, have made the trek to the courtroom to sit behind him.
To return a guilty or not guilty verdict requires the jury to be unanimous. Just one holdout means a hung jury and a mistrial, although prosecutors could seek a new trial.
He also faces charges in Florida of hoarding huge quantities of classified documents after leaving the White House.
M.Fischer--AMWN