News briefs

Trump’s lawsuit against NY Times, niece is a ‘stunt,’ her lawyer says

Former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The New York Times and his niece over an investigative report on his tax avoidance for which she provided documents is just his “latest stunt,” her lawyer said.

The suit, which accuses Mary Trump and The Times of conspiring to breach a confidential settlement, is doomed to fail because the 2001 deal cited by Donald Trump was tainted by fraud and therefore never valid to begin with, Roberta Kaplan said on Wednesday.

Kaplan noted that the former president’s late brother Robert Trump already unsuccessfully raised the settlement, which resolved a dispute over their father’s will, in trying to block the publication last year of Mary Trump’s tell-all book about the family. She is now suing Donald Trump and his siblings to overturn that settlement, claiming they lied to her about the true value of her grandfather Fred Trump’s estate.

The lawsuit the former president filed Tuesday in state court in Dutchess County, New York, “is clearly intended as a diversion from the very compelling fraud case that Mary Trump filed against Donald and his siblings,” said Kaplan. She said the settlement agreement, including the confidentiality provision, is unenforceable because it’s rooted in the alleged fraud.

Donald Trump has denied his niece’s fraud claims and moved to dismiss her suit.

The 2018 Times report, which won a Pulitzer Prize, detailed how Trump’s real estate business claimed suspiciously low valuations on properties to minimize tax liability and also revealed that his inheritance from his father was worth more than $400 million. Mary Trump later acknowledged she provided documents to the Times reporters, three of whom were also named in the suit.

—Bloomberg News

Mars lander records 3 quakes in a month on the Red Planet

WASHINGTON — Three large quakes have been measured by NASA's Mars InSight lander in the past month, including one that caused the Martian surface to shake for about an hour and a half.

The first two marsquakes on Aug. 25 had magnitudes of 4.2 and 4.1, the US space agency said Wednesday.

But the longest quake measured by InSight so far happened on Sept. 18 — the lander's 1,000th day on Mars — when a magnitude-4.2 temblor rattled the surface for about 90 minutes.

The stationary lander arrived on Mars in 2018 to study seismic waves to learn more about the interior, which helps scientists have a better understanding about how planets form.

NASA said the Sept. 18 quake is still being studied, but that much had already been learned about the August events.

For instance, the magnitude-4.2 quake on Aug. 25 occurred about 8,500 kilometers from InSight — the most distant temblor the lander has detected so far.

The two August quakes were also of two different types.

"The magnitude-4.2 quake was dominated by slow, low-frequency vibrations, while fast, high-frequency vibrations characterized the magnitude-4.1 quake," NASA said.

—dpa

R. Kelly will not testify in sex trafficking trial

NEW YORK — Disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly said Wednesday he will not take the stand in his own defense, setting the stage for closing arguments in his sex trafficking trial.

The “Sex Me” singer quietly told Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly that he consulted with his lawyers and opted not to testify.

“And is it your decision not to testify?” Donnelly asked, while the jury was out of the room.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kelly responded.

The decision means that jurors will hear closing arguments and begin deliberating this week.

Kelly’s defense team presented a brief case starting Monday, bringing forward employees of the singer who claimed they never saw him hit women or lock them in rooms.

Born Robert Sylvester Kelly, 54, the Chicago native is accused of trafficking women and girls for illegal sexual activity. He and his crew allegedly targeted women who attended his concerts.

More than 10 accusers who took the stand accused him of berating them physically and verbally and recording videos of sexual encounters without their consent. Some of the victims were underage when they began sexual relationships with the singer.

One woman who met R. Kelly while she was a fan at his 2008 child porn trial began having sex with Kelly at age 16, she testified.

He is also accused of knowingly giving herpes to some of his victims, which is a crime in some states.

—New York Daily News

Nominee for ambassador to Canada gains senators' praise

WASHINGTON — David L. Cohen, a decades-long fixture in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania’s political, civic and business circles, won bipartisan praise Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing on his nomination to become the U.S. ambassador to Canada.

Both of Pennsylvania’s senators, Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Pat Toomey, introduced and advocated for Cohen, a longtime Comcast executive with an even longer history at the top levels of city and state politics.

Cohen was one of President Joe Biden’s top campaign fund-raisers, and personally hosted the president’s first formal event when he launched his 2020 campaign. In July, Biden nominated Cohen to become the voice of the administration with one of America’s closest allies.

“Canada is one of our most important allies, and a partner for our economic prosperity and our national security,” Cohen told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.

America and Canada share the largest land border in the world and Canada is one of the United States’ largest trading partners.

Trade between the countries nears $1.7 billion a day, and Canada is the top export market for more than 30 states, Cohen told the Senate committee. Maintaining that economic relationship was at the top of his priorities, he said. Others included easing border restrictions imposed during the pandemic, cooperatively managing shared watersheds, and emphasizing joint priorities on defense and climate change.

While Canada is hardly a political flashpoint, senators did express concerns on several issues. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the committee’s chair, said he hoped the country would be “more outspoken” on human rights, particularly when it comes to China and Cuba.

—The Philadelphia Inquirer