Donald Trump’s Georgia trial to be televised and live-streamed – news today

Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election in Georgia will be televised and live-streamed, a judge has ruled.

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the criminal racketeering case against the former president, said he would allow a YouTube stream, to be operated by the court, as well as permission for pool coverage for television, radio and still photography.

It is the first of Trump’s four criminal trials where filming has been confirmed. Photographers were briefly allowed into a New York court at the beginning of Trump’s first hearing there.

Donald Trump has moved to sever Georgia case from the defendants seeking a speedy trial, arguing that it would violate his right to a fair process.

“President Trump moves the Court to sever his case from those of his co-defendants who have demanded a speedy trial … and who have a scheduled trial date of October 23, 2023,” lawyer Steven Sadow wrote in a filing on Thursday.

Gustaf Kilander has the details.

Donald Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2bn in one year and by hundreds of millions of dollars in other years over a decade, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is suing the former president and his business empire following a years-long fraud investigation.

Alex Woodward has the details.

The former president entered the plea on Thursday morning, waiving a formal arraignment following the 13 felony counts being filed against him.

On Thursday, the Capitol Hill doctor gave the Kentucky senator a clean bill of health that allowed him to resume normal activities. Earlier this year, he took a spill at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington during a fundraiser, which briefly put him out of commission. When he returned, he at times looked more wobbly, a sign of how diminished his injury left the 81-year-old.

Now, his latest freeze-up has made Washington, and more importantly, Senate Republicans, fathom the unthinkable: what does the Senate look like without him?

President Joe Biden has been taking the shorter stairs to get on Air Force One much more often since falling over a sandbag on stage during the US Air Force Academy graduation in June, a news photography analysis has shown.

NPR reports that Mr Biden has been eschewing the 18-foot staircase, which may at times be unstable, traditionally used when getting on and off Air Force One.

One inmate has been killed in an ongoing mass stabbing at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta where former President Donald Trump was booked and had his mug shot taken earlier this month.

Natalie Ammons at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office told CNN that the situation remains active.

Gustaf Kilander is following this developing story.

The former leader of a Philadelphia chapter of the neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys who stormed the halls of Congress on January 6 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Zachary Rehl, the son and grandson of Philadelphia police officers who used pepper spray against law enforcement outside the US Capitol then lied on the witness stand about it, had called for “firing squads” for “traitors” who wanted to “steal” the 2020 election from Donald Trump.

A Donald Trump campaign video about a recent surge in Covid-19 infections and advice that some people may want to use face masks has received a brutal fact check via a “Community Note” on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the video, the former president rails against the possibility of new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. The clip posted by Team Trump is captioned: “COVID Tyrants want to take away our Freedom. Hear my words— WE WILL NOT COMPLY.”

The community note — a function on X by which members of the community may add context to the posts of others — notes that in the original Covid-19 outbreak at the beginning of the pandemic: “The Trump Administration along with other federal agencies began the lockdown and social distancing rules in 2020.”

The note comes with a link to one of Mr Trump’s own tweets from the time.

A second note, citing an article in The New York Times, reads: “President Trump issued national guidelines that included closing schools and avoiding bars, restaurants and groups of more than 10.”

US Senator Mitch McConnell has been given a clean bill of health by the Capitol Hill doctor after his latest “freezing” health scare.

The Minority Leader, a Republican from Kentucky, appeared to briefly freeze up and was unable to answer a question from a reporter at an event in the state on Wednesday.

Now the 81-year-old politician has been told he is free to continue with his schedule by the Office of the Attending Physician at Congress.

Graeme Massie has the details.