WASHINGTON  –  Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to not release a special counsel’s report setting out its investigations into the US president-elect. Jack Smith led two probes into Trump, one on alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and another on his apparent mishandling of classified documents. Both cases have been shelved, but Mr Smith’s detailed report was due to be released in the coming days. But in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump’s lawyers have urged him to end the “weaponisation of the justice system” and hand the report to them. The correspondence alleges Mr Smith did not have the legal authority to submit the report because he was unconstitutionally picked to do the job and was politically motivated. Mr Smith is yet to publicly respond.

Trump’s legal team received a draft copy of the report at the weekend. The two investigations led to criminal indictments against Trump but both have since been dismissed, partly due to a longstanding DoJ policy not to prosecute a sitting president. The former president had pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing. Federal regulations decree that any special counsel probe must conclude with a report to the justice department and Garland has previously said he would release all such reports.

During his time away from the White House, Trump faced an array of legal cases, which were successfully delayed and thwarted by his lawyers and allies. The administration of the Democratic president, Joe Biden, faced accusations from Trump’s opponents that they brought cases against the Republican too slowly, while Trump’s supporters argued that the prosecutions were politically motivated. One of Mr Smith’s two cases concerned Trump’s attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the case ended up in legal limbo after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump was partially immune from criminal prosecution over official acts committed while in office. Mr Smith later refiled his case, but wound it down after Trump’s 2024 election win. He was also leading a case against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House following his first presidency – charges that Trump also denied.

This case faced a roadblock of its own when the Trump-appointed judge dismissed the charges, arguing Mr Smith was improperly appointed to lead the case. Again, Mr Smith hit back – this time with an appeal – but later abandoned this, too. DoJ guidance prevents the criminal prosecution of a sitting president. Mr Smith clarified that this legal protection also applied to the prosecution of a private citizen who was subsequently elected president. The news was celebrated by the Trump campaign, which hailed it as a “major victory for the rule of law”. Mr Smith is also reportedly expected to leave his job before Trump returns to the White House on 20 January and carries out a threat of sacking him.

Despite his recent legal wins, Trump still faces sentencing on Friday after being found guilty in New York last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to a porn star. With less than two weeks until Trump is re-inaugurated as US president, the judge has refused a request to delay, although he has previously made clear he will not consider giving Trump a custodial term. (BBC)

Photo: Jack Smith. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON   –  Tahlequah, the mother orca denoted as J35 who captured hearts worldwide in 2018 by carrying her dead calf for 17 days and over 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), is once again displaying a similar act of mourning. Her newest calf, a female known as J61 to researchers, was first spotted on December 20 in the Puget Sound area on Washington state’s northwest coast by members of the public. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration later confirmed the sighting on December 23, according to Dr. Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research. Tragically, by New Year’s Eve, the calf was confirmed dead, he said. Researchers have reported as of January 5 that Tahlequah is still carrying the calf, said Dr. Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center of NOAA. Updates regarding the mother’s activity with J61 may become limited as her family group, or pod, departs from its main Puget Sound base. Tahlequah is constantly nudging the deceased calf’s body, which weighs around 300 pounds (136 kilograms), with her snout to keep it close and prevent the ocean from pulling the carcass away.

“As with last time, I think it’s enough to recognize how strong the mother-calf bond is in killer whales (among the strongest social relationships in any animal), and to see that she is clearly not ready to let go,” Weiss, whose doctoral research focused on orca social structure, said via email. The loss of a calf is not only devastating to Tahlequah but for the rapidly declining population of Southern Resident orcas, which is teetering on the brink of extinction with only 73 of the marine mammals remaining as of 2019. The Southern Resident population is noted as “one of the most critically endangered populations of marine mammals” in the United States, according to researchers. This act of grief raises concerns among researchers, including Weiss and Hanson, for its physical and emotional toll on Tahlequah as a member of the highly vulnerable Southern Resident population. Carrying the extra weight of the calf’s body is both weighing down the mother and slowing her movements, which could impact her ability to forage for food. However, Weiss noted that during the orca’s previous 17-day display of grief, there was no visible decline in her condition, which could signal that other members of her pod were helping her receive her food supply. While some female killer whales have been known to grieve the loss of their calves in ways similar to Tahlequah, the distance and time that she carried her newborn in 2018 made her an exception. Her current behavior, mirroring her past actions, is also unusual, according to Weiss.

Tahlequah is known to be the mother of another orca, J47, who is now around 14 years old, and also J57, a baby born two years after her 2018 loss. Killer whales typically reproduce every five years, giving the mother time to recover from the physical demands of pregnancy and giving birth, Hanson said. While no significant data are available to suggest why Tahlequah may have lost two calves within her lifetime, orca pregnancies are fraught with challenges. Nearly 70% of pregnancies in the Southern Resident orca population, which Tahlequah and her offspring belong to, result in spontaneous abortions or very early deaths, Weiss said. (BBC)

Photo: Southern Resident killer whale Tahlequah carries her dead calf near Puget Sound on Washington state’s northwest coast. (Candice Emmons/NOAA Fisheries)

OCCUPIED WEST BANK  –   Israeli authorities have renewed a closure order on Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank, days after the Palestinian Authority suspended the network’s broadcasts for four months. Israeli soldiers posted an extension order on the entrance of the building housing Al Jazeera’s offices in central Ramallah, a city in the occupied West Bank under Palestinian Authority (PA) control, on Tuesday morning. The document renews the closure starting on December 22 for 45 days.

According to Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, the commander of the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank, Avi Balut, said that the order was justified because the office was being used for “incitement and support for acts of terrorism”. Last September, Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s Ramallah office and issued an initial 45-day closure order. Staff were instructed to leave the premises and take their personal belongings. Later, Israel’s government announced it was also revoking the press credentials of Al Jazeera journalists in the country.

The move followed a decision in May to ban Al Jazeera from broadcasting from Israel. The network’s offices were also closed for 45 days; an order that has been extended several times. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long been at odds with Al Jazeera. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, the network has faced repeated attempts to silence its reporting through arrests, imprisonment and attacks on its journalists. Al Jazeera has condemned and denounced Israel’s orders on its office in Ramallah. In a statement in September, the network said: “The raid on the office and seizure of our equipment is not only an attack on Al Jazeera, but an affront to press freedom and the very principles of journalism.”

“These oppressive measures are clearly intended to prevent the world from witnessing the reality of the situation in the occupied territories and the ongoing war on Gaza and the devastating impact on innocent civilians.” The PA has also suspended all Al Jazeera broadcasts from the occupied West Bank and placed restrictions on anyone working for the network, it says on grounds that the channel violates Palestinian laws, and that Al Jazeera is tampering with and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs. Al Jazeera has slammed the decision, branding it a move “in line with the [Israeli] occupation’s actions against its staff”. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A military vehicle moves in a street outside the building where the Al Jazeera office is located, in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank. (Reuters)

PORT-AU-PRINCE –  More than 5,600 people were killed and thousands more injured or kidnapped in 2024 due to soaring levels of gang violence in Haiti, the United Nations said. In a statement released on Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk condemned the “absolute horrors” faced by the population of the Caribbean country noting rights abuses and corruption are also rife. Armed gangs maintain control of most of the capital Port-au-Prince following an outbreak of violence last year. At the same time, the police are also accused of perpetrating violence against gang suspects, as the ongoing conflict serves to make worse the political instability that has plagued the island nation for decades.

“These figures alone cannot capture the absolute horrors being perpetrated in Haiti but they show the unremitting violence to which people are being subjected,” Volker said. The UN statement noted that at least 207 people were killed in early December in a massacre orchestrated by the leader of the powerful Wharf Jeremie gang in the Cite Soleil area of the capital. Moreover, the UN Human Rights Office also documented at least 315 lynchings of gang members and people allegedly associated with gangs, on some occasions reportedly facilitated by Haitian police officers, and 281 cases of alleged summary executions involving specialised police units in 2024.

“It has long been clear that impunity for human rights violations and abuses, as well as corruption, remain prevalent in Haiti,” Turk said. Last November, the UN ordered the evacuation of its staff from Haiti’s capital due to clashes between armed gangs, the police and civilians armed with machetes. However, the UN highlighted that it is “not leaving Haiti” but only “adapting its operations” by moving its staff to safer parts of the country and others working remotely. Turk called for the national police force to hold accountable officers reportedly involved in rights abuses with international help.

“Restoring the rule of law must be a priority,” Turk said, calling for the Kenyan-led UN mission tasked with quelling the violence to be granted “the logistical and financial support it requires to successfully implement its mandate”. A 430-strong UN-backed security mission comprised mostly of Kenyan police, was sent last June to support Haiti’s understaffed police department. But violence has continued to grow. Turk said the full implementation of UN Security Council-mandated sanctions and an arms embargo must be used.

“Weapons flowing into Haiti often end up in the hands of the criminal gangs, with tragic results: thousands killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, essential infrastructure and services, such as schools and hospitals, disrupted and destroyed,” he said. The Haitian government, backed by the US and by other Caribbean nations, has also been calling for the UN Security Council to authorise a full-scale peacekeeping operation. But Russia and China, permanent members of the Security Council, have opposed the move, insisting that efforts to stop the gang violence should instead be focused on strengthening the Haitian police. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A woman with two children carries their belongings as residents of the Lower Delmas flee their homes due to gang violence, in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters)