They revealed he paid little to no federal income taxes over that period, and that Mr Trump had reported in his tax filings that his businesses lost significant amounts of money – despite his public boasts of financial success. In 2017, the Times reported, Trump paid just $750 (£623) in federal income tax despite being a billionaire.
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FILE – Former President Donald Trump walks from the stage after announcing a third run for president at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump began 2022 on a high. Primary candidates were flocking to Florida to court the former president for a coveted endorsement. His rallies were drawing thousands. A bevy of investigations remained largely under the radar.
One year later, Trump is facing a very different reality.
He is mired in criminal investigations that could end with indictments. He has been blamed for Republicans’ disappointing performance in the November elections. And while he is now a declared presidential candidate, the six weeks since he announced have been marked by self-inflicted crises. Trump has not held a single campaign event and he barely leaves the confines of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Instead of staving off challengers, his potential 2024 rivals appear ever more emboldened. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, fresh off a resounding reelection victory, increasingly is seen as Trump’s most formidable competition.
Trump’s subdued campaign announcement has left even former stalwarts wondering whether he is serious about another run for the White House.
“There was a movie called ‘Failure to Launch.’ I think that’s what Donald Trump’s process of running has been so far. He had the announcement, and he hasn’t done anything to back it up since then,” said Michael Biundo, a GOP operative who advised Trump’s 2016 campaign but is steering clear this time.
“What campaign?” asked longtime GOP donor Dan Eberhart, who gave $100,000 to Trump’s 2020 reelection effort but is now gravitating to DeSantis. “Trump’s early launch seems more a reaction to DeSantis’ overperformance and a legal strategy against prosecution than a political campaign.”
Trump campaign officials insist they have been spending the weeks since his Nov. 15 announcement methodically building out a political operation. Trump, they note, announced just before the holiday season, when politicians typically lie low, and he did so unusually early, giving him plenty of time to ramp up.
“This is a marathon and our game plan is being implemented by design,” said Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.
“We’re also assembling top-level teams in early voting states and expanding our massive data operation to ensure we dominate on all fronts,” he saidd. “We are not going to play the media’s game that tries to dictate how we campaign.”
Trump also defended criticism of his campaign’s slow start. “The Rallies will be bigger and better than ever (because our Country is going to Hell), but it’s a little bit early, don’t you think?” he wrote on his social media site.
While he has eschewed campaign events, the former president has nonetheless courted controversy.
There was his dinner with a white nationalist and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has been spouting antisemitic tropes and conspiracies; his suggestions that parts of the Constitution be terminated to return him to power; and the “major announcement” that turned out to be the launch of $99 digital trading cards that do not benefit his campaign.
Since his announcement, he has also faced a series of legal losses, including the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate inquiry involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump’s namesake company was convicted of tax fraud last month for helping executives dodge taxes on extravagant perks. In Georgia, a special grand jury appears to be wrapping up its work investigating his efforts to remain in power.
Trump’s potential rivals have spent months laying the groundwork for their own campaigns, visiting early-voting states, speaking before conservative groups and building the kinds of relationships that could benefit them down the line.
Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based conservative group, pointed to Republicans such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who have made repeat visits to the state.
“They’ve done the early work that is needed to be out in front of Iowans and they’re very well received,” he said, noting the period since Trump announced his candidacy has been “unusually quiet. In a lot of ways, it kind of feels like it’s the announcement that didn’t even happen or doesn’t feel like it happened because there was no immediate buzz. … I don’t hear from people on he ground, ‘I can’t wait for Trump to run.’ ‘Did you hear Trump’s announcement?'”
He called the poor performance of some Trump-backed candidates in the 2022 midterms a “caution flag” and said that even Trump supporters are open to backing someone else in the 2024 contest.
“For the president, I think he’s definitely going to have to earn the nomination,” he said.
Despite his vulnerabilities, Trump remains the early GOP front-runner. While he is seen as potentially beatable in a one-on-one matchup, he is likely to benefit from a crowded field that splits the anti-Trump votes, just as he did when he ran and won in 2016.
But Biundo, the former Trump campaign adviser, said that after watching likely candidates such Pence pay visits to early voting states, he too, believes the field is wide open.
“I don’t think Donald Trump has it locked up. I don’t think Ron DeSantis has it locked up. I don’t think anyone has it locked up,” he said. “At this point, it’s an open primary.”
If you can’t come up with a New Year’s resolution, Mark Cuban has you covered.
On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks owner told Bill Maher on the “Club Random” podcast that everyone over 30 should be reading every day. Otherwise, they’re limiting themselves and their career, he said.
“Somebody 40 and over, even 30 and over, if you’re not reading, you’re f—ed… because you’re not expanding your mind,” Cuban said. “I tell my kids… ‘Somebody who doesn’t read lives one life, somebody who reads an unlimited number of lives.'”
Turns out, Cuban is onto something. A 2016 study conducted by Yale University School of Public Health researchers found reading 30 minutes a day helped participants 50 and older live on average two years longer than their non-reading counterparts, regardless of health, wealth, gender and education.
Cuban himself is an active reader. In 2018, he told CNBC Make It he reads four to five hours per day studying national and local news, emails and technology research.
And seems Cuban’s two older daughters picked up his affinity for reading — or at least were bribed into it. When they were younger, both girls would be rewarded with “shoes or whatever they wanted” after they read a certain number of pages, Cuban said. Then, the family could have conversations about what they read.
But Cuban said he had to adopt a different strategy for his son, now 13, who doesn’t like to read. Cuban was worried his son’s ambivalence toward books would “hurt him long term” — until he realized his son was learning in different ways.
“They consume a lot of information [online],” Cuban said. “The challenge wasn’t so much, are they learning? …The challenge for me was understanding how they learn.”
After noticing his son was picking up business concepts like gross margins and royalties from watching YouTube and TikTok videos, Cuban realized the platforms could act as parenting tools.
“[Tiktok] is the best parental tool in the world because… [it’s] artificial intelligence based off of what you watch,” Cuban said on the podcast. “So, if I want to know what my kids are into, I just look at their TikTok feeds.”
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Image source, ReutersA wave of Russian missiles have hit cities across Ukraine, officials say.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said there had been several blasts in the capital, causing at least one death. A hotel has also been damaged.
The attacks happened two days after Russia carried out one of the largest air strikes since the start of the war.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned Russia could launch more attacks to make Ukrainians “celebrate the New Year in darkness”.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy sector in the past few months, destroying power stations and plunging millions into darkness during the country’s freezing winter.
Several senior Ukrainian officials have alluded to the strikes in social media posts, saying that Russia would not succeed in ruining their celebrations.
“The occupiers have decided to try to spoil the day for us,” Mykolaiv Governor Vitaly Kim said on Facebook.
This video can not be played
Watch: A local resident describes hearing the explosions and glass shattering
The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, said air defences had shot down 12 of 20 Russian cruise missiles.
In Kyiv, people rushed to shelters as air raid sirens sounded.
Emergency workers were sent to several districts hit by explosions.
Some 20 people were injured in Kyiv, including a Japanese journalist, Mr Klitschko said.
Deputy presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that a hotel had been damaged.
Air defence has been activated in regions across the country.
In the western city of Khmelnytskyi, a drone attack injured two people, Mr Tymoshenko added.
Image source, EPAThe attacks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to rally people behind Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, saying the country’s future was at stake.
In a combative New Year address surrounded by people in military uniform, Mr Putin said: “We always knew, and today it is confirmed to us yet again, that a sovereign, independent and secure future for Russia depends only on us, on our strength and will.”
He presented the invasion of Ukraine’s sovereign territory as “defending our people and our historical lands”.
But President Zelensky responded with his own message to Russians in Russian.
“Your leader wants to show you that he’s leading from the front, and his military is behind him,” he said.
“But in fact he is hiding… He’s hiding behind you, and he’s burning your country and your future. No-one will forgive you for terror.”
The Ukrainian government has pleaded with Western leaders to provide it with additional air defences, and US President Joe Biden recently agreed to supply its Patriot system.
The Kremlin rejected Ukraine’s suggestion that peace talks could begin in 2023.
Striking footage shows the scale of a powerful winter storm that hit North America over the holiday weekend.
At least 60 people are known to have died in the snowstorms, half of them in New York state.
Stories have emerged of residents in the worst-hit areas trapped in the snow for days.
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Robert Griffin III was part of an alternate broadcast for the Fiesta Bowl between No. 3 TCU and No. 2 Michigan, but he had to cut out early.
The former Washington quarterback took a phone call late in the third quarter, despite the came becoming an instant classic before everyone’s eyes.
His partners from “The Pat McAfee Show” were clearly confused at first as to why his headset was off and he was on the phone – one of them even asked “what are you doing? We’re in the middle of a game.”
“Alright guys. I gotta go,” RG3 said emphatically.
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One of his partners was shocked.
“To the bathroom?” someone replied.
TCU PULLS OFF LARGEST UPSET IN CFP HISTORY WITH WIN OVER MICHIGAN IN FIESTA BOWL
That’s when Griffin made it a bit clearer, telling his team his wife was in labor.
He was given congratulations by his broadcast partners, and he sprinted his way into the tunnel and out of sight.
An ESPN camera chased him down as well.
It is Griffin’s fourth child, and third with his wife, Grete.
Griffin joined ESPN in August 2021 after spending eight seasons in the NFL – four with Washington, one with the Cleveland Browns, and three with the Baltimore Ravens.
TCU won, 51-45, to make it the largest upset in College Football Playoff history, as they were eight-point underdogs.
RG3 missed the ending, but an addition to the family is a nice consolation prize.
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Authorities around the world are imposing or considering curbs on travelers from China as Covid-19 cases in the country surge following its relaxation of “zero-Covid” rules.
They cite a lack of information from China on variants and are concerned about a wave of infections. China has rejected criticism of its Covid data and said it expects future mutations to be potentially more transmissible but less severe.
Below is a list of regulations for travelers from China.
The United States will impose mandatory Covid-19 tests on travelers from China beginning on Jan. 5. All air passengers aged two and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said U.S. citizens should also reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.
The UK will require a pre-departure negative Covid-19 test from passengers from China as of Jan. 5, the Department of Health said on Friday.
France will require travelers from China to provide a negative Covid test result less than 48 hours before departure, the health and transport ministries said on Friday.
From Jan. 1, France will also carry out random PCR Covid tests upon arrival on some travelers coming from China, a government official told reporters.
Travelers from China to Australia will need to submit a negative COVID-19 test from Jan. 5, Australian health minister Mark Butler said on Sunday, joining other nations that have implemented similar restrictions as cases surge in China.
The country has mandated a Covid-19 negative test report for travelers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Thailand, the health minister said. Passengers from those countries will be quarantined if they show symptoms or test positive.
Air travelers to Canada from China must test negative for Covid-19 no more than two days before departure, Ottawa said on Saturday, joining other nations that have implemented such restrictions.
Japan will require a negative Covid-19 test upon arrival for travelers from mainland China. Those who test positive will be required to quarantine for seven days. New border measures for China went into effect at midnight on Dec. 30. The government will also limit requests from airlines to increase flights to China.
Italy has ordered Covid-19 antigen swabs and virus sequencing for all travelers from China. Milan’s main airport, Malpensa, had already started testing passengers arriving from Beijing and Shanghai. “The measure is essential to ensure surveillance and detection of possible variants of the virus in order to protect the Italian population,” Health Minister Orazio Schillaci said.
Spain will require a negative Covid-19 test or a full course of vaccination against the disease upon arrival for travelers from China, the country’s Health Minister Carolina Darias said.
Malaysia will screen all inbound travelers for fever and test wastewater from aircraft arriving from China for Covid-19, Minister Zaliha Mustafa said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said all passengers on direct flights from China, as well as by boat at two offshore islands, will have to take PCR tests upon arrival, starting on Jan. 1.
South Korea will require travelers from China to provide negative Covid test results before departure, South Korea’s News1 news agency reported on Friday.
Morocco will impose a ban on people arriving from China, whatever their nationality, from Jan. 3 to avert any new wave of coronavirus infections, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The Philippines sees a need to intensify the monitoring and implementation of border control for incoming individuals especially from China that is experiencing a record surge in Covid-19 cases, Manila’s health ministry said on Saturday.
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Taliban fighters check the site of an explosion, near the Interior Ministry, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. A bomb exploded near a checkpoint at Kabul’s military airport Sunday morning killing and wounding several people, a Taliban official said, the first deadly blast of 2023 in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bomb exploded near a checkpoint at Kabul’s military airport Sunday morning killing and wounding “several” people, a Taliban official said, the first deadly blast of 2023 in Afghanistan.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
The military airport is around 200 meters (219 yards) from the civilian airport and close to the Interior Ministry, itself the site of a suicide bombing last October that killed at least four people.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the blast left several people dead and wounded. He gave no exact figures or further information about the bombing, saying details of an investigation will be shared later.
Although Taliban security forces prevented photography and filming directly at the blast site, the checkpoint appeared damaged but intact. It is on Airport Road, which leads to high-security neighborhoods housing government ministries, foreign embassies and the presidential palace.
A spokesman for the Kabul police chief, Khalid Zadran, was not immediately available for comment.
Pelosi ends historic run as top House Democrat
CNN
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Queen guitarist Brian May has received a knighthood in honor of his services to music and charity.
May, 75, was one of over 1,000 people honored on King Charles III’s first honors list since the monarch took the throne. The end-of-year list also includes fashion designer Mary Quant and Ghanaian-British artist John Akomfrah.
The 2023 list of honors was published in The Gazette, the official newspaper published by the British royal family, on Friday.
May received the title of Knight Bachelor for his “services to Music and to Charity.” The notice described him as a “Musician, Songwriter and Animal Welfare Advocate.”
“Thank you so much for all your messages of congratulations following the announcement of my knighthood,” said the guitarist in a video posted to Instagram on Friday. “I’m very thrilled and very touched by the love that’s come from you and the support. I will do my very best to be worthy.”
In addition to performing with Queen since the 1970s, May is also an astrophysicist. He received his PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 after taking a break from his studies in the 1970s to focus on Queen.
May is also a vocal supporter of animal rights and critic of hunting. He formed an organization called Save Me in 2010 to campaign against fox hunting and badger culling in the UK.
May isn’t the only member of Queen to receive a royal title. Drummer Roger Taylor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020. May previously received the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2005.
May famously performed a rendition of “God Save the Queen” from the roof of Buckingham Palace at Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Twenty years later, he also performed with Queen for the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee Concert.
