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Indictment: Trump Arrives New York Ahead Arraignment

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Donald Trump left his Florida home Monday bound for New York where he will surrender to criminal charges, taking the United States into uncharted and potentially volatile territory.

The 76-year-old Republican, the first American president ever to be criminally indicted, will be formally charged Tuesday over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election campaign.

TV footage showed a motorcade departing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home at 12:20 pm (1620 GMT) to head to the city where he made his name, and where he hopes to use his appearance before a judge to rouse support for his 2024 White House bid.

“The Corrupt D.A. has no case,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, of the Manhattan district attorney prosecuting the case. “What he does have is a venue where it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a Fair Trial.”

New York police were on high alert ahead of Trump’s arrival, with security cordons and Secret Service agents outside Trump Tower and the criminal court where he will appear before a judge Tuesday afternoon.

New York Mayor Eric Adams warned that anyone protesting violently during Trump’s historic arraignment will be “arrested and held accountable, no matter who you are.”

“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear, is simple: ‘control yourselves’,” the mayor told a press conference.

As part of his arraignment, Trump will undergo the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, likely to result in one of the most famous mugshots of the modern era.

‘Up in the air’

There is no roadmap for a former president’s surrender to court authorities, and it remains to be seen whether the famously unpredictable Trump will follow the script, or find a way to upend events.

“It’s all up in the air,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said on CNN Sunday.

But a “perp walk” — in which a defendant is escorted in handcuffs past media cameras — is unlikely for an ex-president under US Secret Service protection, Tacopina said.

“Hopefully this will be as painless and classy as possible for a situation like this.”

But Trump, who has denounced the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” and “political persecution, is girding for battle, Tacopina added.

A grand jury indicted Trump last week in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.

The specific charges will be revealed during Tuesday’s hearing. They revolve around the investigation of $130,000 paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels just days before Trump’s election win.

Trump’s former lawyer and aide Michael Cohen, who has since turned against his ex-boss, says he arranged the payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about a tryst she says she had with Trump in 2006.

Trump, who was already married to his wife Melania at the time, denies the affair.

Legal experts have suggested that if not properly accounted for, the payment could result in misdemeanour charges for falsifying business records that could be raised to felonies if it was intended to cover up a campaign finance violation.

The Daniels case is only one of several investigations threatening Trump.

Republicans unite?

An independent prosecutor is looking into any potential role Trump played in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, as well as his handling and keeping of classified documents after he left the White House.

In the swing state of Georgia, Trump is under investigation for pressuring officials to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory there — including a taped phone call in which he asked the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.

Biden, knowing anything he might say could fuel Trump’s complaints of a politically “weaponized” judicial system, is one of the few Democrats maintaining silence over the indictment of his political rival.

Republicans have largely rallied around Trump, including his rival in the party’s presidential primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the indictment “un-American.”

But some Republicans bristled at the prospect of a twice-impeached president facing multiple legal probes seeking the party’s nomination.

Some observers believe the indictment bodes ill for Trump’s 2024 chances, while others say it could boost his support.

A CNN poll Monday found that 94 per cent of Democrats surveyed approved of the grand jury’s decision to indict Trump while 79 per cent of Republicans disapproved. Some 62 per cent of independents.

AFP

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Vatican Elects New Pope As White Smoke Rises from Sistine Chapel

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White smoke has risen above the Sistine Chapel, the signal that cardinals have chosen a new pope on the second day of the conclave. His identity, and the name he will take as pontiff, will be revealed soon.

There are 133 voting cardinals, who have all been sequestered inside the Vatican during the conclave. Any one of them needed two-thirds of the vote to become the next pope. Take a look at how the voting process works.

As soon as the news of the white smoke spread through the Italian capital, some people began running through the streets of Rome to get to St. Peter’s Square. People continue to stream into the square from every alley that leads to the Vatican.

In the square itself, people are hugging and crying tears of joy.

While earlier the crowd was angling to get a good view of the Sistine Chapel chimney, they are now inching closer to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica where the new pope is expected to emerge any moment.

Source: CNN

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World Leaders Present As Catholics Lay Pope Francis to Rest in Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica

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Hundreds of thousands of mourners and world leaders including US President Donald Trump packed St Peter’s Square on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, “pope among the people” and the Catholic Church’s first Latin American leader.

Some waited overnight to get a seat in the vast square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, with the Vatican reporting some 250,000 people attended, in an outpouring of support for the Argentine pontiff.

More than 50 heads of state were also present at the solemn ceremony, including Trump — who met several world leaders in a corner of the basilica beforehand, notably Ukraine’s Volodomyr Zelensky, in their first face-to-face since their Oval Office clash in February.

The crowds applauded as the pope’s coffin was carried out of the basilica by white gloved pallbearers, accompanied by more than 200 red-robed cardinals, and then again as it was taken back after the approximately two-hour mass.

Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, was “a pope among the people, with an open heart”, who strove for a more compassionate, open-minded Catholic Church, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said in his funeral homily.

There was applause again from the masses gathered under bright blue skies as he hailed the pope’s “conviction that the Church is a home for all, a home with its doors always open”.

Francis sought to steer the centuries-old Church into a more inclusive direction during his 12-year papacy, and his death prompted a global outpouring of emotion.

“I’m touched by how many people are here. It’s beautiful to see all these nationalities together,” said Jeremie Metais, 29, from Grenoble, France.

“It’s a bit like the centre of the world today.”

Italian and Vatican authorities mounted a major security operation for the ceremony, with fighter jets on standby and snipers positioned on roofs surrounding the tiny city state.

After the funeral, the pope’s simple wooden coffin was put onto a white popemobile for a slow drive through the streets of Rome to the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he will be buried.

The funeral sets off the first of nine days of official Vatican mourning for Francis, who took over following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

After the mourning, cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect a new pope to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Many of Francis’s reforms angered traditionalists, while his criticism of injustices, from the treatment of migrants to the damage wrought by global warming, riled many world leaders.

Yet the former archbishop of Buenos Aires’s compassion and charisma earned him global affection and respect.

“His gestures and exhortations in favour of refugees and displaced persons are countless,” Battista Re said.

He recalled the first trip of Francis’s papacy to Lampedusa, an Italian island that is often the first port of call for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, as well as when the Argentine celebrated mass on the border between Mexico and the US.

Trump’s administration drew the pontiff’s ire for its mass deportation of migrants, but the president has paid tribute to “a good man” who “loved the world”.

Making the first foreign trip of his second term, Trump sat among dozens of leaders from other countries — many of them keen to bend his ear over a trade war he unleashed, among other subjects.

The White House said Saturday that the president had a “very productive” meeting with Zelensky before the funeral, while a second meeting was planned after, the Ukrainian presidency said.

Kyiv published a photo of the encounter, the two men sitting face to face in red and gold chairs in the basilica, as well as another showing Zelensky huddled with Trump, Britain’s Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

In the homily, Battista Re highlighted Francis’s incessant calls for peace, and said he urged “reason and honest negotiation” in efforts to end conflicts raging around the world.

“‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” the cardinal said.

Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden also attended the funeral, alongside UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Lebanon’s Joseph Aoun.

Israel — angered by Francis’s criticism of its conduct in Gaza — sent only its Holy See ambassador. China, which does not have formal relations with the Vatican, did not send any representative.

Italian mourners Francesco Morello, 58, said the homily about peace was a “fitting, strong and beautiful message”.

Of the world leaders gathered, Morello noted: “He could not bring them together in life but he managed in death.”

Simple tomb

Francis died of a stroke and heart failure less than a month after he left hospital where he had battled pneumonia for five weeks.

He loved nothing more than being among his flock, taking selfies with the faithful and kissing babies, and made it his mission to visit the peripheries, rather than mainstream centres of Catholicism.

His last public act, the day before his death, was an Easter Sunday blessing of the entire world, ending his papacy as he had begun it — with an appeal to protect the “vulnerable, the marginalised and migrants”.

The Jesuit chose to be named after Saint Francis of Assisi, saying he wanted “a poor Church for the poor”, and eschewed fine robes and the papal palace.

Instead, the Church’s 266th pope lived at a Vatican guesthouse and chose to be interred in his favourite Rome church — the first pontiff to be buried outside the Vatican walls in more than a century.

Catholics around the world held events to watch the proceedings live, including in Buenos Aires, where Francis was born Jorge Bergoglio in the poor neighbourhood of Flores in 1936.

“The pope showed us that there was another way to live the faith,” said Lara Amado, 25, in the Argentine capital.

Francis asked to be put inside a single wooden coffin to be laid in a simple marble tomb, marked only with the inscription “Franciscus”, his name in Latin.

Francis’s admirers credit him with transforming perceptions of the Church and helping revive the faith following decades of clerical sex abuse scandals.

He was considered a radical by some for allowing divorced and remarried believers to receive communion, approving the baptism of transgender believers and blessings for same-sex couples, and refusing to judge gay Catholics.

But he also stuck with some centuries-old dogma, notably holding firm on the Church’s opposition to abortion.

Francis strove for “a Church determined to take care of the problems of people and the great anxieties that tear the contemporary world apart”, Battista Re said.

“A Church capable of bending down to every person, regardless of their beliefs or condition, and healing their wounds.”

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World Leaders Expected As Vatican Sets Saturday for Pope Francis’ Funeral

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The funeral for Pope Francis will be held on Saturday, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, as world leaders from US President Donald Trump to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said they would attend to honour the Catholic leader.

The Argentine pontiff, 88, died on Monday from a stroke, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia.

His funeral, which is expected to draw huge crowds, will take place at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) on Saturday in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Francis’s coffin — which he previously ordered should be of wood and zinc — will then be taken inside the church and from there to the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.

The date was set by the first so-called “general congregation” of cardinals on Tuesday morning, which kicked off a centuries-old process that culminates in the election of a new pontiff within three weeks.

Earlier, the Vatican published the first images of the pontiff in his open coffin, ahead of its transfer to St Peter’s Basilica on Wednesday at 9:00 am (0700 GMT), to lie in state.

The pope’s body was photographed during a service Monday evening in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican residence where he lived during his 12-year papacy, and where he died.

Francis was wearing his red papal vestments, a mitre on his head and had a rosary between his fingers.

Tributes have poured in from around the globe for Francis, a liberal reformer who took over following the resignation of German theologian Benedict XVI in 2013.

His home country, Argentina, prepared for a week of national mourning while India began three days of state mourning on Tuesday — a rare honour for a foreign religious leader in the world’s most populous nation.

Heads of state and royalty are expected for his funeral, due to be held at St Peter’s Basilica, with Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron the first to announce they would attend.

On Tuesday, a source at the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that Zelensky, too, would come to Rome.

Cardinals of all ages are invited to the congregations, although only those under the age of 80 are eligible to vote for a new pope in the conclave.

The conclave should begin no less than 15 and no more than 20 days after the death of the pope.

Simple tomb

The pope’s body was moved into the Santa Marta chapel on Monday evening, and his apartment formally sealed, the Vatican said.

Francis, who wore plain robes and eschewed the luxury of his predecessors, has opted for a simple tomb, unadorned except for his name in Latin, Franciscus, according to his will released Monday.

In chosing to be buried in Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica, he will become the first pope in more than 100 years to be laid to rest outside the Vatican.

His death certificate released by the Vatican said Francis died of a stroke, causing a coma and “irreversible” heart failure.

He had been discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on March 23 and ordered to spend at least two months resting.

But Francis, who never took a holiday and delighted in being among his flock, made numerous public appearances in recent days.

He appeared exhausted on Sunday during the Easter celebrations, but nevertheless greeted the crowds in his popemobile in St Peter’s Square.

Argentine football great Lionel Messi hailed his compatriot — himself a huge fan of the beautiful game — for “making the world a better place”.

On Monday evening, thousands of faithful, some bringing flowers or candles, flocked to St. Peter’s Square at sunset to pray for Francis.

He “tried to get people to understand it doesn’t matter your sexual orientation, your race, it doesn’t matter in the eyes of God”, Mateo Rey, 22, a Mexican student, told AFP.

“I think that’s the closest to what Jesus intended.”

Born Jorge Bergoglio, Francis was the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit to lead the worldwide Catholic Church.

An energetic reformer, he sought to open the Church to everyone and was hugely popular — but his views also sparked fierce internal opposition.

In 12 years as pope, Francis advocated tirelessly for the defence of migrants, the environment, and social justice without questioning the Church’s positions on abortion or priestly celibacy.

Outspoken and stubborn, Francis also sought to reform the governance of the Holy See and expand the role of women and lay people, and to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances.

Faced with revelations of widespread child sex abuse in the Church, he lifted pontifical secrecy and forced religious and lay people to report cases to their superiors.

However, victims’ groups said he did not go far enough.

AFP

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