new report from Rolling Stone says that while Donald Trump is seriously considering running for president in 2024, one of his main motives for doing so might be to seek the protection of presidential immunity in the face of multiple intensifying legal investigations that could result in criminal charges.
On Monday, the U.S. Attorney's office confirmed they would not be moving forward with the case.
'The Office would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry because their escort chose to leave them unattended,' the federal prosecutor said. The feds said that they 'wouldn't have been able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.'
The move to drop the charges has infuriated conservatives who believe its proof of the Justice Department's double standard when it comes to holding liberals accountable.
Fox News's Jesse Watters questioned whether the Biden-appointed Attorney was giving January 6 rioters and Colbert's team the same treatment. At least 876 people have been charged over the January 6 riot which left seven dead and saw crowds siege the Capitol.
'The person responsible for dropping the charges was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, who was appointed by Joe Biden and works for the Attorney General. It turns out that he's also the prosecutor investigating January 6th. Is he giving those guys the same treatment,' Watters asked on his show.
Kingpin actor Randy Quaid branded the decision to drop the charges 'disgusting'.
The report comes as Mr Trump’s ally Steve Bannon faces the start of his trial on criminal contempt of Congress. The former president’s longtime lieutenant and hardcore right-wing agitator refused to comply with the House select committee’s subpoena, and his various last-ditch efforts to head off or delay the trial have failed.
On another front, the January 6 committee is expected to receive the deleted text messages and audios by Secret Service by Tuesday.
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In markets from Boston to Beijing, much of the shrimp on sale comes from India, which has quickly grown into one of the world’s largest producers of the shellfish. Globally, the shrimp export market was worth nearly $25bn in 2020, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. And analysts, including those at Rabobank, estimate that India has become the world’s largest exporter by value. Its shrimp exports jumped three-fold in the decade to 2020, to be worth about $5bn, according to the country’s ministry of fisheries. Notably, India is ranked as the number one shrimp supplier to the US, according to Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative (Fairr) — an investment advisory network focused on sustainable food production. But this rapid expansion has also meant that the country’s shrimp industry has become a test case for whether authorities and producers in a fast-growing farming sector can control the use of antibiotics. Experts say that, for producers in countries like India, who often lack the infrastructure and resources of farmers in richer countries, the pressure to overuse antibiotics can be strong. Like farmers in other sectors, many Indian producers use antibiotics to treat and control disease among their shrimp. However, regulators in Europe and elsewhere worry this can spill into misuse, such as using drugs to help healthy shrimp grow, with significant implications for global health. Overuse of antibiotics for livestock and seafood production exacerbates the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where drugs cease to be effective against infection. A study in The Lancet medical journal published this year found that more than 1.2mn people died from bacterial AMR globally in 2019. Medical researchers expect the toll to rise. “The problem is going to increase as we intensify and try to produce more food,” says Charles Tyler, a professor of environmental biology at the University of Exeter, who has studied India’s shrimp industry. “That’s going to cause a massive burden in terms of disease. Whatever people say about AMR, it is going to get worse because of the way we’re producing food and the intensification of it.” Whatever people say about AMR, it is going to get worse because of the way we’re producing food and the intensification of it Charles Tyler, University of Exeter Indian shrimp became globally competitive as farmers intensified production, concentrating more and more shrimp into ponds and settling on high-yielding species like whiteleg shrimp. Jennifer Cole, a lecturer in global and planetary health at Royal Holloway University in London, says the wetter climate and more frequent flooding in places like north-east India — a consequence of climate change — has also pushed farmers into aquaculture. The industry’s intensification has led to diseases spreading more easily among shrimp. This can have devastating economic consequences for producers. Because of the industry’s export-oriented nature, antibiotic use in shrimp in India is actually subject to tighter standards than other forms of animal agriculture, says Amit Khurana, director of the sustainable food systems programme at the Centre for Science and Environment think-tank in New Delhi. Some also argue that measuring the scale of antibiotic overuse in the Indian shrimp industry can be difficult. But groups such as Fairr warn there is evidence of high usage as producers administer treatments preemptively or to promote growth. In response, Importing nations have become stricter about India as a source of shrimp. The EU has increased the rate of testing for antibiotic residue in Indian shrimp shipments, according to a 2020 study of the sector for industry journal Reviews in Aquaculture. US regulators have even resorted to rejecting some Indian shipments after detecting antibiotics, according to US producer industry group the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
“We expect to get them by this Tuesday,” representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said. “We need all the texts from the 5th and the 6th of January.”
The committee’s next hearing is set to focus on Mr Trump’s inaction during the attack on the Capitol. It will be held in prime time on Thursday.
A high of 38.1C was reached in Suffolk on Monday, just short of the UK record of 38.7C set in 2019. Wales recorded its hottest day on record with 37.1C.
Network Rail said that the forecast temperatures for parts of the network are higher than the design limits for track and overhead line equipment.
Heatwave: Top tips to stay cool in 60 seconds
There have also been warnings of pressure on hospitals and ambulance services as temperatures are set to peak on Tuesday afternoon.
Following the government's latest emergency Cobra meeting, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said more call handlers had been put in place and additional funding made available for ambulance and 111 services.
Monday saw a number of schools close despite government advice against doing so, although one teaching union said the majority of schools had remained open.
Water companies in southern and eastern England have warned increased demand is leading to low pressure - and even interrupted supply - for some households.
In addition to the security experts, Reuters spoke to six witnesses at the scene and examined multiple videos available online, taken from different angles, to piece together a detailed account of security measures ahead of his shooting.
After leaving 67-year-old Abe exposed from behind as he spoke on a traffic island on a public road, his security detail allowed the shooter – identified by police as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 – to come within metres of Abe unchecked, carrying a weapon, the footage showed.
"They should have seen the attacker very deliberately walking towards the rear of the prime minister and intervened," said Kenneth Bombace, head of Global Threat Solutions, which provided security to Joe Biden when he was a presidential candidate.
Yamagami came within around 7 metres (23 feet) of Abe before firing his first shot, which missed, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing investigative sources. He fired the second shot, which hit, at around 5 metres away, it said.
Abe's bodyguards did not appear to have "concentric rings of security" around him, said John Soltys, a former Navy SEAL and CIA officer now a vice president at security firm Prosegur. "They didn't have any kind of surveillance in the crowd."
Asked about the experts’ analysis, the Nara Prefectural Police, in charge of security for Abe's campaign stop, told Reuters in a statement the department was "committed to thoroughly identifying the security problems" with Abe's protection, declining to comment further.
The video footage showed that, after the first shot, Abe turns and looks over his left shoulder. Two bodyguards scramble to get between him and the shooter, one hoisting a slim black bag. Two others head toward the shooter, who moves closer through the smoke.
Although Abe's security tackled the assailant moments later and arrested him, it was the "wrong response" for some of the security to go after the shooter instead of moving to protect Abe, said Mitsuru Fukuda, a Nihon University professor specialising in crisis management and terrorism.
There was enough security, "but no sense of danger," said Yasuhiro Sasaki, a retired police officer in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo who handled security for VIPs. "Everyone was startled and no one went to where Abe was."
The Tokyo police, in charge of VIP politicians' bodyguards, referred questions to the Nara police.
On Monday:
- Flights into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire stopped after part of the runway melted
- Flights were suspended at Luton Airport after a section of the runway lifted
- Chester Zoo said it would close to during the heatwave to keep its animals and visitors safe
- Food delivery firm Just Eat suspended deliveries in some areas
- Museums, including London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, closed some galleries
The peak temperature reached on Monday made it the third-hottest day on record and the hottest of the year so far.
A temperature of 37.1C was measured in Hawarden, Flintshire, making it the hottest day on record for Wales, according to provisional figures from the Met Office.
Scotland and Northern Ireland also saw their warmest days of the year, with temperatures of 31.3C and 31.1C recorded in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire and Derrylin, Co Fermanagh respectively.
Temperatures remained in the low and mid-20s overnight, raising the possibility the UK would also see its warmest night on record.
The Met Office has issued a red extreme heat warning covering much of central, northern, and south-east England.
At least four people are believed to have drowned after attempting to escape the heat in rivers and lakes.
Network Rail has issued a "do not travel" warning for Tuesday affecting services travelling through the "red zone" of the Met Office's weather warning.
No Thameslink or Great Northern services are scheduled to run north from London all day and there will be no services from London King's Cross or on the East Coast mainline.