The judge in Donald Trump’s highly controversial hush money trial cleared the courtroom of media on Monday before threatening to dismiss the defense witness Robert Costello from the trial entirely due to his behavior on the stand.

Judge Juan M. Merchan reprimanded Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor, for his conduct during testimony. Costello irritated Merchan repeatedly, in part by continuing to speak after objections were sustained, indicating to witnesses that they should stop talking. Costello muttered “jeez” when he was interrupted by an objection. He also labeled the entire exercise “ridiculous.”

The discussion occurred near the close of a heated day that saw the prosecution’s star witness admit to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Trump’s firm. Trump’s lawyers also pushed Merchan to drop the case after prosecutors finished presenting evidence. The judge did not immediately rule on the request.

Robert Costello on Witness Stand

However, the most uncomfortable moments occurred with Costello on the witness stand. Merchan first led the jurors out of the courtroom to discuss basic decorum. He chastised Costello for saying “jeez” when cut off by a protracted argument and “strike it” at another point.

Merchan told him, “I am the only one who can strike testimony in court. “Do you understand that?”

“And then if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes.”

Merchan was about to call the jury back in when he asked Costello, “Are you staring me down right now?” and then ejected the press to further chastise him.

“I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous,” Merchan said, according to a transcript of the conversation that took place after the reporters left the room. “If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand.”

Costello did not respond to a message seeking comment Monday night.

When Merchan called the reporters back in, Costello’s evidence continued, and it will resume on Tuesday. The defense is using him to undermine the credibility of Trump’s former attorney and rival, Michael Cohen.

After the jurors had left for the day, defense attorney Todd Blanche informed the court that prosecutors had failed to prove their case and that it should be dismissed immediately. Blanche begged the judge to “not send this case to the jury based on Mr. Cohen’s testimony.”

Cohen was the last witness

The judge remained unfazed by the argument, asking the defense attorney whether he believed that “as a matter of law, this person’s so not worthy of belief that it shouldn’t even be considered by the jury?”

“You said his lies are irrefutable,” the judge responded. “But you think he’s going to fool 12 New Yorkers into believing this lie?”

Cohen was the last witness — at least for the time being — for prosecutors trying to prove that Trump attempted to bury bad reports about himself and then altered internal business documents to conceal them as part of a conspiracy to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. The defense has portrayed Cohen as a media-obsessed liar on a revenge mission to bring down Trump.

The defense called Costello because of his role as Cohen’s enemy and critic in the years after their professional relationship fractured spectacularly.

Costello offered to represent Cohen shortly after the lawyer’s hotel room, office, and house were raided, and Cohen had to decide whether to stay defiant in the face of a criminal investigation or to collaborate with authorities in the hopes of receiving more lenient punishment.

Costello said that Cohen told him Trump “knew nothing” about the $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels that is at the heart of the investigation.

“Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own, and he repeated that numerous times,” Costello told the jury.

Trump would not testify

Trump lawyer Emil Bove told the judge that the defense does not intend to call any other witnesses following Costello, however they may bring campaign finance expert Bradley A. Smith for limited testimony.

They have not explicitly stated that Trump would not testify, but this is the clearest hint yet that he will forego his right to testify in his own defense.

Cohen returned to the witness stand for a fourth day on Monday, telling jurors that he stole from the Trump Organization when his 2016 holiday bonus was reduced from $150,000 to $50,000.

Cohen claimed he paid $50,000 to a technology firm for artificially increasing Trump’s standing in a CNBC online poll of notable CEOs. Cohen claimed he only provided the firm $20,000 in cash in a brown paper bag, but he sought reimbursement from Trump for the entire amount, pocketing the remainder.

Cohen claimed he never paid the Trump Organization back. Cohen has never been accused of stealing from Trump’s company.

Cohen is an important witness, but also a problematic one. He acknowledged on the witness stand to a number of previous lies, many of which he alleges were intended to protect Trump. Cohen also served time in prison after pleading guilty to a number of criminal counts, including lying to Congress and a bank, as well as campaign finance violations tied to the hush money scam.

However, when pressed by Blanche, Cohen maintained by his account of talks with Trump about the hush money payment to Daniels. Cohen stated that he spoke with Trump about the topic over 20 times in October 2016.

“No doubt in your mind?” Blanche inquired whether Cohen remembers having contacts with Trump about the Daniels case. No question, Cohen stated.

Trump facing 34 felony counts

Following more than four weeks of testimony, jurors could begin deliberate next week on whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first criminal trial of a former US president.

The charges derive from internal Trump Organization records that show payments to Cohen were classified as legal expenditures. Prosecutors contend they were actually reimbursements for Daniels’ payment to prevent her from going public with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump prior to the 2016 election. Trump claims nothing sexual occurred between them.

Donald Trump has pled not guilty. His lawyers claim that the Daniels arrangement and Cohen’s payment were both legal.

“There’s no crime,” Trump told reporters after arriving at the courthouse on Monday. “We paid legal fees. Do you know what the price is? “A legal expense.”

After Trump’s witnesses have testified, prosecutors will have the opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses. The judge, citing scheduling constraints, stated that he expected closing arguments to take place on May 28, the Tuesday following Memorial Day.

Source: The Associated Press

A major donor to US President Joe Biden has urged him to halt arms supplies to Israel, warning that the “catastrophe” of the Israel-Hamas conflict jeopardizes his re-election bid.

George Krupp, who intends to raise $2.5 million at a dinner in Boston on Tuesday, urged Biden to take the issue “off the table” by blocking military supplies to Israel.

“I think this Israel thing has been a catastrophe for him,” Krupp told the Financial Times. “I absolutely think that Biden needs to suspend arms shipments both for humanitarian and political reasons.”

The president’s position on the war has divided Democrats along religious and generational lines. In reaction to the October 7 Hamas strikes, he has expressed strong support for Israel’s right to self-defense.

He described the International Criminal Court’s appeal for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as “outrageous” on Monday, adding, “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

However, there is rising criticism inside the party of his failure to rein in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the death toll in the battle against Hamas has risen to more than 34,000, according to Palestinian sources.

This month, the president halted a supply of bombs to Israel due to Netanyahu’s refusal to exclude out an assault of the Gazan city of Rafah, but last week he approved a $1 billion package of military aid to Israel. In April, the United States vetoed a Security Council proposal that would have granted Palestinian state full UN membership.

There are concerns that young voters opposed to Israel’s military incursion in Gaza would abandon Biden on the issue, while pro-Israeli Democrats may gravitate to Donald Trump.

Biden’s Stance on Gaza

More than 100,000 Democrats—or 13% of the total vote—in Michigan, which has a substantial Arab-American community, voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary on March 15 over Biden’s stance.

Krupp, who signed a letter in March with dozens of other contributors and activists expressing alarm over “the crisis in Gaza,” told the Financial Times that Biden’s “equivocation” on the conflict is “hurting” his re-election campaign. He also stated that the president requires a clear “doctrine” that “gets Israel out of Gaza and lays out a path to a two-state solution”.

Krupp’s remarks come after Democratic megadonor Haim Saban criticized Biden’s decision to delay the transfer of heavy weapons to Israel.

“Bad, Bad, Bad, decision, on all levels, Pls reconsider,” Saban wrote in an email to senior White House officials last week. “There are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas,” he said, drawing criticism from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other human rights groups. A Saban spokesperson declined to comment.

Biden’s attitude to Israel

Democrats seek to unify to avoid a Trump triumph. They note that the previous president advocated for a ban on Muslim immigrants in 2015. Biden has also been significantly more successful in fundraising, raising $66 million more than Trump by the end of March.

“Donald Trump’s actions against the Muslim community as president are abhorrent,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul told the Financial Times. “I support the president, how he’s handling this . . . [Israel needs] to eradicate Hamas but we also need to make sure the loss of innocent lives is mitigated.”

Patricia Gordon, a board member of the liberal, pro-Israel nonprofit J Street who has hosted a fundraiser with first lady Jill Biden, said she agreed with Biden’s attitude to Israel and was convinced that he would succeed.

“The president will always defend Israel, but recently took the difficult step to prevent the misuse of American resources in an offensive way,” Gordon stated.

However, with opinion surveys favoring Trump, Krupp and many Democrats fear that the Gaza war would tilt the scales against the president.

“I think if the election were held today, I think he’d lose,” Krupp stated.

Source: Financial Times

The Trudeau government declared on March 21, 2024, that it would accept fewer temporary residents due to the difficulty of assimilating so many newcomers so quickly. However, population growth appears to be accelerating in 2024.

Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, the population aged 15 and over increased by approximately 411,000 in the first four months of the year, representing a than 50% increase over the four-month growth in early 2023.

This new acceleration was the focus of a recent research paper by Stéfane Marion, chief economist at the National Bank of Canada. “The demographic shock is getting worse in Canada,” he told Canada’s Globe and Mail.

Canada is seeing its strongest population expansion in decades, thanks almost exclusively to foreign migration, which includes the entrance of temporary workers and students. The population increased by about 1.3 million last year, or 3.2%, the fastest rate since the late 1950s.

Every month, tens of thousands of households participate in Statistics Canada’s labour survey. While the government includes population data in its monthly jobs report, they are not official estimates. Statscan publishes a different population report on a quarterly basis; the next edition is due June 19.

Nonetheless, these data indicate that Canada’s economy has remained strong to begin the year, which could complicate the federal government’s efforts to limit migration.

For the first time, the Trudeau government will impose limits on temporary residents beginning this fall. The government aims to reduce this group to 5% of the total population during the next three years; at latest count, they accounted for 6.5%.

Given those plans, “it would seem that many people have decided to come to Canada earlier,” Mr. Marion said, stressing that housing affordability may worsen in the short term.

Several analysts have predicted that Canada’s population growth will eventually decrease to approximately 1% when these new laws take effect.

Housing Affordability in Canada

Meanwhile, Stéfane Marion fears that housing affordability difficulties will increase amid another surge in immigration numbers.

“Demographic shock is worsening in Canada. The working-age population (aged 15 and over) increased by more than 100,000 in April, bringing the total to more than 410,000 after four months in 2024.

According to today’s Hot Chart, this is a significant acceleration (+47%) above the 278,000 increase seen in the first four months of 2023. Greater Toronto, where population growth hit a record 107,000 at the start of the year, has accelerated by 66% compared to 2023.

Greater Montreal and Greater Vancouver have not lagged behind since the beginning of 2024, with growth more than doubling that recorded in 2023.

With Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Marc Miller, announcing plans to curb immigration in 2025, it appears that many people have decided to come to Canada sooner.

Housing affordability issues could increase in the coming quarters, as we approach another record year of population growth.

RBC indicates a loss of affordability in Canada

RBC’s aggregate affordability score for Canada increased by 2.8 percentage points to 62.5% as mortgage rates rose and property prices rose somewhat. (An increase in the measure indicates a loss of affordability.) This reversed a little improvement in the second quarter.

The issue is particularly acute in Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto, where property ownership is extremely expensive. Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax also confront difficult affordability issues.

Last quarter, purchasers’ already bad situation deteriorated even further. A typical household required to set aside an additional 4.4 percentage points of its income to afford the costs of owning an average home at current prices and interest rates.

In fact, the entire income of that (median) household was insufficient, with RBC’s aggregate affordability metric coming in at an amazing 102.6%. The only practical choice for most ordinary consumers remains a less expensive condo apartment, which is still out of reach for many.

Home purchase activity has cooled again after unexpectedly rebounding last spring. Furthermore, prices are beginning to fall from their summer highs. In the face of significant affordability pressures, we believe the downward trend may accelerate in the near term.

Keywords: Canada News, Canada Population