The Indicted Candidate

The quest to bring Donald Trump to justice, and hold him accountable for his alleged crimes endangering U.S. national security, was on display for the world to see Tuesday in Miami. Luckily, the potential for a violent protest did not materialize.

Politically, Florida is a state that is a Republican stronghold, so much so that it is virtually unlikely that the Justice Department will be able to actually gain a conviction of Trump in the case, since it will depend on a unanimous verdict of 12 people, at least some of whom will be probably be strong Trump supporters.

Only one could cause a hung jury. Therefore, although the crimes may be proven in court, justice is not likely to be served in the form of a conviction.

Beyond the legal proceedings, however, the fundamental question is whether this case will in any way affect the 2024 presidential election. Trump is the leading GOP candidate; the likely Democratic nominee is the incumbent President, whose approval ratings are low.

But Joe Biden beat Trump last time around and he thinks he can do it again. You don’t have to be a Biden partisan to see how much will be riding on his ability to do just that, for our country cannot withstand a second Trump presidency.

LINKS:

• Trump’s arraignment: The scene outside the Miami courthouse (Al Jazeera)

• Trump pleads not guilty to federal charges that he illegally kept classified documents at Florida estate (AP)

• Trump claims ‘political persecution’ in speech after arraignment (Guardian)

• Russian accounts admit Ukrainian forces are making some gains in heavy fighting (CNN)

• NATO Members Use a Major Air Exercise to Send a Message to Russia (NYT)

• Putin ponders a question: Should Russia try to take Kyiv again? (Reuters)

• Criticizing the army is a crime in Russia — but not for Wagner’s mercenary boss (WP)

• Inflation cools again as CPI data shows grocery prices fell, food cost eased (USA Today)

• Stocks rise as inflation levels slow to the lowest since early 2021 (CNBC)

• McCarthy, Republican lawmakers reach deal to end House floor standoff for now (WP)

• India’s diaspora is bigger and more influential than any in history (Economist)

• AI used to create new and final Beatles song, says Paul McCartney (Guardian)

• The Turing Transformation (Brookings)

• A.I. fear-mongering won’t make the world a better place, but a less hopeful one (Fortune)

• I stumbled into a really powerful use for the ChatGPT iPhone app: super fast, super accurate voice-to-text transcription (Insider)

• We are all AI’s free data workers (MIT TR)

• What happens if AI grows smarter than humans? The answer worries scientists. (Popular Science)

• AI unlikely to gain human-like cognition, unless connected to real world through robots, says study (TechXplore)

• Signal’s Meredith Whittaker: ‘These are the people who could actually pause AI if they wanted to’ (Guardian)

• Mall operator Westfield gives up San Francisco Centre, latest business to pull back from city (CNN)

• San Francisco's Decline is a Warning to Other American Cities (Newsweek)

• Canadian Fires Signal New Frontier in Climate Change (WSJ)

• The materials used by humans now weigh more than all life on Earth (The Conversation)

• Spike in ocean heat stuns scientists: Have we breached a climate tipping point? (NBC)

• What if the Most Powerful Way to Live Longer Is Just Exercise? (WSJ)

• Vulture Trying To Figure Out Good Way To Circle Without Being Rude (The Onion)