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      Attacks on Judges Undermine Democracy, Warns Ketanji Brown Jackson

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      Speaking to a judicial conference, the Supreme Court justice said attacks were designed to intimidate and influence.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court’s newest member, denounced on Thursday what she described as “relentless attacks” on judges, and an environment of harassment that “ultimately risks undermining our Constitution and the rule of law.”“ Across the nation, judges are facing increased threats of not only physical violence, but also professional retaliation just for doing our jobs,” said Justice Jackson, speaking at a conference for judges held in Puerto Rico. “And the attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.”Justice Jackson did not mention President Trump by name nor cite any specific attacks against the nation’s judges. However, her remarks came as Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly targeted judges who have blocked key pieces of his agenda, even calling for judges who have ruled against him to be impeached.Those calls drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in March, who described them as “not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”Threats of physical violence against judges have also been on the rise, with judges facing bomb threats and a rash of delivery of anonymously dispatched pizzas, a prank apparently designed to send a message that their home addresses can be found.The forceful comments by Justice Jackson were rare for the justice. Since joining the court in 2022, she has focused many of her public appearances on telling the personal story of her rise to become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Charles Koch Says Many in the Country Are ‘Abandoning’ Its Principles

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      In a rare appearance on Thursday to receive an award from the Cato Institute, Mr. Koch made oblique references to President Trump and his tariffs, without mentioning his name.Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and conservative megadonor, made a rare public appearance Thursday evening and called for libertarians to embrace their principles, in comments that seemed obliquely directed at a Republican Party taken over by President Trump.Mr. Koch was at one time among the most powerful forces in Republican politics. In the 2016 election cycle alone, he and his allies spent $750 million to promote the party’s candidates and causes. But his political power has waned significantly since Mr. Trump’s election that year, and he is now seldom seen in Washington. And neither do Republicans worry much about his plans in a party that is much more in Mr. Trump’s image than in Mr. Koch’s.But Mr. Koch, who will turn 90 this November, showed up in Washington to accept an award from the Cato Institute. Almost 50 years ago, Mr. Koch helped found Cato, one of the nation’s prominent libertarian think tanks. By 2012, Mr. Koch and his brother David had given about $30 million to the institute, but the relationship soured and the Kochs ended up suing the nonprofit before settling that June.Accepting a prize named after Milton Friedman, the free-market economist, on Thursday, Mr. Koch made his first public remarks since Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January and enacted a number of policies that are anathema to Mr. Friedman’s and Mr. Koch’s politics, most notably the sweeping tariffs.Mr. Koch dispensed with the cheery rhetoric of most conservatives these days. Speaking about the subsidies and protectionism of the past, he said that “you can see why we’re in the mess we’re in today.” The billionaire often speaks about his core “principles” in business and philanthropy.“With so much change, chaos and conflict, too many people and organizations are abandoning these principles,” Mr. Koch later said, not uttering Mr. Trump’s name. He added, “But we know from history, this just makes the problems worse. And people have forgotten that when principles are lost, so are freedoms.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Marco Rubio Adds a New Title Under Trump: Interim National Security Adviser

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      The former senator from Florida is now the head of four government bodies. He has outdone Henry Kissinger and even Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who has only three main titles.Secretary of state. Acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration. And now interim national security adviser to President Trump.Like a Christmas tree bedecked with shiny ornaments of every shape and size, Marco Rubio, 53, has accumulated four titles starting with his confirmation as secretary of state on Jan. 20, the same day that Mr. Trump took his oath of office.It very well could be a record in the modern history of the U.S. government. And it adds to the immigrant success story that is core to the narrative of Mr. Rubio, a former senator from Florida whose father worked as a bartender and mother toiled as a housekeeper after they left Cuba for the United States.But the proliferation of titles raises questions about whether Mr. Rubio can play any substantial role in the administration if he is juggling all these positions, especially under a president who eschews the traditional workings of government and who has appointed a businessman friend, Steve Witkoff, as a special envoy handling the most sensitive diplomacy.Mr. Trump announced Mr. Rubio’s newest position in a social media post on Thursday afternoon, a surprise twist in the first big personnel shake-up of this administration. The president had just ousted Michael Waltz from the White House national security adviser job as well as Mr. Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong. In the same post, Mr. Trump said Mr. Waltz would now be his nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations.Mr. Rubio’s appointment to yet another job — as if he were cloned in a B-grade sci-fi movie — was so sudden that Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokeswoman, learned about it when a reporter read Mr. Trump’s social media post to her during a regular televised news conference.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Russell Brand to Appear in Court on Rape and Sexual Assault Charges

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      The comedian, actor and YouTuber will attend a London courtroom on Friday for the first stage of what could be lengthy criminal proceedings.The comedian and actor Russell Brand was scheduled on Friday to appear before a London court on multiple charges of sexual assault, including two counts of rape.His appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court will be the first, largely procedural, step in what are likely to be lengthy criminal proceedings. It comes a month after British prosecutors charged Mr. Brand with one count of rape, one of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and another of indecent assault.Prosecutors said in a news release last month that the charges related to “reported nonrecent offenses between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.”Mr. Brand has denied all the charges. In a video posted to his social media accounts in April, Mr. Brand said that he had “never engaged in nonconsensual activity” and that he looked forward to defending himself in court.In Britain, the first hearing in a criminal trial is “largely administrative,” said Stuart Nolan of the Law Society, an organization representing British lawyers. On Friday, Mr. Nolan said, the judge would simply refer the case onto a higher court, called a crown court, which deals with more serious offenses.Mr. Brand would also be asked to confirm his name, address and date of birth, but would not enter a plea, Mr. Nolan added.A plea hearing would happen in about a month’s time, Mr. Nolan said, but the actual trial might only begin “a year from now,” because of a backlog of cases in Britain’s judicial system.Mr. Brand became a star in Britain in the early 2000s with hit stand-up shows and appearances as a TV and radio host. Later, after the period covered by the charges, he achieved fame in the United States, too, when he starred in movies including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (2008) and “Get Him to the Greek (2010). He was briefly married to the pop star Katy Perry.In recent years, Mr. Brand became better known for conspiracy-minded YouTube videos. Almost seven million users subscribe to his channel, where Mr. Brand has posted clips about politics and news events such as the war in Ukraine.Under British law, news outlets cannot identify anyone who makes sexual assault allegations unless they choose to waive their right to anonymity. After charges have been filed, strict rules also prevent the reporting of any information that could prejudice a jury at trial. More

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      NYT Crossword Answers for May 2, 2025

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      Wishing you all a very happy Robyn Weintraub Friday!Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — It would be easy to assume that today’s column is about physics based on the headline alone, but it isn’t. I just admired the clue for 24D. I think you will, too.A great clue-answer pairing isn’t totally unexpected, of course. This is a Robyn Weintraub puzzle, and while I try not to play favorites with the constructors, I think we can all agree that she makes some of the zingiest crosswords in the community. Look at the lively phrases with which Ms. Weintraub has salted her grid — I liked 14A, 17A, 25A, 40A, 51A, 55A, 6D, 24D, 11D and 27D.Try not to race through this one. Savor the entries by saying them out loud. Stop to admire the wordplay-packed cluing. I promise that you will enjoy the experience that much more if you really look at the grid you’re solving.Tricky Clues14A. The answer to the clue [Gatsby or Hamlet] is TRAGIC HERO. I’m unsure whether Jay Gatsby and Hamlet are really heroes, given their moral ambiguity, but they certainly are tragic.17A. For [Sides of circles?], I employed my well-known “stare at the grid until the penny drops” method of solving. I mulled over the meanings of the word “sides” until I realized that Ms. Weintraub was referring to side dishes, and that the circles were ONION RINGS.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Chris Krebs, Ex-Leader of Cybersecurity Agency, Is Under Investigation, Trump Officials Say

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      The disclosure came three weeks after President Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate the former agency leader, Chris Krebs, in an act of score settling.Trump administration officials said on Thursday that Chris Krebs, who debunked President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election as head of the federal cybersecurity agency, lost his membership in an expedited customs program for travelers because he is facing a federal investigation.The officials declined to specify why Mr. Krebs was under investigation, nor did they indicate which agencies were conducting the inquiry. The disclosure came three weeks after Mr. Trump, in an act of score settling and intimidation, directed the Justice Department to investigate Mr. Krebs.“Chris Krebs is under active investigation by law enforcement agencies,” a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “That is a fact disqualifying him for global entry.”The department offered no further explanation about the inquiry into Mr. Krebs, who was appointed to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by Mr. Trump in 2018. Asked about the suspension of Mr. Krebs’s Global Entry travel program status, a White House official supplied a similar statement, offering no other details. The official did not respond to a follow-up question. It is unusual for a government law enforcement agency to confirm or deny an open investigation. Mr. Trump has cited comparable breaches of protocol in accusing law enforcement of trying to smear him during various investigations into his conduct.The Global Entry program, administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Homeland Security Department, allows low-risk travelers who have passed a clearance process to avoid time-consuming screening procedures at airports.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Once Banished From Trump’s White House, Zelensky Has New Hope

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      In his zigzagging approach to ending the war in Ukraine, President Trump has shifted his frustration — for now — from Ukraine’s leader to Vladimir Putin.Feb. 28 was one of the darkest days for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion three years earlier. An Oval Office visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky meant to win favor with President Trump turned into a televised shouting match, prompting Mr. Trump to banish his guest from the White House without even serving him a planned lunch.Mr. Trump was already a deep skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine. But after the disastrous meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he accelerated his diplomacy with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, drafting a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that offered major concessions to Moscow. Ukraine’s supporters were in panic.But there is new hope in Kyiv.A day after the Trump administration announced an economic deal with Ukraine that gives the United States a stake in its future mineral revenues, analysts say the country’s prospects look brighter than they have in months.“These are very good signs that something might be shifting,” said Alina Polyakova, the president and chief executive of the Center for European Policy Analysis.“It does seem like there’s change from the previous approach” by the Trump administration, she said, calling the minerals deal “a win-win for both sides” that Ukraine negotiated “very savvily.”Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky also appeared to have a friendly meeting on Saturday at the Vatican, as Mr. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Mr. Putin’s demands in the separate talks to settle the war.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More