Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has filed paperwork to launch his 2024 presidential bid. Mr Christie, who faces long odds in the competition for the GOP nomination, is expected to formally kick off his campaign during a town hall in New Hampshire. Mr Christie plans to focus on the Granite State, an early primary state that he hopes will help give his campaign momentum. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, leads the increasingly crowded GOP field. But Mr Christie will look to position himself as a more moderate alternative to Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who recently launched his own GOP presidential bid. At one point, Mr Christie appeared to be in the running for an administration post in Mr Trump’s government, rumoured to be a top contender for the positions of attorney general or potentially secretary of state. But the former governor has since become a vocal critic of the former president, who faces criminal charges in New York City and the prospect of additional charges at the federal level and in Georgia. In the days immediately following January 6, he urged his fellow Republicans to impeach the president for whom he had once considered working, on the grounds of inciting an insurrection — a highly serious charge that ended up going further than even the select committee formed to investigate the attack would later recommend in its referral to the Department of Justice. Just as recently as March, the ex-governor was laying out what he believed was necessary to stop Mr Trump from attaining the GOP nomination, something many in the party’s donor class are hoping to avoid given the president’s performance in 2020 and the woeful showing by the Republican Party in the 2022 midterms. “You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco [Rubio], because that's the only thing that's gonna defeat Donald Trump,” he said at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. “And that means you have to be fearless, because he will come back, and right at you.” His comments referred to the infamous moment during a February 2016 Republican debate wherein Mr Christie battled a then-surging Senator Marco Rubio onstage — in a series of brutal takedowns, the governor deconstructed his opponent’s debating approach and eviscerated it, leaving the crowd jeering as the senator attempted to respond. It was a moment that quickly cemented itself in political debating history, but ultimately proved next to meaningless given that both men would be utterly overwhelmed in the contest by another man on the stage that night: Donald Trump. And it remains unclear whether that same mastery of the debate stage demonstrated by Mr Christie will serve him well against Mr Trump. In one famous instance from the 2020 contests, Mr Trump bullied his way through an initial debate with now-President Joe Biden, talking over his opponent and ignoring the rules and moderator. Matching Mr Trump’s energy both onstage and off has turned into a major challenge for Republicans, including both those who seek to end his dominance of the GOP and those who wish to emulate his style for their own gain. Though Mr Christie is a veteran of the presidential campaign universe, his chances of winning the GOP nomination are slim. He is currently polling around 1 percent in surveys of the Republican field which include him; the vast majority of voters are currently aligned behind Mr Trump and his second-place challenger, Florida’s Ron DeSantis. Read More Chris Christie –live: Former New Jersey Gov launches Trump spoiler 2024 presidential bid Chris Christie gave Trump legitimacy. Now he can’t stop Trump in 2024 Tim Scott and TV host spar about systemic racism on ‘The View’: ‘That is a dangerous, offensive, disgusting message’ Chris Christie gave Trump legitimacy. Now he can’t stop Trump in 2024 Trump secret papers crisis is his own fault for ‘jerking around’ DOJ says his former attorney general Trump threatens former lawyer who told CNN he expected indictment: ‘Angry, nasty, libelous’

A Southern California county has filed lawsuits alleging that the negligence of a power company caused two wildfires that collectively burned thousands of acres and prompted tens of thousands of evacuations

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Elaborate marriage proposals are amazing, and can create some of the most memorable moments in life – until they go wrong. That’s what appeared to happen to content creator Gray Fagan, who recently proposed to his girlfriend, Chloe, on a hot air balloon. In a 12 November video, Fagan whips out a ring while he and Chloe are high in the sky, amid a crowd of fellow balloon tourists. What happened next didn’t make anybody very happy, by the looks of things. Or did it...? He said: “Um, Chloe, I’ve known you for six years now. I, uh, have known since the day I met you that I wanted you to be my friend and partner forever. “And today I thought on this beautiful day, in this beautiful place, I would make it official and ask you to be my wife.” Rather than saying yes, Chloe looked shocked and close to tears, repeatedly pushing the ring away and saying: “Please stop.” Fagan was optimistic in the video caption, writing: “Technically she never said no.” However, there's a catch. The creator’s profile says he barters in “scripted chaos”. Could it be a total fake? Many in the comments seem to have interpreted it as genuine. One person wrote: “Would have been a good idea to bring a parachute instead of a picnic basket.” Another said: “The people behind you probably want to jump from second hand embarrassment.” A third added: “The moment of silence was deafening.” However, others speculated that the video is scripted. If it was, Fagan’s got the attention he wanted, with more than 35m people having watched it on TikTok and 151,000 likes on Instagram. One person said: “This is scripted but ok lol.” Another wrote: “My skin is crawling. Absolutely brilliant video once again.” And a third person said: “The amount of people have posted and commented on this on Twitter thinking it’s real worries me greatly.” Sounds like they know something the others don’t. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Bank of Japan further loosened its grip on government bond yields while continuing to stick with its

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