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Asian stocks were poised to decline Wednesday as negotiations over raising the US debt ceiling remained at an

South Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday passed a ban on most abortions after fetal cardiac activity begins, around six

David Sacks, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, will host Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Tesla CEO Elon Musk in an audio chat on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday (24 May) where Mr DeSantis is expected to announce his campaign for 2024 president. Mr Sacks, 50, is a longtime friend of Mr Musk and supporter of Mr DeSantis. Though Mr Sacks’ name is not as prominent as other tech-industry giants, the entrepreneur has a long history of leading and investing in major companies like PayPal, Yammer, Facebook, Airbnb and more. In more recent years, Mr Sacks has become a major donor to political campaigns for individual Republicans like JD Vance and Mr DeSantis. What experience does Mr Sacks have? Mr Sacks – who was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1972 and moved to Tennessee with his family as a child – was the Chief Operations Officer (COO) and head of product for PayPal from 1999 until 2002. He has been dubbed part of the “Paypal Mafia”, a group of former PayPal employees who went on to have successful tech companies- like Mr Musk. In 2008, he founded Yammer which became one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service companies to exist. In 2012, Yammer was acquired by Microsft for $1.2 bn. Mr Sacks co-founded the venture capital firm Craft Ventures in 2017, where he remains a partner. He also has the podcast All-In alongside fellow entrepreneurs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg. Last year, Mr Sacks was widely reported to be helping out his longtime friend, Mr Musk, behind-the-scenes when his fellow South African-born friend acquired Twitter. What does Mr Sacks believe in? Like Mr Musk, Mr Sacks says he is a proponent of free speech. In a blog post on Medium in 2021, Mr Sacks criticised big tech social media platforms for permanently banning politicians. His belief in free-speech was echoed more recently in an interview with conservative personality Benny Johnson. Mr Sacks accused the media of not allowing anti-vaccine activists and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr to speak freely and questioned critics’ justification of saying Mr Kennedy was spreading misinformation. The entrepreneur also expressed support for Tucker Carlson after he was unexpectedly fired from Fox News. Mr Sacks has also been an outspoken critic of US policy towards Ukraine following the Russian invasion that began in February 2022. In a piece for The American Conservative last year, Mr Sacks proposed a peaceful end to the war which included holding referendums on the future of Donbas and Crimea, both of which were illegally occupied by Russian forces in 2014. On Twitter, Mr Sacks is vocal in criticising the US for its involvement in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and has repeatedly clashed with critics of Vladimir Putin, including former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. In October Mr Musk retweeted an article Mr Sacks wrote for Newsweek in which he argued that continued military support for Ukraine could lead to “Woke War III”. The article itself was a response to the backlash Mr Musk received over a Twitter poll suggesting a peace deal which would strongly favour Russian interests. In his Newsweek article, Mr Sacks wrote: “There will be no peaceful resolution to this conflict that America doesn’t at least have a hand in negotiating, and we should be leading the effort. Instead, we’ve been deferring to the Ukrainians and their maximalist demands, upping the sanctions on Russia as Putin ups his rhetoric against the West.” While he has been criticised for his outspoken views despite lacking a foreign policy background, he has argued that his lack of expertise is actually an advantage: “Not being a member of the MIC [military industrial complex] is clearly an advantage in understanding the conflict.” What political candidates has Mr Sacks supported? Since the 1990s, Mr Sacks has supported both Republican and Democratic candidates according to OpenSecrets. His largest donations have gone toward the PAC supporting GOP Ohio Senator JD Vance, the conservative Purple Good Government PAC, Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Republican National Committee. Over the last two years, Mr Sacks has expressed vocal support for Mr DeSantis on Fox News and Twitter as well as donated to his political campaign. Read More Ron DeSantis to launch 2024 presidential bid on Twitter with Elon Musk Can the chaos from Silicon Valley Bank's fall be contained? Casey DeSantis gives cheeky response to reports husband is launching 2024 campaign The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

On Tuesday, a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 48 states and the District of Columbia sued Avid Telecom, alleging that the company is responsible for billions of illegal spam calls posing as government agencies and large corporations.

The number of fires burning in Canada’s top energy-producing province of Alberta declined in recent days, allowing some

Dual-nationality midfielder Timothy Tillman has committed to the US men’s national team.

By Andrew Goudsward A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld an admissions policy aimed at diversifying a highly

Donald Trump appeared virtually in Manhattan criminal court on 23 May for the first time since he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan disclosed the terms of a protective order that prohibits the former president from publicly discussing evidence in the case after prosecutors with the New York District Attorney’s office share information with Mr Trump’s legal team in a case stemming from hush money payments during his 2016 campaign. A trial is set to begin on 25 March 2024, days after voting begins in Republican presidential primaries as Mr Trump once again seeks the GOP nomination. He has pleaded not guilty. Mr Trump grew agitated with the announcement of the trial date, waved his hands and shook his head in disapproval, then folded his arms in frustration as he begins to stare down what could be a weeks-long trial in a critical period in the middle of his 2024 campaign. Prosecutors have argued that a protective order was necessary to keep Mr Trump – who already has repeatedly lashed out against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Merchan – from broadcasting information about the case before a jury has been selected and a trial begins. Mr Trump will be allowed to publicly discuss the case and defend himself in the public sphere, as he continues to adamantly reject the charges as a “witch hunt” against him, but he risks being held in contempt of court if he uses any evidence handed to his team in an attempt to target witnesses, court staff or others involved with the case. On Tuesday, the former president appeared on a video screen in front of two American flags with golden fringes, seated next to his attorney Todd Blanche. A six-page order on 8 May prohibits the presumptive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president, who has used his online bully pulpit with an audience of obedient followers to broadcast veiled threats and insults at his perceived enemies, from disseminating “covered materials” on social media platforms “including, but not limited, to Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube, without prior approval from the court.” Mr Trump also cannot disclose the names and identifying information of any personnel from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, “other than sworn members of law enforcement, assistant district attorneys, and expert or fact witnesses (other than summary witnesses)” until a jury has been selected, according to the order. Mr Bagg’s office can also redact identifying information from discovery materials, the judge has said. The former president is “very concerned that his First Amendment rights are being violated by this protective order,” Mr Blanche told the judge on Tuesday. “It’s certainly not a gag order,” Judge Merchan said. “It’s certainly not my intention in any way to impede Mr Trump’s ability to campaign ... He’s certainly free to deny the charges,” he added. “He’s free to do just about anything that doesn’t violate the specific terms of this protective order.” Mr Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen and the former owner of the National Enquirer David Pecker allegedly worked in concert to“identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects” leading up to the 2016 presidential election, according to prosecutors. The alleged payments were used to cover up sex scandals as part of a “conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election,” according to prosecutors. Hours after he first appeared in criminal court on 4 April, after the judge warned him against making any incendiary remarks or personal attacks, Mr Trump immediately flew back to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he went on to do just that. “I have a Trump-hating judge, with a Trump-hating wife and family,” he said that night. He called Mr Bragg “a local failed district attorney” and a “criminal” who should resign. The former president is at the centre of several other civil and criminal investigations, including a $250m lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, special counsel probes from the US Department of Justice into January 6 and mishandling of classified White House documents at Mar-a-Lago, and a criminal case in Georgia stemming from his attempts to pressure officials to overturn that state’s election results in 2020. Earlier this month, a federal jury found Mr Trump liable for for battery and defamation in a lawsuit from the writer E Jean Carroll, who said the former president raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Jurors agreed that Mr Trump “sexually abused” her and then defamed her when he denied her allegations. She was awarded $5m in damages for both claims. Read More Trump news - live: Trump jealously complains about Dominion payout ahead of hush money court appearance

Saints quarterback Derek Carr wants the Raiders to know he's thriving on his new team. Nothing but winning vibes here.Derek Carr joined the New Orleans Saints earlier this offseason and hasn't looked back since. Well, he's looked back a few times to flip the bird to his old team, ...

Arsenal, Man City & PSG are among the sides interested in signing Zenit winger Malcom.

The Ivy League-educated former naval officer is lauded by many on the right as a political rock star.

Congressman George Santos sent out a series of thank you notes to his Republican colleagues, whose votes last week assured the New York Republican would not be expelled from the House of Representatives. "I want to personally thank you for your support in referring the vote for my expulsion to the Ethics Committee," the letters, obtained by Insider, say. "This has been an especially difficult time in my life, and I want to serve my constituents the best I can." "Now more than ever, the Republican majority needs to stick together, and you demonstrated great dedication and courage by putting differences aside to allow the proper process to play out," the messages conclude. A spokesperson for Mr Santos’s office confirmed the letters were accurate and said the Republican "wanted to express his thanks to his fellow members for allowing the process to play out so that the 118th Congress can focus on the critical issues facing our country, starting with border security and addressing the issue of the debt ceiling." On Wednesday, the House bucked convention and sent a proposal to expel Mr Santos, who was indicted on a series of federal fraud charges earlier this month, to the House Ethics Committee. Typically, the committee defers to the Justice Department on criminal matters. Earlier this month, Mr Santos was hit with a 13-count federal indictment, alleging a series of fraudulent actions before and during his run for office. The charges include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. Prosecutors allege he lied on financial forms submitted as part of his House candidacy, failed to disclose forms of income, overstated earnings, and used donations from his political campaign for personal purposes, including “thousands of dollars of the solicited funds on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.” Mr Santos, who flipped beat an incumbent Democrat to win his Long Island seat in 2022, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Read More George Santos accused of scamming fellow GOP candidates in fraud scheme George Santos bizarrely compares himself to a Mean Girls character: ‘I’m Cady’ AOC heckles George Santos after Congress votes on his future: ‘Resign! Resign bro!’