Mike’s Blog Round-up

(NEW YORK) — Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen admitted Monday to jurors in the Republican’s hush money trial that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from Trump’s company as defense lawyers seized on the star witness’ misdeeds to attack his credibility. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] With the prosecution’s case nearing its end, Trump’s attorneys hope Cohen’s admission — on top of his numerous other past lies and crimes — will sow doubt in jurors’ minds about Cohen’s crucial testimony implicating the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in the hush money scheme.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Much of the world was caught by surprise when Ebrahim Raisi, the President of Iran and anticipated successor to the country’s Supreme Leader, was killed in a helicopter crash along with the country’s Foreign Minister over the weekend. Iran’s role on the world stage had become increasingly complex under Raisi’s leadership, as the regime navigated long simmering tensions with Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the U.

Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s 43-year-old minister of digital affairs, has a powerful effect on people. At a panel discussion at Northeastern University in Boston, 20-year-old student Diane Grant is visibly moved, describing Tang’s talk as the best she’s been to in her undergraduate career. Later that day, a German tourist recognizes Tang leaving the Boston Museum of Science and requests a photo, saying she’s “starstruck.” At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a trio of world-leading economists bashfully ask Tang to don a baseball cap emblazoned with the name of their research center and pose for a group photo.

It was the political trial of the century. An extremely popular, powerful, and populist politician faced criminal charges for corruption. Lawyers did his bidding and judges served at his pleasure. The rich knew he was for sale and the poor and working classes thought he was fighting for them. His downfall began when he supported a partisan riot, which saw 60 civilians and members of law enforcement killed; it was then that institutions began to fight back. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The politician in question was not Donald Trump.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. The pair were returning to Tehran after attending a ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the Iran-Azerbaijan border to inaugurate the building of the new Qiz Qalasi Dam. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Khamenei said that the country would undergo a five-day mourning period.

The suite of landmark zoning and land-use reform laws passed by Colorado lawmakers this year should help alleviate the housing crisis, national experts say, while catapulting the Centennial State into the ranks of other housing pioneers. But those experts cautioned that the reforms seeded this winter and spring will take years to bear fruit.