International
Trump prioritized silence of Stormy Daniels “for the campaign, not for Melania,” according to his former lawyer
Donald Trump’s former lawyer and former right-hander, Michael Cohen, assured on Monday that the former American president, accused of falsifying accounting documents to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels, acted in this way to protect his 2016 electoral campaign, and not so much his marriage to Melania.
“I want it to be hidden until the elections are passed (2016). If I win, it will not be relevant because I will already be president; if I lose, I won’t even care,” Cohen paraphrased Trump, adding that “it was for the campaign, not for Melania” Trump.
Some statements that provoked the first ostensible gestures of denial with the head by the former president during this Monday’s session in the New York court, where he has even remained prolonged moments with his eyes closed.
“I didn’t even think about Melania. It was all for the campaign,” Cohen repeated.
Melania and Donald Trump met in 1998, when he was 52 years old and she was 28, and the couple arrived at the altar in 2005, just a year before the alleged slip with Daniels; an ‘affair’ that, if proven, took place when she was pregnant.
In addition, Barron, the only son resulting from the marriage between Trump and Melania, was born on March 20, 2006 and grew up in the attic of the Trump Tower, where, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the agreements of the former head of the American Executive were forged to hide this mess of skirts and another with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model.
Cohen, in the same way, revealed on Monday in the criminal trial that the former president faces in New York how he insisted that “not come to light” alleged extramarital relationships that could have affected his 2016 campaign.
“The purpose was to prevent the story from being sold or marketed to an external source,” Cohen explained after explaining how his role in intermediation with the American tabloid The National Enquirer was.
According to his account, Cohen was in charge of executing Trump’s requests for the aforementioned media, led by media tycoon David Pecker, to exercise the tactic known in English as ‘catch and kill to acquire the publishing rights of these alleged ‘affaires’, but finally leave them stored in a drawer and never see the light.
Trump is accused of forging accounting documents to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels and thus safeguard her reputation in the face of the 2016 elections, in which she would eventually end up imposing.
The scheme, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, consisted of Cohen advancing the payment of $130,000 to Daniels so that his alleged relationship was not revealed, which then had to be reimbursed to the former lawyer, as part of a plot that served to “corrupt” the aforementioned elections.
Another of the women’s names highlighted in the case is that of Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who also tried to filter an affair with Trump and for whose silence Cohen contacted Pecker.
First, I “asked” Trump “if he knew who he was,” Cohen recalled to questions from the Prosecutor’s Office, to which the former president allegedly replied: “She is very beautiful.”
“I told him ‘okay’, but right now he’s trying to sell a (love) story,” Cohen recalled.
“Make sure it doesn’t come to light,” Trump would answer, according to Cohen assuming that “history had to be acquired” by applying the ‘catch and kill’ technique.
“What he told us (Pecker) was that he could be attentive to anything negative about Mr. Trump and that he could help us know in advance what was going to come out and try to prevent it from coming out,” Cohen said, who detailed that the media executive ended up being paid $150,000 to silence the story.
On the other hand, Cohen added that they were also aware of the publication of negative stories about Trump’s rivals in The National Enquirer and set the example with one about Hillary Clinton: “Hillary Clinton appeared with very thick glasses, among some accusations that she had a brain injury.”
In addition, Cohen said that Trump was “enchanted” with the role of this tabloid because his great competitive advantage was that it was present in most “cash registers of supermarkets and grocery stores,” suggesting that it reached a large part of society.
Cohen also narrated how he forged his relationship with Trump in the early 2000s to be part of his close circle by making important transactions or resorting to invoices that he considered “unfair.”
“I felt like I was at the top of the world when (Trump) said that I was fantastic or great,” Cohen said.
Trump made all the requests, according to Cohen, in person because the former head of the US Executive “never” had a personal email address.
“Part” of the work that he entrusted to him was, according to his story, also to mediate and even “enable” those who signed articles with some kind of criticism of the former president.
“If there was an article that bothered him, I was also in charge of talking (with journalists),” he explained about his work, which he summed up in eminently “making happy” the presumptuous candidate of the Republican Party in the U.S. presidential elections in November.
Become one of Trump’s main enemies today, Cohen had already declared against his former chief during the civil trial for fraud that was held in New York where he blamed him for fictitiously inflating his assets to obtain better credit conditions. That process resulted in a fine of 364 million dollars that the tycoon is appealing.
International
U.S. warns China over Taiwan during high-level defense talks in Kuala Lumpur
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth expressed concerns over China’s growing military activity near Taiwan during a meeting on Friday with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in Kuala Lumpur.
“It was a constructive and positive meeting,” Hegseth wrote on X. “I emphasized the importance of maintaining a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and raised U.S. concerns about China’s actions around Taiwan,” the self-governed island that Beijing claims and does not rule out invading.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus, one day after U.S. President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea. According to Trump, Taiwan was not discussed during their talks.
“The United States does not seek conflict and will continue to firmly defend its interests, ensuring it maintains the capability to do so in the region,” Hegseth added in his message.
Friday’s encounter followed a September 9 video call between Hegseth and Dong. Their previously planned meeting at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore was canceled due to Dong’s absence from the event.
Trump’s sit-down with Xi — their first since 2019 — resulted in some trade agreements but avoided addressing the issue of Taiwan, a long-standing source of tension between the world’s two largest powers.
Trump has taken a more ambiguous stance on Taiwan’s future compared with former President Joe Biden, who repeatedly stated that Washington would support Taipei if China launched an invasion. The Republican president has also criticized Taiwan for “stealing” the U.S. semiconductor industry.
International
U.S. considering airstrikes on military sites in Venezuela, reports say
The United States may soon carry out airstrikes on military facilities inside Venezuela as part of an escalating offensive against Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to reports Friday from the Miami Herald and The Wall Street Journal, citing sources close to the Trump administration.
Airstrikes could take place “within days or even hours,” the Herald reported. The Journal noted that while the option is under serious consideration, President Donald Trump has not yet made a final decision on authorizing strikes on Venezuelan soil.
Potential targets allegedly include military-controlled ports and airports used in drug trafficking operations, such as naval installations and airstrips, officials told the Journal.
The Herald also quoted a source saying that “Maduro’s time is running out”, suggesting that more than one Venezuelan general may be ready to detain and hand him over. However, officials declined to confirm whether the Venezuelan leader would be among the military targets.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to block the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, following nearly two months of airstrikes against vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean. Those operations have destroyed 15 boats and left 61 people dead and three survivors since September 1.
“We are finally waging a war against the cartels — a war like they’ve never seen before — and we are going to win that battle. We are already winning at sea,” Trump told U.S. troops during a speech in Japan.
The reports on possible airstrikes come on the same day the United Nations accused the U.S. of violating international law with its maritime operations, saying those killed at sea may have been victims of extrajudicial executions.
International
Pope Leo XIV revives Global Compact on Education to confront cultural crisis
Pope Leo XIV announced on Friday that he will revive and update the Global Compact on Education, an initiative launched by the late Pope Francis aimed at deeply transforming global culture through education.
The announcement was made during an audience in St. Peter’s Square, held on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Educational World, which this week gathers more than 20,000 participants from 124 countries in Rome.
During his address, the pontiff — who is of U.S. origin and Peruvian nationality — emphasized the importance of restoring the value of educators and reinforcing the principles that support the pact.
“We must be careful: damaging the social and cultural role of educators means mortgaging our own future,” he warned before thousands in attendance. “A crisis in the transmission of knowledge leads to a crisis of hope.”
The Global Compact on Education, launched by Pope Francis, seeks an integral and long-term cultural transformation. It is structured around five pillars: dignity and human rights; fraternity and cooperation; technology and integral ecology; education for peace and citizenship; and culture and religions. To date, the initiative has been joined by over 553 schools and nearly 410,000 students, according to Catholic Schools data.
Pope Leo XIV also expressed concern over the widespread inner fragility affecting both students and teachers — many of whom feel overwhelmed by bureaucratic burdens.
He additionally addressed the role of artificial intelligence in education, warning that it may worsen emotional isolation among learners: “It can further isolate students who are already isolated, giving them the illusion that they do not need others — or worse, the feeling that they are unworthy of them,” he said.
U.S. warns China over Taiwan during high-level defense talks in Kuala Lumpur
U.S. considering airstrikes on military sites in Venezuela, reports say
Pope Leo XIV revives Global Compact on Education to confront cultural crisis
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