Donald Trump will be sentenced Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US President-elect’s last-ditch efforts to frustrate a process that would make him the first felon in the White House.The judge has indicated, however, that Trump will not face prison — even though the 34 counts of falsifying business records on which he was convicted in May 2024 carry potential prison time. It is instead anticipated that he will receive the mildest criminal sanction available, an unconditional discharge — a relatively uncommon measure.Sentencing, which Trump is expected to attend virtually, will happen in the scruffy Manhattan courtroom that was the scene of the trial’s high drama, legal wrangling and vitriolic personal attacks by the divisive Republican.The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.Daniels gave toe-curling testimony that included details about her sexual encounter with Trump — which he has always denied — as well as his flirting and interest in the adult film industry.The judge intervened to stop more explicit testimony.Trump had made an eleventh-hour plea for a suspension of the criminal proceedings to the nation’s highest court after a New York State appeals court dismissed his effort to have the hearing delayed, and the state’s top court declined to act on the request.But the Supreme Court ruled that the sentencing could proceed.Prosecutors opposed the effort to stave off sentencing, 10 days before Trump is due to be sworn in for a second term, arguing it was wrong for the apex court to hear the case when the mogul still had avenues of appeal to pursue in New York.”This Court lacks jurisdiction over a state court’s management of an ongoing criminal trial when defendant has not exhausted his state-law remedies,” the prosecution told the Supreme Court Thursday.- Legal wrangling -His lawyers have used several legal maneuvers in an effort to fend off the sentencing, which the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has already indicated in a filing will not result in jail time.Instead, experts expect Trump will receive an unconditional discharge, a measure without any sanctions or restriction that nonetheless upholds the jury’s guilty verdict — and Trump’s infamy as the first former president to be convicted of a felony.The 78-year-old Trump had potentially faced up to four years in prison.”He’s sticking his middle finger at the judge, the jury, the system of justice, and laughing,” said Pace University law professor and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman.Trump’s counsel had argued sentencing should be postponed while the Republican appeals his conviction, but New York state Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer rejected that on Tuesday.Trump’s lawyers additionally claimed the immunity from prosecution granted to a US president should be extended to a president-elect — Gesmer also brushed those arguments aside.His attorneys had further sought to have the case dismissed based on the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year, which stated former US presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.Trump was certified as the winner of the 2024 presidential election on Monday, four years after his supporters rioted at the US Capitol as he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat.

In the skies above Los Angeles, air tankers and helicopters silhouetted by the setting California sun dart in and out of giant wildfire plumes, dropping much-needed flame retardant and precious water onto the angry fires below.Looking in almost any direction from a chopper above the city, AFP reporters witnessed half a dozen blazes — eruptions of smoldering smoke emerging from the mountainous landscape like newly active volcanoes, and filling up the horizon.Within minutes, a previously quiet airspace above the nascent Kenneth Fire had become a hotbed of frenzied activity, as firefighting officials quickly refocused their significant air resources on this latest blaze.Around half a dozen helicopters buzzed at low altitude, tipping water onto the edge of the inferno.Higher up, small aircraft periodically guided giant tankers that dumped bright-red retardant onto the flames.”There’s never been so many at the same time, just ripping” through the skies, said helicopter pilot Albert Azouz.Flying for a private aviation company since 2016, he has seen plenty of fires including the deadly Malibu blazes of six years ago.”That was insane,” he recalled. But this, he repeatedly says while hovering his helicopter above the chaos, is “crazy town.”The new Kenneth Fire burst into life late Thursday afternoon near Calabasas, a swanky  enclave outside Los Angeles made famous by its celebrity residents such as reality television’s Kardashian clan.Aircraft including Boeing Chinook helitankers fitted with 3,000-gallon tanks have been brought in from as far afield as Canada.Unable to fly during the first few hours of the Los Angeles fires on Tuesday due to gusts of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, these have become an invaluable tool in the battle to contain blazes and reduce any further devastation.Helicopters performed several hundred drops on Thursday, while conditions permitted.Those helicopters equipped to operate at night continued to buzz around the smoke-filled region, working frantically to tackle the flames, before stronger gusts are forecast to sweep back in to the Los Angeles basin overnight.

Months of dry weather and recent strong winds created optimal conditions for the deadly wildfires engulfing Los Angeles, but narratives on social media falsely single out “liberal” policies — including those to increase diversity in the city’s fire force — as the culprit.Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who was appointed in 2022 after two decades of service, was singled out in a series of X posts blaming her department’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy.”She boasts about being the first female and LGBTQ fire chief in the LA Fire Department. Promoting a culture of DEI is her priority. Does this make you feel safer?” the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok posted on January 8 on X.”They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,” X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, chimed in.But experts say such scapegoating is hardly unexpected.From the Maui fires in 2023 and hurricanes Milton and Helene in 2024, every recent major natural disaster in the United States has systematically triggered social media narratives questioning the effort and legitimacy of first responders.”This rhetoric is expected — and has become increasingly mainstreamed — following extreme weather phenomena and disasters,” added Sara Aniano, a disinformation analyst at the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism.- Trump effect -Social media users also attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom, echoing misleading complaints from Trump about how the state handles its water supply.”Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, using his preferred nickname for the leader.But most Los Angeles water comes from the city’s aqueduct, not Northern California.At a White House briefing, US President Joe Biden pushed back against Trump’s accusations that California authorities have wasted water and said there was no room for politics in the situation. He called for officials to be “honest” and “straightforward” with the public about the available capacity.Trump also tried to blame a lack of water on environmentalists’ efforts to protect the smelt — a small fish that lives hundreds of miles away from the fires. Such comments are a distraction from known impacts on the fires, such as the Santa Ana winds, and the fact that fire events in the state have been enhanced by a changing climate. Scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather patterns and changing how wildfires impact the US West.Southern California had two decades of drought that were followed by two exceptionally wet years that sparked furious vegetative growth. Then the region had no significant rain for eight months. Altogether, the weather left the area packed with fuel and primed to burn.Nearly 180,000 people across Los Angeles remain under evacuation orders, and at least five people have died, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.Authorities continue to investigate the causes of the two main fires –- Palisades and Eaton –- with no evidence to support social media claims pinning blame on the homeless population or “ecoterrorists.” Such false narratives “undercut the people and organizations trying to help” and “sow division within the community,” said Sarah Labowitz, a climate and geopolitics expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.”It’s the exact opposite of what keeps people safe and ready to recover.”