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US Supreme Court justices questioned the legality behind a wide swath of Donald Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, as they began hearing a landmark case that could uphold — or upend — the president’s economic agenda.Billions of dollars in customs revenue and a key lever in Trump’s trade wars are at stake, while the conservative-dominated court once again grapples with the Republican’s attempts to expand presidential power.The high court’s nine justices are considering Trump’s citing of emergency powers to impose so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every US trade partner, as well as levies targeting Mexico, Canada and China over their alleged roles in illicit drug flows.Opponents argue that such broad tariffs are not permitted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the law Trump cited in rolling out the levies.An important issue before the court is whether the “major questions doctrine” applies. Under the doctrine, Congress has to give clear authorization for policies with significant economic or political consequences. Solicitor General John Sauer, who is arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, fielded questions from several justices on the doctrine and said it did not apply given the president’s inherent, broad range of authorities.He added that one would expect Congress to confer major powers on the president to address foreign international crises.Sauer also made a case that the issue here is not the power to tax but rather, to regulate foreign commerce. The power to impose tariffs, he said, is a “core application” of such authorities.The court’s decision, which could take months to arrive, does not concern sector-specific tariffs Trump separately imposed, including on steel, aluminum and automobiles.Since returning to the White House, Trump has brought the average effective tariff rate to its highest since the 1930s. A lower court ruled in May that he had exceeded his authority, prompting the Supreme Court case.Trump has hyped the case as “one of the most important” in US history and warned of calamity if his tariffs are overturned.- ‘Ringside seat’ -The president floated the provocative idea of attending Wednesday’s court hearing himself but ultimately decided against it, saying he did “not want to distract” from the decision’s importance.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent however told Fox News he planned to “have a ringside seat,” while US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was at the court as well, his office confirmed.When Bessent was asked if his presence could be seen as an intimidation attempt, he said: “I am there to emphasize that this is an economic emergency.””In recent years, the court has been reluctant to overrule presidential decisions of this magnitude,” ING analysts said in a note Wednesday.But they said this case is hard to predict, as “upholding Trump’s tariffs would shift the balance of power from Congress to the President, further enhancing his executive power.”Trump’s administration argues that under the IEEPA, the president can “regulate” trade by unilaterally setting import tax rates.But challengers note the words “tariff” or “tax” do not appear in the statute, and that the US Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to establish levies.Businesses, lawmakers and former US officials have filed around 40 legal briefs against the president’s global tariffs, while only a few briefs supported his actions.Although Trump’s tariffs have not sparked widespread inflation, companies and particularly small firms say they bear the brunt of higher import costs.Lawyers note that if the top court finds Trump’s global tariffs illegal, the government can tap other laws to impose up to 15 percent tariffs for 150 days, while pursuing pathways for more lasting duties.Countries that have already struck tariff deals with Trump may therefore prefer not to reopen negotiations.

The death toll from a UPS cargo plane crashing in Louisville has risen to nine with more fatalities feared, Kentucky’s governor said Wednesday, as search efforts continued and the airport resumed flights.The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 departing for Hawaii crashed at around 5:15 pm (2215 GMT) Tuesday, shortly after taking off from Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.It exploded into flames as it plowed into businesses adjacent to the airport.Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called the tragedy “heartbreaking” and “unimaginable.””The number of those lost has now risen to at least 9, with the possibility of more,” he posted on X. “Right now these families need prayers, love and support.”Beshear said in a prior post that 16 different families had reported loved ones unaccounted for.”A significant search and rescue mission was underway overnight, which is continuing this morning,” he said.UPS said in a statement that three crew members were on board the aircraft, adding that “we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties.”Tuesday’s crash reportedly was the deadliest in the global package delivery giant’s history. Its main hub, Worldport, is in Louisville, where it employs thousands of people.UPS has halted package sorting operations at their facility.Video shared by local broadcaster WLKY showed the aircraft’s left engine on fire as it tried to lift off.By early Wednesday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said on X that aviation officials had reopened the runway.A spokesman for the airport, Jonathan Bevin, said the cargo flight “went down three miles (five kilometers) south of the airfield” after taking off. UPS travels to more than 200 countries via nearly 2,000 daily flights, with a fleet of 516 aircraft. It owns 294 of those planes and hires the rest through short-term leases or charters.Aerial footage of the crash site showed a long trail of debris as firefighters blasted water on the flames, with smoke billowing from the area.Beshear said the aircraft hit a petroleum recycling facility “pretty directly.”The cause of the crash was under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board. The crash comes amid the longest government shutdowns in US history. Earlier Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned of “mass chaos” due to a lack of air traffic control staff.”You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” Duffy told reporters.In January, an American Eagle airliner hit a military Black Hawk helicopter outside Washington’s Ronald Reagan National airport, killing all 67 people on both aircraft.That crash, which ended the country’s 16-year streak of no fatal commercial air crashes, has added to concerns about the US air traffic control system, which some regard as an understaffed operation beset by problems with old equipment.

New Yorkers elected leftist Zohran Mamdani as their next mayor, while Democrats won two key state governor races sending an early warning signal to Republican President Donald Trump ahead of the 2026 midterms.The clean sweep among several ballots nationwide on Tuesday has boosted morale among Democrats bruised by Trump’s return to the White House and has set alarm bells ringing among Republican circles.Mamdani, 34, is the city’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest to serve in more than a century.The Democratic socialist’s victory came in the face of fierce attacks on his policies and his Muslim heritage from business elites, conservative media commentators and Trump himself.”If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him,” Mamdani said in a victory speech to supporters.”In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light.”Mamdani’s win, as well as the Democratic Party’s victories in the governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, suggest a shift in the political mood across the United States as it looks to next year’s midterm elections when control of Congress will be up for grabs.In another significant win for Democrats, voters in California also approved a proposition to redraw electoral districts in a bid to neutralize gerrymandering efforts ordered by Trump in other states.Trump refused to take any blame for Tuesday’s results and tried to make an eleventh-hour intervention in the race, calling Mamdani a “Jew hater.”In a post on his Truth Social network, he also cited anonymous “pollsters” suggesting the Republican defeats were down to the government shutdown and the fact that his own name wasn’t on the ballot.- ‘Next stop City Hall’ -Mamdani, a state lawmaker for New York’s Queens borough, appealed to voters by pledging to tackle the soaring cost of living, offering free city bus travel, childcare and city-run grocery stores.He focused on living costs facing ordinary New Yorkers, building support through his informal personal style, social media savvy and a massive canvassing ground game.”The next and last stop is City Hall,” Mamdani said in a video posted to X after his victory was declared.Mamdani was virtually unknown before his upset victory to secure the Democratic nomination over former governor Andrew Cuomo, who he trounced again on Tuesday.When the race was called in his favor, excitement was palpable across the city.It was a “local victory” that offered a means of “resisting and pushing back” against the political establishment in Washington, Ben Parisi, 40, told AFP, adding that the night stood in stark contrast to Republican Trump’s victory a year ago.Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, came in third after weeks of Cuomo insisting he bow out to increase his chances.Disappointed and “heartbroken” Cuomo supporters booed as the results rolled in saying Mamdani’s victory is “not right.”Many blamed Sliwa for splitting the center-right vote while others questioned their safety in the city.”As a Jew in New York, it’s terrifying to think that we’re going to have a mayor who hates us,” Cuomo supporter Elise, 74, said.Prominent business people including Bill Ackman noisily attacked Mamdani and funnelled cash to his rivals, while conservative media including The New York Post published blanket negative coverage.Turnout was high in this year’s vote with 2.06 million ballots, or 98 percent of votes cast, counted by 12:31 am Wednesday — more than the total number of voters in the 2021 race.- Uphill struggle -Mamdani’s improbable rise highlights the Democratic Party’s debate over a centrist or a leftist future, with some leading national figures offering only tepid endorsements of Mamdani ahead of voting.Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said ahead of the result mayor Mamdani would face an uphill battle.”Everybody’s got their knives out, and it’s a very difficult city to govern,” he told AFP.In New Jersey, Democratic Party candidate Mikie Sherrill beat out a Trump-backed businessman and in Virginia, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger took back the governor’s mansion from the Republicans.Both sides wheeled out big guns, with former president Barack Obama rallying support for Spanberger and Sherrill.”We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter,” Obama said in response to the wins.

Donald Trump had decisively won the US presidential election last November and very few people outside New York’s leftist circles knew Zohran Mamdani, who had just declared his longshot mayoral candidacy.What a difference a year can make.Crowds across the city chanted Mamdani’s name on Tuesday as champagne and tears flowed for the democratic socialist from Queens turned New York mayor-elect.”Mamdaniiiiii,” one group exclaimed, substituting the 34-year-old’s name for the customary “cheese” as they posed for a photo at a Brooklyn bar watch party.Voters gathered there in cautious optimism, sporting Mamdani merch as they anxiously awaited the evening’s results, classic songs such as Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and edgier tracks from Lou Reed blasting from the speakers. “It’s like, too scary to be hopeful,” Michelle Dimuzio told AFP with a nervous laugh before the polls closed.However, Dimuzio’s trepidation proved unwarranted as early results began to roll in with Mamdani soundly in the lead.The entire bar erupted in cheers and even a toddler joined in the applause, uttering a newly learned word that met the moment — “bravo!”And when the race was called for New York’s first Muslim mayor, barely half an hour later, the excitement was palpable at bars across Brooklyn and Queens, where street parties raged, and in Manhattan, where the owner of a posh brasserie ordered celebratory glasses of champagne for everyone on the house.It was a win by New Yorkers, for New Yorkers, Ben Parisi told AFP.The 40-year-old said the night stood in stark contrast to Republican Trump’s election a year ago.It was a “local victory” that offered a means of “resisting and pushing back” against the political establishment in Washington, Parisi said.”A lot of us worked hard in one way or another to make this happen,” Parisi said, “and here we are… we get to celebrate.”- ‘We are you’ -Elsewhere in Brooklyn, a packed concert venue danced to Mamdani’s once-obscure, now-viral hip hop track “Nani”, which the young politician recorded years ago under his rap name “Mr. Cardamom.”Supporters at Mamdani HQ greeted him with a deafening ovation as their incoming mayor walked onstage, flashing his megawatt smile that has lit up the city through his nonstop campaigning.The once-improbable candidate claimed victory for his campaign but also for those who “made this movement their own” — his acknowledgements included Yemeni bodega owners, Mexican abuelas, and Uzbek nurses.He also cited Eugene Debs, who at the turn of the 20th century was one of the best-known American socialists.And he thanked young constituents who catapulted his candidacy, “the next generation of New Yorkers who refused to accept that the promise of a better future was a relic of the past.””We will fight for you,” Mamdani promised, “because we are you.”He had criss-crossed the city again and again with his relentless ground game and, in his final days on the trail, Mamdani was seen traversing the Brooklyn bridge, doing tai chi with seniors and out at clubs till dawn.Mamdani brought with him a message of affordability that 37-year-old Dimuzio said struck a chord with New Yorkers.Dimuzio described living paycheck to paycheck despite a full-time job, and said Mamdani’s focus on making New York a more financially feasible place to live spoke to her in a way she said politicians on both sides of the aisle rarely do.”He sticks to his message,” she said, and “he doesn’t just give the political tossed salad.”Mamdani repeated that message Tuesday night, leading a raucous call-and-response of his promises, which include freezing rent and institutionalizing universal child care.”Our greatness will be anything but abstract,” Mamdani told the crowd. “If tonight teaches us anything, it is that convention has held us back.”

At least seven people died and several more were injured after a UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff on Tuesday from Louisville International Airport in Kentucky, exploding into flames as it crashed into businesses adjacent to the airport.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 departing for Hawaii crashed at around 5:15 p.m. local time (2215 GMT). Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told a press briefing that he expected the number of dead and injured was going to rise.”First responders are onsite and working hard to extinguish the fire and continue the investigation,” he posted in a Tuesday night update on X.UPS said in a statement that three crew members were on board the aircraft, adding that “we have not confirmed any injuries/casualties.”Beshear said the status of the three crew members was unknown and said that he was “very concerned” for them.The cause of the crash was under investigation by the FAA and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Video shared by local broadcaster WLKY appears to show the aircraft’s left engine on fire as it tried to lift off.Officials at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport announced that all flights scheduled for departure on Tuesday evening had been cancelled, and UPS said it had halted package sorting operations at their facility.  The flight “went down three miles south of the airfield” after taking off from runway 17R, said Jonathan Bevin, an airport police spokesman. Louisville serves as the main US air hub for UPS, according to a company fact sheet. The package delivery giant travels to more than 200 countries via nearly 2,000 flights per day, with a fleet of 516 aircraft. UPS owns 294 of those planes and hires the rest through short-term leases or charters. Aerial footage of the crash site showed a long trail of debris as firefighters blasted water on the flames, with smoke billowing from the disaster area.Governor Beshear said the aircraft hit a petroleum recycling facility “pretty directly.”- Government shutdown -The crash comes amid one of the longest government shutdowns in US history, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warning of “mass chaos” earlier Tuesday due to a lack of air traffic control staff. “You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” Duffy told reporters.In a statement on X, Duffy called footage of the crash “heartbreaking,” adding: “Please join me in prayer for the Louisville community and flight crew impacted by this horrific crash.”In January, an American Eagle airliner hit a military Black Hawk outside Washington’s Ronald Reagan National airport, killing 67 people.That crash, which ended the United States’ 16-year streak of no fatal commercial air crashes, has added to concerns about the US air traffic control system, which some regard as an understaffed operation beset by problems with old equipment.

California voted overwhelmingly to redraw its electoral districts Tuesday, in a poll Democrats called to counter efforts by US President Donald Trump to gerrymander in Republican states.Early results showed a large majority in the traditionally liberal state voted in favor of a motion that was widely promoted as an opportunity to “stick it to Trump.”Voters approved of Proposition 50 by a margin of two-to-one, early official results showed, with major media outlets projecting it would retain a significant majority when the final tally is counted.The result is a big win for Governor Gavin Newsom, who is increasingly staking his claim to leadership of the Democratic Party on his willingness to stand up to Trump.”We’re proud of the work that the people of the state of California did tonight to send a powerful message to… the most historically unpopular president in modern history,” Newsom said as the results came in.Newsom and his allies asked voters to approve a temporary re-drawing of electoral districts that could give the Democratic Party five more seats in the scramble for control of the US Congress in next year’s midterm elections.Republicans complained it was a power grab that would disenfranchise the party’s voters in California.Democrats said they were simply trying to level the playing field after Texas Republicans pushed through their own redistricting — under White House pressure — to help maintain a narrow Congressional majority that has so far given Trump carte blanche.”Donald Trump is under water. He promised to make us healthier. He promised to make us wealthier. We’re sicker and poorer, and he understands that,” Newsom said.”Why else is he trying to rig the midterm elections before one single vote is even cast?”- ‘RIGGED’ -TV commercials for the “Yes” campaign gleefully imagined an irate Trump watching the results on television as he rambled incoherently and threw French fries at the screen.The president — whose enmity towards California has been a recurring theme in his decade in national politics — was clearly annoyed by the ballot initiative.”The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote on social media Tuesday, without offering any evidence.US electoral districts are traditionally drawn following the national census taken every 10 years, theoretically so the electoral map reflects the people who live there.In reality, most boundaries are party political decisions, so whichever grouping is in power at the time gets to set the rules for the next decade’s contests.California did away with such partisan gerrymandering under former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving the power instead to an independent panel — one of a small number of states to do so.If Tuesday’s results are confirmed, politically drawn boundaries will take effect for all elections until the next census, when the panel will once again determine the maps.The vote is “a political ink-blot test,” Los Angeles Times columnist Mark Barbarak wrote Monday.”A reasoned attempt to even things out in response to Texas’ attempt to nab five more congressional seats. Or a ruthless gambit to drive the California GOP to near-extinction.”What many California voters see depends on, politically, where they stand.”People at the polls in Los Angeles on Tuesday said the vote was about fighting back against Republican shenanigans elsewhere in the country.”I’ll take anything we can get, anything we can get. We got to sometimes use the methods they’re using, whatever will get us moving forward,” Casey Mason told AFP.Makela Yepez said he was not particularly pleased that the state’s independent boundary commission was taking a temporary back seat, but felt the ends justified the means.”I think we’re using the tools that are at our disposal, and I think we have to have faith that it’s going to work,” he said.

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether a wide swath of Donald Trump’s tariffs are lawful, in a landmark case that could uphold — or upend — the president’s economic agenda.Billions of dollars in customs revenue and a key lever in Trump’s trade wars are at stake, while the conservative-dominated court once again grapples with novel tests of presidential authority.Trump has hyped the case as “one of the most important” in US history and warned of calamity if his tariffs are overturned.This “case is, literally, LIFE OR DEATH for our Country,” he posted Tuesday on his Truth Social platform.The high court’s nine justices will consider Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every US trade partner, as well as levies targeting Mexico, Canada and China over their alleged roles in illicit drug flows.Opponents argue that such broad tariffs are not permitted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the law cited by Trump in issuing the levies.The court’s decision, which could take months to arrive, does not concern sector-specific tariffs Trump imposed, including on steel, aluminum and automobiles.Since returning to the White House, Trump has brought the overall average effective tariff rate to its highest since the 1930s.A lower court ruled in May that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing his global duties, a decision affirmed on appeal, prompting Trump to take the fight to the Supreme Court.”If a President was not able to quickly and nimbly use the power of Tariffs, we would be defenseless, leading perhaps even to the ruination of our Nation,” Trump argued Sunday on Truth Social.- ‘Ringside seat’ -The president floated the provocative idea of attending Wednesday’s hearing himself but ultimately decided against it, saying he did “not want to distract” from the decision’s importance.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent however told Fox News he plans to “have a ringside seat.”Asked if his presence could be seen as an intimidation attempt, Bessent said: “They can say what they want. I am there to emphasize that this is an economic emergency.”White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that the administration was fully confident in its legal arguments, but was nonetheless “always preparing for Plan B.”Trump’s administration argues that under the IEEPA, the president can “regulate” trade by unilaterally setting import tax rates at any level.But challengers note the words “tariff” or “tax” do not appear in the statute, and that the US Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to establish levies.Businesses, lawmakers and former US officials have filed around 40 legal briefs against the president’s global tariffs, while only a few briefs supported his actions.- The arguments -Although Trump’s tariffs have not sparked widespread inflation, companies and particularly small firms say they bear the brunt of higher import costs.The group of small businesses and states challenging Trump’s tariffs argue that even as the IEEPA allows the president to “regulate” imports in an emergency, it does not confer him power “to tax every corner of the economy that is subject to regulation.”Persistent US trade deficits, which Trump cited to launch his “reciprocal” tariffs, also do not meet the IEEPA’s requirement of an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” the opponents argued.Trump’s lawyers have countered that even longstanding issues can reach a “tipping point” necessitating an emergency declaration.Lawyers note that if the top court finds Trump’s global tariffs illegal, the government can tap other laws to impose up to 15 percent tariffs for 150 days, while pursuing investigations for more lasting duties.Countries that have already struck tariff deals with Trump may therefore prefer not to reopen negotiations.

Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York mayor caps an extraordinary rise for the leftist local lawmaker who emerged from relative obscurity to lead a supercharged campaign for the US megacity’s top job.Since his surprise victory in the Democratic Party primary in June, New Yorkers have become used to seeing his bearded, smiling face on television — and on badges proudly worn by his supporters. The 34-year-old election winner was born in Uganda to a family of Indian origin and has lived in the United States since he was seven, becoming a naturalized US citizen in 2018. He is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding,” “Mississippi Masala”) and Mahmood Mamdani, a professor and respected Africa expert — leading some of his detractors to call him a “nepo baby.” He followed a path paved by other youngsters from elite liberal families, attending the elite Bronx High School of Science followed by Bowdoin College in Maine, a university seen as a bastion of progressive thought.Under the alias “Young Cardamom,” he ventured into the world of rap in 2015, influenced by hip-hop group “Das Racist,” which had two members of Indian origin who played with references and tropes from the subcontinent.Mamdani’s attempt to break into the competitive world of professional music did not last, with the performer-turned-politician calling himself a second-rate artist. He took an interest into politics when he learned that rapper Himanshu Suri, who performed under the alias Heems, was supporting a candidate for city council — and joined that campaign as an activist.Mamdani went on to become a foreclosure prevention counselor, helping financially struggling homeowners avoid losing their homes. He was elected in 2018 as a lawmaker from Queens, a melting pot of predominantly poor and migrant communities, representing the area in the New York State Assembly. – ‘Disaffected voters’ -The self-proclaimed socialist, who has been re-elected three times, forged an image that has become his trademark — a progressive Muslim just as comfortable at a Pride march as he is at an Eid banquet.He put the goal of making the city affordable for everyone who are not wealthy, the majority of its approximately 8.5 million residents, at the heart of his campaign. He has promised more rent control, free day care and buses, and city-run neighborhood grocery stores. Mamdani is also a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian cause, although his positions on Israel — which he has called an “apartheid regime” while branding the war in Gaza a “genocide” — have drawn the ire of some in the Jewish community. In recent months he has made a point of vocally denouncing antisemitism — as well as the Islamophobia he has suffered. Playing the race card, President Donald Trump, who calls Mamdani a “little communist,” denounced him as a “a proven and self professed JEW HATER” Tuesday as New Yorkers were heading to the polls. Mamdani is something of an establishment “outsider,” according to Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University. “He has managed to galvanize support from disaffected voters and others in New York City who are dissatisfied with the status quo and with an establishment that they perceive to be overlooking their needs and policy preferences,” he said.Mamdani, a keen soccer and cricket fan, recently married US illustrator Rama Duwaji, and put his experience of activism to work in a strategically coordinated canvassing and leaflet campaign that he has paired with an extensive and often humorous use of social media. “He really is a kind of an hybrid of a great 1970s campaign and a great 2025 campaign,” said Lincoln Mitchell, a Columbia University professor.

Moderate Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill cruised to comfortable victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ elections on Tuesday, on an election night seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidential term.Pitting centrist Democrats against Trump-aligned Republicans, both elections were seen as signaling whether middle-of-the-road voters had made peace with the president’s radical cost-slashing agenda — or plan to give his party a bloody nose in 2026.Trump has driven a steamroller through the federal bureaucracy since returning to office in January, shuttering entire agencies and cutting an estimated 200,000 jobs even before the government shutdown.Spanberger’s win in Virginia — which is second only to California in the size of its federal workforce — was no surprise, as polls had shown her holding a steady lead of seven to 12 points throughout the campaign.The former CIA officer and three-term congresswoman was projected to beat Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Marine veteran and staunch Trump ally, by a comfortable margin that makes her Virginia’s first-ever female governor. “You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most — lowering costs, keeping our communities safe and strengthening our economy for every Virginian,” Spanberger said in her victory speech.- Pledge to stand against Trump -Casting herself as a bulwark against Trump’s aggressive federal downsizing, Spanberger vowed to be “a governor who will stand up” for the thousands of federal workers laid off by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.Earle-Sears ran a campaign aimed at firing up conservatives, mirroring the playbook of outgoing, term-limited Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin to focus on culture war issues such as transgender athletes and abortion.In New Jersey, Democratic former Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill was also seen as the favorite, although she was locked in a closer battle with Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli.The race became increasingly tight in the home stretch, with some polling showing it as a margin-of-error tussle that could go either way.But Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the Hudson Tunnel project — a vital link between New Jersey and New York — was seen as an important boost for Sherrill, who had built up a double-digit lead by the time her race was called. On a pivotal day in US democracy, with elections at various levels of government taking place across the country, Pennsylvanians were picking new state supreme court justices while California was delivering its verdict on redistricting measure Proposition 50.California Governor Gavin Newsom spearheaded the plan to redraw congressional districts in response to Trump pressuring Texas into a rare and contentious mid-decade redistricting.The Texas move, aimed at yielding five more Republican seats in the closely divided US Congress, would likely be canceled out by approval for Proposition 50 in left-leaning California. 

Opening arguments will begin in Chicago on Wednesday in the first civil trial against US aviation giant Boeing over the 2019 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX aircraft, which killed 157 people, after a full day of jury selection.  Five women and three men will serve on the jury in the proceedings, which got underway Monday at a federal court. The jury will rule on the suits filed by family members of 155 victims between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.On four prior occasions, attorneys reached last-minute settlements that averted a trial, and an out-of-court settlement remains possible even during the trial. Each side will have 90 minutes on Wednesday to present its case. Judge Jorge Alonso, who is overseeing all civil claims tied to the accident, allowed lawyers on Tuesday to participate in the process, Robert Clifford, lead counsel for one of the plaintiffs, told AFP. “I think his goal was to get as unbiased a jury as he could obtain,” he said. “Even if he asked a lot more questions than maybe would be normal… it wouldn’t have surprised me that a case as complex as this could easily have taken two days to select a jury.”- ‘Battle lines are drawn’ -Lawyers for Boeing and the families of victims of the fatal crash were originally expecting to give opening statements on Tuesday, but those were pushed to the next day because it took six hours to finish jury selection.As many as 50 potential jurors packed the courtroom on the 19th floor of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Tuesday, while the public filled the pews on the other side.With the jury selected, it is less likely that the two parties will settle the case, Clifford said, adding that the plaintiffs have not talked with the defendants about settling.”The battle lines are drawn and there’s no active negotiations going on,” the lawyer said.The eight-person jury that was picked will be hearing the case concerning the March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines flight that went down six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all on board.The two principal plaintiffs in the trial are the families of Shikha Garg of New Delhi and Mercy Ndivo of Kenya.Garg had been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program who had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly.She had gotten married three months earlier and had planned to travel with her husband, who canceled his flight at the last minute because of a professional meeting. Garg had attended the landmark 2015 UN climate talks in Paris.Ndivo and her husband, who also died in the crash, were parents of a girl who is now almost eight years old. She was returning from London, having attended a graduation ceremony after earning a Masters in Accountancy.Boeing has said it is “deeply sorry” for the Ethiopian Airlines crash and for a separate MAX crash on Lion Air that killed 189 people on a domestic flight in Indonesia in 2018.The American manufacturer has also stressed its commitment to settling cases when possible.The firm has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS… contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said last October.The MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight stabilizing software was implicated in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.Boeing also faced dozens of complaints from Lion Air family victims. Just one case remains open.