DeSantis meets with Trump to help with 2024 election
 
MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump seem ready to put their feud from the Republican presidential primary aside — for real this time.
 
The two Florida Republicans met in Miami Sunday morning to talk about how they could work together during the general election, according to half a dozen people familiar with the meeting who were granted anonymity to speak freely.
 
The meeting was first reported by the Washington Post.
 
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DeSantis has not ruled out a 2028 run for president and appears to be making amends with Republicans and others he’s fought with. Walt Disney World, for instance, settled its lawsuit against the governor after he appointed a competent official friendly to the California-based company to oversee its special taxing district, putting a two-year feud to a close.
 
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Judge finds Trump in contempt for violating his gag order
Judge Juan Merchan has found Trump in contempt for violating his gag order. He is handing down his written decision to the parties.
 
Merchan has fined Trump $1,000 for each violation.
 
The judge said that prosecutors had met the burden of proof.

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial fined him $9,000 on Tuesday for repeatedly violating a gag order that bars him from making attacks on witnesses and jurors, and threatened to put him behind bars if he continued to violate the order.
 
In a written order, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, said he was “keenly aware of, and protective of, Defendant’s First Amendment rights.” But nonetheless, he wrote that he would not tolerate continued violations of his orders and he would “impose an incarceratory sentence” if necessary.

Trump napping.

A steady 27% of Americans say the most important problem facing the U.S. is immigration.
 
Immigration tops Gallup’s open-ended trend for the third consecutive month, the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1
 
Breaking on @MSNBC : All the Truth Social and campaign website posts that Judge Merchan ruled violated his gag order have now been deleted.

The law firm which has represented Trump and his election campaign for several years, is seeking to withdraw as the firm of record, saying there had been an "irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship."

My guess is he hasn't paid a bill.

Aux États-Unis, les jeunes de 18 à 30 ans ont de plus en plus recours à la stérilisation. Le phénomène s'est accéléré fortement après l'annulation en 2022 de la protection du droit à l'avortement par la Constitution.

L'étude publiée vendredi souligne que le taux de stérilisation avait certes déjà augmenté au cours des années précédant cette décision historique, avec 2,8 procédures pour 100.000 femmes par mois et 1 pour 100.000 hommes.
 
Mais la décision a déclenché un bond spectaculaire avec 58 procédures de stérilisation pour 100.000 femmes par mois et 27 pour 100.000 hommes, selon l'étude qui se concentre sur les 18-30 ans.

US and Saudis Near Defense Pact Aimed at Reshaping Middle East
 
The US and Saudi Arabia are nearing a historic pact that would offer the kingdom security guarantees and lay out a possible pathway to diplomatic ties with Israel, people familiar with the matter said.
 
The agreement faces plenty of obstacles but would amount to a new version of a framework that was scuttled when Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel triggered the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Negotiations have sped up in recent weeks and many officials are optimistic that Washington and Riyadh could reach a deal within weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
 
Such a deal would potentially reshape the Middle East. Beyond bolstering Israel and Saudi Arabia’s security, it would strengthen the US’s position in the region at the expense of Iran and even China.
 
The pact may offer Saudi Arabia an arrangement strong enough to need the US Senate’s approval and even give the world’s biggest oil exporter access to advanced US weapons that were previously off-limits. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would agree to limit Chinese technology from his nation’s most sensitive networks in exchange for major US investments, and get American help to build out its civilian nuclear program.
 
Once the US and Saudi Arabia settle their agreement, they would present Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a choice: either join the deal, which would entail formal diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia for the first time, more investment and regional integration, or be left behind. The key condition for Netanyahu would be ending the Gaza war and agreeing to a pathway for Palestinian statehood.
 
The proposal is fraught with uncertainty. Getting Congress to approve a deal that commits the US to protecting Saudi Arabia militarily would be a daunting prospect for the White House, especially if Israel opts not to join it.  
 
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Still, the leaders of the three countries have plenty of incentives to reach an agreement soon. For Biden, it’s a chance for a foreign policy victory before presidential elections in November. The crown prince would avoid the uncertainty around whether former President Donald Trump would accept a deal if he wins in that race even though Trump’s administration initiated the Abraham Accords that envisioned such alliances between Israel and its neighbors.
 
Netanyahu, the biggest wild card, could take credit for normalizing relations with the biggest economy in the Middle East and guardian of Islam’s holiest sites — a goal he’s long coveted.
 
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The latest conversations amount to a shift in approach for Biden and Prince Mohammed. As originally conceived, the agreement would have been a three-way deal that forged Saudi-Israeli diplomatic relations along with greater investment and integration in the region.
 
Now, the US and Saudi Arabia see a deal with each other as central to ending the war between Israel and Hamas, which has roiled the wider Middle East and led to huge protests in the West. The two countries would offer Israel a series of economic, security and diplomatic incentives if it scales back plans for an invasion of Rafah and quickly concludes its war with Hamas.
 
For Netanyahu, another advantage would is that a pact would help counter Iran’s aggression. Since the war in Gaza erupted, Israel and Iran have exchanged their first-ever direct fire against one another and Tehran’s proxy militias such as Hezbollah have regularly attacked the Jewish state.

“This is a strategic act between Saudi Arabia and the United States that’s meant to secure and cement America’s position in the Middle East at a time when the kingdom, but also others, have been diversifying their foreign policy options away from Washington,” said Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
 
It would also alleviate a key domestic pressure point for Biden, who has come under criticism from progressives and on college campuses for not doing enough to stop the destruction in Gaza.
 
Aspects of the deal would mirror agreements the US has made in recent months with other regional partners, including the United Arab Emirates. In that case, Abu Dhabi’s top artificial intelligence firm, G42, agreed to end cooperation with China in exchange for an investment from Microsoft Corp.
 
In the case of Saudi Arabia, which is also eager to develop artificial intelligence and semiconductors locally, the US has said it can’t do so with American help if it keeps Chinese technology.