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The Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority appeared ready yesterday to rule that former presidents have some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution<\/a>, which could further delay the criminal case against Donald Trump on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election.<\/p>\n Such a ruling would most likely send the case back to the trial court, ordering it to draw distinctions between official and private conduct. Though there was seeming consensus among the justices that the criminal case could eventually go forward based on Trump\u2019s private actions, the additional proceedings could make it hard to conduct the trial before the 2024 election in November.<\/p>\n If Trump wins the White House, he can order the Justice Department to drop the charges against him. Here are takeaways<\/a> from the argument.<\/p>\n In Trump\u2019s New York trial, <\/strong>on charges of falsifying business records, David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, told jurors in vivid detail how Trump depended on him to buy and bury damaging stories<\/a> that could have derailed Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n U.S. Army engineers yesterday began constructing a floating pier<\/a> off the coast of Gaza that could help relief workers deliver up to two million meals a day, Defense Department officials said.<\/p>\n The pier is meant to allow humanitarian aid to bypass Israeli restrictions on land convoys into the besieged strip. But aid workers and defense officials said that the maritime project is not an adequate substitute for more overland aid.<\/p>\n Defense officials expected the project to be completed early next month. Experts have said that famine is likely to set in<\/a> within Gaza by the end of May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n New York\u2019s highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein\u2019s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges<\/a>, a reversal that horrified many of the women whose decision to speak out against Weinstein, a prominent Hollywood producer, accelerated the #MeToo movement.<\/p>\n The court said that the trial judge who presided over the sex crimes case made a critical error by allowing prosecutors to call as witnesses several women who testified that Weinstein had assaulted them, even though none of those allegations had led to charges.<\/p>\n Weinstein is still not a free man. He is facing a 16-year sentence in California, and Manhattan\u2019s district attorney said through a spokeswoman that he planned to retry the 2020 case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Our critic Jason Farago writes that the 2024 Venice Biennale, which opened this week, is at best a missed opportunity, and at worst something like an artistic tragedy.<\/p>\n The real problem is how the show tokenizes, essentializes, minimizes and pigeonholes the more than 300 talented artists it showcases, Farago writes<\/a>. While there was much he liked in the exhibition, he writes that \u201cthe human complexity of artists gets upstaged by their designation as group members, and art itself gets reduced to a symptom or a triviality.\u201d<\/p>\n Coaching moves: <\/strong>Which soccer managers are going where<\/a>?<\/p>\n French Open:<\/strong> Rafael Nadal<\/a> cast doubt over playing Roland Garros unless he starts feeling better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Host options dwindling: <\/strong>Salt Lake City<\/a> is lined up for the 2034 Winter Olympics \u2014 and maybe beyond.<\/p>\n South Africans will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first post-apartheid elections tomorrow.<\/p>\nU.S. Army began building a floating pier off Gaza\u2019s coast<\/h2>\n
Harvey Weinstein\u2019s New York conviction overturned<\/h2>\n
CONVERSATION STARTERS<\/span><\/h3>\n
SPORTS NEWS <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
ARTS AND IDEAS<\/strong> <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
30 years since the end of apartheid<\/h2>\n