World
Giuliani is disbarred in New York as court finds he repeatedly lied about Trump's 2020 election loss
NEW YORK (AP) — Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, was disbarred in the state on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss.
A New York appeals court in Manhattan ruled that Giuliani, who had already had his New York law license suspended in 2021 for false statements he made after the election, is now “disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”
Giuliani’s attorney Arthur Aidala said they were “obviously disappointed” but not surprised by the decision. He said they “put up a valiant effort” to prevent the disbarment but “saw the writing on the wall.”
The court said in its decision that Giuliani “essentially conceded” most of the facts supporting the alleged acts of misconduct during hearings held in October 2023. Instead, the decision said, he argued that he “lacked knowledge that statements he had made were false and that he had a good faith basis to believe the allegations he made to support his claim that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from his client.”
The court said it found that Giuliani “falsely and dishonestly” claimed during the 2020 Presidential election that thousands of votes were cast in the names of dead people in Philadelphia, including a ballot in the name of the late boxing great Joe Frazier. He also falsely claimed people were taken from nearby Camden, New Jersey, to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city, the court said.
The order states that Giuliani must “desist and refrain from practicing law in any form,” including “giving to another an opinion as to the law or its application or any advice” or “holding himself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law.”
Before pleading Trump’s case in November 2020, Giuliani had not appeared in court as an attorney since 1992, according to court records.
The disbarment comes amid mounting woes for Giuliani, who filed for bankruptcy last year after he was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers over lies he spread about them that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
Giuliani is also facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
He’s charged in Georgia with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.
The Arizona indictment accuses Giuliani of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state legislators to change the outcome of Arizona’s results and encouraging Republican electors in the state to vote for Trump in December 2020.
Giuliani built his public persona by practicing law, as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan in the 1980s, when he went after mobsters, powerbrokers and others. The law-and-order reputation helped catapult him into politics, governing the United States’ most populous city when it was beset by high crime.
His leadership of the stricken city after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001 earned him the image of “America’s mayor.” The Republican was lauded for holding the city together after two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, killing more than 2,700 people.
But after unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate and the presidency, and a lucrative career as a globetrotting consultant, Giuliani smashed his image as a centrist who could get along with Democrats as he became one of Trump’s most loyal defenders.
He was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, infamously standing at a press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia on the day the race was called for Democrat Joe Biden over the Republican Trump and saying they would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Democrats.
Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
In May, WABC radio suspended Giuliani and canceled his daily talk show because he refused to stop making false claims about the 2020 election.
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Associated Press reporters Karen Matthews and Jennifer Peltz in New York, Michael Sisak in Fort Pierce, Fla., and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this story.
The sweeping tariffs that President Trump announced on Wednesday could hobble the use of giant batteries that energy companies are increasingly installing to help them tap more wind and solar power and make the broader electric grid more reliable.
Over the past five years, grid batteries have become one of the biggest growth industries in the U.S. energy sector. In states like Texas and Arizona, companies have been installing stacks of lithium-ion cells the size of shipping containers. They can soak up excess wind and solar energy and save it for when it’s needed. In California, the use of batteries to store solar power for the evening hours has helped utilities reduce the amount of natural gas that is burned.
Yet the majority of America’s lithium-ion batteries are still imported, and 69 percent of those imports came from China in 2024, according to BloombergNEF. Mr. Trump’s latest round of tariffs, when combined with earlier trade moves, will impose a 64.5 percent tax on grid batteries from China, and that rate would rise to 82 percent next year.
“This will throttle U.S. energy storage deployment,” Jason Burwen, vice president of policy and strategy at the battery developer GridStor, wrote in a social media post. “Bad for business, bad for grid reliability.”
Energy companies were expected to install a record 18,200 megawatts of grid battery capacity this year, enough to store the entire output from 18 large nuclear reactors for a few hours, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Together, batteries, wind and solar power were expected to make up 93 percent of capacity added to the grid.
Those batteries help address renewable energy’s biggest weakness: the fact that the wind and sun aren’t always available. In states that rely heavily on solar power like California and Texas, a boom in battery installations has helped reduce the risk of blackouts during the hot summer months by working together with gas plants to provide power when demand spikes.
But batteries aren’t just useful for adding more renewables: Utilities also use them to smooth out small disruptions in the flow of electricity, say, if a power plant unexpectedly tripped offline. Or, they can be used to reduce congestion on transmission lines.
Companies have largely been installing grid batteries because the price of lithium-ion technology has plummeted (the batteries are similar to those found in electric cars). Tariffs could reverse that trend.
“Batteries are the only major clean tech sector where imports still overwhelmingly come from China,” said Antoine Vagneur-Jones, head of trade and supply chains at BloombergNEF. “So the impacts of these tariffs are going to be a lot bigger for batteries than they are for other technologies.”
In recent years, the United States has started to build up a domestic battery supply chain. After the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act passed, the Biden administration poured billions of dollars into new battery factories and offered tax credits for both domestic manufacturers and the use of batteries in both grids and electric vehicles.
But many of those factories face an uncertain future now that President Trump and Republicans in Congress are looking to roll back a variety of clean energy policies.
Teasing out the precise effects of tariffs on the energy mix is complicated, Mr. Vagneur-Jones said. Right now, batteries often compete with natural gas plants as a technology to fill in the gaps left by fluctuating wind and solar power.
But it won’t always be so easy for many power companies to increase their use of gas: There is a lengthy global backlog for new gas turbines, and a company trying to build a new gas plant from scratch today may have to wait until 2030 or beyond. The oil and gas industry is also being hurt by new tariffs on steel and aluminum, which can affect everything from the steel pipe used to line new gas wells to power transformers.
“It’s always tempting to say these tariffs are good for fossil fuels, bad for clean energy,” Mr. Vagneur-Jones said. “But I think it’s just bad for everyone.”
World
Some countries targeted by Trump tariffs seek negotiations, China says 'no winners in trade wars'
World leaders across the globe are reacting to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, with some expressing disappointment and others making threats. On Wednesday, the president announced a baseline tariff of 10% on imports, in addition to reciprocal tariffs based on what each nation imposes on U.S. goods.
Trump believes these tariffs will incentivize foreign investment in the U.S. and spur domestic job growth.
While several U.S. allies articulated their frustration with the tariffs, they also expressed a lack of interest in launching trade wars. Many called for negotiations with the U.S. for new trade agreements.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled “Make America Wealthy Again” at the White House on April 2, 2025. (Getty Images)
TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT TELLS COUNTRIES NOT TO RETALIATE AFTER SWEEPING ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFFS
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the tariffs a “major blow to the world economy.” Von der Leyen said in a statement that there would be “countermeasures,” though she did not specify what they would entail.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry said that “there are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars,” according to the Associated Press (AP).
Additionally, according to Reuters, Beijing is also planning to take “countermeasures.” Trump has taken an especially tough approach to China, which was already hit with a 20% tariff earlier this year. China will now face a 34% reciprocal tariff in addition to the 10% baseline imposed on all listed nations.
Trump shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 7, 2025. (Getty Images)
FRANCE ASKS US TO BE ‘COOPERATIVE’ INSTEAD OF ‘CONFRONTATIONAL’ FOLLOWING TRUMP’S ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFFS
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the tariffs would have a “great impact” on U.S.-Japan relations and the global economy, according to the AP. He vowed that the Japanese government would work to “decisively protect people’s lives, jobs and industries.”
Despite being subject to one of the lowest reciprocal tariffs at just 10%, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country would negotiate with the Trump administration to remove the tariffs.
“We will not join a race to the bottom that leads to higher prices and slower growth,” Albanese said, according to Reuters.
Canada and Mexico are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs for now, but they face a 25% tariff on goods, with Canada also being slapped with a 10% energy tariff. While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to “fight these tariffs with countermeasures,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country would announce a “comprehensive program” on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump speak during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House on Feb. 27, 2025. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP)
When speaking to reporters, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not criticize Trump, rather he said that the U.S. president was acting on “his mandate.” However, he also said that “nothing is off the table.” The prime minister assured that his government is working to make “an economic prosperity deal” with the U.S
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that his country would preemptively lift all tariffs on U.S. goods. However, Trump still announced a 17% reciprocal tariff on Israel. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his office was “analyzing the implications for the economy.” Smotrich also said that he would meet with the Finance Ministry to discuss possible responses.
At least seven people, including two children, have died after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey to a nearby Greek island capsized, Greece’s coast guard has said.
A search and rescue operation off the northern coast of Lesbos recovered the bodies.
The coast guard said 23 people have been rescued.
Reporting on what appeared to be the same sinking, Turkish media said the incident was attended by the Turkish coast guard after a rubber dinghy sank in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish mainland and Lesbos.
Those rescued were taken to a hospital and the search continued, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Weather in the area was reported to be good and it was unclear what caused the boat to overturn early on Thursday morning.
There was no immediate information on the total number of people travelling in the boat, their nationalities, or the type of vessel it was.
A sea and land search and rescue operation is continuing, with three coast guard vessels, an air force helicopter, and a nearby boat searching the area for further potential victims.
Greece is one of the main entry points into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with many making the short but often treacherous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies.
Many are unseaworthy or set out in bad weather, and fatal accidents are common.
The Greek government has cracked down with increased patrols at sea and many smuggling rings have shifted their operations south, using larger boats to transport people from the northern coast of Africa to southern Greece.
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