Citadel founder Ken Griffin signaled his attention in US presidential debates remained on Nikki Haley, putting his hopes

Chris Christie unleashed an epic Twitter takedown of Donald Trump’s White House hiring practices after the former president bragged about bringing on “the best” staff. “It’s plain and simple: Either Donald Trump doesn’t know how to pick personnel, or he’s the worst manager in the history of the American presidency,” Mr Christie, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump, tweeted on Monday. The former New Jersey governor followed that tweet with nine more, comparing what Mr Trump said about White House appointees before he hired them and after his eventual falling out with them. In the tweets, Mr Christie noted that Mr Trump called Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley a “great patriot” and a “great soldier” before calling him a “f***ing idiot” and that he called former Secretary of Defense James Mattis “the closest thing to General George Patton that we have” before he called him “the world’s most overrated general.” There are plenty more examples. Former Attorney General Bill Barr was Mr Trump’s “first choice from day one” before he was “gutless” and a “coward.” Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had a “deep understanding of geopolitics” before Mr Trump called him “dumb as a rock.” Former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was doing an “outstanding job” before Mr Trump called him a “born loser.” It’s a record that undercuts Mr Trump’s frequent boast that he hires the “best people.” A number of the people he hired for his administration are not supporting his second run for president, in some cases criticising his judgment in personal terms. Two members of his administration, former vice president Mike Pence and former secretary to the United Nations Nikki Haley, are running against Mr Trump. “Republicans should listen to what he says,” Mr Christie said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday. “He’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with him.” Mr Christie, who is polling in the low single digits and has not held elected office since leaving the governor’s mansion in New Jersey more than five years ago, has distinguished himself apart in the crowded Republican primary as the only candidate willing to repeatedly and harshly criticise Mr Trump. The irony, of course, is that Mr Christie cozied up to Mr Trump after Mr Trump’s triumph in the 2016 presidential nominating contest. Mr Christie served as an adviser to Mr Trump throughout the 2016 general election campaign and led his presidential transition team. He remained a close ally of Mr Trump’s throughout his presidency, turning on him only after the Capitol riot of January 6. Mr Christie announced his second bid for the presidency earlier this month. He last won an election in 2013, four years before he left office in New Jersey with one of the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a governor. Read More Trump news – live: Judge sets Mar-a-Lago classified papers trial date as Hunter Biden reaches plea deal Trump faces questions about whether he'll drag down the Republican Party after his indictments Chris Christie slams GOP debate pledge as a ‘useless idea’ and rips ‘loser’ Trump Miami's Francis Suarez looks to become first sitting mayor to be president

Nicki Minaj has opened up about her feelings of anxiety after becoming a new mother. The rapper, 40, is the latest Vogue cover star for the magazine’s December 2023 issue. Speaking to the publication, Minaj shared many details about her ongoing motherhood journey, after she and husband Kenneth Petty welcomed their son in 2020. Minaj and Petty, who were married in 2019, were formerly high school sweethearts and grew up together in the same neighbourhood in Queens, New York. The “Superbass” singer explained how Petty was unfazed by her level of fame, and noted that he even calls her by her real name - Onika Tanya Maraj. “Because I’ve known my husband for so long, there’s an ease we have with each other,” she told Vogue. “We make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy.” The pair welcomed their son, who Minaj has nicknamed “Papa Bear” on social media in order to keep his privacy, on 30 September 2020. The “Barbie World” rapper admitted that she and Petty struggled with their relationship after becoming a family of three, much like many couples do when they become new parents. “I’m not going to lie, things got testy between us. Because of our history, I think we knew we’d get past it. But there’s no such thing as confidence in parenthood,” she explained, before recalling the amount of anxiety she felt after becoming a mother. “I kind of wish that someone had told me - although I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to understand it - that there’s a level of anxiety, and you think it’s going to go away, but in fact it gets scarier,” Minaj added. “So often you think: I don’t know how to do this!” Minaj’s highly-anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, is due for release on 8 December. The “Starships” singer previously told her millions of fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, that she had “decided to retire and have my family” just one month before she and Petty were married. However, the Grammy nominee soon realised that the studio was still calling her name - even if that meant needing to balance her family life with her professional career. “I think that deep down inside, I believed that once I had a family, I would just lose the desire to make music,” Minaj told Vogue. “I would always tell people: ‘Watch, when I have a child I’m going to cook every meal for him and bake cookies every day.’ Maybe subconsciously I hoped my focus would just be on being a mother, and I looked forward to that idea. It felt like a relief. But what happens is that you find out you have to work.” This isn’t the first time Minaj has opened up about feeling anxiety as a new mother. In an interview with E! News published in October 2022, the rapper revealed that she often feels like her “heart is being ripped out” when she is away from her now-three-year-old son. “I hate that I have more anxiety now because you’re like: ‘What if the one time I leave my child, I get that phone call?’” she said at the time. “I think moms feel like they have to be perfect.” Minaj then recalled when she was in the United Kingdom and started “bawling” over being away from her son. “And when I try to FaceTime him, I get more sad,” she said. “So, I try to hold out on FaceTiming him because to then put the phone down is so difficult.” The “Super Freaky Girl” rapper shared that she and Petty have never hired a nanny to take care of their baby. “I’m a Trinidadian woman,” she said. “Culturally, we’re not really used to nannies and strangers taking care of the babies. “It’s not a bad thing when moms do it. It’s just that I have to get conditioned. I have to get it out of my mind that it’s a weird thing, because there are tons of celebrities that are doing it and they’re raising amazing children.” Back in September 2020, Minaj announced the birth of her son by posting several photographs of handwritten notes from her celebrity friends congratulating her on the baby news. One of the pictures in the post featured a note from Beyoncé, which read: “Onika, welcome to motherhood. God bless you and your family. B.” “Thank you to Queen B, Kim & Ye, Riccardo Tisci, Winnie, Karol and everyone who sent well wishes during this time. It meant the world to me,” Minaj captioned her post. “I am so grateful and in love with my son. Madly in love. My favorite liddo boy in the whole wide world.” Read More How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux? How much water should we be drinking in a day? Irina Shayk reveals how she and Bradley Cooper make co-parenting daughter Lea ‘work’ What is silent reflux?

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People magazine sent correspondent Natasha Stoynoff to Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write a wedding anniversary story about Donald Trump, who had then recently married Melania Knauss. Almost two decades later, her experience of the future president allegedly “forcing his tongue” down her throat could prove essential testimony in the E Jean Carroll civil rape trial that began on 25 April in a federal court in New York City. On 9 May, the jury in the civil case returned a verdict that Mr Trump was liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll, but not raping her. Ms Stoynoff took the stand at the Manhattan courthouse on 3 May. Before joining People magazine, Ms Stoynoff was a reporter and photographer at The Toronto Star, a columnist at The Toronto Sun, and a freelancer for Time Magazine. She then worked for People magazine for almost 20 years. She now writes books and screenplays, according to her bio on Goodreads. The Trump legal team failed to stop the inclusion of Ms Stoynoff’s testimony in the trial. Ms Carroll claims that Mr Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996 and that he later defamed her in 2019 as president when he rejected her allegation. About a decade after the alleged rape of Ms Carroll, the People magazine journalist was at Mar-a-Lago to interview Mr Trump and his new wife. “Now, I’m a tall, strapping girl who grew up wrestling two giant brothers. I even once sparred with Mike Tyson. It takes a lot to push me,” Ms Stoynoff wrote in 2016. “But Trump is much bigger – a looming figure – and he was fast, taking me by surprise and throwing me off balance. I was stunned. And I was grateful when Trump’s longtime butler burst into the room a minute later, as I tried to unpin myself.” “The butler informed us that Melania would be down momentarily, and it was time to resume the interview,” she added. Mr Trump then asked, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” according to the reporter, adding that the following morning, she went to the spa at the private club, where the receptionist told her Mr Trump had been waiting for her, but that he had left to attend a meeting. Ms Stoynoff later told her editors to not have her cover Mr Trump again. Ms Carroll wrote for The Atlantic in 2020 that “each new boxing trainer tells Natasha that she should turn professional. Her punch is between hospitalization and murder”. About the 2005 incident with Mr Trump, Ms Carroll wrote that Ms Stoynoff “wishes” that she had punched the former president. Alyssa Shelasky wrote for The Cut that “Stoynoff was my mentor when I worked at People magazine, about ten years ago. She was the brilliant, hilarious, confident, and warm writer who got all the good assignments because Larry Hackett, the editor-in-chief at the time, knew she was the best. Naturally, I worshipped her”. “Trump is frustrating to interview,” Ms Stoynoff told Ms Carroll in The Atlantic. “If all you need are sound bites, he’s easy. He’s got his one sentence ready for you. If you want something deeper, that’s a challenge. Because he doesn’t do deep.” Ms Stoynoff noted that Melania Trump was “upstairs changing. Nothing led me to think he would do such a thing,” she said of Mr Trump’s alleged actions. “I remember it being a dark room,” she said of where the incident took place. “But there are windows, so not too dark. We go in. I’m looking around, wondering what he wants to show me. I hear the door close. I turn around. And he’s right at me, pushing me against the wall.” In an op-ed for The Washington Post in October 2019, Ms Stoynoff wrote, “After the election, I told myself his supporters hadn’t believed” the women who had stepped into the public arena and accused Mr Trump of misconduct. “How else could they have voted for such a man? It took months before the cruel truth dawned on me — Trump supporters knew we were telling the truth. They just didn’t care,” she added. “Within a year of my story being published, the #MeToo movement exploded ... but still, the reckoning skipped Trump,” she wrote at the time. The journalist wept as she told a jury how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Mr Trump. The former People writer told the jury that Mr Trump asked to show her a room at his Palm Beach club in between conducting interviews for the magazine with him and his wife Melania, who was pregnant with their son Barron at the time. “I hear the door shut behind me, by the time I turn around he has his hands on my shoulder, pushing me up against the wall and he starts kissing me,” she said. Ms Stoynoff, who now lives in Canada, said that she was “flustered and in shock” as she tried to push Mr Trump away from her. The alleged encounter lasted a few minutes, and only ended when a Mar-a-Lago butler entered the room, she said. “I gave (the butler) a ‘get me out of here look’,” Ms Stoynoff said. As they were walking back to meet Melania, Ms Stoynoff testified that Mr Trump told her: “You know we’re going to have an affair. Don’t forget what (his second wife Marla Maples) said, ‘best sex I ever had’.” Ms Stoynoff became emotional as she told the court she was in a state of shock and unable to speak. “I choked up, I couldn’t answer him,” she said. When they met up with Melania, Mr Trump “doted” on his wife, she added. Ms Stoynoff said she went into “auto-pilot” and tried to pretend the incident never happened while finishing the interviews. She said she told her former journalism professor and newsroom supervisor at People at the time, but didn’t mention it to anyone more senior as she hadn’t wanted to cause trouble for the magazine. In October 2016, Ms Stoynoff went public about the alleged incident for the first time in an article for People magazine. She said she had been “horrified” by the Access Hollywood tape in which Mr Trump had been caught on a hot mic bragging about sexually assaulting women. The tape, recorded in 2005, had emerged two weeks earlier, shortly before the 2016 presidential election. The jury was shown the two-minute clip, in which Mr Trump states he “automatically” starts kissing women he’s attracted to. “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” he says in the footage. Days later, Mr Trump appeared at a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton where he denied ever forcibly kissing a woman without their consent after a direct question from moderator Anderson Cooper. Ms Stoynof told the court she became “sick to her stomach” watching his denials, and spoke to her editors at People about publishing her firsthand account. “I actually thought to myself, ‘oh he does this to a lot of women’, it’s not just me, it’s not something I did,” she said. “The horrible part was I worried that because I did not say anything that at the time other women were hurt by him. So I had regret there. I thought to myself, ‘you liar’. I just felt really upset that he was lying to the American people.” Mr Carroll’s attorneys then played a clip from a Trump campaign rally in October 2016 which he denied the claim, and disparaged Ms Stoynoff. Asked by Ms Carroll’s attorney Mike Ferrara what she understood him to mean, Ms Stoynoff replied: “I’m assuming he means that I’m unattractive.” Ms Stoynoff said she had been assigned to the “Trump beat” in 2003, and interviewed The Apprentice host about 10 times prior to the Mar-a-Lago encounter. He had asked her out to dinner before, but never forced himself on her before, she said. The jury was then played portions of Mr Trump’s deposition in which he repeated that Ms Carroll had “made up” allegations that he had raped her in a dressing room at the luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in 1996. Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina told the court that the defence would not be calling any witnesses. He confirmed their sole expert witness would no longer be appearing. It was confirmed on Tuesday that Mr Trump would not testify in his own defence. On 9 May the jury in the civil case returned a verdict that Mr Trump was liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll, but not raping her, and awarded the writer a total of $5m in damages, which includes the defamation claim. In the courtroom, the clerk read the verdict: “As to battery, did Ms Carroll prove that Mr Trump raped Ms Carroll?” The jury answered “No”. The jury also found Mr Trump liable for wonton disregard, for which Ms Carroll was awarded $20,000, according to Inner City Press. Mr Trump was also found liable for defamation as the jury found that he made false statements about Ms Carroll. The jury found that Mr Trump acted with actual malice and that Ms Carroll had been injured, for which she was awarded $1m. For repairing her reputation, Ms Carroll was awarded $1.7m. Read More Trump verdict - live: Trump rages as E Jean Carroll trial jury orders him to pay $5m for sexual abuse Donald Trump found liable for sexual abuse in E Jean Carroll trial Trump furiously repeats false claim he’s never met E Jean Carroll as jury finds he sexually abused her Soccer executive and celebrity attorney: Who is Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina? Who is E Jean Carroll? The writer and TV host taking on Donald Trump

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It’s time for spiritual restoration and creative expansion. As we round out Cancer season, we’re welcoming a much-needed change of pace. Mars, the planet of action, began a six-week transit in Virgo last week, and Mercury is continuing its two-week transit through the sign of Leo. This Earth-Fire combo sparks a blend of intellect and action in our minds and in our lives. The highlight of this week is the Cancer new moon occurring at 2:32 p.m. EST on July 17. This occurs on the same day that the lunar nodes switch out of the Taurus-Scorpio axis and enter the Libra-Aries axis. The next year and a half will feel karmically lighter and more expansive as a result of this shift, and all zodiac signs would benefit from focusing on living in the moment rather than trying to project themselves into the future. Venus begins its six-week retrograde in Leo on July 22 at 9:33 p.m. EST, signaling a time for introspection and reexamination of one’s core values. Less than twenty minutes later, the Sun enters Leo for the next four weeks. This Leo season will have a cosmic twist to it due to the energy of Venus retrograde asking us to be boldly honest with ourselves and learn from our past. What need for social approval can you do your best to release at this time? This week encourages us to direct our attention to intimately approving of our own selves, right here, right now, without seeking external validation. Validate yourself instead.