Putin Year-End Address, SCOTUS Abortion Access, Trump Fraud Trial
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Russian president vladimir putin long ago cracked ed down in his country's independent media, but at the end of most years, he holds extended press conference. What does he say is another year ends with this country still at war in ukraine? I'm Steven skip, and this is up first from end VR news.

The supreme court, having ended a constitutional right to abortion, will hear its first abortion case since overturning rovers is weight. This is a chAllenge to an abortion pill. Lower courts have delivered mixed rulings on the pill.

What does this mean for women who received in the mail? Also, the civil fraud trial against former president trump has done the judge already found that his company and did the value of its properties. So what did ten weeks of testimony and stay with us. We've got the news. You need to start your day.

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Russian president vladimir putin is talking today a lot. This is an almost annual tradition. Putin holds an extended press conference at the end of the year.

He also hosts a televised call in show with a russian public, I say almost annual, because putin skipped this last year as his invasion of ukraine went wrong. Today, both casuals are back and combined into one, and beer Charles' ins is following along in moscow. John, us.

Now here, their Charles, good morning. I guess we should notice you and I talking where in the middle of an event that can usually go for hours. So what is putin saying?

Well, well, so far it's classic putin with his mild of conservatism and nationalism. But once again, we hear arguing that rushes the defenders of so called traditional value, accusing the west of trying to isolate and destroy the country.

Let's listen to a taste putting says that russia is very survival.

Rest on maintaining sovereignty. The implication here that russia needs to defend its independence from the west in every sphere, from politics to culture to economy, now put in some ways undermine the main entry of today's event. With the last week's announcement a, given that a small crimen gathering, rather than from the big stage here, that he intends to stand for a fifth term office when the country holds elections in march of next year.

So today, the fact of putting his in campaign mode more over from election is univerSally expected to win, yet in its own strange way, this year. And press conference event is also what passes for retail politics. Here, russian submit videos pleading with putin directly, intervening with problems to affect daily life, saying, we've got, know how water we need, someone to fix the heating, that the mayor won't build the bridge, all that kinds stuff. And so we often see, put, not too happy, intervene and forever.

the beeville ins are, this seems like an event where the event itself is part of the message. So what do we learn from the fact that putin, unlike last year, is holding .

IT quite a bit? I think, you know, putin cancelled last year's event, as you know, I said russia's invasion, as IT wasn't going well, but clearly put, is getting much more confident these days about russia's prospects. And the fact that is on the stage is proof of that.

Know he's arguing russia's wartime economy has successful weather, western sanctions, he points to ukraine failed counteroffensive and he sees U. S. Military support for ukraine, in particular in congress, a stalling. Meanwhile, russia has settled in for this war over the long haul. Just last night, ukraine says russia launched another bridge of drones and missile so the russian attacks keeps coming and put argues that russia will come out on top and keep fighting until IT achieves its schools in ukraine, even if that's a great human cost.

Although how much of that is our long theatre from putin?

You know, you can think of IT as informative theater. There plenty of moments designed to make putin look good. And there are certainly real questions, even tough ones with the caviar, that there usually no follow ups. So putin, you have also been doing this for two decades, quite easily handles these medical inquiries from journalists. And even though russia's media almost entirely state control their difficult questions being raised in russian society, particularly over the war ukraine, which is soon entering its third year, for example, we've heard from families of mobilized conscripts, civilians who had drafted into the war last september, and what was a very unpopular, moved by putin, they're been angling to get an audience with putting today and demand the return of their loved ones from the front immediately.

interesting. So he has an opportunity to take tough questions, but on his terms, exactly the temper. Charley main in moscow. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

In this country, the supreme court has agreed to hear a case about an abortion pill. The court says IT will review lower court decisions that would make IT harder to get method stone next year. Let's talk about this with Sarah, a varne.

He was a journalist who covers reproductive rights. A good morning, good morning. What's the issue here?

So just to walk through what's happened so far, there is a federal judge in immoral taxis. He was APP pointed by a former president trump, and he actually revoked the approval of member pistone entirely. Then that decision was appealed to the fifth circuit, which is in new lands, and that court didn't degree with that sweeping decision, but IT did degree with a group of anti abortion organizations that argued the fda approval process of mr. Pistone was flad and at the fda aid when IT made the drug more wildeve available, including through telemedicine and through the mail. So yesterday, the supreme court justices agreed to take up an appeal to that decision from the company that makes Smith er per stone and the bite in the constrained and they're asking the supreme court to reverse that ruling by the fifth circuit, really.

So it's not just a yes, no decision on whether the fda properly approved this pill. There are also questions about how it's accessible and a variety of fda choices over a variety of years. So how could access to the pill be affected?

sure. Well, you know just to start a abortion pills account for more than half of all abortions in this country and they're really used also by guy s to manage early miscarriages. So um you know they're hugely important if the supreme court upholds the a pallet ruling by the safe circuit, then patients would not be able to get the a python through the mail.

Even if they live in states like master hudes or california where abortion is legal, they would have to make three separate appointments in person with a doctor. This is not currently required. And instead of being able to use myhre python into the tenth week of pregNancy, patients could only use IT until seven weeks.

Um this doesn't mean medication diversion would become entirely unavailable. Clinics and physicians and telemedicine services could still prescribed a dog called ma postal that's usually taken with mierre stone. But I can also be taken safely and effectively on its own. And just to note that this, a prosa was actually approved by the fda in one hundred and eighty eight, so quite a long time ago, to treat gastro authors, the abortion groups. We just haven't seen them target .

that approval process yet. Yet you say, now, since this is all about fa and whether IT was proper, what does this case mean for the F, D A?

Yeah, this is a really unusual case. The F, D, A, approved this medication more than two decades ago. More than five million people in the U.

S. Have used IT safely. It's approved for use around the world. Um in this case has attracted a lot of attention from fda scholars. You know some who support abortion rights, others do not.

They actually filed in a mekas brief defending the fz rigorous struggle, cruel process. And they argue that if religious groups are private, individuals can chAllenge you. Each drug that the fda reviews, that IT really undermines the entire fda regulatory of orally. And it's going to throw the pharmacist industry and really the country's regulation of drugs just into this array.

I'm just remembering that a supreme court decision in twenty twenty two a few months before an election had a big effect on that election. Now aren't we talking about a ruling on this abortion pill that would again come out an election year next year?

That's exactly right. yes. So the core typically issues its decisions know by the end of june, although that can sometimes take over into july.

So you're right, that puts the court on just a collision course with the presidential campaign, which will be, of course, in full by then. We have seen repeatedly that voters, you know, even in conservative states, support abortion rights. We just saw hio voters and trying to write to abortion recently in their constitution. And there are actually some mother campaigns for abortion rights, ballot measures underway in florida and the arizona.

among other states. Okay, journalist.

I thank so much. Thank you.

Okay, after a ten week fraud trial where Donald trump and is three oldest children testified in public for the first time ever, well testimonies over an assistant attorney general said the people arrested and soon the case goes to a judge, npas. Andrea bernstein has been covering the case and joints us now. Andrew, good morning. Good morning. What's IT stay here.

So in this trial, even before testimony began, the judge ruled in favor of the new ucatt ny. General in the first claim of A R A case that the trump s had committed persistent and repeated fraud and the judge ordered the trumps to start turning over their business certificates and preparation for a possible dissolution of the company. That parts been put on hold at one point in the trial, the judge said, i've already decided these were ill gotten gains. So the question is by how much will he ordered the trumps to pay back the stage?

okay. So if it's already decided that they did the thing that they're accused of, why did they go on with ten weeks of testimony?

So the judge only ruled on one of seven counts. And there was a lot more to learn first from the employees, a praiser s and accountants who really divulge the details of all this. So let's take the value of the trip limit.

Trumpet tower, which trump said was three times as big as IT really was, here's how IT worked. Trumps chief financial officer told a broker that worked for the trump s. That the apartment was thirty thousand square feet instead of ten thousand. So the broker came up with a value that was three times bigger than IT should have been. And then that false value was attributed back to the broker. So when the trump s were caught lying by four times about the value of the trip lix, what happened is trump employees pumped up the value of another property at forty wall street to make up the difference in the lower value. On this statement of financial condition, this was what former corporate vice president Michael Colin testified was called reverse engineering of the number and I guess will .

remind people that this matters not just because you're bragging, but because you may borrow money on the value of properties or do any number of other things based on value of your property. And that's what prosecutors described as fraud, or what the courts, rather the people, so to speak, the government, describes as fraud. What did the former president's testimony teachers of anything?

One of the things that we learned is that he actually admitted that he was in charge of those statements of financial condition that the judge had found were fraudulent. So even though he was somebody himself who had been in related all his life, he said, well, maybe this was because the broker mistakenly included the roof for the elevator chefs.

Meanwhile, trump, suns, don junior and eric, who really were charged of the company when trump take over the White house. Well, IT wasn't us. That was our lawyers. That was our countdown. And then there was evicted trump, who is not a defendant, but who acknowledged sending emails and letters that really laid out how, based on these fragile and statements, the trumps were able to get loan rates maybe around to two percent, where now in the market they're about .

thirty percent. wow. Okay, that's a difference. So very briefly, what is the defense case here?

So a big part of what the trumps have said is no one was harmed. A major bank involved said, I was seeking out trumps business, one executive called IT whale hunting. And inside and outside the courtroom, the trumps have accused the ag in the judge of bias. They've made IT very clear they will appeal, but in any event, we should see a verdict from the judge in january after we get some closing briefs and arguments.

Andry burns time. Thanks so much.

Thank .

you. And that's at first for this thursday, december fourteenth. I'm Steve and scape.

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