Trial date set for Donald Trump
A federal judge has set a trial date of March 4 in the prosecution of Donald Trump on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election, rebuffing the former president’s proposal to postpone the trial until 2026. It was an early victory for prosecutors, who had asked for a Jan. 2 date.
The decision potentially brings the proceeding, in Washington, into conflict with the three other trials that Trump is facing, underscoring the extraordinary complexities of his legal situation as he campaigns to return to the White House. Trump may also face a trial on charges in Georgia on that date, and another case in Manhattan has been scheduled to go to trial on March 25.
If the trial in Washington lasts more than 11 weeks, it could overlap with Trump’s other federal trial, on charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left office and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. That trial is scheduled to begin in Florida in late May.
Quotable: Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the federal election case, said that she was not going to let Trump’s other legal troubles and his political campaign get in the way of setting a date. “Mr. Trump, like any defendant, will have to make the trial date work regardless of his schedule,” she said, adding that “there is a societal interest to a speedy trial.”
Context: March 4 is one day before Super Tuesday, when 15 states are scheduled to hold Republican primaries or caucuses.
Ukraine says it has recaptured a village
Ukraine’s military said that its forces had retaken the southern village of Robotyne, a tactical victory that underlines the immense challenge Kyiv’s counteroffensive faces in punching through deep and dense Russian defenses. Ukraine has advanced only a few miles southward and to the east since early June amid intense fighting with heavy casualties.
The victory, if confirmed, would mean that Ukrainian forces had penetrated the first layer of minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers installed by the Russians since they invaded, military analysts say, potentially creating new strategic opportunities. The ultimate target of the thrust to Robotyne is the city of Melitopol, about 45 miles farther south.
In other news from the war:
Repercussions from China’s property crisis
As a real estate meltdown ripples through China’s economy, small businesses and workers are owed hundreds of billions of dollars, and new projects have dried up.
The housing market was once the country’s biggest creator of jobs, enriching local governments and creating a store of household wealth. But China’s slowing economy and a move by regulators to deflate a property bubble have accelerated a crisis that is spreading to all corners of life.
THE LATEST NEWS
Around the World
Spain is reckoning with sexism after Luis Rubiales, the president of Spain’s soccer federation, pressed a nonconsensual kiss on the player Jennifer Hermoso. For some, the fallout has come to embody the generational fault line between a culture of machismo and more recent progressivism.
“What happened last week was an epochal moment that will have important repercussions,” said Máriam Martínez-Bascuñán, a professor of political sciences in Madrid.
For more: A criminal investigation into the kiss is now underway, and Rubiales has been told to step down.
SPORTS NEWS
Stopping Max Verstappen: If rain and red-flag chaos can’t stop the Formula 1 driver, what can?
Becoming elite: Viktor Hovland’s Tour Championship win puts him in another class in golf.
U.S. Open: The world’s best tennis players will gather over the next two weeks in Queens. Here’s our guide.
A Hilma af Klint legal battle
Hilma af Klint was a little-known Swedish artist and mystic who ordered her work to be hidden until at least 20 years after her death, in 1944. In recent years, the art industry has deemed her a pioneer of abstract painting, making her work from the early 1900s famous — shown in the Guggenheim, printed on posters and sold in museum shops.
But historians have questioned whether she is actually the sole creator of many works attributed to her. Several scholars have suggested that other pictures may have been painted by members of a spiritualist collective, working with af Klint toward a common goal. Now, that research and a fight over her estate are threatening her legacy.
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Natasha
P.S. Listen to “The Daily,” on what India’s moon landing means for international competition in space.
You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
