Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Appeal in E. Jean Carroll Case

This is the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Tuesday, the eighteenth of August, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

The U S Supreme Court has again declined to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of the civil verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E Jean Carroll, leaving in place a five-million-dollar judgment against him. The justices issued an unsigned order on Monday rejecting the President’s request that the court reconsider its earlier denial; such rehearing petitions are rarely granted. A jury in twenty twenty-three found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and he has already paid Carroll more than five million dollars in damages. The court’s action does not affect a separate, larger twenty twenty-four defamation award that Trump is also asking the Supreme Court to overturn.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Hawaii is surveying widespread damage from Hurricane Lala, which skirted the Big Island over the weekend without making a direct landfall but still brought flash flooding, mudslides and hurricane-force gusts. At least one person died, more than one hundred and thirty thousand households lost power and the state’s governor said at least one hundred homes were damaged or destroyed. Lala weakened to a tropical storm on Sunday, yet heavy rain continued to threaten the island chain, with tropical storm warnings remaining in effect for some islands as the system moved west. One community remained trapped after its access road was washed away, and residents began returning Monday to assess the destruction.

In the Middle East, President Donald Trump threatened Oman, a U S ally, amid talks over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to N P R. The two-month U.S.–Iran cease-fire window expired on Monday without a peace deal, and Brent crude rose above ninety dollars a barrel for the first time since July thirty, as reported by The Guardian. Iran said it would adopt a more aggressive stance if negotiations with Washington fail.

In U S courts, opening statements began Monday in the Las Vegas murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former gang leader accused of orchestrating the one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur. Prosecutors told the jury that Davis plotted the killing to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur’s entourage, and the court heard early testimony from a crime-scene analyst, a witness to the shooting and a former police officer. Davis is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s death.

Elsewhere in tech litigation, Meta went on trial in federal court Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by more than half of U S states accusing the company of deliberately designing addictive features on Instagram and Facebook that lured children and contributed to a youth mental health crisis. The states allege the tech giant intentionally crafted products that harm young people; the jury trial is expected to test those claims.

On the U.S.–Mexico border, U S Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Monday that construction of President Trump’s border wall inside Big Bend National Park in Texas has been paused while he visits the area and evaluates the project. The move follows bipartisan public opposition and criticism that the construction scars a pristine environmental landscape.

In Europe, an American hiker died after being struck by lightning on Mount Etna in Sicily while hiking Sunday evening in an area closed to visitors because of recent volcanic activity. Most reports identified the man as a twenty-nine-year-old from Kansas, though one account said he was thirty; he was rescued by helicopter but pronounced dead at a hospital in Catania. A day later, the volcano erupted, sending smoke and ash into the sky.

In entertainment news, former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko paid tribute to his ex-partner Hayden Panettiere, who died on Sunday at the age of thirty-six, saying his family is going through “profound shock and grief.” In a social media post on Tuesday, Klitschko pledged that their daughter, Kaya, would be raised to remember Panettiere’s “immense talent” and “incredible career.”

In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Dave Sunday announced charges Monday against fourteen people, including more than a dozen current and former Penn State University students and one parent, accusing them of running a cocaine trafficking ring centered mainly on two off-campus fraternity houses. Authorities allege the group cut and packaged cocaine at Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi properties; Delta Upsilon has been placed on interim probation.

In Britain, disability campaigner Claire Lomas, forty-four, who was paralyzed from the chest down and became the first person to complete a marathon using a “bionic” suit, died five weeks after the adapted microlight she was flying crashed in Jordan, an inquest has heard. She was filming content for an Apple T V series promoting the company’s Vision Pro headset when the aircraft hit a large rock.

In Massachusetts, the defense in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of killing her three children, called her mother as one of its first witnesses after prosecutors rested their case on Monday. Paula Musgrove testified that her daughter had told her she had “thoughts of harming the children,” that medications were “destroying” her mind and that she was becoming paranoid.

At sea, the U S Navy destroyer U S S Benfold lost power for four days during a July deployment in the South China Sea after an engineering casualty, leaving sailors without galley service, working toilets and air conditioning, the Navy said. No injuries were reported, and the cause of the outage remains under investigation.

That was the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.