Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for environmentalists who despair at the the approach of President Donald Trump’s administration: “Stop whining and get to work.”

The new U.S. administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.

Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011.

He said Tuesday he keeps hearing from environmentalists and policy experts lately who ask, “What is the point of fighting for a clean environment when the government of the United States says climate change is a hoax and coal and oil is the future?”

Schwarzenegger told the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, an event he helps organize, that he responds: “Stop whining and get to work.” He pointed to examples of local and regional governments and companies taking action, including his own administration in California, and argued 70% of pollution is reduced at the local or state level.

“Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts (up) solar roofs,” he said.

“You can’t just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t agree with you,” he said, adding that attacking the president is “not my style” and he doesn’t criticize any president when outside the U.S.

“I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom,” Schwarzenegger said. “The only way we win the people’s hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.”

The Senate has confirmed real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France.

Charles Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Prosecutors alleged that he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation after discovering his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, hiring a prostitute and arranging to have the encounter recorded with a hidden camera and sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.

Kushner, who was confirmed 51-45, is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. His son Jared is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka. When he announced his intention to nominate Charles Kushner in November, Trump called him “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker.”

Charles Kushner will head to France as the relationship between the two traditional allies, and between the U.S. and the rest of Europe, has been strained over Trump’s trade policies and the U.S. role in the Ukraine war. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Kushner said he would work closely with France to “bring greater balance to our important economic relationship” and also encourage France to “invest more in its defense capabilities, as well as lead the EU to align with the U.S. vision of increased European commitments to security.”

As Trump has rattled traditionally solid relationships with European allies, Kushner said he appreciates the history between the two countries and is “dedicated to building an even stronger relationship.” He told senators that he is a child of Holocaust survivors who came to the United States after World War II, and his grandmothers and other members of his family were executed by Nazis.

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Kushner that his nomination comes at a “critical time” because “our European allies are anxious.”

Shaheen also asked Kushner about his criminal past. He replied that he made a “very, very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake.”

Kushner was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering. It was the highest sentence he could receive under a plea deal, but less than what Chris Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey at the time and later governor and Republican presidential candidate, had sought. Christie called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted as U.S. attorney.

Kushner also agreed to pay $508,900 to the FEC for violating contribution regulations by failing to obtain an OK from partners to whom more than $500,000 in contributions were credited.

Announcing Kushner’s pardon in 2020, Trump’s first White House cited Kushner’s more recent charitable work as the reason he deserved clemency.

“This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements” to the Federal Election Commission, the White House said then.

Kushner was confirmed with the support of one Democrat — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. In his prepared testimony for his confirmation hearing, Kushner thanked Booker for his “special and close friendship.”

President Donald Trump shopped for a new Tesla on the White House driveway on Tuesday, selecting a shiny red sedan to show his support for Elon Musk ‘s electric vehicle company as it faces blowback because of his work to advance the president’s political agenda and downsize the federal government.

“Wow,” Trump said as he eased his way into the driver’s seat of a Model S. “That’s beautiful.”

Musk got in on the passenger side and joked about “giving the Secret Service a heart attack” as they talked about how to start a vehicle that can reach 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour in a few seconds.

Trump told reporters that he would write a check for the car, which retails for roughly $80,000, and leave it at the White House so his staff can drive it. The president also said he hopes his purchase will boost Tesla, which is struggling with sagging sales and declining stock prices.

“It’s a great product,” he said. Referring to Musk, Trump said “we have to celebrate him.”

It was the latest — and most unusual — example of how Trump has demonstrated loyalty to Musk, who spent heavily on his comeback campaign last year and has been a key figure in his second administration. Tesla’s stock price increased nearly 4% on Tuesday after dropping almost 48% since Trump took office in January.

The Republican president announced on social media overnight that he was going to buy a new Tesla as “a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

Musk continues to run Tesla — as well as the social media platform X and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX — while also serving as Trump’s adviser.

“Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote. “But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.”

The Republican president announced on social media overnight that he was going to buy a new Tesla as “a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”

Musk continues to run Tesla — as well as the social media platform X and the rocket manufacturer SpaceX — while also serving as Trump’s adviser.

“Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote. “But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for.”

During his first term, top adviser Kellyanne Conway urged people to show their support for Trump’s daughter Ivanka by purchasing her retail products.

“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” she said. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here.”

Trump’s wealth and business savvy is core to his political appeal. The president promoted his products while running for office last year, and he attached his name to a cryptocurrency meme coin that launched shortly before he took office.

However, it’s rare to see Trump use his own money to support an ally, no matter how important they are.

Musk is the world’s richest person, with billions of dollars in government contracts. He’s also exerting sweeping influence over Trump’s administration through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and traveling frequently with the president.

During an interview with the Fox Business Network on Monday, host Larry Kudlow asked Musk “how are you running your other businesses” while also advising Trump.

“With great difficulty,” he said.

“But there’s no turning back, you say?” Kudlow responded.

“I’m just here trying to make government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud,” Musk said.

Tesla has recently faced protests and vandalism. Police are investigating gunshots fired at a dealership in Oregon, and fire officials are examining a blaze that destroyed four Cybertrucks at a Tesla lot in Seattle.

Lawyers for two former Georgia election workers who are owed $148 million in damages after suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation said Tuesday that evidence proves their clients are entitled to three World Series rings that the former New York City mayor says he gave to his son.

The lawyers filed papers in Manhattan federal court asking a judge to find that their clients should be given the rings marking New York Yankees’ victories in 1996, 1999 and 2000.

They noted that Giuliani listed the rings among his assets at a bankruptcy proceeding in 2023 and said his son had provided no evidence beyond his testimony to support his claim to the rings.

A trial over the custody of the rings and Giuliani’s Palm Beach, Florida, condominium are scheduled for Jan. 16 before a judge who on Monday found Giuliani in contempt for his responses to orders to turn over evidence pertaining to his assets.

Giuliani, 80, testified in a Dec. 27 deposition that he told George Steinbrenner when the late Yankees owner gave him four rings in 2002 that “These are for Andrew,” meaning his then-teenage son, Andrew Giuliani, now 38.

He said he paid for them and gave one immediately to his son and kept three others, eventually giving him the rest at a birthday party in 2018. He estimated the rings are now worth about $27,000.

The rings and the Florida condominium, which Giuliani insists is his legal residence and is protected from the judgment, are the remaining contested assets after the one-time personal lawyer to President-elect Donald Trump gave up other valuable assets including his Manhattan apartment, a Mercedes once owned by actor Lauren Bacall and watches.

Giuliani has said he does not know what happened to a jersey signed by Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio or a photograph signed by another beloved Yankees slugger, Reggie Jackson.

Lawyers for the former election workers, mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, wrote in court papers that Giuliani’s son had failed to provide any direct evidence “other than his own self-serving testimony” to show that he accepted the ring from his father on May 26, 2018, or any time prior to this past October.

They said he has never appraised the rings, cleaned them or listed the rings on his renter’s insurance policy or taken out a separate policy to insure the rings. They also said he’d never undertaken any tax, estate or financial planning related to the rings.

The lawyers said that although Giuliani said he gave the rings to his son in 2018, his son testified that he received them no earlier than mid-year 2023, when Giuliani put his Manhattan apartment up for sale. They wrote that if the judge found the rings indeed were given away in 2023, then he should rule that the exchange was fraudulent.

Ted Goodman, a publicist for Giuliani, said the lawyers for the Georgia women “can celebrate over their fight to take Mayor Giuliani’s most cherished personal belongings including his signed baseball jersey of his childhood hero and his grandfather’s pocket watch, but they can never take away his extraordinary record of public service.”

An email seeking comment was sent to an attorney for Andrew Giuliani.

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old.

The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, roughly 22 months after entering hospice care, at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023, spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said.

“Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family.

As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections and house the homeless as an example for others.

“To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden spoke later Sunday evening about Carter, calling it a “sad day” but one that “brings back an incredible amount of good memories.”

“I’ve been hanging out with Jimmy Carter for over 50 years,” Biden said in his remarks.

He recalled the former president being a comfort to him and his wife Jill when their son Beau died in 2015 of cancer. The president remarked how cancer was a common bond between their families, with Carter himself having cancer later in his life.

“Jimmy knew the ravages of the disease too well,” said Biden, who scheduled a state funeral in Washington, D.C., for Carter on Jan. 9.

Biden also declared Jan. 9 as a National Day of Mourning across the nation and ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days from Sunday.

Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s.

“My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said.

A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia.

“If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon.

Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy.

resident-elect Donald Trump has announced that he is appointing one of his defense attorneys in the New York hush money case as counselor to the president.

Alina Habba, 40, defended Trump earlier this year, also serving as his legal spokesperson. Habba has been spending time with the president-elect since the election at his Florida club Mar-a-Lago.

“She has been unwavering in her loyalty and unmatched in her resolve — standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles and countless days in Court,” Trump posted on his social network Truth Social. “Few understand the Weaponization of the ‘Injustice’ System better than Alina.”

Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes when a New York jury in May found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

In Trump’s first term, the position of counselor was held by Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway. Habba has Iraqi ancestry and is Chaldean, which is Iraq’s largest Christian denomination and one of the Catholic Church’s Eastern rites.

Habba frequently accompanied Trump on the campaign trail and was one of the speakers at the late October rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

On Sunday, Trump also announced he is bringing back former staffer Michael Anton to serve as director of policy planning at the State Department. Anton served as the National Security Council spokesman from 2017 to 2018.

Trump said he also will be appointing Michael Needham, a former chief of staff for Sen. Marco Rubio, as counselor of the State Department. The Florida senator was chosen by Trump to be his next secretary of state.

A federal appeals court judge has ruled to keep Sean “Diddy” Combs locked up while he makes a third bid for bail in his sex trafficking case, which is slated to go to trial in May.

In a decision filed Friday, Circuit Judge William J. Nardini denied the hip-hop mogul’s immediate release from jail while a three-judge panel weighs his bail request.

Combs’ lawyers appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 30 after two judges rejected his release.

Combs, 54, has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his Sept. 16 arrest on charges that he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”

Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges alleging he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.

At a bail hearing three weeks ago, a judge rejected the defense’s $50 million bail proposal that would’ve allowed the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer to be placed under house arrest at his Florida mansion with GPS monitoring and strict limits on visitors.

Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr., who has since recused himself from the case, said that prosecutors had presented “clear and convincing evidence” that Combs is a danger to the community. He said “no condition or set of conditions” could guard against the risk of Combs obstructing the investigation or threatening or harming witnesses.

In their appeal, Combs’ lawyers argued that the judge had “endorsed the government’s exaggerated rhetoric” and ordered Combs detained for “purely speculative reasons.”

“Indeed, hardly a risk of flight, he is a 54-year-old father of seven, a U.S. citizen, an extraordinarily successful artist, businessman, and philanthropist, and one of the most recognizable people on earth,” the lawyers wrote.

Combs’ lawyers have not asked the new trial judge, Arun Subramanian, to consider releasing him on bail. At a hearing Thursday, as Combs sat alongside his lawyers in a beige jail jumpsuit, Subramanian suggested he would at least be open to taking up the issue.

After setting a May 5 trial date, Subramanian briefly questioned Combs’ lawyers about his treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center, which has been plagued by violence and dysfunction for years.

Sean “Diddy” Combs headed to jail Tuesday to await trial in a federal sex trafficking case that accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes protected by blackmail and shocking acts of violence.

The music mogul is charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The indictment against him lists allegations that go back to 2008.

He’s accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.” The indictment also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

“Not guilty,” Combs told a court, standing to speak after expressionlessly listening to the allegations with his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.

After U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky declined to grant him bail, Combs took a long swig from a water bottle, then was led out of court, turning toward family members in the audience as he went.

“Mr. Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the end. He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after court. He plans to appeal the bail decision.

The Bad Boy Records founder is accused of sexually abusing and using physical force toward women and getting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all. Prosecutors say he also tried to bribe and intimidate witnesses and victims to keep them quiet.

“Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told a court.

Agnifilo acknowledged Combs was “not a perfect person,” saying he’d used drugs and had been in “toxic relationships” but was getting treatment and therapy.

“The evidence in this case is extremely problematic,” the attorney told the court.

He maintained that the case stemmed from one long-term, consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. He didn’t name the woman, but the details matched those of Combs’ decade-long involvement with Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.

The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“Is it sex trafficking? Not if everybody wants to be there,” Agnifilo said, arguing that authorities were intruding on his client’s private life.

Prosecutors said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow. They said they would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.

Combs was arrested Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

A conviction on every charge would require at least 15 years in prison, with the possibility of a life sentence.

The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

Combs and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to intimidate and lure women into his orbit, “often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” according to the indictment.

It says he then would use force, threats and coercion to get the women to engage with male sex workers in the “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged and recorded, creating dozens of videos.  He ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and using intimidation and violence, according to the indictment. It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” by taking care of tasks like travel and hotel arrangements and stocking them with such supplies as drugs and baby oil.

The events could last for days, and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use, the indictment said.

During the searches of Combs’ homes earlier this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the performances and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers in his bedroom closet in Miami.

Combs’ lawyer said his client didn’t own the guns, noting that he employs a security company.

The indictment says Combs choked, shoved, hit and kicked people, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

It alleges that Combs used explicit recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued obedience and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career opportunities, providing and threatening to withhold financial support, dictating how they looked, monitoring their health records and controlling where they lived, according to the indictment.

Sean “Diddy” Combs was due in court Tuesday on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges that he hit and abused women for over a decade and presided over an empire of sexual crimes.

The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The indictment details allegations dating to 2008 that he abused, threatened and coerced women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” He is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” in the indictment, which refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to try to get his client released from custody.

Of Combs, Agnifilo said, “His spirits are good. He’s confident.”

Combs is accused in the indictment of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help hide it all.

The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise engaged in or attempting to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

The “Freak Offs” were “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs “arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded,” the indictment said. It said he sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support, and using intimidation and violence.

The events could last days, the indictment says.

During a search of Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics and more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to the indictment.

All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing empire.

Combs, 54, was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations that emerged over the past year turned him into an industry pariah.

In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.

The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”

The indictment refers to the attack, without naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.

Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”

“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.

A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.

Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a man currently serving a 20-year prison sentence can remain on the November ballot in the state’s U.S. House race.

In a brief order, a split court affirmed a lower court ruling in a case brought by the Alaska Democratic Party; Justice Susan Carney dissented. A full opinion explaining the reasoning will be released later.

Democrats sued state election officials to seek the removal from the ballot of Eric Hafner, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges of making threats against police officers, judges and others in New Jersey.

Hafner, who has no apparent ties to Alaska, is running as a Democrat in a closely watched race featuring Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Nick Begich. Hafner’s declaration of candidacy listed a federal prison in New York as his mailing address.

Under Alaska’s open primary system, voters are asked to pick one candidate per race, with the top four vote-getters advancing to the general election. Hafner finished sixth in the primary but was placed on the general election ballot after Republicans Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Matthew Salisbury, who placed third and a distant fourth, withdrew.

John Wayne Howe, with the Alaskan Independence Party, also qualified.

Attorneys for Alaska Democrats argued that there was no provision in the law for the sixth-place finisher to advance, while attorneys for the state said that interpretation was too narrow.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court has backed President Nicolás Maduro’s claims that he won last month’s presidential election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were forged.

The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term.

The high court is packed with Maduro loyalists and has almost never ruled against the government.

Its decision, read Thursday in an event attended by senior officials and foreign diplomats, came in response to a request by Maduro to review vote totals showing he had won by more than 1 million votes.

The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.

Thanks to a superb ground game on election day, opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide and which show opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

The official tally sheets printed by each voting machine carry a QR code that makes it easy for anyone to verify the results and are almost impossible to replicate.

“An attempt to judicialize the results doesn’t change the truth: we won overwhelmingly and we have the voting records to prove it,” González, standing before a Venezuelan flag, said in a video posted on social media.

The high court’s ruling certifying the results contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center who were invited to observe the election and which both determined the results announced by authorities lacked credibility. Specifically, the outside experts noted that authorities didn’t release a breakdown of results by each of the 30,000 voting booths nationwide, as they have in almost every previous election.

The government has claimed — without evidence — that a foreign cyberattack staged by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting on election night and publication of the disaggregated results.

González was the only one of 10 candidates who did not participate in the Supreme Court’s audit, a fact noted by the justices, who in their ruling accused him of trying to spread panic.

The former diplomat and his chief backer, opposition powerhouse Maria Corina Machado, went into hiding after the election as security forces arrested more than 2,000 people and cracked down on demonstrations that erupted spontaneously throughout the country protesting the results.

Numerous foreign governments, including the U.S. as well as several allies of Maduro, have called on authorities to release the full breakdown of results.

Gabriel Boric, the leftist president of Chile and one of the main critics of Maduro’s election gambit, lambasted the high court’s certification.