Briefly

UNITED STATES

Trump's bid to overturn verdict turned down

A US federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury verdict ordering President-elect Donald Trump to pay $5 million for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. A New York jury found after a nine-day civil trial in 2023 that the former president had sexually abused Carroll at a Manhattan department store in 1996. Trump denied the allegations. The three-judge panel of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals said: "We conclude that Mr Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings."

GERMANY

Musk slammed for influencing elections

Germany's government said on Monday that US billionaire tech baron Elon Musk is trying to sway February elections by praising the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a move strongly rejected by major parties. Musk posted on his social media platform X in December that "only the AfD can save Germany". On Monday, German government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said that "it is a fact that Elon Musk is trying to exert influence on the parliamentary election".

Agencies Via Xinhua