Former US president Donald Trump was due to appear at a rally on Friday to endorse a political candidate accused of sexually assaulting eight women, including a state senator.
Charles Herbster, a multimillionaire cattle-breeding executive, has denied the allegations but faces a backlash from conservatives in Nebraska, where he is vying to be the next governor.
State senator Julie Slama told the Nebraska Examiner two weeks ago that Mr Herbster had sexually assaulted her during an event in 2019, while seven other women made misconduct accusations anonymously.
“I am not seeking media attention or any other gain. I simply was not going to lie and say it did not occur,” Ms Slama said, adding that she was 22 at the time.
Mr Herbster, whose fortune comes in part from selling bull semen, was described as a “special guest speaker” by organisers of Mr Trump's Save America rally at a racetrack near Omaha.
Aides told Mr Trump of the allegations earlier this month, according to Politico, but the Republican leader doubled down, pushing for Mr Herbster to fight back.
Mr Herbster has dismissed the scandal as a “smear campaign”, similar to attempts to target Mr Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct himself by more than two dozen women.
“Charles will continue to fight to expose politically-motivated lies, to clear his good name, and to focus on the issues that he will tackle as the next governor of Nebraska,” his spokeswoman Ellen Keast said.
Mr Trump has a long history of backing public figures accused of misconduct, including his former White House aide Rob Porter after he was fired over accusations of battering two of his ex-wives.
Others who have benefited from his support include former Fox News star Bill O'Reilly, accused of sexual harassment and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who faced historic sexual assault allegations during his confirmation.
The race for the Republican nomination in Nebraska on May 10 is a three-way toss-up between Mr Herbster, multimillionaire pig farmer Jim Pillen and state senator Brett Lindstrom.
Mr Trump's October endorsement of Mr Herbster, a prolific donor, rankled much of the Republican establishment in the state that Mr Trump won by 20 points in 2020.
An unwavering loyalist who attended Mr Trump's 2015 campaign launch and the rally ahead of the 2021 US Capitol assault, Mr Herbster is vying to replace Pete Ricketts, the scion of a powerful Republican dynasty that owns the Chicago Cubs.
The outgoing governor, who tried to dissuade Trump from anointing Mr Herbster, said on Monday the candidate should apologise to his accusers, quit the race and “seek help".
Frustration is mounting on the right over the endorsements, which often appear to have more to do with the candidates' fame than their conservative credentials.
Mr Trump's support of Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance in Ohio and celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania underlines his willingness to defy the establishment, often putting him at odds with his own side.
And while Mr Trump's popularity with the hardliners that make up his core support appears undiminished, his endorsements may not be the panacea they once were.
Mr Vance's popularity has surged but Dr Oz still trails a former US Treasury official, and Georgia gubernatorial challenger David Perdue has gone from seven to 25 points behind since Mr Trump's endorsement in February.
“This is not a question of politics — it is an issue of character and basic human decency,” said Ms Slama's female colleagues in Nebraska in a joint statement.
“Charles Herbster's behaviour is completely unacceptable for anyone, especially someone seeking a public office of authority and trust.”
The%20specs
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UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh234,000 - Dh329,000
On sale: now
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
Read more about the coronavirus
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
The five pillars of Islam
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
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The biog
Birthday: February 22, 1956
Born: Madahha near Chittagong, Bangladesh
Arrived in UAE: 1978
Exercise: At least one hour a day on the Corniche, from 5.30-6am and 7pm to 8pm.
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi? “Everywhere. Wherever you go, you can relax.”
Brief scores:
Barcelona 3
Pique 38', Messi 51 (pen), Suarez 82'
Rayo Vallecano 1
De Tomas Gomez 24'
