The world's biggest tulip garden opened to the public on Thursday for its 75th edition, with hundreds of thousands of people expected to enjoy a bewildering array of seven million bulbs in the western Dutch city of Lisse. Keukenhof park, southwest of Amsterdam in the heart of "bulb country", contains millions of tulips of every colour as well as other flowers across 32 hectares (80 acres). The park is a popular tourist attraction -- 1.4 million visited last year -- that claims to be one of the most photographed spots in the world. "This is my first time here and I'm so excited to witness the 75th anniversary," said Rocelle Braewer, 41. She had bought a flowing pink dress embroidered with flowers specifically for the occasion. Nisha Kasiliya-Ravindran, a 37-year-old from Chennai in
India, said she was "a bit disappointed" because many of the tulips have yet to flower completely. "We are hoping to go to the bulb fields outside as well to hopefully see some tulips," she told AFP. Keukenhof dates back to 1949 when a group of bulb exporters and growers inaugurated it as a showcase for their wares. As well as tourists from more than 100 countries, it has proved a draw for royalty, with kings and queens from several European nations attending the gala opening down the years. The park is open this year until May 12. © 2024 AFP
Donald Trump continued freaking out over his inability to secure a surety bond to hold off his massive
New York fraud judgment Thursday — and had a new attack for the judge in his fraud case. The former president was found liable for fraud in a civil lawsuit brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, and he has already filed a notice of appeal of the $454 million penalty imposed last month by Judge Arthur Engoron for habitually falsifying business records for his own financial benefit. "Even though I did nothing wrong, a Radical Left New York Judge, a true Trump Hater, Arthur Engoron (Are we allowed to speak about his Unconstitutional Gag Order?), picked a number out of THIN AIR, $355,000,000, plus interest (reminiscent of John [sic] Lovitz, 'The Liar,' on
SNL when it was good), & wants me to bond it, which is not possible for bonding companies to do in such a high amount, before I can even Appeal," Trump posted on Truth Social. "That is CRAZY!" The judge initially ordered Trump to pay $355 million in damages, but that number quickly ballooned to $464 million due to a 9-percent interest rate. ALSO READ: Trump is exploiting, abusing, playing, bending and
BREAKING the legal system While he may appeal without putting up a cash or bond, New York law requires defendants to put up the full amount of the judgment if they want to pause collection before the appeal is decided, which could take years. "If I sold assets, and then won the Appeal, the assets would be forever gone," Trump posted. "Also, putting up money before an Appeal is VERY EXPENSIVE. When I win the Appeal, all of that money is gone, and I would have done nothing wrong." New York law requires defendants to put up 110 percent of their penalty to hold off collection during an appeal, which allows them to exhaust their legal options while also protecting plaintiffs from dishonest attempts to delay justice with frivolous appeals. "The Crooked Judge, who has already been overturned 4 times on this case (a record!), fully understands this," Trump posted. "He gave us a demand which he knows is impossible to do. This Witch Hunt, between a bad Judge and a Corrupt & Racist Attorney General, is horrible for New York. Businesses are FLEEING, while Violent Crime flourishes.
election INTERFERENCE!" The former president was given a 30-day deadline to pay up, and that ends Monday. James can then start to collect on the judgment. Trump's attorneys say that no insurance company has agreed to loan the money necessary to secure a bond to prevent the attorney general from collecting while the appeals process plays out. CONTINUE READING Show less Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg hit back Thursday at attempts by Donald Trump to dismiss his trial in the hush money case. Trump had won a delay after the Southern District of New York unexpectedly released a massive dump of documents related to the case, pushing the start back from March 25 to April 15 . But Trump thinks there should be more than a delay, and that the whole case should be dismissed because documents were withheld from discovery. In a Thursday filing, D.A. Alvin Bragg explained that the DA's office didn't hide anything, it was the federal Southern District of New York which is not involved in bringing the case. In fact, Bragg blames Trump's team for delaying the case so much. The belated production of documents by SDNY "is entirely the result of defendant's own inexplicable and strategic delay," he wrote. "Contrary to defendant's arguments, the USAO's responses to his subpoena do not support any claim of a discovery violation by the People or prosecutorial misconduct that would warrant more drastic relief," the filing stated. "As a threshold matter, there cannot be a discovery violation here because the USAO's materials are not part of the People's disclosure obligations: CPL 245.20 requires the People to disclose only items or information in their actual or constructive possession, and documents held by the U.S.A.O. are not in the People's possession at all." Lawfare's Anna Bower noted that Bragg also submitted exhibits and an affidavit from prosecutor Chris Conroy giving the full timeline of the Manhattan DA's efforts to get the discovery material from the southern district. Self-described "government lawyer" Tom Morris noticed that Trump's team, "Seems to have difficulty distinguishing between the Manhattan DA office that is prosecuting him and the SDNY, a separate entity that isn't an agent for the former." ALSO READ: House
Republican giggles over Hitler praise — and admits he never listens to Trump Former federal prosecutor Carol Lam told MSNBC that
Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, will be a key witness in the case and he was prosecuted by the Southern District of New York. The southern district's paperwork involves Cohen, who was involved in hush money payments made to adult movie
Actress Stormy Daniels, allegedly on behalf of Donald Trump. "What the district attorney does in this pleading is he sets forth all the efforts, all the meetings that the DA had with the federal prosecutors to gather this evidence and what he says is, hey, at the end of the day, there are only 270 documents out of the 30,000-some documents that they've just gotten that they hadn't already gotten or are actually relevant," said Lam. See Lam's explainer in the video below or at the link here. Alvin Bragg claps back at Trump youtu.be CONTINUE READING Show less Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) lashed out at House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) Thursday over a bill to avert a
Government Shutdown. Roy told conservative podcast host Steve Bannon that Johnson had made too many concessions to
Democrats in the bill. "This is an embarrassment," he explained. "Today, everybody listening to this show, light up your congressmen and congresswomen. Light them up, light up your senators. Tell them the truth, that they are risking the House majority if they vote for this bill." "A vote for this bill is a vote against America," he continued. "You can't get everything you want. None of us would say you can. But dadgum it, we should get at least something significant in the fight." "We should use our leverage, and Mike Johnson blew it when he walked away from a continuing resolution that we could have extended through this year to trigger the caps that we had put in place last year," he went on. ALSO READ: Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines
police Roy concluded by imploring the audience to get involved. "They should melt the phone down, and melt down the phone lines and the emails and the texts and all of that," he said. "And I mean that. I mean that today. Call today and make sure every member of
Congress feels the pain that they should not vote for this bill." Watch the video below from Real America's Voice. CONTINUE READING Show less