Your Thursday Briefing: Trump declines to answer questions

August 11, 2022

By Amelia Nierenberg

Writer, Briefings

Good morning. We're covering Donald Trump's decision not to answer questions in a civil inquiry and details about the victims of Seoul's floods.

Donald Trump left Trump Tower in New York City yesterday. Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

Trump sidesteps legal questions

Donald Trump declined to answer questions in a civil inquiry into his company's business practices yesterday, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

He made the surprising gamble in a high-stakes legal interview with the New York attorney general's office. His strategy is likely to determine the course of the investigation.

Trump's office released a statement shortly after the questioning began yesterday, explaining that he "declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution." Here are live updates.

Background: Since March 2019, the New York attorney general's office has investigated whether Trump and his company improperly inflated the value of his hotels, golf clubs and other assets.

Context: In his statement yesterday, Trump cast the inquiry as part of a grander conspiracy against him. He linked it to the F.B.I. search at Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club in Palm Beach, Fla., on Monday.

Analysis: His sidestep could help him in a parallel criminal inquiry into whether he fraudulently inflated valuations of his properties.

Smoke rose after explosions were heard near a Russian military air base in Crimea on Tuesday.Reuters

Details emerge about Crimea blast

The damage at a Russian air base in Crimea appears to be worse than the Kremlin initially claimed.

After a series of explosions on Tuesday, Crimea's leader declared a state of emergency and said that more than 250 people had to evacuate from their homes. Officials on the Russian-occupied peninsula said at least one person was killed and dozens more were wounded.

Ukraine has not officially taken responsibility for the explosions. But a senior military official said Ukraine's special forces and partisan resistance fighters were behind the blast. Here are live updates.

Analysis: The blasts could be important, because any Ukrainian attack on Russian forces in the Crimean Peninsula would be a significant expansion of Ukraine's offensive efforts. Until now, Ukraine has focused on pushing Russians back from territories occupied after the invasion began.

Nuclear plant: Russian missiles killed 13 people near a Russian-held nuclear plant in the south, a Ukrainian official said. Russia may try to divert its electricity to Crimea, which could intensify military competition for the plant and heighten the risk of an accident.

Press: Russian investigators detained a former state television journalist yesterday, months after she staged a rare on-air protest against the war in Ukraine.

Rescue officials pumped water out of this home in Seoul to find a family of three dead inside.Woohae Cho for The New York Times

South Korea mourns flood victims

Heavy rains caused flooding in the Seoul area, which killed at least nine people. A family of three, who lived in a semi-underground room, are among the dead: a 13-year-old girl, her mother, 47, and her aunt, 48.

Their deaths highlight the predicament of South Korea's urban poor, who often live in such homes, called banjiha. ("Parasite," which won the Academy Award for Best Film in 2020, dramatically depicted their flood hazard.)

South Korea faces a growing housing crisis and hundreds of thousands of people in the Seoul area live in similar damp, musty quarters. They fear floods each monsoon season, but stay to find jobs, save money and educate their children in hopes of overcoming South Korea's growing inequality.

Details: The family knew the low-lying district was prone to flooding. But it was cheap and close to a welfare center where the girl's aunt, who had Down syndrome, could get help.

Quotable: "When I returned home from work, I found my banjiha under water," one resident wrote on the web portal Naver. "It felt as if heaven had crashed down on me."

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