MAN ON FIRE: Just as CNN was live on air announcing the final selection of the jury in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, a man in the park across the street from the courthouse set himself on fire yesterday afternoon. CNN showed gruesome images of the man engulfed in flames before turning the camera away.

  Police identified the man as 37-year-old Max Azzarello, of St. Augustine, Florida, who later died. Witnesses said he had been seen in the area this week espousing government conspiracy theories and said that he threw pamphlets in the air before dousing himself with flammable liquid and lighting himself on fire. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with the Trump trial.

  Officers and firefighters took some minutes to respond and put out the fire. Azzarello was rushed to a hospital, but his entire body was described as charred.

  The NY Times reports that Azzarello had recently been overtaken by paranoia about conspiracies. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009, with degrees in anthropology and public policy.

ORDER IN THE COURT: Donald Trump claims that he will testify in his own defense in the Stormy Daniels payoff trial. Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing later yesterday on what prosecutors can bring into the case if he does. That might include his loss to E. Jean Carroll in her rape and slander lawsuits, and more on point, the finding that Trump committed business fraud inflating the value of his assets on loan and insurance applications.

  Emil Bove, a Trump lawyer, said questions about the civil fraud trial would take the criminal trial down a “rabbit hole,” and confuse jurors. It might also help convince them that Trump is a crook.

  Judge Merchan is expected to rule before opening arguments.

  In further legal trouble for Trump, New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked the judge in Trump’ civil fraud case to void the $175 million bond posted by the former president after questioning whether the insurance company has the money to back it up. Trump needed to post the bond in order to appeal the $464 million civil judgement against him. 

COMPROMISE: The House is expected to vote today on separate aid bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. There’s also another bill that would set a deadline for the sale or ban of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, and new sanctions on Iran. The fourth bill is meant to get the extreme conservatives on board with everything else.

  Several of the extremists are threatening to move on vacating the speakership … firing Speaker Mike Johnson … if he moves ahead on Ukraine aid. The bills include $60 billion for ammunition starved Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Daniel Dennett, a widely read and debated American philosopher, whose popular and prolific writings explored consciousness, free will, religion, and evolutionary biology, died in Portland, Maine at age 82.

  Dennett insisted that religion was an illusion, free will was a fantasy, and evolution could be explained only by natural selection. He believed that random chance played a greater role in decision-making than did reason, character, or values. He was an atheist and once said to The NY Times, “There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.”

THE SPIN RACK: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has managed to get on the ballot in Michigan, a critical swing state in which he might take votes from Joe Biden. — Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga voted to become the first unionized auto factory in the South not owned by one of Detroit’s Big Three auto makers. — New York residents will be first in the country to receive federal money to help pay for energy-efficient home upgrades. The Department of Energy announced that the state will receive an initial $158 million to help families save money on energy-efficient electric appliances. — After cancelling the commencement speech by Muslim valedictorian Asna Tabassum, the University of Southern California further announced that it is cancelling the keynote speech by filmmaker Jon Chu. The University says it is “redesigning” its graduation ceremony. Chu is a 2003 graduate of USC who directed the films “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Wicked,” an adaptation for the Broadway musical yet to be released.  

BELOW THE FOLD:  Tesla is recalling nearly 4,000 of its Cybertruck pickups because the accelerator pedal can stick, raising the risk of crashes.

  Contrary to rumor, Tesla is not recalling the trucks for being ugly.

For an audio review of the week’s news, click here: https://www.radiofreerhinecliff.org/the-week-that-was.html

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