In the 1990s, Donald Trump famously gossiped to the tabloids about — who else — himself, a headline-chaser who loved none other than to see his name in lights, or at least in the supermarket checkout line.

But those were Trump’s good old days, an era of clubs and models, long before he launched a bid for the US presidency and found himself needing to squash the lewd, party boy stories he once boasted about.

Cue David Pecker, the former publishing executive whose titles included the National Enquirer, and who on Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom laid out the “catch and kill” strategy he carried out in a bid to support Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In a then-secret meeting in August 2015, Trump and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen met with Pecker to ask how he and his publications could “help the campaign,” the 72-year-old witness testified

Trump “dated the most beautiful women,” Pecker explained, “and it was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone is running for a public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

‘Fake news’ sells

Speaking under oath, Pecker, who sported a pink tie and slicked back hair, essentially confessed to trafficking so-called “fake news” to both his and Trump’s benefit, while simultaneously paying off several people whose tales had the potential to damage candidate Trump’s reputation.

He said “popular stories about Mr. Trump” as well as “negative stories about his opponents” would “only increase newsstand sales.”

“Publishing these types of stories was also going to benefit his campaign,” Pecker said. “Both parties benefited from it.”

Pecker offered a portal into the editorial practices of outlets like his own, which had no shame in paying for stories and focused far more on the cover than the content.

“We would do a lot of research to determine what… the proper cover of the magazine would be,” Pecker said.

“Every time we did this, Mr. Trump would be the top celebrity,” Pecker said, describing the magnate’s pre-politician days and pointing to his star turn as the top guy on his own reality show “The Apprentice,” and its celebrity-starring sequel.

In recalling Trump’s first campaign era, the prosecution presented bombastic headlines disparaging the Republican’s opponents, such as “Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain” and “Ted Cruz shamed by porn star.”

Pecker said such ideas often came from or were shaped by Cohen, Trump’s then-fixer who is expected to be a star witness in the New York state trial.

But Pecker also said he wanted to keep his “agreement among friends” with Trump and Cohen “as quiet as possible.”

Among the times he said he killed a story regarding Donald Trump, it centered on a Trump Tower doorman who was peddling a false claim that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock with one of his former employees.

Pecker said he thought it was important to buy the story and keep it quiet for Trump’s benefit — as well as his own.

He said had the story been true, he planned to publish it “after the election.”

“If the story was true, and I published it, it would be probably the biggest sale of the National Enquirer since the death of Elvis Presley.”

Food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with some 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, UN agencies and development groups said Wednesday.

Extreme weather events and economic shocks also added to the number of those facing acute food insecurity, which grew by 24 million people compared with 2022, according to the latest global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).

The report, which called the global outlook “bleak” for this year, is produced for an international alliance bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies.

2023 was the fifth consecutive year of rises in the number of people suffering acute food insecurity — defined as when populations face food deprivation that threatens lives or livelihoods, regardless of the causes or length of time.

Much of last year’s increase was due to report’s expanded geographic coverage, as well as deteriorating conditions in 12 countries.

More geographical areas experienced “new or intensified shocks” while there was a “marked deterioration in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip”, Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office within the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), told AFP.

Some 700,000 people, including 600,000 in Gaza, were on the brink of starvation last year, a figure that has since climbed yet higher to 1.1 million in the war-ridden Palestinian territory.

 Children starving

Since the first report by the Global Food Crisis Network covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has risen from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said.

Meanwhile, the share of the population affected within the areas concerned has doubled 11 percent to 22 percent, she added.

Protracted major food crises are ongoing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.

“In a world of plenty, children are starving to death,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the report’s foreword.

“War, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis — combined with inadequate action — mean that almost 300 million people faced acute food crisis in 2023.”

“Funding is not keeping pace with need,” he added.

This is especially true as the costs of distributing aid have risen.

For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid could “rapidly” alleviate the crisis in Gaza or Sudan, for example, once humanitarian access to the areas is possible.

Floods and droughts

Worsening conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and reduced agricultural production, “where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops”, Wouterse said.

The El Nino weather phenomenon could also lead to severe drought in West and Southern Africa, she added.

According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people have suffered.

Extreme climatic events such as floods or droughts were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.

“Decreasing global food prices did not transmit to low-income, import-dependent countries,” said the report.

At the same time, high debt levels “limited government options to mitigate the effects of high prices”.

On a positive note, the situation improved in 17 countries in 2023, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, the report found.

China condemned on Tuesday as “groundless accusations” US claims that Beijing was fuelling the Ukraine war by supplying components to Russia which it uses for its military expansion.

China and Russia have ramped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years and their strategic partnership has only grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict but has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

And ahead of a planned visit to Beijing by top diplomat Antony Blinken this week, the United States had accused China of helping Russia carry out its biggest militarisation since Soviet times.

Following a G7 ministers meeting in Capri last week, Blinken said: “when it comes to Russia’s defence industrial base, the primary contributor in this moment to that is China,” adding that this is “allowing Russia to continue the aggression against Ukraine”.

In response, China on Tuesday furiously defended its right to “normal trade ties” with all countries, including Russia.

“The United States has unveiled a large-scale aid bill for Ukraine while also making groundless accusations against normal trade between China and Russia,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

“This kind of approach is extremely hypocritical and utterly irresponsible, and China is firmly opposed to it,” he said.

– Russian regroup –

US officials say China has stopped short of direct military assistance but has provided dual-use supplies that have let Russia regroup in the face of a long delay in US aid to Ukraine.

Blinken last week said this included “machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade”.

The top US diplomat has pledged to raise the issue with Chinese officials in Beijing this week, as well as press them to use their leverage over Russia to help end the war.

Beijing has long denied claims it is aiding Russia’s fighting in Ukraine — and insisted it won’t accept “criticism or pressure” over its ties with Moscow.

“On the Ukraine issue, China has always maintained an objective and just position, advocated actively for peace talks and pushed for a political resolution,” Wang said Tuesday.

“China consistently implements regulations on the export of dual-use items,” he said.

“China is neither a creator nor party to the Ukraine crisis and has never thrown oil on the flames,” Wang said.

“We will not accept others passing the buck or shifting blame onto us,” he said.