1[The Detail] Trump's campaign from a courtroom | The legal battles of Donald Trump The convoluted legal troubles of former -- and maybe future -- US President Donald Trump are playing out in court rooms across America. Former US President Donald Trump faces 91 felony counts across four criminal cases. Believe it or not, that's not enough to bar him from the White House. The US Supreme Court has heard arguments about whether Donald Trump is eligible to run for president and is currently deliberating over the issue. Does encouraging a mob to overthrow the results of a democratic election rule you out? The case hinges on the 14th amendment, a civil-war era revision to the US constitution; the section in question bars any person who has "engaged in insurrection" from holding office. Inside the courtroom, the question is whether Trump is constitutionally eligible to be president again. Outside, the question is -- even if he is -- whether America would re-elect him. "There's nothing that says a criminal can't be elected president of the United States. It has never been an issue before but it is an issue America is going to have to deal with this year," said Scott Detrow, who hosts Trump Trials, a podcast that follows the many legal troubles of Trump. The presumption is that the Supreme Court will rule in Trump's favour, in part because of the fear that ruling against him would set a precedent for states to bar candidates from their ballots. "Increasingly you're seeing everyone from President Biden on down just kind of assume that it's going to be a rematch in November of Trump versus Biden, and Trump's going to be on the ballot for the third election in a row," Detrow said. Meanwhile, Trump is embroiled in four criminal cases, and one civil. Two of his criminal cases relate to trying to interfere with the results of the 2020 election. A third is to do with the accusation that he paid hush money to a porn star, and the fourth is based on allegations that he removed classified and highly sensitive national security documents from the White House, and stored them around his resort, Mar-a-Lago. Then there's a civil case in New York, where Trump is accused of committing fraud by inflating the worth of his properties. (Another civil case, recently settled, found Trump liable of defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll.) Strangely, these legal battles may actually be helping Trump in primary season. "He wasn't dominating the race, and that changed the moment he started to be charged with crimes, especially being charged with crimes by district attorneys in democratic parts of the country. Republican voters rallied around Trump, they felt like he was being unfairly targeted," Detrow said. But he predicts that the picture will change as the general election approaches. "I think as we start turning to a broader national election it's going to be a much different situation, because there's a lot of independent voters, there's a lot more left-leaning voters who are horrified at the idea of somebody facing criminal charges or even convicted of criminal charges becoming president of the United States," Detrow said. There's also doubt as to whether any of these trials will be decided before the election - and if not, what that will mean. Detrow has a prediction. "Two of these criminal cases are brought by the federal government. If he's in charge of the federal government again, he can pardon himself, he can order the Justice Department to stop enforcing the case. And those two cases would probably go away," he says. Trump wouldn't have power over the other two cases, in New York and Georgia, but that doesn't mean they'd carry on. "They would probably be delayed until he was out of office again." In an election cycle filled with uncertainty, there's one major takeaway. "The key thing in all the things were talking about right now is there are all these things that have never been tested before, that have never come up before because no other time in American history has a former president been charged with crimes," Detrow says. [Wednesday 14 February 2024, 05:00]

2[Sporting Witness] Victory for South Africa: The Africa Cup of Nations How a football victory in 1996 helped South Africa heal the wounds of apartheid. In 1996, South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations, bringing sporting joy to a country still recovering from Apartheid. It was the Bafana Bafana team's first victory at an international football tournament. In 2015, two members of the multi-racial side, Phil Masinga and Mark Fish, spoke to Will Yates. A Whistledown production for BBC World Service. Released on: Saturday 10 February 2024

3[The House] Water reforms ditched and digital hitches: Parliament week This weekly wrap of The House looks at the repeal of major water reforms passed in the last Parliament term, and a Select Committee hearing on news media's existential crisis. In this edition of The House we look back at two of the more important subjects MPs were grappling with this week in the debating chamber and select committees. One is Parliament's repeal of major water reforms passed last term by the previous government, with the Water Services Acts Repeal Bill being passed through all its stages under urgency. The other concerns the existential crisis facing this country’s news media in a digital market dominated by tech giants, being relayed to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee as it heard submissions on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill. Meanwhile, in case you missed it, last Sunday's episode of The House looked at Parliament’s bible, Parliamentary Practice, which has now been updated in a new 2024 edition, explaining all the many rules, practices and precedents that make Parliament tick. Get stuck in. On the Sunday prior to that, The House explored a new change at Parliament whereby all public hearings of select committees are being live-streamed to Parliament’s own website instead of on Facebook, a move welcomed by advocates of open government. [Sunday 18 February 2024, 07:35]