US FEDERAL RESERVE Governor Lisa Cook on Tuesday laid out in greater detail her opposition to President Donald J. Trump’s bid to remove her from office, saying it was too late to fire her for mortgage information she disclosed during her confirmation process.

In a filing in US District Court, Ms. Cook said she listed mortgages on three properties on forms submitted to the White House and US Senate in the vetting process for her appointment to the Fed in 2022. Any inconsistencies were known when she was confirmed and cannot give Mr. Trump grounds to fire her now, she said.

Mr. Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, whom Mr. Trump appointed, have accused her of committing fraud by listing all three properties as primary residences when she applied for mortgages, potentially to secure lower interest rates.

Mr. Trump has said that gives him cause to fire Mr. Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor.

She has filed a lawsuit seeking to block her unprecedented removal, setting up a legal battle that could upend long-established norms for the Fed’s independence. Tuesday’s filing reiterated in greater detail arguments she made in court last week as part of the lawsuit.

In the filing, Ms. Cook said that on a background check form, she listed a property in Michigan as a primary residence and one in Georgia as a “second home.” On a separate questionnaire she listed both homes as her “present residence,” the Michigan property as her “current permanent residence,” and a third property in Massachusetts as both a present residence and a second home and rental property, she said.

“If those are facial contradictions, as the Government and President claim… Senators or White House advisors could have inquired of her about any alleged ‘facial inconsistencies,’” Ms. Cook’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, wrote in the filing.

The White House and the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Cook has asked US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, DC, to temporarily block Mr. Trump from removing her from her post pending further litigation. She says that Mr. Trump does not have the legal authority to remove her and that the fraud allegations were a pretext to do so.

Ms. Cobb held a hearing on Friday where a Trump administration lawyer argued that removing a Fed governor for cause is within the President’s broad powers and Ms. Cobb had no power to review it.

Mr. Trump, a Republican, attacked the Fed for not cutting interest rates during his first term in the White House and resumed that campaign when his second term began in January. He has berated Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though he has stopped threatening to remove Mr. Powell before his term as central bank chief ends in May.

The Fed cut rates three times in 2024 but has held them steady since December out of concern that Mr. Trump’s aggressive reshaping of US trade policy could boost inflation. Ms. Cook voted with Mr. Powell and the majority of the central bank’s rate-setting committee in all those policy decisions.

The central bank, however, is widely expected to reduce its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point from the current 4.25%-4.50% range at its Sept. 16 to Sept. 17 policy meeting. Mr. Trump has demanded a far more aggressive decrease in borrowing costs. — Reuters

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un brought his teenage daughter to Beijing this week in her first public outing overseas, fueling further speculation that she may be his potential successor in the family’s dynastic rule over the nuclear-armed state.

Secretive North Korea has never revealed her name or age, but South Korean intelligence officials believe she is the daughter identified as Ju Ae by former American basketball player Dennis Rodman. Mr. Rodman spent time with Mr. Kim’s family in 2013 and described holding her as a baby.

She was seen just behind her father as they stepped off the armored train they used to travel overnight from Pyongyang to the Chinese capital Beijing, where Mr. Kim attended a massive military parade on Wednesday staged by China to commemorate Japan’s surrender ending World War II in the Pacific.

“Right now, Ju Ae is the front-runner as next supreme leader of North Korea,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the US-based Stimson Center. “She is getting practical protocol experience which should serve her well as North Korea’s next leader or a core elite.”

It is the first time she has accompanied Mr. Kim outside North Korea — an experience that neither her father nor powerful aunt ever had, Mr. Madden said.

“She is getting valuable experience greeting and interacting with foreign leadership and other elites,” he said.

Analysts said there is no evidence Mr. Kim ever accompanied his father, Kim Jong Il, on overseas trips. Jong Il did make foreign trips in the 1950s with his father, North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung.

North Korea’s tightly controlled state media had revealed nothing about Mr. Kim’s children until Ju Ae was first shown to the world accompanying her father to the launch of a massive intercontinental ballistic missile in 2022.

There is still little known about other Kim children.

South Korea’s intelligence agency considers Ju Ae to be the most likely successor so far, despite questions over whether she can ultimately rise to the top of the male-dominated dynasty.

Estimated to be about 13 years old, Ju Ae has attended increasingly high-profile events, including her diplomatic debut at a Russian Embassy event in May.

“The scope of her public appearances certainly has expanded from military-related sites to political and economic events over the years,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, another researcher with the Stimson Center. “If this is part of a succession campaign, this would certainly help with that effort as it would be seen as Kim Ju Ae’s debut on the international stage.”

While it’s premature to say conclusively whether this visit means she is Mr. Kim’s successor, it could still help broaden her horizons, said Ms. Lee, adding that how the North Korean media covers Ju Ae in China would give better insight. — Reuters

Protests have flared in parts of Indonesia since August 25 in some of the country’s worst violence in decades, presenting the biggest challenge so far to Prabowo Subianto’s 10-month-old presidency.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?
Protests started outside parliament in the capital, Jakarta, initially by groups angered by reports that lawmakers were receiving huge housing allowances on top of base salaries.

Protesters hurled rocks at riot police who responded with tear gas and water cannon. Over the course of a week that grew into wider demonstrations, in at least 32 of Indonesia’s 38 provinces according to the home minister, many of which turned violent, with some regional parliaments set ablaze.

A flashpoint was the August 28 killing of a motorcycle taxi driver in Jakarta, who was not part of the protest but was hit by a riot police vehicle, fuelling further rage, arson and destruction and demands for police reform, scenes replicated elsewhere.

Some prominent officials have been targeted with social media “doxxing” that reveals the addresses of their homes, leading to looting, most notably Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, after a deep fake video in which she appeared to say teachers were a burden.

The home of lawmaker Ahmad Sahroni was looted after he said calls to dissolve parliament over the allowances were being made by the “stupidest people in the world”.

Prabowo cancelled a trip to China and in a big concession on August 31 announced a scrapping of some perks and privileges for lawmakers and a moratorium on overseas travel, but at the same time vowed a firm response to mob violence.

The tally of deaths stands at eight by September 2. With at least 1,200 detained in Jakarta alone and a heavy police and military presence in the streets, some groups opted to keep to the sidelines, but smaller demonstrations were undeterred.

WHO IS LEADING THE PROTESTS?
It is unclear who, if anyone is driving the protest movement that appears on its surface to have no core.

Though initially led by student groups with a long history of government protests, the demonstrations have taken on a life of their own, with some gatherings fuelled by anger over the response by security forces.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said authorities “acted irresponsibly by treating the protests as acts of treason or terrorism”.

The All Indonesian Students’ Executives Body, Indonesia’s largest grouping of student associations, is staging organised protests, as are other unaffiliated university groups, but yet other groups are capitalising on the momentum with their own gatherings to vent grievances.

WHAT’S DRIVING THE ANGER?
The trigger was monthly pay for parliamentarians of upwards of 100 million rupiah ($6,150), a huge income in Indonesia, including a substantial housing allowance.

That fed frustration about wealth gaps, inequity and the minimum wage in the country of 280 million, and a perception of corruption or flagrant displays of largesse by the political elite.

Though Indonesia’s economy is not in poor shape, signs of unease have emerged in the provinces over the government’s state budget priorities and efforts to re-centralise finances.

Last month Prabowo unveiled in parliament a $234 billion budget for 2026 that slashes regional funding by a quarter to $40 billion, the lowest in a decade and a second year of decline. The cuts have forced local authorities to hike land and property taxes to plug the gap.

The budget proposes a rise of 37% on defence and a near doubling in spending on Prabowo’s signature free school meals programme to $20.5 billion.

Also stoking anger is the response of police and military and accusations by rights groups of disproportionate use of force, including tear gas and rubber bullets.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PRABOWO?
It is a major test for political veteran Prabowo, elected president by a huge margin on his third successive attempt. He has a big majority in parliament and has faced muted opposition, with all but one party in his “big tent” coalition.

It has been tough to gauge public sentiment, with few major opinion surveys since Prabowo crossed 100 days of his presidency in January, with an approval rating of about 80%.

The protests have been a startling check on his power. His response could be critical in determining his popularity, how long the protests last and the likelihood of a recurrence in the rest of his term.

Indonesia’s student-led movements have long been regarded as vanguards of democracy and Prabowo knows well their ability to mobilise.

As a former son-in-law of Indonesia’s late authoritarian ruler Suharto, whom he served in the military as a special forces commander, Prabowo has first-hand experience of the protests that brought down the strongman in 1998 after 32 years of autocratic rule. — Reuters