Trump swaps bluster for silence, and possibly sleep, in his hush money trial
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t known for letting slights pass.
Yet for weeks, the famously combative presumptive Republican nominee has sat silently — to the point of sometimes seeming asleep — in a sterile Manhattan courtroom amid a barrage of accusations and insults.
There were the times his former fixer-turned-chief prosecution witness was quoted calling him a “boorish cartoon misogynist" and a “Cheeto-dusted” villain who belonged in a “cage, like an animal.” There were the graphic details relayed by a p*rn actor about the night she claims they had sex. And there were lengthy descriptions of what the prosecution argues was an illegal scheme to conceal hush money payments to salvage his then-flailing 2016 campaign.
Through it all, even as he and his allies attacked the case outside the courtroom, Trump has spent the majority of his time as a criminal defendant sitting nearly motionless for hours, leaning back in his burgundy leather chair with his eyes closed. He ultimately chose not to testify in a case that made him the first former president in the nation’s history to stand trial on criminal charges.
Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Tuesday, after which a jury will decide whether to make him the first former president and major party nominee convicted of felony charges.
The bodies of 3 more hostages are recovered from Gaza by the Israeli army
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The bodies of three more hostages killed on Oct 7. were recovered overnight from Gaza, Israel's army said Friday, as the top United Nations court prepares to rule on whether Israel must halt its military operations and withdraw from the enclave.
The bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez Radoux were found and their families have been notified. The army said they were killed on the day of the attack at the Mefalsim intersection and their bodies were taken to Gaza.
The announcement comes less than a week after the army said it found the bodies of three other Israeli hostages killed on Oct. 7.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of at least 39 more, while 17 bodies of hostages have been recovered.
The top UN court is set to rule on a request for it to order Israel to halt its offensive in Gaza
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court is ruling Friday on an urgent plea by South Africa to order Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza and withdraw from the enclave.
Israel is unlikely to comply with any such order. Even so, a cease-fire order by judges of the International Court of Justice would heap more pressure on an increasingly isolated Israel as it continues its military assault on Gaza following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas-led militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under heavy pressure at home to end the war. Thousands of Israelis have joined weekly demonstrations calling on the government to reach a deal to bring home Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity, fearing that time is running out.
The International Court of Justice has broad powers to order a cease-fire and other measures, but it does not have its own enforcement apparatus. In another case on its docket, Russia has so far ignored a 2022 order by the court to halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Friday’s ruling comes just days after the prosecutor of another court in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, announced he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israel's defense minister and three Hamas leaders.
'Green blitz': As election nears, Biden pushes slew of rules on environment, other priorities
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he tries to secure his legacy, President Joe Biden has unleashed a flurry of election-year rules on the environment and other topics, including a landmark regulation that would force coal-fired power plants to capture smokestack emissions or shut down.
The limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fueled electric stations are the Democratic president's most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change.
The power plant rule is among more than 60 regulations Biden and his administration finalized last month to meet his policy goals, including a promise to cut carbon emissions that are driving climate change roughly in half by 2030. The regulations, led by the Environmental Protection Agency but involving a host of other federal agencies, are being issued in quick succession as the Biden administration rushes to meet a looming but uncertain deadline to ensure they are not overturned by a new Congress — or a new president.
"The Biden administration is in green blitz mode,″ said Lena Moffitt, executive director of the activist group Evergreen Action.
The barrage of rules covers more than the environment.
More than 100 people believed killed by a landslide in Papua New Guinea, Australian media report
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 people are believed to have been killed Friday in a landslide that buried a village in a remote, mountainous part of Papua New Guinea, and an emergency response is underway, the South Pacific island nation's leader and news media said.
The landslide reportedly hit Kaokalam village in Enga province, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, at roughly 3 a.m., Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Residents said estimates of the death toll were above 100, although authorities have not confirmed that figure. Villagers said the number of people killed could be much higher.
Prime Minister James Marape said authorities were responding and he would release information about the destruction and loss of life when it was available.
“I am yet to be fully briefed on the situation. However, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the landslide disaster in the early hours of this morning,” Marape said in a statement.
NCAA, leagues back $2.8 billion settlement, setting stage for current, former athletes to be paid
The NCAA and the nation's five biggest conferences announced Thursday night that they have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims, a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start steering millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester.
NCAA President Charlie Baker along with the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference released a joint statement saying they had agreed to settlement terms. They called the move “an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come.”
Terms were not disclosed, though some details have emerged in the past few weeks. They signal the end of the NCAA’s bedrock amateurism model that dates to its founding in 1906. Indeed, the days of NCAA punishment for athletes driving booster-provided cars started vanishing three years ago when the organization lifted restrictions on endorsem*nt deals backed by so-called name, image and likeness money.
The deal still must be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case and plaintiffs will have the opportunity to opt out or challenge terms of the agreement. If it stands, it will usher in the beginning of a new era in college sports where athletes are compensated more like professionals and schools can compete for talent using direct payments.
“There’s no question about it. It’s a huge quantum leap,” said Tom McMillen, the former Maryland basketball player and congressman who has led an association of collegiate athletic directors the past eight years.
A fire in an apartment building in Hanoi, Vietnam, kills 14 people and injures 6
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — An overnight fire in an apartment building on a narrow alley in Vietnam's capital killed 14 people and injured six others, state media said Friday.
The apartment building in central Hanoi could only be accessed through an alley just 2 meters (6.5 feet) wide, preventing firetrucks from reaching it, and firefighters eventually contained the fire by using hoses, state media said.
The fire started around 12:30 a.m. and was accompanied by several explosions, the Vietnam News Agency said. It took an hour to extinguish.
Neighbor Nguyen Thanh Trung said he was asleep when he heard the explosions and rushed out to see what was happening. “I could feel the shock at my house,” he said, adding that he along with others got a ladder to break the window to help people escape.
State media reported the building had 24 residents at the time, seven in the owner’s family and 17 tenants. The injured are stable and being treated at Hanoi Transport Hospital.
Fire at chemical factory in India kills at least 9, with searchers looking for more victims
THANE, India (AP) — Rescuers combed through piles of debris and wreckage Friday searching for bodies after an explosion and fire at a chemical factory in western India killed at least nine people and injured 64 others, officials said.
The explosion in the factory’s boiler on Thursday led to a fire that affected nearby factories and houses in Maharashtra state’s Thane district, administrative official Sachin Shejal said.
Shejal said the blaze was extinguished and rescuers were searching through the debris to find two more bodies, though the process was hampered by the presence of huge debris.
Two bodies have been identified so far and seven are burnt beyond recognition, Shejal said.
“We have asked the family members of the victims to submit DNA samples that can help us identify the bodies,” he said.
Top Russian military officials are being arrested. Why is it happening?
It began last month with the arrest of a Russian deputy defense minister. Then the head of the ministry’s personnel directorate was hauled into court. This week, two more senior military officials were detained. All face charges of corruption, which they have denied.
The arrests began after President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term and shuffled his ally, longtime Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, into a new post.
It immediately raised questions about whether Putin was reasserting control over the Defense Ministry amid the war in Ukraine, whether a turf battle had broken out between the military and the security services, or whether some other scenario was playing out behind the Kremlin’s walls.
A look at what's behind the arrests and why they are happening now:
Corruption scandals are not new and officials and top officials have been accused of profiting from their positions for decades.
China sends dozens of warplanes and ships near Taiwan to show its anger over island's new leaders
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan tracked dozens of Chinese warplanes and navy vessels off its coast on Friday, the second day of a large military exercise launched by Beijing to show its anger over the self-governing island's inauguration of new leaders who refuse to accept its insistence that Taiwan is part of China.
China has issued elaborate media statements showing Taiwan being surrounded by forces from its military, the People's Liberation Army. A new video on Friday showed animated Chinese forces approaching from all sides and Taiwan being enclosed within a circular target area while simulated missiles hit key population and military targets.
Despite that, there was little sign of concern among Taiwan's 23 million people, who have lived under threat of Chinese invasion since the two sides split during a civil war in 1949. Taiwan's parliament was mired on Friday in a dispute between political parties over procedural measures, and business continued as usual in the bustling capital of Taipei and the ports of Keelong and Kaohsiung.
The defense ministry said it tracked 49 Chinese warplanes and 19 navy vessels, as well as coast guard vessels, and that 35 of the planes flew across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, the de facto boundary between the two sides, over a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday.
Taiwanese marine and coast guard vessels along with air and ground-based missile units have been put on alert, particularly around the Taiwan-controlled island chains of Kinmen and Matsu just off China's coast and far from Taiwan's main island.
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