An attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels testified at Donald Trump‘s trial Thursday that he “would never” describe the $130,000 payment to her as “hush money.”

Testimony from Daniels’s former attorney Keith Davidson is viewed as a key component of the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies plotted to hide damaging stories in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. As prosecutors questioned him from the stand on Thursday, the porn star’s attorney made a surprising dispute of the definition of the “hush money.”

“Would you use the phrase hush money to describe the money that was paid to your client by Donald Trump?” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked.

“I would never use that word,” Davidson said, adding he would describe it as a “consideration in a civil settlement.” Trump denies having a sexual encounter with Daniels.

The description of the alleged sexual encounter that prosecutors say Trump sought to cover up using his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen was also subject to scrutiny by Davidson on Thursday.

Davidson went to great lengths to defend a January 2018 statement he wrote on behalf of Daniels denying a news report that Cohen had paid $130,000 to silence her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump, a payment that Daniels’s attorney said he took a $10,000 cut from.

For example, the 2018 statement’s claim that she never had a “sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump” could technically be true, Davidson argued, if you were to “hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual and affair.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr. Trump was romantic,” the lawyer said from the stand, prompting some people in the room to laugh, including prosecutors.

Cross-examination began later in the day, where Trump attorney Emil Bove became visibly frustrated at times with Davidson and raised his voice when he declined to answer questions about his previous work securing settlements for clients to suppress embarrassing information about other celebrities.

Bove tapped Judge Juan Merchan to help him compel answers from Davidson after the witness claimed he didn’t remember the deals or wasn’t authorized to speak about them. Merchan refused to help.

“We’re both lawyers. I’m not here to play lawyer games with you,” Bove said after Davidson invoked attorney-client privilege several times during cross-examination. Davidson at one point invoked attorney-client privilege when asked if he had negotiated a similar deal with the actor Charlie Sheen.

Throughout Bove’s cross-examination, Trump could be seen paying careful attention to Davidson’s testimony as the defense attorney continued to grill him from the witness stand.

Bove appeared to be suggesting that other nondisclosure agreements Davidson brokered for previous clients were essentially extortion of celebrities.

Davidson is the prosecution’s sixth witness and walked the jury through the $130,000 payment he negotiated with Cohen on behalf of Daniels that is at the core of the case. Bove intended to poke holes at his memory and character by questioning his alleged work in other celebrity cases but was met with roadblocks during his first round of cross-examination.

Although Cohen has yet to take the witness stand for the trial, he has received the sharpest criticism of his credibility even before the trial began. On Thursday, prosecutors began highlighting Cohen’s personality flaws in apparent hopes that it may have a “boomerang” effect against Trump, who once called him a “very talented lawyer.”

Trump’s side has often sought to paint Cohen as a former attorney with an ax to grind, and Davidson’s testimony on Thursday may have inched that notion further. Davidson recalled Cohen’s unparalleled disappointment when he found out he was not selected for any positions in Trump’s former administration and even admitted, “I thought he was going to kill himself.”

Earlier in the day, Merchan held a gag order hearing considering four additional allegations against Trump after he was fined $1,000 per nine violations earlier this week. The judge has yet to rule on the other alleged violations.

The court resumed testimony after 2:15 p.m.

A Boeing whistleblower who raised concerns about one of the carrier’s suppliers ignoring production defects died suddenly on Tuesday — just two months after another employee who sounded the alarm about the embattled company died by alleged suicide.

Joshua Dean, 45, a former quality auditor at Spirit AeroSystems, died Tuesday morning from a fast-growing mystery infection, the Seattle Times reported.

Dean, of Wichita, Kan., had reportedly been in good health until about two weeks ago, when he was admitted to the hospital, the outlet reported.

However, by April 21 he was in “very critical condition,” and had tested positive for influenza B, MRSA, and pneumonia, the outlet said.

He was intubated and put on dialysis before eventually being airlifted to another hospital in Oklahoma City.

A CT scan indicated that he had also suffered a stroke.

Shortly before his death, doctors were considering amputating his hands and feet, which had turned black from infection, baffling his family and doctors.

“He is in the worst condition I have ever known or heard of. Even the hospital agrees,” his sister-in-law, Kristen Dean, wrote on Facebook Saturday, before detailing the life saving procedures doctors were trying in order to save him.

His family announced that he died Tuesday morning.

Dean had raised the alarm about defects while working at Spirit Aerosystems, a Kansas-based company which manufactures aircraft parts for Boeing in 2022. Less than a year later he was fired.

“I think they were sending out a message to anybody else,” Dean later told NPR of his firing. “If you are too loud, we will silence you.”

Dean, who had been at Spirit since 2019 as a quality auditor, raised concerns about improperly drilled bulkhead holes on parts for Boeing 373 Max planes, according to the Seattle Times. He claimed flagging the issue with his management had no effect.

He has said his focus on the improperly drilled parts caused him to miss another issue with fittings between the vertical tail fin to the fuselage of the aircraft, which was later discovered and led to his being fired.

The issues with the improper drilling were later acknowledged by Spirit Aerosystems. Both issues caused delays at Boeing manufacturiung plants.

Dean – who provided testimony he and other workers were told to downplay any problems they identified – filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration which claimed he was scapegoated in Spirit’s effort to keep the Boeing production issues secret.

In November 2023, he also filed a complaint with the Department of Labor on the grounds of wrongful termination.

That case was still pending at the time of his death, the outlet said.

Following a January incident involving a door hatch which flew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight, one of Dean’s former colleagues backed up his claims to the Seattle Times.

“It is known at Spirit that if you make too much noise and cause too much trouble, you will be moved,” Dean told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

“It doesn’t mean you completely disregard stuff, but they don’t want you to find everything and write it up.”

Dean’s death comes less than two months after Boeing whistleblower John Barnett died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in March.

His death is still under investigation by the local police after Barnett’s lawyers raised the alarm, saying “we didn’t see any indication he would take his own life … no one can believe it,” and urging a thorough investigation.

The same lawyer, Brian Knowles, was also representing Dean.

He told TIME: “Josh’s passing is a loss to the aviation community and the flying public.

“He possessed tremendous courage to stand up for what he felt was true and right and raised quality and safety issues,” Knowles added.

When asked if he agreed with the growing theories linking his clients’ back-to-back deaths, Knowles said he “would like to see the evidence from the investigating authorities.”

“What society does not need is people in fear to speak up,” he noted.

Spirit Aerosystems told multiple outlets that their “thoughts are with Josh Dean’s family.”

“This sudden loss is stunning news here and for his loved ones,” the company said.

The right-leaning news and commentary site Daily Wire obtained a gag order against former host Candace Owens despite co-founder Ben Shapiro claiming he wanted to publicly debate her about Israel and antisemitism, according to a report.

The Daily Wire secretly sought to muzzle Owens through a private arbitrator after she left the company in March, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald in his Locals newsletter on Thursday.

The gag order was approved as Shapiro and Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing were publicly negotiating with Owens on an agreed-upon venue, date and time for a debate that had been widely anticipated by readers and viewers on social media.

Boreing told Greenwald that his report “is inaccurate to the point of being false.”

He did not elaborate.

“I’m sure you can appreciate how fraught a high-profile break-up like this is. For that reason, we are trying to resolve our issues with Candace privately,” Boreing is quoted as telling Greenwald.

Owens told Greenwald she “can neither confirm nor deny” his report.

“I wish I could comment on this but I can’t.” she said.

According to Greenwald, the gag order bars Owens from making any comments that could disparage Daily Wire or be perceived as harming its reputation.

An arbitrator agreed with Daily Wire’s contention that Owens’ social media posts on X challenging Shapiro to a debate while questioning his views on Israel were “disparaging,” Greenwald reported.

Prior to her departure from Daily Wire, Owens was one of the site’s most popular hosts.

She joined the Daily Wire in 2021 after having come to prominence as a black conservative who was urging African-American voters to “BLEXIT” — a term meant to connote the abandonment of the Democratic Party.

After the Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis, Owens was publicly critical of Israel’s military response, accusing its government of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and a fervent supporter of Israel, blasted Owens, saying her behavior was “absolutely disgraceful.”

In November, Shapiro’s fans on social media demanded that Daily Wire fire Owens over her comments, but Boreing wrote on social media: “[E]ven if we could, we would not fire Candace because of another thing we have in common — a desire not to regulate the speech of our hosts, even when we disagree with them. Candace is paid to give her opinion, not mine or Ben’s.”

“Unless those opinions run afoul of the law or she violates the terms of her contract in some way, her job is secure and she is welcome at Daily Wire,” according to Boreing.

Owens then made other comments that prompted accusations of antisemitism, including a reference to a “gang” in Hollywood that was doing “horrific things.”

For the very many of you who keep asking for an update regarding my debate with @benshapiro.

My team reached out immediately suggesting the first week I was back in the states. We were informed the proposed date could not work for Ben due to the holiday but have not heard back…

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 24, 2024

She also liked an X post which made mention of an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews being “drunk on Christian blood.”

Despite Boreing’s pledge that the company would not fire Owens over her views on Israel, Daily Wire did just that, according to Greenwald.

“The company had concluded that her increasingly vocal criticisms of Israel, opposition to US financing of it, and her views on antisemitism were incompatible with the Daily Wire’s policies,” Greenwald wrote on Thursday.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that protests at college campuses across the country have not caused him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East.

After a press conference addressing the widespread anti-Israel protests at college campuses over Israel’s war with Hamas and its effect in Gaza, a reporter asked Biden if the “protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region.”

“No,” Biden responded before walking away from the podium.

Tune in as I deliver remarks. https://t.co/zN7LMKaBIf

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 2, 2024

“Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?” a reporter followed up.

“No,” the president said as he exited the room.

Notably, the first protests, which sprouted at Columbia University, began before Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package that allocates $26 billion in aid for Israel, including billions in military aid, on April 24.

In his remarks addressing the anti-Israel protests, Biden condemned both “antisemitism” and “Islamophobia.”

“There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s anti-semitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab-Americans or Palestinian-Americans. It’s simply wrong,” he said.

He also chided violent protests on campuses.

“Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations: none of this is a peaceful protest,” Biden said. “Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law.”

His remarks come during a national uncommitted effort throughout the Democrat nominating process that has seen more than half a million Americans cast ballots against Biden in protest of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war and in demand of a ceasefire.

While he demanded an “immediate ceasefire” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April after 48,812 people selected the “Uninstructed” option in the Wisconsin Democrat primary, uncommitted efforts persisted in the Pennsylvania Democrat primary weeks later.

The progressive group Our Revolution is co-hosting a “Vote ‘Uncommitted’ Early Vote Rally” in Maryland later Thursday afternoon with the Listen to Maryland campaign in the build-up to the state’s May 14 Democrat primary. The effort signals that frustrations with Biden were not quelling even before his remarks downplaying protesters’ influence on Thursday.

Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally Thursday.

Demonstrations — and arrests — have occurred in almost every corner of the nation. But in the last 24 hours, they’ve drawn the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday when officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators.

Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.

At least 200 people were arrested, said Sgt. Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol, citing data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Rubio said they were being booked at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles. UCLA police will determine what charges to bring.

Later Thursday morning, workers removed barricades and dismantled the protesters’ fortified encampment. Bulldozers scooped up bags of trash and tents. Some buildings were covered in graffiti.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.

The demonstrations began at Columbia University on April 17, with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

California Highway Patrol officers poured into the UCLA campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they held their batons out to separate themselves from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.”

For hours, officers warned over loud speakers that there would be arrests if the crowd of more than 1,000 people did not disperse. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled. Police helicopters hovered and the sound of flash-bangs pierced the air. Police pulled off protesters’ helmets and goggles as they made arrests.

Police methodically tore apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down dozens of canopies and tents. The number of protesters diminished through the morning, some leaving voluntarily with their hands up and others detained by police.

The law enforcement presence and continued warnings contrasted with the scene Tuesday night, when counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers. Fighting between the two sides continued for hours before police stepped in. No one was arrested, but at least 15 protesters were injured. Authorities’ tepid response drew criticism from political leaders, Muslim students and advocacy groups.

By Wednesday afternoon, a small city sprang up inside the reenforced encampment, with hundreds of people and tents on the quad. Demonstrators rebuilt the makeshift barriers around their tents while state and campus police watched.

Some protesters said Muslim prayers as the sun set, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and headscarves, and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas.

The crowd grew as the night wore on and as more officers poured onto campus.

Ariel Dardashti, a graduating UCLA senior studying global studies and sociology, said no student should feel unsafe on campus.

“It should not get to the point where students are being arrested,” Dardashti said on campus Thursday.

Dardashti said he can relate to the trauma suffered by Palestinians.

“When my dad was fleeing Iran, he prayed that his children wouldn’t have to face anti-Semitism,” Dardashti said. “We’re afraid of having to flee again in the same way our parents did.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the delayed law enforcement response on Tuesday and UCLA Chancellor Gene Block promised to investigate. The head of the University of California system, Michael Drake, ordered an “independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.”

“The community needs to feel the police are protecting them, not enabling others to harm them,” Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said during a news conference Wednesday.

Iranian state television carried live images of the police action at UCLA, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks.

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the students’ right to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.

California Republican leaders blasted university administrations for failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests to escalate into “lawlessness and violence.” They called for the firing of leaders at UCLA and Cal Poly Humboldt and pushed for a proposal that would cut pay for university administrators.

“We’ve got a whole lot of people in these universities drawing six figure salaries and they stood by and did nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters. “There does need to be accountability.”

Meanwhile, protest encampments at schools across the U.S., were cleared by police — resulting in more arrests — or closed up voluntarily. In New York, those included the City College of New York, Fordham University, Stony Brook University and the University of Buffalo. Others nationwide included the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and Tulane University in New Orleans.

A college professor from Illinois said he suffered multiple broken ribs and a broken hand during a pro-Palestine protest on Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Bystander video shows the arrest of Steve Tamari, a history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He seems to be moving in to take video or photos of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly take him down.

In a post on the social platform X, Sandra Tamari said her husband needed surgery on his hand and has nine broken ribs.

Tamari said in a statement Thursday that it was “a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Campus police referred questions to the university’s communications department, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Upcoming graduations have become a concern.

Florida’s state university chancellor ordered campus presidents to take whatever steps necessary to prevent disruption of ceremonies. At the same time, University of Minnesota officials reached agreement with protesters not to disrupt commencements. Similar agreements have been made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Brown University in Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, a professors group at Columbia University condemned school leadership on Thursday for asking police to remove protesters in what the group called a “horrific police attack on our students.” Officers burst into a building Tuesday, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

U.S. college campuses have become a flashpoint, with school leaders facing intense scrutiny over their handling of allegations of antisemitism and the right to free speech. The presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned following questions at a congressional hearing about whether calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who has been under the microscope this week for an anecdote about killing her dog, defended her actions Wednesday, saying she shot the “dangerous” pup in order to protect her children.

“It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” Noem said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.”

“We were her second chance. And she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she continued. “She attacked me. And it was a hard decision.”

Noem added that she had to make a choice between “keeping my small children and other people safe, or a dangerous animal, and I chose the safety of my children.”

She’s faced heavy scrutiny over the anecdote in her upcoming book, which was uncovered by The Guardian after the outlet received an advanced copy. In light of the reporting, Democratic governors took to social media to mock Noem, posting pictures with their dogs alongside the caption: “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit.”

According to the book excerpt, the governor of the Mount Rushmore State took the dog — a 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket — to a gravel pit on her property and shot it, writing that it was “not a pleasant job” but “had to be done.”

Noem, once seen as a top contender for former President Trump’s running mate in November, has likely doomed her chances of securing the vice-presidential spot. The anecdote, paired with other controversies, have left many Republicans scratching their heads and doubting her chances.

Her anecdote drew parallels from some to a political episode from Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) 2012 presidential campaign, when he faced blowback over a story about him tying his dog to the roof of his car on a family road trip.

The senator pushed back on the comparison earlier this week, saying, “I didn’t eat my dog. I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.”

Noem too has doubled down on her decision in recent days.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back,” she wrote Sunday on the social platform X. “The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released new photos of a next generation weapon that is in development for the U.S. Military this week, a long-range, uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) capable of firing a payload at enemy targets.

The Manta Ray prototype built by Northrop Grumman is being tested in the waters off the coast of Southern California, the agency said in a statement.

“Testing demonstrated at-sea hydrodynamic performance, including submerged operations using all the vehicle’s modes of propulsion and steering: buoyancy, propellers, and control surfaces,” the statement said. “Northrop Grumman shipped the Manta Ray prototype in subsections from the build location in Maryland to its test location in California. The demonstrated ease of shipping and assembly supports the possibility of rapid deployment throughout the world without crowding valuable pier space at naval facilities.”

Manta Ray will be able to operate for long-range and long-duration missions in a wide variety of maritime environments “without the need for human-present logistic support or maintenance offer the potential for persistent operations in forward environments.”

The Manta Ray program plans to advance new groundbreaking technologies including, but not limited to:

– Novel energy management techniques for UUV operations and undersea energy harvesting techniques at operationally relevant depths;

– Low-power, high efficiency undersea propulsion systems;

– New low-power means of underwater detection and classification of hazards or counter detection threats;

– Mission management approaches for extended durations while accounting for dynamic maritime environments;

– Unique approaches for leveraging existing maritime data sets and exploiting novel maritime parameters for high-efficiency navigation and/or C3; and

– New approaches to mitigate biofouling, corrosion, and other material degradation for long duration missions.

Dr. Kyle Woerner, DARPA program manager for Manta Ray said that Manta Ray’s testing has been successful.

“The combination of cross-country modular transportation, in-field assembly, and subsequent deployment demonstrates a first-of-kind capability for an extra-large UUV,” he said. “Shipping the vehicle directly to its intended area of operation conserves energy that the vehicle would otherwise expend during transit. Once deployed, the vehicle uses efficient, buoyancy-driven gliding to move through the water. The craft is designed with several payload bays of multiple sizes and types to enable a wide variety of naval mission sets.”

The accused “killer” New Jersey father who forced his 6-year-old son to run on a treadmill did so because the child was “too fat” as a disturbing new video reveals the alleged child abuse.

Christopher Gregor, 31, appeared in court Tuesday to stand trial for allegedly murdering his son Corey Micciolo in 2021. He faces life in prison if convicted.

During the trial, the Superior Court in Ocean City was shown surveillance video of Gregor forcing Corey to run on a treadmill after the boy fell off multiple times due to the exercise machine’s excessive speed.

Gregor and his son were seen on March 20, 2021, entering the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness center, where the boy was promptly placed on the treadmill and began running, according to video, obtained by CourtTV.com.

Footage captured Gregor walking up to the treadmill to increase the speed and raise the incline of the track.

The sudden changes were too much for the little boy’s legs, causing him to fall down and slide off the moving track.

New Jersey father Christopher Gregor is accused of killing his 6-year-old son Corey Micciolo. He bit him on the head after falling on the treadmill!

This man is evil! pic.twitter.com/x68nXmTxUF

— Lorrie Ann 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇸 (@LorrieAnn25) May 1, 2024

Gregor lifted his son and tossed him back onto the treadmill, which forced the child’s legs to fold backward as the father seemingly clamped his teeth into Corey’s head.

The boy gets back on, but again falls off and continues to struggle to remain on the machine, eventually leading the father to decrease both the the speed and incline.

The boy’s mother, Bre Micciolo, was the first witness to take the stand, and was in tears as she watched the horrific video.

Days before her son’s death, Bre Micciolo reported the boy’s injuries to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, according to the US Sun.

On April 1, she requested that Gregor take their son to see a doctor.

While at the appointment, Corey reportedly revealed his father made him run on the treadmill “because he was too fat,” the outlet reported.

The next day, Gregor rushed the young boy to the hospital because the boy woke up from a nap stumbling, slurring his words, and experiencing nausea and shortness of breath, according to Court TV.

During a CT scan, Corey suffered a seizure, forcing medical staff to take life-saving measures, but were unsuccessful.

An initial autopsy found Corey died as a result of blunt force injuries with cardiac and liver contusions with acute inflammation and sepsis.

Gregor was arrested in July 2021 on child neglect charges stemming from investigators reviewing the surveillance footage from the fitness center.

“Specifically by having (Corey) run on a treadmill and increasing the speed, causing (Corey) to fall, placing (him) back on the moving treadmill while appearing to bite his head, causing the said child to fall several more times,” an arrest warrant obtained by the outlet read.

In September 2021, a forensic pathologist determined Corey’s death to be a homicide as he suffered from chronic abuse including blunt impact injuries on his chest and abdomen with a laceration on his heart, left pulmonary contusion, and laceration and contusion of his liver.

Dr. Thomas Andrew believes Corey suffered an acute traumatic injury to the heart four to 12 hours before his death, according to Court TV.

Gregor was arrested on March 9, 2022, for his son’s death.

He has since turned down a 30-year plea deal and is being held in the Ocean City Jail without bond.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that the FBI took possession of his phone after someone attempted to trick the South Carolina Republican into thinking he was communicating with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.

Mr. Graham revealed the potential hack in remarks at the Hill & Valley Forum on Capitol Hill, which is a gathering of top tech and government officials meeting in Washington to discuss artificial intelligence security.

Asked about spies targeting Silicon Valley and how AI labs should prepare themselves, Mr. Graham said people should be concerned and relayed his own brush with apparent hackers.

“My phone is in the hands of the FBI now,” Mr. Graham said at the forum.

“So I get a message, I think, from Schumer, it ain’t from Schumer, and next thing you know, my phone’s, I don’t know what. Anything you can create apparently can be hacked.”

Mr. Graham did not identify who he suspected was responsible. Taylor Reidy, Mr. Graham‘s spokeswoman, said the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms was investigating.

American political activist and author James O’Keefe on Wednesday released a video, claiming a CIA official Amjad Fseisi was caught admitting that the agency and several officials, including Mike Pompeo, witheld information from Donald Trump when he was president.

The official can be heard saying that the Central Intelligence Agency is currently monitoring the Republican and his ex-wife. The intelligence agency has not reacted to the video yet.

O’Keefe, in a post on X, platform formerly known as Twitter, said that Fseisi is a project manager working in cyber operations for the CIA. He is also a National Security Agency (NSA) contractor with top-secret clearance working for Deloitte.

Fseisi, according to James O’Keefe, was on undercover cameras when he implicated ‘the highest levels of the intelligence agencies, including the executive staff’

“We’re talking about the director and his subordinates, former CIA Directors Gina Haspel. And I believe Mike Pompeo did the same thing too,” the official can be heard saying. He further adds that they ‘kept information from him (Trump) because we knew he’d f***ing disclose it.”

Watch:

BREAKING 🚨 CIA and NSA contractor, Amjad Fseisi, has been fired following a leak of a video that confirms Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel withheld information from @realDonaldTrump in fear that he would disclose it to the public.

pic.twitter.com/j9dk9hfWUq

— The Real Toria Brooke (@realtoriabrooke) May 1, 2024

Amjad futher adds that Trump is a ‘Russian asset’. “There are certain people that would give him a high-level overview but never give him any details. You know why? Because he’ll leak those details. He’s a Russian asset. He’s owned by the fucking Russians.”

The video shows the CIA official saying he and his team are monitoring the former president. “We monitor everything. We also have people that monitor his ex-wife. He likes to use burner phones.”

He reveals that the CIA steals information and hack other countries ‘just like that’. Amjad states that he currently works on the CIA’s China Mission Center.

“We don’t share information across agencies” because the CIA is “very reluctant” to share information with the “careless” NSA, he says.

“We believe in this case, and we will be retrying this case,” prosecutors in Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape case told a judge today in the first hearing since the much-accused producer’s 2020 conviction was overturned last week. “It was a strong case in 2020 …and it remains a strong case in 2024,” added Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg.

Weinstein was sitting in the courtroom as the officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced their intention to take the case back to a jury. The trial could begin as quickly as September, if room can be found on the court calendar.

“We are happy to hear that the prosecutors want a speedy trial,” Weinstein chief attorney Arthur Aidala told the court as he once again proclaimed his client’s innocence. “It’s a new trial, it’s a new day … his life is on the line.”

Charged and arrested for rape in May 2018 after revelations by the New York Times in late 2017 detailing decades of abuse and alleged assaults by Weinstein, the defendant was convicted in February 2020 on first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape after allegations by two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann.

While not handling the case directly, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg himself was in attendance Wednesday in Judge Curtis Farber’s court, as was attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Haley and Mann.

In fact, Mann was brought directly into today’s proceedings when Assistant D.A. Blumberg, who is the head of the office’s Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Bureau, pointed to her in the courtroom. “She’s here today to show she’s not backing down … the defendant may have power and privilege but she has the truth.”

“Good afternoon Mr. Weinstein,” said Judge Farber as the wheelchair bound producer was brought into the courtroom around 11:23 a.m. PT. Almost seconds after his client was seated at the defense table, lead lawyer Aidala addressed the court with objections to photos being taken in the courtroom.

Despite all the lead-up, today’s hearing was over in less than 20 minutes. Weinstein did not speak once during the session.

The next hearing in the case has been set now for May 29. Weinstein is expected to be present.

Under medical supervision at Bellevue Hospital since the weekend, a blue-suited Weinstein was wheeled into the Manhattan court building around 10:15 am PT. Looking gaunter than he did at his 2022 LA trial, Weinstein’s blazer still had the price tag on it as he was brought in surrounded by heavily armed police. By the time Weinstein arrived in the courtroom proper, the price tag on his sleeve had been removed.

Announced less than a day after New York state’s Appeals Court in a 4-3 vote overturned 72-year old Weinstein’s 2020 sex crimes conviction which resulted in sex offender status and 23-year sentence, the intention of today’s hearing was to release Weinstein from his conviction of four years ago. Coming off long delayed oral arguments in February, the Appeals Court agreed with Weinstein’s lawyers in last week’s order. At the heart of overturning the conviction was a determination, led by Judge Jenny Rivera writing for the majority, that the inclusion of Prior Bad Acts testimony by now ex-Justice James Burke from a number of women on uncharged assault and abuse accusations was prejudicial in the 2020 trial.

With a new trial ordered by the Empire State’s highest court, the hearing in Judge Farber’s courtroom also re-arraigned Weinstein on the sex crimes charges for which he was originally arrested in 2018.

Still, due to his 2022 conviction on sex crimes in the City of Angels and sentencing to 16 years behind bars, Weinstein will not be released after Wednesday’s hearing. Instead, having been moved from the medium security Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York late last week, the ailing Oscar-winning producer will be returned to Bellevue, at least in the short term.

In preparation for a new trial, Weinstein will likely remain in NYC to be close to his core legal team of Aidala and Diana Sampson. As was the case in the immediate aftermath of his sentencing four years ago and ever so briefly last week, Weinstein could be transferred to the notorious Rikers Island as the wheels of justice grind on.

There is no expectation in the short term that Weinstein will be sent out to LA to serve his West Coast sentencing. Insiders at LA County District Attorney George Gascón’s office tell Deadline there is “no need” for such a transfer right now.

In that vein, even before today’s hearing, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s office strongly indicated they wanted to take the case to a new trial “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” the D.A.’s office said on April 25, and reiterated on April 26.

Also on April 26, Haley said at an LA press conference in Allred’s office that she was “sick to her stomach” upon learning of Weinstein’s conviction being overturned by the New York Appeals Court. Coming forward just over seven years ago to say she was raped by Weinstein in his SoHo apartment in 2006, Haley was a major witness at the 2020 trial.

Whether she will be a witness in a second NYC Weinstein trial is unknown right now.

“I definitely don’t want to actually go through that again,” the Allred-represented Haley said in an LA press conference late last week. “But for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing, because it is what happened, I would consider it,” she went on to say.

The presence of Allred at today’s hearing implies that Haley may be very seriously considering taking the stand again at a second NYC Weinstein trial.

The circus atmosphere and high security that has enveloped the Manhattan Criminal Courts building in recent weeks due to Donald Trump’s so-called hush money trial was greatly diminished. Wednesdays have been a dark day for the DA-prosecuted case over whether the $130,000 the former Celebrity Apprentice host paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to bury the news of their alleged affair just before the 2016 election. Hence, Trump and his army of lawyers were nowhere to be seen.

In addition to the New York criminal case heading for a new trial and an appeal of his LA conviction, Weinstein has a plethora of civil cases pending against him for alleged attacks and rapes over the past 30 years.

Wisconsin police said an active shooter threat was “neutralized” before he was able to enter a middle school with a rifle.

Police responded to reports of the active shooter at the Mount Horeb Middle School in Dane County at about 12:30 p.m. local time.

School officials reassured parents that none of the students were harmed and that the suspect did not breach the entryway of the school. The schools of the Mount Horeb Area school district went into a hard lockdown after the active shooter report.

One witness who worked about a block away from the school said she heard numerous gunshots and saw dozens of students running away.

“I thought it was fireworks. I went outside and saw all the children running,” said Jeanne Keller to the Associated Press. “I probably saw 200 children.”

Parents were frantically trying to find their children after hearing about the lockdown.

“One of my daughters is still inside of the middle school as we speak, but all we know is that there are some kids that want to shoot,” said parent Brittany Rodriguez in an emotional interview with WISN-TV.

“To get a call when you’re at work of your babies crying, saying that there’s a shooting going on and, ‘We’re scared,’ and you’re 30 minutes away from them!” she added.

Officials later confirmed that the suspect had been a student of the middle school. They also said that Mount Horeb Police shot the student and that they were wearing active body cameras at the time.

Another parent said her children were leaving the school when the shooting happened.

“I literally have one that left the middle school five minutes before the shooting happened,” Melissa Alvarado said to WMTV-TV. “My other one was on this side of the school when the shots were fired and she said all the teachers were telling the children, they were yelling telling all the kids to run to the other side of the school and then about a half hour later she called and said they were barricading doors.”

Democrat Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers released a brief statement about the shooting on social media.

“I have been briefed on the incident at the Mount Horeb Area School District and am closely monitoring the situation,” he posted. “I am praying for the health and safety of our kids, educators, and staff and grateful for the first responders who are working quickly to respond.”

School officials credited their security precautions for preventing the alleged threat from entering into the school.

Here’s more about the incident:

Arizona’s near-total abortion ban will be repealed just weeks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled it enforceable.

The Arizona House narrowly passed the repeal on April 24 as three Republicans joined with Democrats to approve the measure.

On May 1, the state Senate followed suit in a 16–14 vote—but not before several disappointed senators had the opportunity to air their grievances.

“What we’re actually voting on is death,” state Sen. Anthony Kern said, chiding the members of his Republican party who voted with Democrats in support of the repeal.

“The Democrat Party stands and runs on death. The Republican Party stands and is supposed to run on life.”

State Sen. Sonny Borrelli, meanwhile, objected to the fact that the bill was never sent to a committee, nor was any time allotted for debate or amendments. And during one particularly emotional moment, state Sen. Justine Wadsack recounted her own tragic loss of a child by miscarriage.

“God chose when that heartbeat was going to stop,” Ms. Wadsack said, tears streaming down her face. “It is not my place as a senator to determine when a child’s heart stops beating.”

The abortion ban prohibits all abortions in Arizona except those performed to save the mother’s life. It was initially enacted in 1864, before Arizona was a state, though it was later recodified by the Legislature in the late 1970s.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has promised to sign the repeal once it reaches her desk. At that point, a 2022 law limiting abortions to 15 weeks of pregnancy will become the state’s prevailing law.

Proponents of the repeal, pointing to the ban’s pre-statehood origins, had argued that it was outdated and inconsistent with the state’s more recent laws.

“I don’t want us honoring laws about women, written during a time when women were forbidden from voting because their voices were considered inferior to men,” state Sen. Eva Burch said May 1.

For decades, the law was blocked by a permanent injunction. But a two-year court battle, prompted by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, culminated in the Arizona Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling on April 9.

Although the court initially stayed the law’s enforcement for two weeks, an agreement in a related case pushed back its effective date. The ban was expected to take effect on June 27.

The Arizona vote came on the same day that a six-week abortion limit in Florida took effect.

That law includes limited exceptions for situations involving rape, incest, human trafficking, or a serious threat to the mother’s physical health. But as with the Arizona ban, the law has been the subject of much controversy.

As the Florida law took effect, abortion advocates took to social media to decry what they perceived to be the erosion of women’s rights in the Sunshine State.

“Today, Florida is putting the health of millions of women at risk,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul posted on social media. “It’s clear: Anti-choice extremists will stop at nothing to deny women their right to make their own health care decisions.”

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, likewise charged that the law had rolled back women’s rights “by 50 years,” and President Joe Biden called the situation a “nightmare.”

Florida and Arizona are expected to play a key role in deciding the next president, and abortion will be on the ballot in both states come November.

While President Biden has aligned himself with abortion advocates, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has shied away from what he’s deemed to be a losing issue for the GOP.

The former president, who claims to be pro-life, has said he believes abortion to be a states’ rights issue, as opposed to a federal issue. In taking that stance, he denounced both the Arizona and Florida laws as too restrictive.

“It’s the will of the people—this is what I’ve been saying. It’s a perfect system,” he said on April 10.

“For 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade, to get it back to the states. We did that—it was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement. We did that, and now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want. It’s the will of the people.”

Fifteen arrests were reportedly made after a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” popped up at Fordham University on Wednesday, only to be taken down by police later in the day.

The encampment also occurred hours after tent cities at two other NYC universities were destroyed by police.

Two prison buses have arrived at the encampment, and the school notified protesters late Wednesday afternoon that they’re suspended and banned from campus.

The night before, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators were arrested at Columbia and the City College of New York campuses in a “massive” NYPD operation.

A total of 282 people were arrested: 109 people at the Ivy League campus after cops busted the mob that took over the university’s Hamilton Hall, and 173 at the “intifada” encampment at City College.

Fifteen people were reportedly arrested after police entered the lobby of Fordham University’s Leon Lowenstein Center from inside, where students had erected tents as part of a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

The school requested the NYPD to disperse the encampment, according to a letter from Fordham.

“In an effort to ensure that further escalation does not occur, I have determined that the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger,” the letter states.

Cops removed the protesters from the encampment while wearing riot gear, arresting demonstrators at around 5:40 p.m on Wednesday.

The protesters — who had already been suspended and told they were trespassing — were handcuffed by Strategic Response Group police and escorted into the building away from the roughly 300 supporters chanting for their release from the sidewalk.

#HappeningNow: In an effort to ensure further escalation does not occur, @FordhamNYC has requested our assistance to disperse an unlawful encampment of individuals inside one of their buildings. Attached is the letter from the university.

Your @NYPDnews officers continue to… pic.twitter.com/oU3SKzmJYg

— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 1, 2024

One of Iran’s most prestigious universities is offering scholarships to US students who have been expelled for taking part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Mohammad Moazzeni, head of Shiraz University in Fars, made the offer to students demonstrating against Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas in Gaza, Iranian state-owned outlet Press TV reports.

“Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University and I think that other universities in Shiraz as well as Fars Province are also prepared [to provide the conditions],” he said, according to the outlet.

US students have been facing arrest or dismissal from their colleges over their actions in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, with many students also calling for their universities to divestment from companies that are supporting Israel.

The Iranian regime backs Hamas against Israel, which has killed at least 34,000 people in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Israel launched continuous strikes and a ground invasion of the enclave as it vowed to destroy Hamas for its October 7 attacks which left at least 1,200 people dead, with some 250 taken hostage.

Moazzeni added that he was “announcing Shiraz University’s decision to offer scholarships to students expelled from European and American universities.”

Dueling groups of protesters clashed Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another.

Hours earlier, police burst into a building at Columbia University that pro-Palestinian protesters took over and broke up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school while inspiring others.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA, police wearing helmets and face shields formed lines and slowly separated the groups. That quelled the violence, and the scene was calm as day broke.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across the country in a student movement unlike any other in the 21st century, reaching from New York to Texas and California.

The ensuing crackdown by police on some college campuses has stirred echoes of the much larger student protest movement during the Vietnam War-era.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,000 arrests. In rarer instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

A group of patriotic frat brothers at the University of North Carolina are being rewarded for protecting the Stars and Stripes from an anti-Israeli mob bent on hoisting the Palestinian colors.

A GoFundMe page set up for the Pi Kappa Phi students has raised more than $122,000 as of Wednesday afternoon for the students’ heroic stand this week at the UNC-Chapel Hill campus — “to throw this frat the party they deserve,” the fundraising site said.

“Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak university administrators,” the organizers wrote.

“But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the antisemitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes.

“Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde, laughing at their shrieks and wails and shielding the Stars & Stripes from Soviet missiles,” the site read.

The confrontation happened Tuesday when the campus — among dozens in the nation occupied by anti-Israeli demonstrations — was targeted by a pro-Palestinian student mob, Newsweek reported.

The protesters moved in to raise the Palestinian flag during a confrontation with counter-protesters on campus — when Pi Kappa Phi stepped into the fray.

A group of frat brothers grabbed the American flag to keep it from touching the ground, all the while being pelted with debris and taunts from the angry mob, according to the outlet.

Old Glory was later raised after the Palestinian flag was taken down — with students chanting “USA, USA” — and is now protected by a barricade.

But the frat’s efforts are not forgotten.

“These boys … no, men, of the UNC-Chapel Hill Pi Kappa Phi gave the best to America and now they deserve the best,” the fundraising site said.

“Helps us raise funds to throw this frat the party they deserve, a party worth of the boat-shoed Broleteriat who did their country proud.”

Three dozen anti-Israel protesters were arrested by police on the UNC campus on Tuesday.

The Biden administration is considering bringing certain Palestinians to the U.S. as refugees, a move that would offer a permanent safe haven to some of those fleeing war-torn Gaza, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News.

In recent weeks, the documents show, senior officials across several federal U.S. agencies have discussed the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents.

One of those proposals involves using the decades-old United States Refugee Admissions Program to welcome Palestinians with U.S. ties who have managed to escape Gaza and enter neighboring Egypt, according to the inter-agency planning documents.

Top U.S. officials have also discussed getting additional Palestinians out of Gaza and processing them as refugees if they have American relatives, the documents show. The plans would require coordination with Egypt, which has so far refused to welcome large numbers of people from Gaza.

Those who pass a series of eligibility, medical and security screenings would qualify to fly to the U.S. with refugee status, which offers beneficiaries permanent residency, resettlement benefits like housing assistance and a path to American citizenship.

In a statement provided to CBS News late Tuesday night, a White House spokesperson said that the U.S. “has helped more than 1,800 American citizens and their families leave Gaza, many of whom have come to the United States. At President Biden’s direction, we have also helped, and will continue to help, some particularly vulnerable individuals, such as children with serious health problems and children who were receiving treatment for cancer, get out of harm’s way and receive care at nearby hospitals in the region.”

The statement went on to say that the U.S. “categorically rejects any actions leading to the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza. The best path forward is to achieve a sustainable cease-fire through a hostage deal that will stabilize the situation and pave the way to a two-state solution.”

The Israeli government launched a military offensive and aerial bombardment of Gaza after Hamas staged an unprecedented attack across Israel on Oct. 7, killing roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Hamas militants also abducted more than 200 people, many of whom continue to be in captivity.

The proposals to resettle certain Palestinians as refugees would mark a shift in longstanding U.S. government policy and practice. Since its inception in 1980, the U.S. refugee program has not resettled Palestinians in large numbers.

Over the past decade, the U.S. has resettled more than 400,000 refugees fleeing violence and war across the globe. Fewer than 600 were Palestinian. In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. welcomed 56 Palestinian refugees, or 0.09% of the more than 60,000 refugees resettled during those 12 months, State Department statistics show.

While many Democrats would likely support the move, admitting Palestinians as refugees could spur even more political challenges for the Biden administration related to the Israel-Hamas war. The conflict has already exposed rifts within the Democratic Party, triggered massive protests on college campuses and divided communities across America.

To qualify to enter the U.S. as a refugee, applicants have to prove they are fleeing persecution based on certain factors, such as their nationality, religion or political views. While some Palestinians could say they are fleeing repression by Hamas, others could identify the military and government of Israel, a top U.S. ally and recipient of American aid, as a persecutor.

The resettlement of Palestinian refugees, even if small in scale, could also garner criticism from Republicans, who have sought to make concerns about immigration and illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border defining issues in November’s elections.

Soon after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and the start of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, leading Republicans, including presidential candidates, said the U.S. should not welcome Palestinian refugees, claiming that they are antisemitic and potential national security risks.

In recent years, the Biden administration has dramatically increased refugee resettlement, which was slashed to record lows by former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials have set a goal of admitting up to 125,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, which ends at the end of September.

NYPD riot cops stormed Columbia University to quickly disperse protesters at an encampment and an occupied building in less than two hours.

Panicked pro-Palestine demonstrators tumbled down stairs as they tried to flee when cops flooded the Ivy League campus on Tuesday night.

Almost 100 people were arrested at the New York City university, according to NBC. Police stated there were no injuries or people resisting arrest.

Around 40 of those detained were picked up in on the first floor of Hamilton Hall, which students violently took over early Tuesday. Cops swooped in on the building through a window after using flash bangs to clear the way.

President Minouche Shafik called in the police ‘to restore order and safety’ to the campus amid the escalating protests and fears the demonstrations had been co-opted by external agitators.

University administrators have asked the NYPD to maintain a presence on campus until at least May 17, two days after graduation.

🚨#BREAKING: Police have begun entering the Hamilton Hall building through a second-floor window, deploying tear gas inside. Reports indicate there is an unconscious student in front of Hamilton Hall pic.twitter.com/IgoXOi6ZI6

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) May 1, 2024

Dozens of cops poured into Hamilton Hall via a window using a ramp attached to a huge armored truck. Video showed the police hammering at locked doors before sweeping in with riot shields.

Footage showed protesters being dragged out of the campus, some carried by several officers if they refused to walk, and loaded on to buses.

Just after 10pm, the campus was cleared out and locked down by police with many protesters heading north to City College of New York, where police were also raiding a similar encampment.

An encampment first sprung up at Columbia on April 17 after Shafik was hauled before Congress to address anti-Semitism on campus.

Around 9pm on Tuesday, officers stormed the university as the crowd chanted and yelled at them, some confronted the officers and pushed barricades to try and block their path.

A shelter in place warning was issued to students on Morningside campus in the moments before officers descended.

In a statement, the university said the decision to call in police was, ‘made to restore safety and order to our community’.

‘We regret that protesters have chosen to escalate the situation through their actions,’ the statement read.

Playtime is over.

NYPD is dragging protesters out of Columbia University.

US and Israel and Antifa are now both currently trending pic.twitter.com/bVaNBrDe9J

— Real Life Footage (@RealLifeFootage) May 1, 2024

NYPD is arresting Columbia student protesters and bussing them away after school officials calling police in pic.twitter.com/75plr4MDoB

— Bahar Ostadan (@BaharOstadan) May 1, 2024

‘After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice.

‘Columbia public safety personnel were forced out of the building, and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation.’

Former president Donald Trump praised officer’s response to the situation, but said it should have come ‘a lot sooner.’

‘There’s tremendous damage that’s been done to that building, when you look at it it’s a landmark and it’s really been damaged by these people,’ he told Fox News. ‘People have to respect the law and order of this country.’

He also hit out at president Joe Biden and called for him to speak up more strongly against anti-Semitism.

The occupation of Hamilton Hall was the latest escalation in the unrest which has rocked the school in recent weeks. Protesters have been demanding the college divest from companies with links to Israel or firms profiting from its war on Hamas.

These large NYPD passenger buses just passed the Columbia campus entrance pic.twitter.com/HU4rnpCcsQ

— Steven Romo (@stevenromo) May 1, 2024

College officials have been battling to shut down the encampment, stating it violates university polices. Following the occupation of Hamilton Hall, Shafik warned that those involved would face expulsion.

More than 100 activists had already been arrested at the school prior to Tuesday’s operation.

A first encampment was broken up by NYPD officials. But university officials had vowed not to take similar steps for the current protest.

They gave students an ultimatum to leave, but few followed the instructions.

‘We will not leave until Columbia meets every one of our demands,’ one activist screamed from a balcony in the building after the takeover.

Officials then started to suspend students before a group raided Hamilton Hall.

‘We believe that the group that broke into and occupied the building is led by individuals who are not affiliated with the University,’ officials continued.

‘Sadly, this dangerous decision followed more than a week of what had been productive discussions with representatives of the West Lawn encampment.

‘The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing. We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.’

But the move was condemned by the Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which said its members had been locked out of campus.

‘NYPD presence in our neighborhood endangers our entire community. Armed police entering our campus places students and everyone else on campus at risk,’ a statement read.

‘We hold university leadership responsible for the disastrous lapses of judgement that have gotten us to this point.’

The statement added faculty had spent the trying to defuse the situation, but were ‘rebuffed or ignored.’

At a press conference prior to the raid, NYPD Assistant Commissioner Rebecca Weiner warned the protest had been co-opted by external agitators who were not affiliated with the university.

She stressed the occupation had the potential to spill into other campus buildings, as well as other universities across the country.

‘This is not about what’s happening overseas, it’s not about the last seven months, it’s about a very different commitment to at times violent protest activity as an occupation,’ she said.

BREAKING: POLICE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY BARRICADING OBSERVERS, MEDICS, JOURNALISTS, STUDENTS INTO JOHN JAY AFTER PUSHING THEM ALL THE WAY BACK pic.twitter.com/w3p6NLpNa3

— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) May 1, 2024

‘They haven’t got a right to be on campus and this violates university polices and most importantly, presents a danger to students and the university and communities.

‘When we see what we saw last night, we think these tactics are a result of guidance being given to students from these external actors.’

Police confirmed those occupying Hamilton Hall could be charged with trespass and burglary, while those in the encampment could be hit with trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

The raid at Columbia came as cops flooded other campuses in the Big Apple including the City College of New York.

Video taken at the campus showed protesters letting off flares near the gates to the school.

The simmering debate over the fate of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reached a rolling boil on Tuesday when top Democrats vowed to shield the embattled GOP leader from a conservative coup — and immediately prompted the coup’s ringleader to pledge a vote to boot him from power.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who’s been sitting on her motion to vacate resolution for more than a month, said the Democrats’ promised rescue mission was the last straw in a long list of grievances she’s compiled against the Speaker since he won the gavel in October. In a scorching statement, she accused Johnson of cutting “slimy” deals with Democrats, urged him to switch parties and vowed to force the full House to vote on his removal.

“If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the chance to do it,” she posted on the social platform X.

“I’m a big believer in recorded votes because putting Congress on record allows every American to see the truth and provides transparency to our votes,” Greene continued. “Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!”

But Greene is keeping her cards close to her chest, refusing to say as of press time when she plans to force her resolution to the floor.

Greene declined to speak with reporters Tuesday when entering the House chamber — “I have to go vote” — then marched into the parliamentarian’s office afterwards alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a co-sponsor of the motion to vacate.

“Plans are still developing,” she told reporters on her way out of the Capitol.

The Georgia Republican has scheduled a press conference for 9 a.m. Wednesday, where she intends to detail her plan.

Greene’s fiery threat came less than an hour after the top three House Democrats — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) — issued an unprompted statement announcing their intent to protect Johnson from Greene’s effort to remove his gavel. The plan is not to have Democrats vote for Johnson’s Speakership directly, but to support a proposal to table Greene’s resolution — a procedural move preventing it from ever reaching the floor.

“There is a distinction there,” Aguilar told reporters.

The strategy was not quite a surprise: A number of rank-and-file Democrats had pledged to help Johnson remain in power if he ensured passage of key legislation, including aid for Ukraine, and Democratic leaders said nothing publicly to discourage that unusual offer.

Still, for the minority party to swoop in to keep a majority leader in power is unprecedented, and it highlights the extraordinary difficulties facing GOP leaders as they try to manage their hard-line critics with a hairline majority and steer legislation to President Biden’s desk.

A number of Democrats said they simply wanted to reward Johnson for responsible governance and bring some stability to the volatile lower chamber.

“It would be wrong to have Marjorie Taylor Greene drag him down into the gutter and drown him down there,” Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) said. “We’re not going to allow that.”

Democrats discussed that track record during a closed-door caucus meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday morning, where party leaders announced their plan to help Johnson survive a revolt.

“People talked about how he was the architect of the ‘Big Steal’ denial and the legal challenge there. So he did not come to this with clean hands,” Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said. “However, I think most members appreciate that we’re back in operative mode here, and we’re actually doing some things that are very, very important.”

Others were much more passionate in their criticisms.

“He’s dangerous, he’s an election denier, he’s a fundamentalist, and he’s not the leadership this country needs,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said.

For many Democrats, however, rescuing Johnson is preferable to allowing Greene to shut down the House, as a different group of conservatives had done in ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October.

“It’s not lost on me, the role that Mike Johnson played in the lead-up to Jan. 6,” said Aguilar, who sat on the Jan. 6 investigative committee. “However, we want to turn the page. We don’t want to turn the clock back and let Marjorie Taylor Greene dictate the schedule and the calendar of what’s ahead.”

The prospect that Democrats would keep Johnson in power sparked immediate questions about the impact on the Speaker’s standing in a GOP conference where conservatives are already furious at him for cutting bipartisan deals on big-ticket legislation.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said a Democratic rescue mission would only “intensify” Johnson’s image problem among many Republican voters, who might come to believe he doesn’t fight hard enough for conservative priorities. But the change would be “in degree,” he added, “not in kind.”

“Speaker Johnson, a person for whom I have warm feelings, has formed a habit of passing legislation for Democrats. And he’s done it repeatedly,” Bishop said.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another frequent leadership critic, offered a similar assessment of the potential fallout.

“We’ve been passing bills with Democrat votes all year anyways,” Roy said. “I’m not sure what difference it makes.”

Johnson, for his part, brushed off concerns about serving as a Speaker propped up by Democrats, describing his job as one that leads the entire House and not just the GOP conference.

“I am a conservative Republican — a lifelong conservative Republican. That’s what my philosophy is, that’s what my record is, and we’ll continue to govern on those principles,” Johnson said Tuesday.

“We shouldn’t be playing politics and engaging in the chaos that looks like palace intrigue here.”

The Democratic statement opposing Johnson’s ouster was just the latest blow to Greene’s vacate effort, which has failed to gain traction among Republicans.

A number of hard-line conservatives have said that, with elections quickly approaching, they simply don’t want to plunge the conference into a state of chaos.

“The sentiment is, and I’m taking this viewpoint, it’s not the right time to do this,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said.

“Mike Johnson, saying all that, is a good man. He’s doing, in his mind, what he thinks is right,” Norman added. “Did he draw the red line with Biden? No. Did he take the Schumer-Pelosi-McConnell bill? Yes. But it is what it is.”

Making matters worse for Greene, former President Trump — of whom Greene considers herself a close ally — has sided with Johnson over the Georgia Republican.

“I stand with the Speaker, we’ve had a very good relationship,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Johnson at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.

Israel is ready to send a delegation to Cairo in the coming days to discuss a halt in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Egyptian officials said Tuesday, as Arab mediators push militant group Hamas to accept cease-fire terms before an impending military operation in Rafah.

David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, is considering a trip to the Egyptian capital this week after Arab mediators presented to Hamas over the weekend a deal to free hostages held by the group in return for a fighting pause, Egyptian officials said. An Israeli official said Tuesday that Israel could send a delegation depending on developments in the negotiations.

Israel has said the proposal is the last chance to delay a planned offensive on the southern Gazan city of Rafah that its officials hope would destroy the U.S.-designated terrorist group’s remaining military units there. An Israeli official said that preparations for a Rafah offensive are continuing.

White House officials stressed on Tuesday that Hamas should accept the proposal, and said that the U.S. is working hard to get the parties to reach a deal.

“This is a really good proposal, and Hamas ought to jump at it, and time is of the essence,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling in the Middle East this week, said Monday that the U.S. couldn’t support a major military operation in Rafah without a plan to protect civilians, which he said Israel hadn’t yet provided.

Kirby reiterated that the U.S. wants Israel to hold off. “We don’t want to see a major ground operation in Rafah, certainly we don’t want to see operations that haven’t factored the safety and security into the 1.5 million folks who have tried to seek refuge down there,” he said Tuesday.
Kirby said the U.S. was being pragmatic about the negotiations. “We’re not going to give up…about getting these hostages home, about getting this cease-fire in place,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would evacuate the civilian population in Rafah and move to destroy Hamas’s battalions there “with or without a deal,” echoing comments he has made in recent weeks. “The idea that we would stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” he told the families of hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu faces pressure from far-right partners in his governing coalition not to ease up on Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video on Tuesday saying that Netanyahu “understands very well” the consequences of stopping the war before a Rafah invasion or accepting what he called an irresponsible deal with Hamas. It was an apparent threat to exit from the coalition and collapse the government. Israel’s war cabinet canceled a meeting planned for Tuesday without saying why.

Whether the two warring sides in Gaza can come to an agreement is unclear: Hamas wants the cease-fire to include a pathway to a permanent end to the fighting, an aim at odds with Israel’s ultimate goal of taking out the group’s military capabilities.

Blinken, who is in the region to discuss a broader postwar plan that could help move the cease-fire talks forward, met with Jordanian officials in Amman on Tuesday and then traveled to Israel. As part of that plan, the U.S. hopes to establish diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, lay the groundwork for an Arab force to stabilize Gaza and define a road map leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.

A civilian evacuation from Rafah to other parts of Gaza would take at least 10 days, according to a senior United Nations official, though should they be transferred across the border into Egypt it could happen faster. Egypt refuses to take in Palestinians, citing threats to security and concerns it would undermine a future Palestinian state. U.N. agencies and international NGOs wouldn’t assist in the process because they consider it a form of forced displacement.

A wave of protests over the war on U.S. college campuses has heaped pressure on President Biden from progressives to do more to end the conflict, and a wider agreement would be a huge win for the U.S. leader as he heads into re-election season against former President Donald Trump.

In the latest cease-fire proposal, Israel has lowered the number of hostages it would require to be released as a first step and showed a willingness to enter a period of calm, a nod to the key Hamas demand of a pathway to a permanent cease-fire.

The proposal, which Israel helped draft but has yet to agree to, envisages two stages: The first would involve the release of at least 20 hostages over three weeks for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, Egyptian officials said. The length of the first phase could then be extended at a rate of one day for another hostage.

The second phase would include a 10-week cease-fire during which Hamas and Israel would agree on a larger hostage release and an extended pause in fighting that could last up to a year.

While Hamas’s political wing initially responded positively, the group later complained that the terms lack any explicit reference to ending the war, Egyptian officials familiar with the talks said. Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who is close to the group’s armed wing, is widely considered to be the main decision maker in talks.

Hamas delegates who were in Cairo said they would consult with the military wing and other factions in Gaza and revert to mediators. But, they said, the proposal currently doesn’t provide clear guarantees Israel is serious about the second phase of the deal.

Because Arab-brokered talks about a cease-fire deal have yet to yield results, the U.S. is also discussing with Israeli officials how Israel plans to reduce the risk to civilians if its Rafah offensive goes ahead, U.S. officials said.

U.S. officials say an Israeli plan to safeguard civilians needs more work and want Israel to show how it would provide shelter, food and medical care for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by an operation in Rafah.

In response to concerns about the likely humanitarian toll, Israel is now planning to wage an operation in Rafah on a gradual, neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. Egyptian officials said Israel has shared a plan with them that shows several areas the Israeli military plans to hit where it claims Hamas fighters are hunkering in tunnels.

Palestinian health authorities say that more than 34,000 people—most of them civilians—have been killed in Gaza so far in the war, roughly 1.5% of the total prewar population. Their figures don’t say how many were combatants.

Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that sparked the war killed roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. The group and other Palestinian factions took more than 240 hostages. Some of those were freed late last year, but roughly 129 remain as captives in the strip. Of those remaining hostages, at least 34 are dead, including three Americans, according to Israel. Israeli and American officials privately estimate the number of dead could be much higher.

Separately, China said on Tuesday that it had hosted reconciliation talks in Beijing between Hamas and Fatah, the two major Palestinian political factions that have been estranged since 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza after an armed conflict. Mending ties could be an important step toward re-establishing Palestinian control of Gaza after the Israeli military campaign there ends.

The talks in China didn’t produce a breakthrough but the two parties “fully expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation through dialogue and consultation,” said Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry. The two sides agreed to continue dialogue and agreed on ideas for future steps in that process, he said without offering details.