Iran closed down its nuclear facilities amid fears of an Israeli attack, the United Nations has revealed.

Inspectors were blocked from the sites on Sunday, Rafael Grossi, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency chief, said.

The shutdown came as Israel’s war cabinet was locked in talks over how to respond to Iran’s first direct attack on its territory.

Experts have warned Iran is on the “threshold” of becoming a nuclear power and could build a bomb in six months to a year. Uranium enrichment is accelerating as the regime faces calls to create a deterrent.

There is limited evidence the Islamic Republic wants to create a nuclear bomb, and Israel is not understood to be preparing an imminent attack on nuclear facilities.

But Mr Grossi said UN inspectors in Iran “were informed by the Iranian government that… all the nuclear facilities we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations” following the Iranian strikes.

He added that the facilities reopened on Monday but the inspectors would not be coming back there until some time on Tuesday.

The UN inspections are a legacy of the now defunct Iran nuclear deal, which exchanged sanctions relief for curbs and monitoring of the nuclear programme to prevent Tehran getting the bomb.

Inspectors this year found Iran was scaling up production of nuclear fuel approaching weapons grade uranium.

They also found newly installed equipment, ever faster speeds of uranium enrichment, and a planned expansion to double output.

The country’s Atomic Energy Organisation also used the term “deterrence” in relation to its nuclear programme earlier this year.

Kelsey Davenport, the director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, said, “Iran is sitting on the threshold of nuclear weapons; it can build a bomb more quickly than at any point in its history.”

Ms Davenport warned that Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities would be “counter-productive”.

“A strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities should be off the table,” she said. “Targeting Iranian nuclear sites in reaction to a drone and missile attack that did minimal damage to Israel would be a reckless and irresponsible escalation that increases the risk of a wider regional war.

“A large-scale attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is more likely to push Tehran to decide that developing nuclear weapons is necessary to deter future attacks.”

Iranian officials have always insisted that Tehran is pursuing its nuclear programme for civilian needs.

But the Islamic Republic has warned of a “severe” and “painful” response to any Israeli retaliation as the regime’s supporters urged it to build the weapons of mass destruction.

Abolfazl Amoei, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said: “We are prepared to use weapons we haven’t used previously, and we have strategies for every possible scenario. The Zionists should be careful.”

On social media, Madhi Mohammadi, an adviser to the speaker of the Iranian parliament, posted: “In addition to its missile programme, Iran also has a nuclear programme.”

Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, said in a call on Monday with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani: “We firmly declare that the slightest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response.”

Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday summoned the Israeli war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid pressure from Joe Biden, the US president, and European allies to show restraint.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a motion Tuesday to hold former President Trump in contempt of court, claiming he violated the gag order imposed upon him by publishing three social media posts relating to two known witnesses in his criminal trial — Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Bragg is urging Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan to also warn Trump that “future violations” of the gag order can be punished “not only with additional fines, but also with a term of incarceration of up to thirty days.”

Merchan last month imposed a gag order on Trump, due to his “prior extrajudicial statements.” Merchan said they established “a sufficient risk to the administration of justice.”

Merchan ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses concerning their potential participation or about counsel in the case — other than Bragg — or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.

Merchan also ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about any prospective juror or chosen juror.

During the first day of the criminal trial and start of jury selection, Manhattan prosecutors suggested Trump had violated the order on three separate occasions on social media. Prosecutors said Trump should be fined $3,000 for the three alleged violations of the gag order — $1,000 for each violation.

On Tuesday, Bragg’s team filed a motion to hold the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee in contempt of Court.

The first statement Bragg’s team said was in violation of the order was a social media post on April 10 about Michael Avenatti, a lawyer who formerly represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Avenatti was later convicted of stealing from Daniels.

Trump, earlier this month, re-posted a statement from Avenatti, which said: “We can’t be hypocrites when it comes to the 1st Amendment. It is outrageous that Cohen and Daniels can do countless TV interviews, post on social, & make $$ on bogus documentaries—all by talking sh*t about Trump—but he’s gagged and threatened with jail if he responds.”

Trump, after re-posting Avenatti’s statement, added: “Thank you to Michael Avenatti –for revealing the truth about two sleeze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!!”

Bragg’s office also pointed to another post from April 10, in which Trump shared a picture of a document titled “Official Statement of Stormy Daniels,” which was dated Jan. 30, 2018.

“Over the past few weeks I have been asked countless times to comment on reports of an alleged sexual relationship I had with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago,” the statement from Daniels says. “I am not denying this affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.”

Trump posted, along with the photo, “LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND! WILL THE FAKE NEWS REPORT IT.”

Separately, Daniels had denied the allegation in a Jan. 10, 2018 statement as well.

“I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false,” Daniels wrote in that Jan. 10, 2018 statement. “My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.”

Daniels wrote in the letter that when she met Trump, he was “gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and EVERYONE in my presence.”

“Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false,” the letter read. “If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the news, you would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true.”

Bragg’s office also pointed to a third statement, in which Trump blasted former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz.

“Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.’s Office,” Trump posted on April 13. “Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country. MAGA2024!!!”

Cohen, in 2018, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

As for Pomerantz, he and his colleague Carey Dunne resigned from the Manhattan district attorney’s office in 2022 after Bragg took over as district attorney. At the time, Bragg had stopped pursuing charges against Trump and suspended the investigation “indefinitely,” according to a letter written by Pomerantz and obtained by Fox News Digital last year.

Pomerantz and Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under Bragg’s predecessor, former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations in February 2022 after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump.

After Pomerantz resigned, he wrote a tell-all book based on the investigation, which was still ongoing. The book seemingly made the case to charge Trump.

Meanwhile, Bragg’s team, in their Tuesday motion, said that fines may not be enough to prevent future issues and violations of the gag order.

“This Court should warn defendant that future violations of the Court’s restrictions on his extrajudicial statements can be punished not only with additional fines, but also with a term of incarceration of up to thirty days,” the motion states.

The contempt motion comes as part of the historic criminal trial of Trump. He is the first U.S. president to stand criminal trial.

Bragg charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to alleged hush money payments made to Daniels in 2016 ahead of the election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Follow live updates.

NPR has suspended veteran editor Uri Berliner after he detailed his employer’s “absence of viewpoint diversity” last week in a stunning rebuke of the news organization.

NPR media reporter David Folkenflik reported the five-day suspension without pay began on Friday.

Berliner penned a bombshell piece in the Free Press that criticized NPR’s coverage of Russiagate, the COVID lab leak theory, Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop, embrace of the theory of systemic racism and accused the organization of downplaying antisemitism following Oct. 7.

Berliner also wrote that registration records in 2021 showed an astonishing disparity between Democrats and Republicans in the NPR newsroom and said staffers didn’t want to help former President Trump, among other things, to indicate an “open-minded spirit no longer exists” at NPR.

“It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network’s coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump,” Folkenflik wrote.

Folkenflik also spoke to Berliner directly, and the suspended editor told him embattled new CEO Katherine Maher is not the right person for the job after a plethora far-left social media posts she wrote before being hired were unearthed by NPR critics.

“We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner told Folkenflik. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”

Folkenflik also reported that Berliner “repeatedly to make his concerns over NPR’s coverage known to news leaders and to Maher’s predecessor as chief executive before publishing his essay.”

A former high-level NPR executive who worked with Berliner recently told Fox News Digital that it would be hard for Berliner to remain at the company.

“It seems to me that it would be very difficult for him now at NPR. I’ve seen stuff on the internet that he’s come under attack by people who are still at NPR,” he continued. “I think he did this out of a sense of principle.”

Reached for comment about Berliner’s claims, an NPR spokesperson last week directed Fox News Digital to a memo to staff by editor-in-chief Edith Chapin, where she said she and her team “strongly disagree” with the veteran editor’s assessment of the quality of NPR’s journalism and integrity.

“We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories. We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world,” she wrote as part of a lengthy memo.

Chapin also said she was proud of the organization’s work and lauded NPR as “one of the most trusted news organizations in the country.”

“Let’s not forget that the reason we remain one of the most trusted news organizations in the country is that we respect people’s ability to form their own judgments,” she added.

The California Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would create a new state agency for implementing the state’s reparations task force recommendations and determine which individuals qualify as descendants of American slaves.

SB 1403, authored by State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, would establish the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency.

The bill would direct CAFA to implement suggestions from the state’s reparations task force, a body created by the state legislature, which recommended that eligible black residents of California could be owed up to $1.2 million, according to CalMatters.

Chief among the task force’s recommendations was the creation of CAFA as a cabinet-level agency to implement any of the Task Force’s recommendations that are enacted by the state legislature and signed by the governor.

CAFA would also create a “Genealogy Office” charged with developing a process for determining and assist with determining individuals’ eligibility for “descendant” status.

After passing the Judiciary Committee, the bill kept its provision defining descendant as including “descendants of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century,” but amended its section that had included “African American descendants of a chattel enslaved person [living in the United States]” to now more widely include “descendants of an African American chattel enslaved person in the United States.”

According to analysis shared by the National African American Reparations Commission, lineage-based reparations programs such as these could result in white Americans becoming the majority of those qualified for reparations.

“California is 6.5 percent Black and 72 percent white. Imagine even half those Black people could prove their ancestry was tied to slavery. A large-scale DNA study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics concluded that, nationwide, about 3.5 percent of people who identify as white—including around 5 percent of white Californians—have at least one percent African ancestry,” wrote Michael Harriot.

“If the task force incorporates the suggestion that lineage can be proven by establishing ‘negative evidence,’ it is entirely possible that white people could claim the bulk of reparations.”

Based on the current definition, it is unclear the extent to which one must descend from an enslaved African American to qualify for reparations.

Madison Cawthorn rear-ended a police cruiser in Florida on Monday, smashing into it in his Mercedes while driving along the interstate.

In video posted on TikTok, Cawthorn is seen in his wheelchair on the busy roadway next to the wrecked vehicle. It’s unclear what prompted the accident but Cawthorn appears to have been unharmed.

On Twitter, a woman claims he had been tailgating her first.

The crash left the state trooper with minor injuries and is now under investigation, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Cawthorn has not yet commented on the incident.

Shapiro says in her post that as she was driving, a black sportscar with tinted windows began tailgating her.

Moments after she switched lanes to allow the car to pass, traffic on the highway came to a complete stop.

Cawthorn uses a wheelchair stemming from a 2014 car crash in which his friend fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a concrete barrier.

A Florida Highway Patrol statement confirmed that a crash occurred in the area which saw a cruiser rear-ended by another car causing a trooper minor injuries.

The driver of the other car was so far only described as a 28-year-old from Cape Coral, Florida.

Madison Cawthorn reportedly crashed his vehicle into a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser on Monday. pic.twitter.com/rARZysxoT3

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 16, 2024

The former congressman served as congressman for North Carolina’s 11th district between 2021 until 2023.

He was ousted at the first time of asking, losing the district’s primary in 2022 to Chuck Edwards.

Cawthorn’s two years in office were marked by a series of political and personal errors, including stops by police while driving; being caught with guns at airport checkpoints and the release of videos showing him in sexually suggestive poses.

He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor involving the gun charge and said there were ‘no excuses’ for the error in judgement.

Cawthorn also was found with an unloaded gun in 2021 while trying to get on a plane at Asheville Regional Airport.

Airport police confiscated the gun but allowed him to board.

Some blunders have been headline-grabbing, like one that rankled GOP colleagues who believe he insinuated they were holding orgies and snorting cocaine.

Also in 2021, Cawthorn filed for divorce after one year of marriage for fitness influencer Cristina Bayardelle. In a statement, she said that she was not prepared for how his political career would impact their relationship.

‘I want to live in the world he creates, I just don’t want to be married to someone changing the world. While we have agreed to be apart now, we still have a great friendship and there’s no ill-will. Madison is a fighter — he will help save this country,’ she said at the time.

A little over a year later, Bayardelle was engaged to a Brazilian underwear model, the couple are now married.

Cawthorn later slammed conspiracy theorists who alleged his ex-wife was a Russian spy.

In 2022, Cawthorn was charged with driving with a suspended license after it was temporarily revoked over speeding tickets.

‘Seriously. When I moved over to let him pass me he floored it so hard & fast his engine revved loudly & I rolled my eyes & thought ‘what an impatient baby.’ So to see this outcome was quite SHOCKING,’ Shapiro wrote in a follow-up message.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported in November 2022 that Cawthorn, who had won his election in 2020 at age 25, had purchased a home in Cape Coral, Florida. He later said in an Instagram post that there were ‘many reasons’ for the move.

‘I enjoy the position I’m in now,’ said Cawthorn, said in 2023. ‘The world really is the oyster for the young.’

‘I’m still hardcore for Trump,’ Cawthorn told Daily Mail in November 2023, adding: ‘I would fight and die for Trump.’

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas returned to the bench on Tuesday, a day after he missed arguments in two cases with no explanation offered by the court.

Thomas, 75, is the oldest and longest-serving member of the court and is part of its 6-3 conservative majority.

He was appointed to the top U.S. judicial body in 1991 by Republican President George H.W. Bush.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday noted that Thomas would not appear on the bench for the arguments but gave no reason for the absence.

Roberts said Thomas would “participate fully” in the cases by using the written legal briefs and the transcripts of the arguments.

A court spokesperson did not provide additional information on Monday’s absence.

The court often gives a reason for a justice’s absence, including illness.

The court on Tuesday was hearing a high-profile dispute – a Pennsylvania man’s bid to avoid an obstruction charge related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol – a case with possible implications for the federal prosecution of Donald Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn 2020 election results.

Thomas previously missed arguments in March 2022 when he was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms and diagnosed with an infection.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife have been charged with viciously beating their teenage daughter in an argument over her dating life – two weeks after dragging her in front of cameras to deny rumors about the crimes.

The Democrat, 50, and his wife La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of the Atlantic City Public School System, are accused of abusing their daughter on numerous occasions after she refused to stop seeing a boy she was dating.

According to reported charging documents, they carried out a barrage of abuse from December 2023 to January 2024, including beating her unconscious with a broom, threatening to ‘earth slam’ her down stairs, striking her with a belt, and punching her in the mouth.

But weeks before charges were brought, Small held a bizarre, foul-mouthed press conference in response to his home being raided by cops, where he insisted his daughter was not pregnant with twins via a drug dealer, and stressed he had ‘nothing to hide.’

With his daughter stood awkwardly beside him, he listed off a string of denials, some of which he has since been charged with by Atlantic City prosecutors.

Among the claims, he denied that his she ‘was pregnant with twins, and I beat the s*** out of her so bad that I killed the babies, and I’m gonna be charged with double murder.’

At the press conference, Small directly denied claims he abused his daughter, as he instead said any allegations were fueled by ‘political and racial’ motivations.

‘We don’t have City of Atlantic City money in our house. I didn’t steal anything,’ he said in the press conference. ‘No, we don’t have drugs in our house. And we don’t have guns.’

‘First of all, let me confirm an undisputed fact: My daughter is not pregnant,’ he continued. ‘My daughter has never been pregnant.’

Addressing rumors that Small said came from an Atlantic City police officer, the mayor doubled up his denials that his ‘daughter got knocked up by a drug dealer in Stanley Homes village – false.’

‘My wife beat the bleep out of her, while my son recorded the whole thing, and I just stood there – false,’ he said.

Small also addressed what he referred to as ‘the most egregious’ of the rumors – that his ‘daughter was pregnant with twins, and I beat the s*** out of her so bad that I killed the babies, and I’m gonna be charged with double murder.’

‘Now, would you be able to handle this like I’m handling it?’ he concluded.

Small’s daughter did not speak at the press conference, which was opened by a reverend quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

Both parents have been charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and Marty Small is also charged with third-degree terroristic threats, third-degree aggravated assault and disorderly persons simple assault.

La’Quetta is also charged with disorderly persons simple assault, and Atlantic City High School principal Constance Days-Chapman – a reported close friend of the mayor and his wife – is also facing charges.

Days-Chapman is accused of failing to notify authorities when the teen told her she was being ’emotionally and physically abused’ by her parents.

After charges were brought, Smalls took to social media to share a close-up selfie, with several hashtags including #unbothered, and #2sides.

According to a criminal complaint reported by NBC10, the search of Smalls’ home – and subsequent charges – were triggered by the mayor’s daughter telling a school staffer about the alleged abuse.

In January, Students at Atlantic City High School were receiving mental health training, and were asked to circle faces on a ticket indicating if they were happy, neutral or sad.

Small’s daughter reportedly wrote the word ‘abuse’ on the back of a neutral ticket, and asked to speak to a counselor.

She then told a mental health trainer that she had been knocked out with a broom, and described her father as a ‘big guy’, the complaint said. She added that she had previously told Principal Days-Chapman.

Days-Chapman claimed to have not been told before, but told the advisor that she would report the alleged abuse to the Department of Child Protection & Permanency.

The teen also reportedly told a therapist that same day about the abuse throughout December and January, and cops said that she told the therapist: ‘I was really stressed, I was crying a lot, I wasn’t mentally stable, I wasn’t comfortable around them, I just didn’t feel safe.’

When contacted by the therapist, La’Quetta reportedly said that her daughter was struggling with personal issues due to a ‘young man’ that her parents didn’t approve of.

According to the criminal complaint, she endured two months of abuse over refusing to stop the relationship, including having her legs repeatedly punched by her father, causing bruising.

La’Quetta allegedly punched her daughter multiple times in the chest, also causing bruising, and also dragging her by her hear and striking her with a belt.

She is also accused of punching her daughter in the mouth during one incident.

A lifestyle blogging father has been jailed for eight years for causing the death of his newborn son by demanding he should live on sunlight instead of food and milk.

Maxim Lyutyi, 44, and his partner Oxana Mironova, 34, failed to properly feed their baby Cosmos, who died from ‘pneumonia and emaciation’ when he was less than one month old.

The Russian father will serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony.

He took the baby away from his mother for a day at a time ‘dousing him with cold water to harden him’, reported Mash news outlet.

‘The little body could not withstand the abuse: exhaustion developed and breathing problems appeared. But even in this condition, the child was not shown to doctors.’

Lyutyi caused ‘intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm’ to Cosmos by insisting the baby be nourished mainly on sunlight, the court in Sochi heard.

He admitted his guilt in a court appearance last week after previously trying to pin the blame on Mironova who has already received a non-custodial sentence of two years ‘correctional labour’.

He had claimed she had an iron deficiency which caused the death of the baby weighing three-and-a-half pounds.

Lyutyi told the court he was guilty of ‘negligence’. ‘I admit my guilt,’ he said. ‘If I knew that my son was born prematurely, that his mother had contraindications for pregnancy, then at the first symptoms of the child’s illness.

‘I would immediately contact a hospital, regardless of the wishes and beliefs of the mother…’

He urged would-be partners to care for their health before conception and pay more attention to the baby than he had done.

On video he said: ‘Your Honour, distinguished court, I still insist [I did not deliberately kill my child…].

‘This is purely a crime of negligence…without such intent. I emphasise once again that I loved my son, cared for him.’

Lyutyi had been held in custody for a year where he was found to be eating meat – pasta with stew – ignoring his own philosophy.

The court was earlier told Lyutyi wanted to raise the newborn on prana-eating – a diet in which people go without food and water for a long time and ‘feed on the sun’.

He was accused of barring Mironova from breastfeeding the child, and was described as a ‘radical raw food fanatic’.

‘He wanted to experiment on the child, feed him purely with the sun, and then advertise it to others that this is how you can eat,’ said one source.

A court official said Lyutyi was also fined £860.

Oxana’s mother Galina accused the sinister Lyutyi of running a ‘sect’.

‘I was against my daughter being in this sect,’ she said. I felt everything, and told her that Maxim was crazy, but she didn’t listen to me. Oxana lived there like a guinea pig. Each time she became colder to me… She was his slave.’

Another relative of Mironiva said: ‘Oxana told me that she was afraid of him. She wanted to leave him many times, but he held her back… He wanted to raise [his son into] a man who only eats the sun.’

Oxana’s cousin Olesya Nikolayeva said: ‘He forced her not to feed the baby. Her boyfriend believed that the sun was feeding the baby.

‘Oxana was secretly trying to breastfeed the baby, but she was very afraid of Maxim. How is it possible to feed the baby with sunlight? A baby needs his mother’s milk.’

Lyutyi had delivered his child at home, refusing to let Oxana go to a maternity hospital.

They eventually decided to take the emaciated child to doctors, but medical staff could do nothing to save the horrendously malnourished baby.

Oxana’s mother earlier said how she sent her daughter money to help her in any way she could, but that she could not get the child enough food under the watchful eye of her partner.

‘(Lyutyi) forbade her to feed the child. Oxana told me that she secretly fed the baby, but she didn’t have enough money, because he didn’t give her any.

‘I sent Oxana money for food from my pension. She secretly bought baby food.’

A former senior employee at TikTok said he was ordered to send American user data to Beijing-based parent company ByteDance, contradicting TikTok’s public claims of operating independently from China, according to a Fortune report published Monday.

Evan Turner, a senior data scientist for TikTok from April to September in 2022, told Fortune that every two weeks TikTok had him email spreadsheets containing millions of American users’ data to ByteDance employees in Beijing, including the users’ names, email addresses, IP addresses, and demographics.

Turner said he “literally worked on a project that gave U.S. data to China” even though TikTok had launched Project Texas in March 2022, promising U.S. officials that it would stop sharing American user data with its Chinese parent company and keep the data in U.S.-based data centers.

“There were Americans that were working in upper management that were completely complicit in this,” Turner said.

The former senior data scientist said that while his supervisor was switched from a ByteDance executive in Beijing to an American manager in Seattle, a human resources representative told him he would in reality still report to the Beijing-based ByteDance executive.

Turner said he never met with the American manager and continued to have weekly meetings with the ByteDance executive.

“Even though a spreadsheet is probably a very tiny percentage of all of the information that TikTok collects, it can be extremely targeted and very damaging to certain people,” Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, told Fortune.

“Everyone should be really concerned.”

U.S. lawmakers in January grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over his company’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, after both President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump voiced national security concerns and tried to restrict the video-sharing platform’s operations in the United States.

Last month, the House voted 352-65 in favor of banning TikTok unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company.

Biden said he would sign the bill should it pass through the Senate.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has unveiled an outline of his plan to move foreign aid through the House, pitching four separate bills to address aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other national security priorities that he says will all get votes before the end of the week.

The strategy sparked an immediate backlash from some conservative lawmakers who have demanded that any additional Ukraine aid be accompanied by tougher security on the U.S.-Mexico border — proposals excluded from Johnson’s legislative blueprint — raising questions about the viability of the Speaker’s plans.

“A lot of conservatives are very upset about how this is going down,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “He’s literally broken his promise.”

Johnson rolled out his proposal during a closed-door House GOP conference meeting in the Capitol basement on Monday, after months of delaying any decisions on a politically prickly topic that’s splintered his party and threatened his gavel.

The plan is first to move a procedural rule governing all four bills — Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan each get their own, with the fourth focusing on national security priorities. Each proposal would then be voted on separately, in contrast to the Senate’s $95 billion foreign aid legislation that combined the various elements into a single package.

The fourth national security-related bill, according to Johnson, will include a proposal to help pay for Ukraine aid by seizing Russian assets; a plan to provide some of the aid in the form of loans; and new sanctions on Iran in the wake of Tehran’s weekend strikes on Israel.

Another GOP lawmaker said it would also include a TikTok ban and convertible loans for humanitarian relief.

Johnson’s piecemeal strategy offers the unique advantage of allowing lawmakers the opportunity to pick and choose which pieces of the Senate bill they’d like to support and which ones to oppose. To sweeten the deal further, he’s allowing for amendments to be offered on each proposal.

“My phone melted over the weekend, with all the members letting me know all of their ideas,” Johnson told reporters after the closed-door meeting. “There was a consensus that was recognized, in my view, from all the opinions that were shared, and that is that it really was the will of my colleagues to vote on these measures independently and not have them all sandwiched together as the Senate had done.”

Johnson said the text of the bills would be released “sometime early” on Tuesday, and he would adhere to a House rule allowing lawmakers 72 hours to examine the bills before they’re asked to vote on them — a timeline that would keep the House in Washington at least until Friday, which is a day later than is scheduled.

Still, the plan remains very much in flux, and there are plenty of questions swirling around the legislation, including how far the House proposals will stray from the Senate’s top-line spending numbers and whether the four bills would be sent to the upper chamber separately, or recombined and delivered as a single package.

Another key wild card is how Democrats will react to Johnson’s proposal. Democrats in both chambers have been adamant that they want to see the House take up the Senate-passed supplemental, a position House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) re-upped as recently as Monday morning.

Some top Democrats, while still waiting to see the details of the bills, expressed early reservations about Johnson’s strategy, not least because it means additional aid for Ukraine’s beleaguered forces will be delayed while both chambers are in recess next week.

“They haven’t come up with [legislation] yet, and we don’t have time. We don’t. So I’m highly skeptical,” said Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. “Ukraine’s on life support, and it’s like they’re getting ready to pull the plug here. Not even so much pulling the plug. They’re tripping over the plug. It’s not even necessarily intentional, it’s just not understanding the seriousness of the situation and the importance of the timing.”

The Republican reaction to Johnson’s foreign aid gambit was a mixed bag on Monday, with some hard-line conservatives lauding his decision to detach the priorities into separate bills and including an open amendment process, while also railing on the exclusion of border security.

“I do like the fact that Johnson separated them,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) said after departing the closed-door GOP conference meeting, before calling the omission of border security “horrible.”

“The border should be the priority,” he added. “How many times did you hear leadership and other Republicans saying hey, this is the hill we’re gonna die on, right. And now it’s just gone. So I don’t like that.”

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, echoed that sentiment, lauding the separation of the priorities and the plan for an amendment process while criticizing the lack of border security.

“The American people are gonna be very disappointed if we don’t require border security in order to fund Ukraine, because we have basically said we were going to do that for the last six months,” he said.

During Monday’s GOP meeting, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) urged Republican leaders to hold onto the foreign aid bills — even if they pass this week — before sending them to the Senate to pressure Democratic leaders in the upper chamber to adopt the House-passed border reforms that Johnson excluded from the foreign aid debate.

“We should not send over any aid to any other countries until the Senate takes up HR-2,” Gaetz said afterward, referring a GOP border bill passed through the House last year.

Other Republicans joined in the criticism, including Greene, who has threatened to force a vote on ousting Johnson over Ukraine aid.

Speaking to reporters after the conference meeting, Greene said, “I am firmly against the plan as it stands right now,” but did not reveal any details on when — or if — she plans to trigger her resolution to remove Johnson.

“I haven’t decided on that yet,” she said, but argued that Johnson is “definitely not going to be Speaker next Congress if we’re lucky enough to have the majority.”

Asked if he will be Speaker for the rest of this Congress, Greene responded: “That is to be determined, like I said, I’m still processing what I heard in there.”

And some kept their cards close to their chests, not revealing where they stand as they process the proposal and wait to parse through particulars.

“We’ll see,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters when asked for his thoughts on the plan.

Donald Trump appeared inside Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday as the first criminal trial against him began with jury selection.

No jurors were selected from the dozens screened.

It marked the first time a former president has gone to trial over criminal charges — which stem from six-figure hush-money payments the ex-president allegedly made to former porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an effort to cover up the payments to keep Daniels and McDougal quiet about alleged affairs the women say they had with him.

The trial is expected to last about two months, and Trump faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

Because it’s a criminal trial, the former commander-in-chief must show up at court every day that it’s in session.

Here’s the 4 big moments Trump’s ‘Hush Money’ Trial:

1. It emerged that Trump may have to skip his son Barron’s high school graduation ceremony next month because of the trial. His lawyers asked the judge not to hold the trial on Friday, May 17 so the ex-president can attend the graduation in Florida. The judge did not immediately rule.

2. Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Rudy Giuliani and former top Trump aides Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway are among the names jurors will hear during the trial, the judge said.

3. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass recited Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” hot mic moment Monday morning, saying Trump’s “grab ’em by the p—y” speech word for word. The judge ruled that the tape could not be played for jurors, but testimony about the tape will be allowed in.

4. The DA’s office urged Merchan to fine Trump $3,000 for violating the court’s gag order by disparaging likely witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels in social media posts. Merchan set a hearing in the matter for next week.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday to allow an Idaho law protecting children from life-altering transgender procedures to go into effect while the law is challenged in lower courts.

The law, passed last year, bans procedures like double mastectomies on girls who identify as boys and giving children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which have been linked to bone development issues and heart problems.

The law also stipulates that doctors who perform transgender procedures on kids could go to prison for 10 years. The decision means the law will go into effect for the state except for two families who say their children identify as transgender who sued with the help of the ACLU claiming the law was discriminatory.

Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all sided with Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador who appealed to the court to turn back a sweeping injunction placed on the law by a federal judge who completely blocked the law. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan all dissented.

Gorsuch said that Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who blocked Idaho’s law back in December, went too far in her decision.

“Ordinarily, injunctions like these may go no further than necessary to provide interim relief to the parties,” he wrote. “In this case, however, the district court went much further, prohibiting a State from enforcing any aspect of its duly enacted law against anyone.”

The ruling was the first time for the Supreme Court to weigh in on a state law shielding children from life-altering transgender procedures. Labrador celebrated the ruling, saying it was a major win for children in his state. Litigation will continue and the Supreme Court will likely hear the case on its merits at some point after the appeals process.

“I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of drugs and procedures used on children with gender dysphoria. And it’s a preventable tragedy,” Labrador said. “The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that’s why I’m proud to defend Idaho’s law that ensures children are not subjected to these life-altering drugs and procedures.”

“Those suffering from gender dysphoria deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality,” he added. “Denying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and I’m grateful that we, as the state, have the power — and duty — to protect them.”

Labrador’s appeal to the Supreme Court was backed by 19 Republican attorneys general, who argued that it would be a “devastating medical scandal” if Idaho was not allowed to protect children from transgender procedures.

In recent years, over 20 states have enacted laws shielding children from transgender surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormone regimens.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden made a combined income of $619,976 last year, and Vice President Harris and her husband made $450,299, according to the couples’ 2023 tax returns the White House released Monday.

The president and his wife paid an effective federal income tax rate of 23.7 percent, the documents showed, and paid a total of $146,629 in federal income tax.

The annual salary of a president is $400,000, and Jill Biden works as a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, from which she made $85,985.

“Once again demonstrating his commitment to being transparent with the American people, President Biden has released the most tax returns of any commander-in-chief while in office,” according to the White House, which added that Biden has shared a total of 26 years of tax returns.

The president and first lady paid $181,086 in combined federal, Delaware, and Virginia income taxes. In addition to their federal income tax, they reported paying $30,908 in Delaware income tax, and the first lady paid $3,549 in Virginia income tax as a result of her job in the commonwealth.

The Bidens donated $20,477 across 17 charities, with one of the largest contributions being a $5,000 gift to Beau Biden Foundation, which is the same amount they gave to the charity over the past two years. The foundation, named after the president’s late son, focuses on protecting children from the threat of abuse.

They also donated $5,000 to the Women’s Wellness Space. The couple also gives to St. Joseph on the Brandywine, their parish in Wilmington, Del.; to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation.

Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, had a combined income of $450,299 in 2023, according to their tax returns released Monday. The documents show the second couple paid an effective federal income tax rate of 19.7 percent and paid $88,570 in federal income tax.

The couple paid $15,167 in California income tax and Emhoff paid $11,599 in District of Columbia income tax for his work teaching at Georgetown University, where he was paid $174,994 in 2023.

They contributed $23,026 to charity in 2023, including $5,000 to Howard University, where Harris went to college, and $5,000 to California State University Northridge, where Emhoff went to college.

Additionally, they gave $5,000 to the University of Southern California, where Emhoff went to law school, and $2,500 DC Central Kitchen, a community kitchen in Washington.

In 2022, the Bidens made a combined income of $579,514 and paid an effective federal income tax of 23.8 percent. In 2021, the Bidens earned $610,702 with an effective federal income tax rate of 24.6 percent before taking office.

Harris and Emhoff in 2022 had a combined income of $456,918, paid an effective federal income tax rate of 20.5 percent and paid $93,570 in federal income tax.

In 2021, the second couple had a combined income of $1,655,563 and paid an effective federal income tax rate of 31.6 percent. At the time, Emhoff earned $582,543 for his work as a lawyer at the law firms DLA Piper and Venable, which he left early in 2021 when Harris was sworn in as vice president.

Charles Barkley and Gayle King’s weekly talk show on CNN has come to an end after just six months.

The basketball Hall-of-Famer and longtime journalist fronted a weekly call-in show named ‘King Charles’ that only launched in November but struggled to pick up viewers.

When the show was announced at the end of 2023, CNN confirmed it would only ‘run through the early spring’.

Airing at 10pm ET on Wednesday nights, data worryingly showed it was behind reruns of both ‘Friends’ and ‘South Park’ in the viewership figures.

Data from Nielsen also shows the former NBA MVP and longtime journalist’s show had the lowest-rated prime time weeknight series debut in CNN over the last 10 years.

According to the New York Post, a source said the show was impacted by Barkley’s schedule. He was only available for filming on Wednesdays because of his other commitments as an NBA analyst.

Since premiering in November, ‘King Charles’ saw its audience plummet by around 20 per cent. Its first episode brought in 500,000 viewers.

The 14 episodes that aired brought in an average viewership of 459,000, according to data provided by Nielsen.

A CNN spokesperson said: ‘King Charles has come to the end of its limited run as we announced when it launched last fall and was a great addition to CNN’s lineup, with the youngest, most affluent, and most diverse P2+ audience in its cable news time period.

Barkley told DailyMail.com in March 2023 that he only considered the offer to work with King because he has ‘so much love and respect for’ her.

‘I’m not looking to get on TV anymore,’ Barkley told DailyMail.com on the Manhattan streets.

‘I just got so much love and respect for Gayle. She’s the only reason I’m even considering it.’

In October 2022, Barkley signed a new 10-year deal worth well over $100million with TNT to host ‘Inside the NBA’ after he flirted with the idea of joining Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company that owns Truth Social, announced the issuance of 21.5 million new shares on Monday, causing the market to sell off many of its shares en masse as the stock dropped over 15%.

Former President Donald Trump, the majority share owner of TMTG, lost about $470 million in net worth after Monday’s drop, per CNN, but on paper, he has lost billions because the stock soared once it first went public.

The decline started on April 2, when the stock traded at $51.60. It has since nearly halved its value.

The new stock issuance will devalue Trump’s and others’ shares in the company but will allow the company to raise more cash right now.

Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, said the company would be “stupid” not to sell more stock, even amid the stock plunge.

TMTG will not be able to sell those new stocks immediately because they will have to jump through other hoops, including a six-month waiting period, in order to get the move finalized.

Trump and Trump Media & Technology Group Corp has hit a new low pic.twitter.com/qS8oZ5HiyG

— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) April 15, 2024

Trump’s stock shot as high as $71.93 on March 27 as investors celebrated the company’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a “blank-check company” or type of business that raises cash to find other companies to merge with.

Trump Media and Technology Group has long been considered overvalued due to its lack of revenue. The company brought in about $750,000 in the last quarter of 2023, paling in comparison to Meta’s $40 billion earnings in the same period. TMTG brought in $4.1 million in 2023 and lost nearly $58.2 million.

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo recently questioned TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, a former House Republican from California, on the company’s market downturn.

“If you actually look at the cost, we built Truth Social … for a fraction of what many of these Big Tech dinosaur companies were built for,” Nunes said.

“So even if you take the ridiculous cost that it took us to get to this point, we are well positioned because we have no debt,” he added. “We’re coming out of this with no debt, a platform that works really, really well that communicates to millions of people. And then we have $200 million in the bank.”

Georgia’s parliament descended into chaos Monday after the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary faction was punched in the face while discussing a controversial law on “foreign agents.”

Video shows Mamuka Mdinaradze, 45, punched in the face by opposition MP Aleko Elisashvili, 46, while addressing the chamber.

Mdinaradze, who is a driving force behind the legislation, can be seen toppling over as several other MPs join the melee. Footage shows lawmakers on opposing sides leaping up from their desks and trading punches. Protesters later greeted Elisashvili with cheers outside the parliament building.

The “foreign agents” bill is controversial within Georgia and has been criticized by countries as a “Putin-style” import from Russia. A draft submitted last week calls for media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their budget from abroad.

The measure is nearly identical to a proposal that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw a year ago after large street protests.

The Georgian Dream party has insisted the law is necessary to combat what it derides as “pseudo-liberal values” imposed by foreigners, and to promote transparency. Georgian critics have labeled the bill as the “Russian law,” likening it to the Kremlin’s efforts to crack down on dissidents.

Opponents have also argued that the law would complicate Georgia’s aim of joining the European Union, which issued the country long-desired candidate status last year.

The Georgian Dream party, has said it wants Georgia to join the EU and NATO, yet it is seen as deepening ties with Russia.

The EU, meanwhile, has said that the “foreign agent” law is incompatible with the block’s values.

“Creating and maintaining an enabling environment for civil society organizations and ensuring media freedom is at the core of democracy. It is also crucial for the EU accession process,” Peter Stano, spokesman for the EU’s foreign-policy arm, said last week.

Monday’s brawl came as Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze held a meeting with ambassadors from the EU, the U.K., and the U.S., to discuss the legislation.

President Salome Zourabichvili would veto the law if it is passed by parliament, said her parliamentary representative Girogi Mskhiladze. But that veto might not be long-lasting. Zourabichvili’s term ends this year and under constitution changes the next president will be named by an electoral college that includes all members of parliament.

Watch:

WATCH: Chaos erupts in Georgia parliament as the MP from one party attacks the MP from another. Mamuka Mdinaradze was giving a speech on controversial legislation when he was attacked by an opposing member.

The bill is being called “The Russian Bill” because it’s similar to… pic.twitter.com/9P7zwUTJ9k

— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_in_Flint) April 15, 2024

A Christian leader and several worshippers have been stabbed multiple times during a church service in Sydney, with the attack broadcast live on YouTube.

The alleged perpetrator, a 15-year-old, was arrested and taken to an undisclosed location by police as an angry crowd gathered outside the church.

It comes just two days since a man armed with a knife murdered six people in a Bondi mall.

The incident at Wakeley’s Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church occurred at 7.10pm last night, according to New South Wales Police.

The service was being live streamed on the church’s YouTube page.

Graphic video of the incident showed a man dressed in a black hoodie approaching the Bishop and stabbing him multiple times in the head, neck and back.

Screams could be heard as other worshippers rush to the bishop’s aid as he fell to the floor. Three worshippers were also stabbed in a resulting confrontation.

The victim was Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, a prominent Orthodox Christian leader.

Churchgoers can be seen rushing to the victim’s aid. The video has now been removed from YouTube.

Daily Mail Australia said Christ The Good Shepherd Church had almost 200,000 subscribers on its channel.

9News has reported up to four people have been injured in the attack.

!⚠️ Graphic warning ⚠️

Sydney Australia’s Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, was one of 4 allegedly stabbed during an attack at Christ The Good Shepherd Church 😔.

The Bishop is reportedly in stable condition.https://t.co/Gi9Wj4LxWc pic.twitter.com/zYP6Wq65NS

— Drea Humphrey – Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) April 15, 2024

Multiple police and ambulance crews raced to the scene, with NSW Police confirming they responded to reports of a stabbing and one man had been taken into custody.

”Officers arrested a male and he is assisting police with inquiries,” a statement said.

“The injured people suffered non-life threatening injuries and are being treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics.”

Police urged members of the public to avoid the area.

There was no indication last night’s event was linked to the Bondi mall attacks, 9News said.

7News reported NSW Ambulance were treating four patients.

Two men aged in their 50s and 30s had multiple lacerations.

A man in his 20s was being treated with a laceration on his hand and a man in his 60s with a laceration on his arm, 7News reported.

The men suffered non-life threatening injuries.

A statement posted to social media by the church said the bishop and a second man, Father Isaac Royel, were in a stable condition in hospital.

“We ask for your prayers at this time. It is the Bishop’s and Father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator.”

Former President Trump arrived Monday at the Lower Manhattan courthouse for the start of jury selection in his criminal trial.

Trump, who has denied wrongdoing and repeatedly called the trial a political witch hunt, said during brief remarks to reporters as he entered the courtroom that the trial “is an assault on America.”

Justice Juan Merchan declined a request from the defense to recuse himself from the case, per a pool report. He said he would not address the matter further.

Merchan’s interviews with news outlets and a podcast were one of the reasons he was asked to recuse.

Trump moved part of his campaign operation to New York over the weekend, and a massive security operation has descended around the courthouse for what could be two months or so.

Here is what you need to know about the case, key witnesses, and what this means for the presidential hopeful.

What is the hush money case about, and what is Trump accused of?

The hush money case revolves around allegations that Trump paid off several people during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence their claims that he engaged in extramarital sexual encounters.

Trump is alleged to have made these payments through lawyer Michael Cohen. The key evidence is a $130,000 payment made to Daniels, who was ready to go public about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump.

He is also accused of facilitating hush money payments of $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal over claims of an affair, and $30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had fathered.

While the payments themselves are not illegal, Trump is accused of violating federal campaign finance laws by failing to disclose money that was supposed to be used to boost his electoral chances, instead recording it as a “legal expense”.

Trump now faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to the payments in this New York state criminal trial.

When is Trump’s trial expected to start and where?

The trial will start at 9:30am EDT (13:00 GMT) on Monday, April 15. The day’s proceedings, which will be held at New York County Criminal Court in New York City, are expected to end at 4:30pm (20:00 GMT).

Who is the judge presiding over the case?

Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over the case. A 12-member jury will decide whether Trump is guilty while Merchan will determine any penalties.

Beginning Monday, the jurors from New York will be shortlisted over at least a week. Potential jurors are randomly selected from voter rolls and other state records and then given a questionnaire. The prosecution and defence each get to disqualify 10 people from the jury pool.

Experts say it may be a challenging process to find jurors who do not already have an opinion on the businessman-turned-politician.

Questions in the list approved by Merchan include whether prospective jurors have attended a rally or campaign event for Trump, whether they follow Trump on social media and whether they have feelings about how he has been treated in the hush money case.

How long is the trial expected to last?

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, although this depends upon how open and candid witnesses are.

If Trump takes the witness stand, which he is unlikely to, that would also make the case longer rather than shorter.

Will Trump’s trial be televised?

No, New York state prohibits nearly all audio and visual coverage during trials.

Judges may choose to make an exception, but Judge Merchan has not allowed cameras in his courtroom in the past. At most, photos and videos may be taken before or right after the proceedings.

Trump is expected to be in court on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

Who are the key witnesses in the case?

While the prosecutors have not released their official list of witnesses, key expected figures include Daniels, McDougal, and Trump’s former lawyer, Cohen.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year and served federal prison time, is now a prosecution witness.

Another key witness expected in the case is David Pecker, who was CEO of American Media, the parent company of the tabloid National Enquirer, up until 2020. He is said to have been Trump’s eyes and ears for any damaging stories in the lead-up to the presidential election.

American Media paid McDougal and the Trump Tower doorman in exchange for exclusive rights to their stories, which gave the company the authority to quash them. American Media escaped any prosecution in return for its cooperation in the campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen’s guilty plea and prison sentence.

What can we expect from the defence?

Trump denies ever having an affair with Daniels and claims the payment was made to protect his family from false allegations, not to sway the election.

The defence may also continue with its strategy from previous trials, which is to paint such cases as politically motivated.

What happens if Trump is convicted?

If convicted, each charge carries a maximum of four years in prison, although just a fine or probation are also possibilities. If there are multiple prison sentences, the judge would decide whether those would run concurrently or consecutively.

Even in the event of prison time, however, there is a customary gap between a conviction and sentencing. Trump’s legal team would almost certainly appeal any decisions around the two, thereby delaying the prospect of him spending time behind bars.

Follow live updates.

This article was updated.

Israel’s response to Iran’s weekend missile attack could come as soon as today as the nation’s war cabinet convened to hammer out the timing and scope of the impending counterstrike, according to a report.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, that the Jewish state has “no choice” but to retaliate against the rogue Islamic Republic after it launched hundreds of missiles and suicide drones into Israeli airspace Saturday night, according to Axios correspondent Barak Ravid.

World leaders, including President Biden, have urged Israel to be measured in its response, expressing fears of escalating the conflict even further.

Iran’s aerial assault was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike in Damascus on April 1 in which a top Iranian general was killed.

Israel — working with a coalition of unlikely allies, including the US, the UK, France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — was able to stop 99% of the 350 weapons launched by Iran. None of the drones or cruise missiles struck Israel, and only a few of the ballistic missiles made it through, according to the Jerusalem Post.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz has called for a swift response, CNN reports, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held off on giving the green light as international pressure mounts.

Biden reportedly told Netanyahu that the US will not provide support for a counterattack against Iran.

“You got a win. Take the win,” the president reportedly said.

However, all options remain on the table as the war cabinet debated the nation’s next move, running the gamut from diplomatic to military, including precision strikes against key Iranian oil infrastructure or even a cyberattack campaign, the Wall Street Journal writes.

According to the Washington Post, Netanyahu has requested the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) draw up a battle plan highlighting potential retaliatory strike targets that would “send a message” without causing mass casualties, intended to reduce the risk of the conflict mushrooming out of control.

Leading up to Iran’s attack, Netanyahu faced a growing chorus of concerns from allies about the humanitarian situation in Gaza resulting from Israel’s war against Hamas which began Oct. 7.

Acting too hastily or too aggressively could potentially squander any international goodwill Israel has garnered in the wake of the attack by Iran, which is widely considered a pariah on the global stage.

“This is an opportunity to create a new American-led regional security alignment against Iran, if we can take advantage of it,” former Israel National Security Council chief Chuck Freilich told the outlet.

The debate over how and when to strike back at Iran prompted Israel to delay a long-anticipated military incursion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Times of Israel reported Monday.

A series of social media posts by NPR CEO Katherine Maher are resurfacing as the organization continues to defend itself against accusations of bias in its reporting.

NPR business desk senior editor Uri Berliner last week wrote a scathing editorial accusing the organization of “telling listeners how to think” through an “absence of viewpoint diversity.” Edith Chaplin, NPR’s chief news executive, addressed the comments in a memo to staff, saying Berliner’s comments only reflect a broadening of priorities in a turbulent media landscape.

CEO Katherine Maher then chimed in Friday with a lengthy memo to staff calling Berliner’s accusations “deeply simplistic” and attributed his complaints to “an audience skewing further away in age from the general population, and significant changes in political affiliations.”

Social media users then began to delve into Maher’s history and are now crying foul over the number of perceived partisan posts previously made by her.

In response to journalist Chris Rufo pointing this out, Elon Musk replied that she’s a “crazy racist!”

Maher also says that “America is addicted to white supremacy,” which is the “real issue.”

New NPR CEO seems to have many symptoms of the Cluster B Longhouse psychopathology. Antagonistic, performative, accusatory, & frankly delusional. Pronouns in bio. Unstable. https://t.co/YioG8rjB9K

— J.D. Haltigan, PhD 🏒👨‍💻 (@JDHaltigan) April 14, 2024

She also excused looters, and even slammed Hillary Clinton for correctly gendering individuals.

Does not represent 90% of America

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2024

We fund this shite. pic.twitter.com/3QBJ6U5xv4

— Clifford Asness (@CliffordAsness) April 14, 2024

New NPR CEO furious that white men fly business class https://t.co/DiKgnV1sfc

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 15, 2024

Maher, who stepped into the role of CEO in March, has never held a position in journalism prior to her gig at NPR, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also lists being a member of the Biden administration’s State Department Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Maher attended New York University in 2003 for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and is certified in “leadership for racial equity” by the University of Virginia, according to her LinkedIn.

NPR was established in 1967 by Congress as a means of creating a nonprofit radio entity with complete control of its programming, according to Middle Tennessee State University. Since then, the organization has faced criticism of being politically biased from both liberals and conservatives.