Harvard University is a mess and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is the man who can save the once-prestigious institution and help it “recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy,” according to Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

Daniel Rosen, who graduated Harvard in 1996, penned a Washington Post opinion piece last week which details recent issues at the school and called for the Utah senator – and former Massachusetts governor – to clean it up. Fetterman, a Harvard alumnus who has repeatedly irked his Democratic colleagues with his strong support for Israel, co-signed the suggestion.

“Harvard University remains in an almighty mess after months of turmoil over hate speech. There is a way to fix this: appoint former Massachusetts governor and retiring U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) university president,” Rosen wrote.

Fetterman posted the piece on X and wrote, “As an alumnus of Harvard, and after this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia, I co-sign. This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn’t need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers need to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy.”

Rosen said he was a lifelong Democrat who didn’t vote for Romney when he ran for president, but made the suggestion “in the sincere and robust hope that he is someone who can navigate the university through painful but necessary reform and drive back the antisemitism that is tarnishing the institution’s credibility.

“As the grandson of Holocaust survivors and president of the American Jewish Congress, I find it devastating that Harvard has failed to vigorously address the unchecked antisemitism on campus,” he wrote.

Rosen wrote that anyone who studied at Harvard can attest it is “not an antisemitic institution” despite recent events that indicate otherwise.

“I never for a moment felt oppressed or marginalized as a student on the Harvard campus. But to my dismay, recent years have seen an unconscionable spike in — and even worse, an administrative tolerance of — hate speech directed at Jews, including targeting Jewish students. The university’s response has thus far been ramshackle and unproductive, to put it mildly,” Rosen wrote.

Rosen reminded readers of “the disastrous congressional testimony of then-President Claudine Gay,” in which she famously failed to say that calls for intifada or the genocide of Jews on campus violated Harvard’s code of conduct or policy against bullying and harassment.

After her congressional testimony, Gay issued an apology and the university’s board initially decided to stick by her despite widespread calls from donors and members of Congress for her ouster. However, she stepped down shortly afterward after being hit with significant plagiarism allegations.

“The university president must be the flag-bearer of our values. There is no doubt that there are other Americans of similar standing and stature, but Romney’s unique bridge-building character is precisely what Harvard needs in an age of toxic polarization,” Rosen wrote, praising him for working with Democrats on issues like “gun safety reform” and voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Romney, who has stood out among Senate Republicans with his opposition to former President Trump, has said he will not seek re-election in the Senate in 2024. He voted to convict Trump in both his impeachment trials, the only Republican to do so, and has not supported him in any of his White House bids.

Buoyed in part by his successful overseeing of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Romney served one term as Massachusetts governor from 2003 to 2007. He later made a failed bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He won the Republican nomination in 2012 – the last candidate other than Trump to do so – and lost the general election to President Obama.

Jurors in the murder case against a Nogales-area rancher accused of killing an illegal unarmed migrant on his property were unable to reach a unanimous verdict and remained deadlocked on the charges.

After more than 15 hours of deliberation, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial just after 4:30 p.m. The court scheduled a status meeting for 1:30 p.m. April 29 to allow the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office to decide if it wants to retry the case.

“They won’t wear me down,” rancher George Alan Kelly told reporters after the mistrial was declared.

The trial centered on the Jan. 30, 2023, death of Mexican migrant Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, who was found shot after Kelly fired warning shots into the air, his defense attorney said.

Kelly faced a second-degree murder charge in Buitimea’s death, and a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for putting another man, Daniel Ramirez, in danger. Ramirez had been traveling with Buitimea looking for work in the U.S. Buitimea’s body was found 115 yards, a football field away, from Kelly’s house hours after the shooting incident.

Attorneys and the judge discussing which instructions to pass on to the jury noted the jurors looked tired and frustrated earlier that day when they told the judge they were at an impasse.

Kelly’s defense attorneys called it a victory and the second-best outcome. One of his two attorneys, Texas attorney Kathy Lowthorp, said the trial is the longest she has had in her 24 years of practice. She said she will represent Kelly if the case goes to trial again. She called the disclosure requirements in Arizona “mind-boggling.”

“Here you disclose everything and depositions,” Lowthorp said. “It’s just like you tried the case a few times before you get to an actual trial with a jury. That is just mind-boggling to me.”

On Monday, Kelly’s wife sat in the front row of the courtroom clutching a plush cat stuffed animal as she awaited the verdict.

After the verdict Wanda Kelly said she has felt like she has been in suspense for the last year.

“I feel like I’ve been in suspension for 15 months, and I’m getting nowhere, and I’m still on that treadmill. We have to wait a little longer,” said Wanda Kelly, Kelly’s wife, after the mistrial was declared.

Kelly said he wasn’t worried about himself as much as his wife, noting this trial has been challenging for her. He and his wife are stubborn, Kelly said, and they will not give up.

“They want ice water in you-know-where. And they ain’t got it. So, it is what it is. … They won’t wear me down,” Kelly said about the mistrial and potentially having a retrial.

Prosecution led by the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office argued that Kelly, armed with an AK-47 rifle, opened fire on two unarmed men. The defense argued Kelly’s testimony was changed by law enforcement and that the investigation into the shooting was biased.

Kelly’s defense attorney alleged that Kelly saw a group of armed migrants and shot up in the air as a warning. Prosecutors said Kelly shot Buitimea with a barrage of bullets. Although spent casings were found near the property, no bullet was ever retrieved.

Last year, Ramirez, the prosecution’s key witness, gave a dramatic testimony during a preliminary hearing in February, when he reenacted how he said he saw Kelly shoot and kill Buitimea. It was later revealed that he had previously pleaded guilty to smuggling cannabis across the Arizona-Mexico border in 2015.

#BREAKING George Alan Kelly’s co-counsel Kathy Lowthorp walks out of court after judge declares mistrial—She says it was 7 to 1 for a not guilty verdict—One juror thought he was guilty of 2nd degree murder (or lesser charges to include negligent homicide and manslaughter).

The… pic.twitter.com/LRJBczMowp

— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) April 23, 2024

Monday’s opening statements in the first criminal trial of a former American president provided a clear roadmap of how prosecutors will try to make the case that Donald Trump broke the law, and how the defense plans to fight the charges on multiple fronts.

Lawyers presented dueling narratives as jurors got their first glimpse into the prosecution accusing Trump of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to squelch negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Still to come are weeks of what’s likely to be dramatic and embarrassing testimony about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s personal life as he simultaneously campaigns to return to the White House in November.

Here’s a look at some key takeaways from opening statements:

ELECTION FRAUD VS. ‘BOOKKEEPING’ CASE

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. But prosecutors made clear they do not want jurors to view this as a routine paper case. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said the heart of the case is a scheme to “corrupt” the 2016 election by silencing people who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories Trump feared would hurt his campaign.

“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not spin or communication strategy. This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.” He added: “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”

The business records charges stem from things like invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organization records when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Daniels was threatening to go public with claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump. He says it never happened.

Trump, meanwhile, sought to downplay the accusations while leaving the courtroom on Monday, calling it all a “bookkeeping” case and “a very minor thing.” But he, too, has said it’s all about an election — the one this November. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the case is part of a sweeping Democratic attempt to harm his chances at reclaiming the presidency.

TRUMP’S DEFENSE COMES INTO VIEW

Trump’s attorney used his opening statement to attack the case as baseless, saying the former president did nothing illegal.

The attorney, Todd Blanche, challenged prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay Daniels to aid his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”

Blanche indicated the defense will argue that after all the very point of a presidential campaign is to try to influence an election.

“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told jurors. “They put something sinister on this idea, as if it was a crime. You’ll learn it’s not.”

Blanche also portrayed the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions performed by a Trump Organization employee. Trump “had nothing to do with” the allegedly false business records, “except that he signed the checks, in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said. And he argued that the records’ references to legal expenses weren’t false, since Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.

PROSECUTORS AIM TO PUT TRUMP AT THE CENTER

The 34 counts in the indictment are related to the payment to Daniels. But prosecutors plan to introduce evidence about a payoff to another woman — former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who claimed a sexual encounter with Trump, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump having a child out of wedlock. Trump says they were all lies.

Prosecutors said they will show Trump was at the center of the scheme to silence the women, telling jurors they will hear Trump in his voice talking about the plan to pay McDougal. Cohen arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 but not print the story in a practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

Colangelo told jurors that prosecutors will play for them a recording Cohen secretly made during a meeting with Trump weeks before the 2016 election. In the recording, which first became public in 2018, Trump is heard saying: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

Trump “desperately did not want this information about Karen McDougal to become public because he was worried about its effect on the election,” Colangelo said.

COHEN’S CREDIBILITY IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The defense’s opening statement previewed what will be a key strategy of the defense: trying to discredit Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic and expected star witness for the prosecution. Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments in 2018 and and served prison time.

Whether jurors believe Cohen, who says he arranged the payments to the women at Trump’s direction, could make or break the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Trump’s lawyer highlighted Cohen’s criminal record, describing him as a serial liar who turned against Trump after he was not given a job in the administration and found himself in legal trouble. Blanche said Cohen’s “entire financial livelihood depends on President Trump’s destruction,” noting he hosts podcasts and has written books bashing his ex-boss.

“He has a goal and an obsession with getting Trump,” Blanche said. “I submit to you that he cannot be trusted.”

Anticipating the defense attacks on Cohen, the prosecution promised to be upfront about the “mistakes” the former Trump attorney has made. But Colangelo said “you can credit Michael Cohen’s testimony” despite his past.

“I suspect the defense will go to great lengths to get you to reject his testimony precisely because it is so damning,” the prosecutor said.

BUT UP FIRST: DAVID PECKER

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker is the first witness for prosecutors, who say that Trump’s alleged scheme to conceal potentially damaging information from voters began with a 2015 Trump Tower meeting among the then-candidate, Pecker and Cohen. Pecker took the witness stand Monday before court broke for the day and his testimony is expected to continue Tuesday.

At the meeting, Pecker — a longtime Trump friend — agreed to aid Trump’s campaign by running favorable pieces about him, smearing his opponents, scouting unflattering stories about him and flagging them to Cohen for “catch-and-kill” deals. Those included the claims made by Daniels, McDougal and the former Trump Tower doorman, Dino Sajudin, prosecutors say. Trump says all were false.

Pecker will likely be asked about all the alleged efforts made by the Enquirer’s then-owner, American Media Inc., on Trump’s behalf. Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute American Media in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen’s guilty plea, and the Federal Election Commission fined the company $187,500, calling the McDougal deal a “prohibited corporate in-kind contribution.”

Pecker’s brief turn on the stand Monday was mainly just about his background and other basic facts, though he did say the Enquirer practiced “checkbook journalism” — paying for stories — and that he had the final say on any story about a famous person.

‘THE DEFENDANT’ OR ’PRESIDENT TRUMP’?

The prosecutor referred to Trump during his opening statement as “the defendant.” Trump’s lawyer took a different tack, calling him “President Trump.”

“We will call him President Trump, out of respect for the office that he held,” Blanche said. At the same time, Trump’s lawyer sought to portray Trump as an everyman, describing him as a husband, father and fellow New Yorker.

“He’s, in some ways, larger than life. But he’s also here in this courtroom, doing what any of us would do: defending himself,” Blanche said.

Trump sat quietly while listening to opening statements, occasionally passing notes to his lawyers and whispering in their ears. But outside of the courtroom, he continued his pattern of trying to capitalize politically on the case that will require him to spend his days in a courtroom rather than on the campaign trail.

“This is what they’re trying to take me off the trail for. Checks being paid to a lawyer,” Trump said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has shot down Kari Lake’s request to take up her ballot tabulator case that aimed to stop the use of the machines to count millions of Arizona ballots.

The highest court in the nation did not provide any comment on Monday when it denied the U.S. Senate hopeful’s petition to overturn the lower court’s decision to throw out her case.

Lake and fellow Republican Mark Finchem initially filed the suit in April 2022, while she was running for Arizona governor and he was running for secretary of state. They alleged that the electronic ballot tabulators used in Maricopa and Pima counties were “hackable” and that the courts should place an injunction on their use ahead of the November 2022 election, and instead force elections officials to count all the ballots by hand.

In August 2022, U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi threw out the lawsuit and issued a scathing ruling. He later ordered $122,000 in sanctions against the attorneys in the case, saying that Lake and Finchem’s claims amounted to mere “conjectural allegations of potential injuries.”

In October 2023, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with Tuchi’s decision to reject the case, agreeing that it was “frivolous.”

“None of Plaintiffs’ allegations supported a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots, and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots,” the appellate court wrote.

Finchem and Lake, who both lost their 2022 bids for statewide office to Democrats, each filed lawsuits after that election seeking to overturn the results. In both cases, judges found that neither candidate could prove that there was any fraud, malfeasance or maladministration that changed the outcome.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, Lake and Finchem go as far as to accuse Arizona election officials of illegally altering the tabulator software — a crime under Arizona law — and concealing those alterations from the court when the case was originally filed.

They also claimed that Dominion Voting Systems equipment used in Maricopa County, and in many other counties across the country, “have a built-in security breach enabling malicious actors to take control of elections, likely without detection.”

The Arizona Republican Party — alongside the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican State Committee of Delaware — backed up Lake in her petition to SCOTUS, filing their own supporting brief earlier this month urging the court to take up the case.

The Virginia attorney representing the Republican parties, William J.Olson argued that, since 2020, state and federal courts across the U.S. began using what he called “unreasonable standards” to determine whether election cases have legal standing to move forward.

“The decision of the district court of Arizona to dismiss Petitioners’ challenge to the conduct of the 2022 Arizona election is one of the clearest illustrations of this abusive line of cases which have required much more than well-pled allegations, brought by candidates, that elections were being conducted in violation of law,” Olson wrote.

Andrew isn’t the only Cuomo trying to stage a comeback.

In the wake of the failure of Charles Barkley and Gayle King’s prime-time talk show, sources at CNN have been gossiping about the network’s next move. (King has insisted it was always a limited run.)

“The top brass are pulling their hair out trying to find a solution before the election really heats up,” said an insider.

“They have Anderson Cooper, but they’re saying they need ‘another Chris.’ ”

In 2021, Chris Cuomo was CNN’s highest-rated prime-time star. But he was fired by then-CEO Jeff Zucker after allegations he provided assistance to his bro, then-Gov. Andrew, on how to combat sexual harassment allegations leveled by former aides.

After his ouster, Chris filed for arbitration, demanding $125 million from CNN over his exit. He also landed a new gig at NewsNation.

Last year, Variety reported sources as saying part of Zucker’s reasoning for axing Chris was to ingratiate himself with incoming Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.

Zucker, who adamantly refuted the Variety report, was pushed out himself in 2022.

A source told Page Six this week: “CNN insiders say there could be a deal to be made with Chris down the road — this is already being whispered about, and discussed quietly, but still unofficially.

“Management has changed, and CNN could be ready to move beyond the old issues, especially since they have not been able to replicate Chris’ success with their audience.”

The source also told us: “Although Chris isn’t talking about this openly . . . it’s generally accepted by his circle that he misses his old job, loves being on TV and making a difference on national topics of interest to everyone. He wants to be in Israel reporting on the war.”

Reps did not get back to us.

“American audiences love a comeback,” the source added. “It remains a longshot that CNN would amicably settle Chris’ lawsuit and bring him back, but stranger things have happened in TV when it comes down to ad dollars and almighty ratings.”

Cuomo has previously said of his time at CNN in a podcast interview with Anthony Scaramucci: “I wasn’t set up to be [No. 1]. I wasn’t the big name there, I didn’t have the big team, they didn’t do the advertising about me. But I was still No. 1. Why? Because it was the best show. Because I was giving people what they needed in that moment.”

Alec Baldwin was caught on camera smacking the phone of an anti-Israel agitator who repeatedly demanded he say “Free Palestine” inside a New York City coffee shop, according to footage posted online Monday night.

The rabble rouser approached the actor while he appeared to be on the phone and at the cash register inside the shop and began to relentlessly harass him, the video shows.

“Alec, can you please say ‘Free Palestine’ one time,” said the protester, who hosts an “anti-fascist” show called Crackhead Barney & Friends.

She continued to accost Baldwin, 66, before he went toward the door inside Maman on University Place and motioned for her to get out, the video shows.

“Free Palestine, Alec, just one time, and I’ll leave you alone,” she said. “I’ll leave you alone, I swear.”

“Just say ‘Free Palestine’ one time, one time,” she pressed as he shook his head no and held the door open.

“F–k Israel, f–Zionism,” she added.

The podcast host, who is known for ambush interviews, also brought up Baldwin’s criminal case in New Mexico where he’s facing a charge in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust.”

“Why did you kill that lady, you killed that lady and got no jail time,” the agitator claimed while calling him a “criminal.”

Watch;

White devil Alec Baldwin attacked me
While I was trying to get coffeee pic.twitter.com/qebME0V4Wl

— Crackhead Barney & Friends (@CHBAF) April 22, 2024

The “30 Rock” alum has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter with a trial scheduled for July.

He was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the revolver went off. Hutchins was hit by a bullet and succumbed to her injuries.

Movie weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced earlier this year to 18 months in prison after she was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

At one point during the coffee shop encounter, a worker tried to get the aggressor to stop, but to no avail. Baldwin also appeared to ask the employee to step in during the verbal altercation.

The video cuts out when Baldwin smacked the protester’s phone after he appeared to ask the worker, “Can you do me a quick favor?”

It’s unclear when the confrontation took place.

This isn’t the first time anti-Israel activists have gotten in the face of Baldwin.

A group of protesters heckled the actor last December and asked if he condemned Israel. Baldwin replied “No, I support peace for Gaza,” which left them annoyed.

“Go f–k yourself,” a man yelled.

Anti-Israel protests have roiled the city over the last six months after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 240 back to Gaza in October.

The Jewish state then launched a military campaign in the territory.

Anti-Israel protestors armed with flares marched toward NYPD headquarters just hours after riot-gear-wearing officers stormed an NYU protest ‘Gaza Solidarity’ encampment protest on Monday night, arresting dozens of faculty and staff members.

The streets were lit up in orange as marchers waved Palestinians flags while holding flares in the air and banging a drum walking through Chinatown to reach One Police Plaza in New York City.

Earlier on the NYU campus in Greenwich Village, police officers in riot gear were forced to use zip ties to detain protesters, marching them onto police buses after warnings to leave the area were ignored.

The protest, involving hundreds, began at 6am with a group setting up tents at NYU’s Gould Plaza demanding the university divest from any Israel-related holdings. It was done in solidarity with similar protests at other campuses, including Columbia University.

The number of participants at the NYU protest grew throughout the day on Monday with hundreds of anti-Israel activists gathered by nightfall – all ignoring pleas by university staff and security to leave.

It culminated in clashes with law enforcement – after the university requested officers break up the protest. Videos captured the shocking moment cops flooded the protest, tipping tents and making arrests as protestors carried Palestine flags and chanted.

Students could be seen gathering at the steps outside of NYU’s Stern School of Business earlier and appeared to be joined by some faculty members.

Some protesters could be heard chanting, ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – a slogan that many regard as a call to genocide.

Others could be seen stepping on Israel’s flag.

NYU’s head of security said that administrators ‘witnessed disorderly, disruptive and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community.’

Anti-Israel protesters march through China Town with flares, reportedly headed toward NYPD headquarters

pic.twitter.com/dV1Xt9Uybx

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 23, 2024

The NYPD could be heard using a megaphone telling students: ‘You have been warned by New York University to leave the area.’

Those who did not leave soon, would be arrested for trespassing, NYPD said.

In a statement on Instagram on Monday, New York University officials warned protesters to clear the plaza by 4pm or face consequences. Mass arrests began around 8:30pm.

NYU’s Global Campus Safety posted on Instagram that protesters had breached the barriers set up at Gould Plaza, Fountain Walker.

‘The one safety requirement we made was that no additional protestors could enter Gould Plaza. With the breach of the barricades early this afternoon, that requirement was violated, and we witnessed disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community,’ the university said in a statement.

‘We cannot tolerate people getting hurt. You will need to clear the plaza by 4pm. If you leave now, no one will face any consequences for today’s actions—no discipline, no police.’

As the arrests happened, NYPD officials released a letter from NYU officials asking them to come to the campus.

‘We have repeatedly asked all the individuals to leave Gould Plaza,’ the letter read. ‘They have ignored our requests.’

‘At this point we consider all the protestors occupying Gould Plaza to be trespassers and we would like the NYPD to clear the area and to take action to remove the protestors. In the event they refuse to leave, we request the NYPD take enforcement action accordingly up to and including arrest.’

After the police raid, protestors armed with flares were seen walking through Chinatown armed with Palestinian flags, heading toward 1 Police Plaza.

A transgender man allegedly tried to kidnap a child at an elementary school in Colorado, and police said that he was a registered sex offender.

The Aurora Police Department said officers were called to the Black Forest Hills Elementary School on Friday over the incident.

Investigators say 33-year-old Solomon Galligan got onto school property and approached a group of children. He allegedly tried to grab a young boy before fleeing from the school. Police are unsure what prompted him to leave on his own.

He was later arrested by police and charged with attempted kidnapping. Galligan is being held at the Aurora Detention Center on a $25,000 bond.

The mother of the child Galligan allegedly tried to kidnap spoke to KCNC-TV about the boy.

“This has changed his life forever, and my life,” said Miranda Ayala. “He was touched by somebody else who walked up onto a field at school at recess with other adults that should’ve been taking care of my son.”

She says that her child told police he smelled like alcohol and had a white powder on his face.

Other parents told KCNC that they were upset at the school for not being as transparent as it should have been to the parents about the incident.

School officials tried to reassure parents in an email saying they had increased security at the elementary school.

“We take all safety concerns very seriously and have launched an investigation into the incident that happened Friday,” read a statement from a school spokesperson. “We are committed to being transparent and accountable to our community, and the school is in communication with families.”

Ayala says that the school officials who were supposed to protecting the children were distracted by their phones. They were alerted by other children yelling, “Stranger danger!”

“It was these kids who saved my son’s life,” she added.

The Daily Mail reported that Galligan had documented his gender transition in 2012.

‘So I’m starting my hormone shots and I really can’t wait I’m on my hormone pills I’ve been on them for almost 4 months,’ Galligan wrote at the time.

He had been convicted of nonconsensual sexual contact in Denver and failed to register as a sex offender.

Here’s a local news report about the incident:

Police clad in riot gear swarmed Yale University’s Connecticut campus early Monday and arrested dozens of students who refused to clear out from an anti-Israel protest encampment.

At least 47 protesters were cuffed and hauled away from the Ivy League’s New Haven campus on shuttle buses, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Post.

They were slapped with trespassing summons — and will be referred for Yale disciplinary action, which may include suspensions, the rep added.

The mass arrests came after footage posted online showed cops arriving at the Ivy League school and blocking off entrances to a plaza, where roughly 200 protesters had been gathered.

Cops repeatedly warned protesters they risked being arrested if they didn’t clear out, the Yale spokesperson said.

As police descended on the campus, a group of defiant students had locked arms around a flagpole and were singing “We shall not be moved” — as officers could be seen checking the dozens of tents erected in the plaza, according to a video posted on X.

Yale police department forcefully flooded the encampment and issued warnings, banging tents as they entered.

Students stood strong, locking arms around the flagpole, displaying their readiness for arrest. Tearful crowd sang, “We shall not be moved.” pic.twitter.com/3uGOTHNu96

— Kuffiya (@Kuffiyateam) April 22, 2024

While the arrests were underway, others could be heard taunting the Yale Police Depatment (YPD), “YPD or KKK, IDF they’re all the same” and chanting, “Arab blood is not cheap, for the martyrs we will speak,” according to the Yale Daily News.

Cops had cleared the plaza and encampment of student protesters by about 8 a.m.

“Today, members of Yale’s police department isolated the area and asked protestors to show identification; some left voluntarily. When others did not comply after multiple requests, the Yale Police Department issued summonses to 47 students,” the spokesperson said.

“The university made the decision to arrest those individuals who would not leave the Plaza with the safety and security of the entire Yale community in mind and to allow access to university facilities by all members of our community.”

It comes after protests at Yale turned violent over the weekend when a Jewish student journalist reporting on an encampment, which was erected Friday, was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag Saturday night.

Sahar Tartak, editor-in-chief of the Yale Free Press, was covering the protest when she was suddenly surrounded by demonstrators.

“There’s hundreds of people taunting me and waving the middle finger at me, and then this person waves a Palestinian flag in my face and jabs it in my eye,” Tartak told The Post.

“When I tried to yell and go after him, the protesters got in a line and stopped me.”

Yale president Peter Salovey sent students an email late Sunday warning that the school “will pursue disciplinary actions according to its policies” amid the ongoing demonstrations.

“Many of the students participating in the protests, including those conducting counterprotests, have done so peacefully. However, I am aware of reports of egregious behavior, such as intimidation and harassment, pushing those in crowds, removal of the plaza flag, and other harmful acts,” he wrote.

“Yale does not tolerate actions, including remarks, that threaten, harass, or intimidate members of the university’s Jewish, Muslim, and other communities.

“The Yale Police Department is investigating each report, and we will take action when appropriate, including making referrals for student discipline.”

The arrival of cops comes after more than 100 protesters were cuffed and hauled away when the NYPD was called in to clear out a similar protest at Columbia University last week.

The privileged daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar amazingly claims she’s homeless and can’t get food after being kicked out of her prestigious $90,000-per-year Barnard College dorm following her arrest at last week’s anti-Israel protests on Columbia University’s campus.

Isra Hirsi, 21, and a handful of other Barnard students were slapped with suspensions after they were among the more than 100 protestors cuffed and hauled away for refusing to clear out from a tent encampment on the Ivy League school’s campus last Thursday.

“I was a little bit frantic, like, where am I going to sleep? Where am I gonna go?” she whined to Teen Vogue after learning she’d been evicted from campus housing and banned from using the dining hall.

“And also all of my s–t is thrown in a random lot. It’s pretty horrible,” said the disgraced student still supported by her Democratic “squad” member mom, who said she is ” enormously proud” of her daughter.

“I have like four shirts, two pairs of pants,” Hirsi complained. “I don’t know when I can go home, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to.”

Hirsi, who is a member of the anti-Israel student group Apartheid Divest, had already received notice of her suspension early Thursday — hours before the NYPD was called in to arrest protestors and help dismantle the anti-Israel protest encampment.

Barnard administrators had initially started warning their students late Wednesday that they risked being suspended if they didn’t clear out.

When Hirsi sought help from Barnard administration after being cut loose from jail on Thursday, she whined that she’d heard crickets.

“I sent them an email like, ‘Hey, I rely on campus for my meals, I rely on my dining plan,’ and they were like, Oh, you can come pick up a prepackaged bag of food, a full 48 hours after I was suspended,” she told the magazine.

“There was no food support, no nothing.”

Speaking about her arrest, Hirsi said she was held in custody for roughly eight hours.

“We had so many people who were born female in our group that they didn’t have enough space for us,” Hirsi told Teen Vogue of her arrest. “It was a very slow process in getting everybody into the cells.

“I was zip-tied for about seven hours and wasn’t released for about eight,” she added.

Elsewhere, she also complained about Barnard’s president, Laura Rosenbury, was taking a tougher stance on students that Columbia University.

“Only Barnard students are evicted, and I think it’s pretty crazy,” Hirsi griped.

“I think it’s really on a school-by-school basis, and Barnard has decided to take a very egregious stand against us,” she continued.

A judge accepted Donald Trump‘s $175 million bond in his civil fraud case after the former president and Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement to modify the conditions of the bond during a hearing in New York on Monday.

Judge Arthur Engoron said that so long as Trump gave Knight Specialty Insurance, a small Delaware-based insurer, exclusive access to the bank account that is serving as collateral for the bond, then the judge would approve it, according to a Law360 report.

Engoron’s decision comes after James argued in a motion that Trump did not have “sufficiently secure and ascertainable collateral backing the bond” and that Engoron should therefore reject it.

Trump was required to post the bond while he fights a judgment issued by Engoron in February that he pay $454 million in fines and interest after Engoron found Trump and Trump Organization executives liable for years of business fraud.

An appellate court recently agreed with Trump that while the former president’s appeal of the judgment remains pending, he should not have to post a bond for the full amount of the judgment but rather for $175 million. Trump had argued that he could not pay the full amount because no company would authorize a bond payment of that magnitude.

A Schwab brokerage account that Trump had control over was serving as the collateral for Knight’s bond.

“Your hypothetical is calling into question the veracity of one of the largest financial institutions in the world,” Trump’s attorney Chris Kise argued to Engoron when the judge raised questions about the bond on Monday, according to Law360.

An attorney working on behalf of James then proposed an agreement that would prevent Trump from being able to manipulate funds in the Schwab account.

Kise said he would make changes to the account access that were agreeable to James. The agreement is set to be finalized by Friday.

Trump was not present at the hearing because he was attending a concurrent court event in New York for his hush money trial, during which attorneys gave opening statements on the case.

Prior to entering the courtroom for the hush money case on Monday morning, Trump focused his attention on the forthcoming civil fraud hearing, blasting James as the “worst attorney general in the country” and criticizing Engoron.

“I just want you to know that that’s taking place in front of an extremely crazed judge who’s the most overturned judge in New York state,” Trump said.

Planet Fitness — which faced backlash for allowing a trans man to shave in the women’s locker room — hired a new boss who had required employees to undergo “unconscious bias training” and supported “hiring through a DEI lens” at her previous company.

Colleen Keating, who served as chief executive at rental service FirstKey Homes since 2020, will assume the CEO title at Planet Fitness on June 10, the company announced Tuesday.

During Keating’s tenure at the helm of FirstKey, she was a signatory to a document titled “CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge.”

The corporate executives who signed on to the pledge committed to “continually strive to diversify our workforce, hiring through a DE&I lens to find talent in multiple locations and backgrounds.”

Keating succeeds Chris Rondeau.

Shares of Planet Fitness, which has nearly 2,500 locations across the country, fell by around 1.7% Thursday afternoon.

The chain has been the subject of boycott calls after outraged patrons reported seeing unclothed trans gym-goers in the ladies’ locker room.

Planet Fitness member Patricia Silva, 67, began the uproar last month after posting a video of a trans man shaving in the women’s locker room at a Planet Fitness outpost in Alaska.

In the video, Silva said she saw a transgender person “with a penis” go near a girl who “could have been 12 years old…in a towel kind of freaked out there’s a man shaving in her locker room.”

The gym suspended Silva for breaking its policy of photographing another person at the facility.

Earlier this month, North Carolina law enforcement officials arrested 38-year-old Christopher Miller for allegedly barging into a women’s locker room at a local Planet Fitness and exposing himself while claiming that he was a woman.

Miller was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure and booked into the Gaston County jail on April 4.

Planet Fitness’s official company policy allows members to use the restroom and locker room of their self-reported gender identity, but there was no indication that Miller had identified himself as a transgender woman before venturing inside the ladies’ locker room.

Miller was ordered held on $25,000 bond.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law this week that ends teachers’ ability to abuse a book challenge law that was implemented to protect children from pornographic materials in school.

The law now significantly limits the ability of Florida residents who do not have children in the state’s education system to be able to challenge book titles.

“The idea that someone can use the parents rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book to try to make a mockery of this is just wrong,” DeSantis said the day before the bill signing. “That’s performative. That’s political.”

DeSantis said that people did not want their time wasted by the leftists who were trying to get classic books banned.

“We don’t care about your performative efforts to try to make a name for yourself, that’s not appropriate,” he said.

“So when you have some school administrators or teachers that are saying that somehow state law requires them to take classic books off the shelves, that is a lie. That is not true. That is depriving students of a valid education.”

“So I think that 90% of the things, I mean, when they would say that somehow, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ couldn’t be done when that was on the state’s summer reading list for the Florida Department of Education, don’t tell me Florida law says you can’t do that,” he said. “When they said you couldn’t do a book about Hank Aaron, when that was the Book of the Month for the Florida Department of Education, don’t tell us you can do that.”

“We’ve had one teacher put a video out, covered up every book in the classroom, ‘Oh, the state!’” DeSantis said mocking the teacher.

“You know, that’s passive aggressive nonsense, and we’re just not going to tolerate it. … Here’s a good test. If I stood here with with a photo from one of these books and you guys wouldn’t be able to put it on your air, then it’s probably not appropriate in the sixth grade classroom. I mean, that’s probably where we go.”

WATCH:

Under @GovRonDeSantis leadership, Florida will NOT stand for adults trying to weaponize kids’ education for self-promotion and political rage bait. 🔥🔥🔥

👇👀Gov. DeSantis: “Don’t weaponize these book challenges for a political agenda. We don’t have time for the nonsense. We… pic.twitter.com/lXldkL9p6F

— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) April 20, 2024

President Joe Biden on April 22 announced $7 billion in grants for residential solar projects that he says will benefit nearly 1 million households in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The president unveiled his plan while marking Earth Day during a visit to Triangle, Virginia. He delivered a speech at Prince William Forest Park, which was created by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program.

“It’s a big deal,” President Biden said of the Solar for All program.

“Millions of families will save over $400 a year in utility bills. … It will also create 200,000 good paying and union jobs for over five years.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has chosen 60 applicants to receive $7 billion in grant awards through the “Solar for All” program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The 60 chosen applications include 49 state-level awards, six awards to tribes, and five multistate awards, according to the EPA.

Speaking at the event, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the investment will help Americans save more than $8.7 billion in electric bills in total over the lifetime of the solar panels.

Americans can “cut their electric bills by 70 to 90 percent depending on solar exposure,” Mr. Sanders said.

“The problem is that in order to get those annual savings, you need to make an initial investment, and depending upon the size of your home and where you live, that investment in solar panels may be $10,000 to $20,000, which is a lot of money if you’re an average American,” he said. “That is where the Solar for All Program comes in.”

President Biden has launched the American Climate Corps—an initiative modeled after President Roosevelt’s aforementioned program—which aims to hire more than 20,000 young Americans to undertake climate-related actions, according to the White House.

During his speech, President Biden announced the opening of 2,000 job positions through the organization’s newly launched website.

Recently, the president also announced a series of conservation actions, including protecting more than 13 million acres in the western Arctic.

“Today’s historic actions to protect lands and waters in the western Arctic will ensure continued subsistence use by Alaska Native communities while conserving these special places for future generations,” John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, said in a statement on April 19.

“With these new announcements, the Biden-Harris administration has now protected more than 41 million acres of lands and waters across the country, leaving a huge mark on the history of American conservation.”

During his speech, President Biden also highlighted his administration’s climate initiatives.

“Folks, despite the overwhelming devastation, in red and blue states, there are still those who deny the climate is in crisis. My MAGA Republican friends don’t seem to think it’s in crisis,” he said.

He criticized Republicans for trying to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.

“This work has never been more urgent. Climate change is the existential crisis of our time; no one can deny its impacts and staggering costs anymore,” he said in a proclamation for Earth Day issued on April 19.

“Climate change is a global issue. Certainly, no one nation can tackle the climate crisis alone; we have to work together. On my first day in office, I immediately rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, reclaiming American leadership in this critical work.”

Earth Day was first observed nationwide on April 22, 1970. Sen. Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, introduced the idea to raise awareness about environmental issues.

Inspired by 1960s activism, particularly the anti-Vietnam War “teach-ins,” Mr. Nelson proposed the idea to mobilize public support for environmental protection and to push for policy action at the national level.

That same year, Republican President Richard M. Nixon signed an executive order in July founding the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress then approved the creation of the agency, which opened in December 1970.

The head of Israeli military intelligence on Monday announced his resignation more than six months after the massive intelligence failure preceding Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Major General Aharon Haliva is the first senior Israeli Defense Forces officer and high-level government official to resign as a result of its failure to prevent Hamas’ attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis and led to another 240 being taken hostage.

Haliva’s resignation is expected to expedite the resignations of other senior officials in the IDF, as well as the Shin Bet security agency and the political echelon.

In his resignation letter delivered to IDF chief of staff Gen. Herzi Halevi on Monday, Haliva wrote that the military intelligence branch under his command didn’t fulfill its mission.

Haliva wrote that he’s taking responsibility for the failure in general — but didn’t specify what his failures were or what mistakes he made.

“I am convinced that for the sake of the state of Israel and for the Israeli people and the next generations, it will be the right thing to do to form a national commission of inquiry that will be able to investigate and thoroughly and comprehensively determine all the reasons and circumstances that led to these terrible events,” he wrote in Hebrew.

Haliva said he will stay in office until his successor is appointed and after an orderly transition process.

Major General Yehuda Fuchs, commander of the IDF Central Command, also notified the IDF chief of staff on Monday of his intention to end his service at the end of his three-year term in August.

Fuchs, who is in charge of the West Bank, wasn’t directly involved in the Oct. 7 failure.

Haliva was one of the top officials who claimed after the May 2021 war in Gaza that Hamas had been deterred and didn’t want another war with Israel for the foreseeable future.

Although Israeli military intelligence managed to get the Hamas war plans more than a year before the attack, Haliva and other senior intelligence officials treated them as “aspirational,” and didn’t order the military intelligence to take further action or build an early warning model that would help prevent an attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only senior official who still hasn’t taken responsibility for the failures surrounding Oct. 7.

Netanyahu and his supporters in the Israeli media have been focusing their criticism over the last six months on Haliva and other senior intelligence and security officials in an attempt to present the failure as being mostly a military one.

Some 127million people in China are on alert after deadly ‘once in a century’ floods killed at least four people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.

Violent storms have battered southern China since Thursday, state media said today, with 11 people missing amid the torrential downpours that have submerged cities, swept away cars and lashed a region dubbed the ‘factory floor of the world’.

Heavy rain has descended upon the vast southern province of Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers by up to seven metres and raising fears of severe flooding that local media said could be of the sort only ‘seen around once a century’.

‘Three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing City while the remaining one is a rescuer in Shaoguan City,’ state news agency Xinhua reported, citing local authorities.

Ten others remain missing as search and rescue efforts in the area continue to be carried out, Xinhua added.

China is no stranger to extreme weather but recent years have seen the country hit by severe floods, grinding droughts and record heat.

Across the province, 36 houses collapsed while 48 were severely damaged, resulting in a direct economic loss of nearly 140.6 million yuan, Xinhua reported.

More than 110,000 people have been relocated across Guangdong, according to the news site.

Of those, more than 45,000 were evacuated from the northern city of Qingyuan, which straddles the banks of the Bei River, a tributary in the wider Pearl River Delta, state media reported Sunday.

The authorities said the river was expected to reach levels not seen in 50 years.

Terrifying footage shared on state media and online show large swathes of land submerged in murky waters as rescuers were seen ferrying people on lifeboats in the waist-deep floods.

Other images show muddy waters engulfing shops, homes, and farmland areas of Guangdong as birds-eye photos of the province show a concrete jungle drowning in flood waters.

On Monday, authorities raced to rescue villagers caught in landslides and to evacuate trapped residents, dispatching helicopters and carrying the elderly on their backs through the deluge from their homes.

Others remained on the upper floors of their houses, waiting for the waters to recede as friends delivered food by boat.

Residents were seen climbing with suitcases and children off of rubber boats as they made a desperate attempt to reach safety as the freak weather unleashed its hell upon the province.

In another image of the aftermath, a vehicle was seen crushed by a fallen tree as destruction unravelled across the province.

Footage captured on Saturday showed a bridge crumbling and collapsing into a river as punishing winds blitzed through the area.

Hailstones with diameters of up to 3cm have also been seen shooting down from the grey skies – smashing through the roofs of houses causing major chaos and destruction.

A number of major rivers have burst their banks, with authorities claiming they are now closely monitoring ‘ dangerously high’ water levels.

Guangdong province in #China is facing severe floods due to heavy rain, prompting the evacuation of 110,000 people. Four lives lost, 10 missing. Rivers overflow as officials monitor a potential “once in 100 years” water level peak. The low-lying Pearl River delta remains at high… pic.twitter.com/zgovXy8XQZ

— WorldNews (@FirstWorldNewss) April 22, 2024

China is facing the worst flooding of the last 50 years, reportedly 150 million people were badly affected by the flood. pic.twitter.com/ptyYzj9sYp

— Islam (@AqssssFajr) April 22, 2024

Across the province, around 1.16million households lost power over the weekend, but 80 per cent had their electricity restored by Sunday.

Flights have been cancelled and delayed at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou due to continuous rain, while schools have been ordered shut in at least three cities.

Heavy rain is expected to continue throughout Monday, with meteorological authorities forecasting ‘thunderstorms and strong winds in Guangdong’s coastal waters’ – a stretch of sea bordering major cities including Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Authorities warned that the level of a river in northern Guangdong could hit a ‘once in 100 years’ peak on Monday morning, though this had yet to materialise by noon.

They have also taken pre-emptive steps of draining excessive water levels from reservoirs as the flood levels continue to rise.

Neighbouring provinces, including parts of Fujian, Guizhou and Guangxi, will also be affected by ‘short-term heavy rainfall’, the National Meteorological Centre said.

‘It is expected that the main impact period of strong convection will last from daytime until night,’ it added.

Authorities on Monday issued a yellow alert for rainstorms – the second-lowest in its four-tier system – with high levels of precipitation expected to continue across large swathes of the country.

Guangdong province is China’s densely populated manufacturing heartland, home to around 127million people who now remain on high alert following the disaster weather.

Rabbi Eli Buechler, the director of the OU-JLIC at Columbia/Barnard, is urging students to leave campus and go home due to growing threats of anti-Jewish violence by pro-Hamas provocateurs on the university’s campus.

The move comes after Jewish students and the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University were forced to leave the campus for their safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration on Motzei Shabbos. The protesters, who had erected 60 tents on campus on Wednesday, chanted anti-Israel slogans and threatened violence against Jewish students.

According to video footage posted on social media, the protesters attempted to break through the campus gate, chanting “Break da lock,” “Someone torch it,” and “Pick the lock.” They also shouted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution.”

Outside of Columbia University tonight:
Agitators call for an ‘intifada revolution’—a return to a period marked by suicide bombings, shootings and stabbings inside of buses, cafes, hotels and nightclubs. pic.twitter.com/QXs6swBCEV

— The Israel Files (@theisraelfiles) April 18, 2024

The protesters targeted Jewish students, calling them “Al-Qassam’s next targets” in reference to the military wing of Hamas. One protester yelled, “Remember the 7th of October!” – a reference to the Hamas massacre of October 7 – and threatened that it would happen “10,000 times.”

Heard outside Columbia University last night: “Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not 1 more time, not 5 more times, not 10, not 100, not 1,000, but 10,000 times! The 7th of October is going to be every day for you” pic.twitter.com/7rYJTwlz4x

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) April 19, 2024

The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association wrote to university president Minouche Shafik, warning that the ongoing protests were creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students and that violence was likely. They called on Shafik to take “all possible steps to protect Jewish safety.”

The university has faced heavy criticism for its handling of the situation. A congressional hearing on Wednesday highlighted the issue, with several congressmen criticizing the university for allowing professors who have celebrated the October 7 attack to continue teaching.

The university claims that it is balancing free speech and the right to protest with the need to protect Jewish students’ safety. However, it is obvious to everyone that more needs to be done to address the issue of antisemitism on campus.

The share of voters who say they have high interest in the 2024 election has hit a nearly 20-year low at this point in a presidential race, according to the latest national NBC News poll, with majorities holding negative views of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The poll also shows Biden trimming Trump’s previous lead to just 2 points in a head-to-head contest, an improvement within the margin of error compared to the previous survey, as Biden bests Trump on the issues of abortion and uniting the country, while Trump is ahead on competency and dealing with inflation.

And it finds inflation and immigration topping the list of most important issues facing the country, as just one-third of voters give Biden credit for an improving economy.

But what also stands out in the survey is how the low voter interest and the independent candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could scramble what has been a stable presidential contest with more than six months until Election Day. While Trump holds a 2-point edge over Biden head to head, Biden leads Trump by 2 points in a five-way ballot test including Kennedy and other third-party candidates.

“I don’t think Biden has done much as a president. And if Trump gets elected, I just feel like it’s going to be the same thing as it was before Biden got elected,” said poll respondent Devin Fletcher, 37, of Wayne, Michigan, a Democrat who said he’s still voting for Biden.

“I just don’t feel like I have a candidate that I’m excited to vote for,” Fletcher added.

Another poll respondent from New Jersey, who declined to provide her name and voted for Biden in 2020, said she wouldn’t be voting in November.

“Our candidates are horrible. I have no interest in voting for Biden. He did nothing. And I absolutely will not vote for Trump,” she said.

Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, said, “Americans don’t agree on much these days, but nothing unites the country more than voters’ desire to tune this election out.”

The poll was conducted April 12-16, during yet another turbulent time in American politics, including the beginning of Trump’s criminal trial in New York and new attacks and heightened tensions in the Middle East.

According to the poll, 64% of registered voters say they have high levels of interest in November’s election — registering either a “9” or a 10” on a 10-point scale of interest.

That’s lower than what the NBC News poll showed at this time in the 2008 (74%), 2012 (67%), 2016 (69%) and 2020 (77%) presidential contests.

The question dates to the 2008 election cycle. The lowest level of high election interest in the poll during a presidential cycle was in March 2012 — at 59%. But it quickly ticked up in the next survey.

This election cycle, high interest has been both low and relatively flat for months, according to the poll.

McInturff, the Republican pollster, says the high level of interest in the poll has “always been a signal for the level of turnout” for a presidential contest.

“It makes it very hard for us to predict turnout this far in advance of November, but every signal is turnout will be a lower percentage of eligible voters than in 2020,” he said.

By party, the current poll shows 70% of self-identified Republicans saying they have high interest in the coming election, compared with 65% of Democrats who say so.

Independents are at 48%, while only 36% of voters ages 18 to 34 rate themselves as highly interested in the election.

“They just aren’t low interest,” McInturff said of young voters. “They are off-the-charts low.”

An intruder was arrested after breaking in to the Los Angeles mayor’s official residence early Sunday morning, officials say.

The break-in happened around 6:40 a.m. at the Getty House residence in Hancock Park, according to the office of Mayor Karen Bass.

“This morning at about 6:40 AM, an intruder broke into Getty House through a window,” according to a statement from Deputy Mayor Zach Seidl.

“Mayor Bass and her family were not injured and are safe. The Mayor is grateful to LAPD for responding and arresting the suspect.”

LAPD confirmed details, saying the person “smashed a window to gain entry into the Getty House while occupied.” LAPD officers responded and took the suspect into custody without incident.

Bass was home when the male intruder broke in, law enforcement officials told ABC News. An alarm was activated at the home and a large LAPD presence responded, including air support and the mayor’s security detail. The suspect was arrested within minutes of the call.

No further details were available about the intruder’s identity or how he was able to bypass security measures at the residence.

The incident comes as crime continues to rise amid the LA district attorney’s soft-on-crime approach to court cases.

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón barred prosecutors from pursuing advanced punishments for gang members.

A former senior policy adviser to the Obama administration has appeared in court in Britain charged with child sex offences.

Rahamim ‘Rami’ Shy, 46, who co-ordinated the US government’s strategy to combat terrorists from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, is accused of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, court documents reveal.

He is also charged with possession of two category C indecent images of children and possessing a prohibited image of a child.

Shy, a US citizen, who lives in New Jersey, worked for the White House under president Barack Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, was arrested in late February by Bedfordshire Police. He was charged the following day and appeared at Luton Crown Court via video-link from HMP Bedford on Friday wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit.

He was not asked to enter a plea to any of the charges and was remanded in custody ahead of a hearing in June.

Most recently employed as an executive at banking group Citi, Shy worked in a senior role at the US Treasury department from 2008 to 2014, advising officials on countering the financing of terrorism and assisting foreign governments to impose sanctions on hostile regimes.

As well as working as a senior adviser to the late US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who served under the last three Democrat presidents, Shy provided strategic policy analysis to chiefs of staff at the US Department of Defence.

He was deployed to Afghanistan to provide expertise to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was set up to maintain stability following the America-led invasion of the country.

According to his LinkedIn page, Shy provided ISAF with counter- terrorist finance expertise and went on to present the US’s strategy on Afghanistan to a congressional hearing in 2010.

Shy was a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey and went on to study international security policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in New York.

A spokesman from Citi said that Shy was no longer an employee at the banking group. Shy is due to go on trial in August.