Meet NPR's New CEO Katherine Maher (2024)

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 weekwrotea 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 thenchimedin 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 sh*te. 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 LinkedInprofile. 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,accordingto Middle Tennessee State University. Since then, the organization has faced criticism of being politically biased from both liberals and conservatives.

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Seven New Yorkers have so far been picked to serve as jurors on former President Trump’s hush money trial, the first criminal case of any U.S. president in history.

The judge, along with prosecutors and Trump’s defense team, whittled down an initial group of 96 potential jurors starting Monday afternoon. They answered a questionnaire asking them about everything from where they lived to what news they consumed.

More than half of that initial group was immediately dismissed after raising their hands to indicate they could not be fair or impartial, in a show of the trial’s political divisiveness.

The jurors who serve on the trial are to be anonymous to the press and to the public, but general descriptions of each one are public, thanks to reporters posted up in and around the courtroom who witnessed the juror selection process.

There will be a total of 12 jurors picked, with at least six alternates to serve on the trial, which is expected to last six to eight weeks.

Here’s a look at who has been chosen to serve on the trial so far.

First juror, foreperson: A man who is originally from Ireland and now lives in West Harlem. He works in sales and gets his news from The New York Times, the Daily Mail, Fox News and MSNBC. He will serve as the foreperson.

Second juror: A woman who is a native New Yorker and has been an oncology nurse for 15 years. She spends her free time with family and friends and taking her dog to the park.

Third juror: A young to middle-aged Asian man who lives in Chelsea and grew up in Oregon. He is a corporate attorney.

Fourth juror: A middle-aged man born in Puerto Rico who has lived on the Lower East Side for more than 40 years. He told the court he has “no spare time” for hobbies and is self-employed. His wife is a writer and child works in sales and research.

Fifth juror: A younger Black woman and Harlem native who has taught English Language and Arts for eight years. She has never been married and has no children, and she said she considers herself a creative at heart.

Sixth juror: A Disney employee who was previously a student. She has three roommates and is unmarried without children.

Seventh juror: Lives on the Upper East Side but is originally from North Carolina. He is a civil litigator married with two children. He gets his news from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Washington Post, WNYC and listens to podcasts “SmartLess” and “Car Talk.”

The court will reconvene Thursday to consider the selection of the remaining jurors. The judge indicated that process could wrap up by the end of this week.

He told the first set of jurors not to return until Monday, suggesting that day would be the start of opening statements.

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On Tuesday, the GOP-led House transmitted impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis to the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The House managers tasked with prosecuting the case were introduced in the Senate chamber and Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), who is the lead manager, read aloud the text of the impeachment resolution.

WATCH: House impeachment managers deliver articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the U.S. Senate. pic.twitter.com/dNCsJ3Qgeu

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 16, 2024

A trial is expected to begin Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET with senators sworn in as jurors. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray (D-WA) has been selected to preside over the proceedings.

GOP lawmakers are concerned that Democrats, who have long called the impeachment inquiry a “political stunt,” will try to cut short the process before a vote on whether to convict or acquit Mayorkas.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has so far not said whether there will be an effort to table or dismiss the impeachment charges.

Last week, after the House delayed the delivery of the articles, Schumer said the Senate is “ready to go whenever the House is. We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible.” The top Democrat also said impeachment “should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That sets an awful precedent.”

House Republicans are “demanding” a full trial, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a post to X on Tuesday, adding that Mayorkas is the “worst” Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.

Forty-three GOP senators signed onto a letter sent to Schumer that called on the Senate to “uphold its constitutional responsibility to properly adjudicate” the impeachment articles. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he would “strenuously oppose any effort” to table the charges, noting the upper chamber has never agreed to do so in the past.

After months of investigation, the House narrowly passed two impeachment articles in February. They accuse Mayorkas of “willfully and systemically” refusing to comply with federal immigration laws and allege he “breached the public trust” with false statements and obstructing lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Mayorkas has pushed back against what he called “false accusations” levied against him. A DHS spokesperson reacted to the successful House impeachment vote by saying, “House Republicans will be remembered by history for trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border.”

If a full trial does get held, a two-thirds vote will be required for a conviction, which would lead to removal from office. That appears unlikely, however, particularly given not every Republican senator appears to favor the impeachment effort.

The Senate currently has 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and three independents who caucus with the Democrats.

One GOP defector could be Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who told Axios he does not “believe there’s a constitutional standard met.” Romney also said he would be “open” to tabling the impeachment articles if there is at least some debate on them.

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A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Tuesday of the government’s broad reading of a statute used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, as well as former President Donald trump.

Joseph Fischer, the defendant in the case Fischer v. United States, argued that the statute he was charged under, Section 1512(c)(2), was expanded beyond its intended purpose of targeting crimes of evidence tampering. Multiple conservative justices pressed Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar on whether the government’s interpretation of the statute, which enabled it to charge Fischer and others for obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, would sweep in a range of other protest activities.

“Would a sit in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify?” Justice Neil Gorsuch asked. “Would a heckler in today’s audience qualify or at the State of the Union address?”

The statue threatens to levy up to 20 years in prison against anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.”

The Supreme Court’s decision could impact not only hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, but also Trump’s election interference case. Two of the charges in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump center on the statute.

Smith’s indictment argued that Trump employed “knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified.”

Multiple Jan. 6 defendants charged under Section 1512(c)(2) have already been granted early release in light of the Supreme Court taking up the case, including Kevin Seefried, Alexander Sheppard and Thomas B. Adams Jr., according to The Washington Post.

Gorsuch asked whether pulling a fire alarm before a vote would also qualify for 20 years in prison under the statute, a likely reference to Democratic New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s September decision to pull a fire alarm before a House vote on a GOP funding package to prevent a government shutdown.

Bowman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of D.C. code related to the offense in October.

Prelogar said “multiple elements of the statute” might not be satisfied by Gorsuch’s scenarios, noting the government would need to prove the defendant acted corruptly and with the intent of obstructing the proceeding.

Things aren’t going so well for Biden’s case in reference to Jan 6th. Justices Gorsuch & Alito just destroyed the entire foundation of Biden’s DOJ case against J6 protesters 🫤 Listen in….it’s beautiful.💯 pic.twitter.com/BY7L0sxGc6

— 🇺🇸The_Badged_Patriot🇺🇸 (@Badged_Patriot) April 16, 2024

Justice Samuel Alito similarly questioned whether the statute could be used to charge someone in the courtroom who shouted during oral arguments, delaying the proceeding by five minutes.

“We don’t think that 1512(c)2) two picks up minimal, de minimis minor interferences,” Prelogar said.

Of nearly 1,387 Jan. 6 defendants, over 353 have been charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding,” according to the DOJ.

Justice Clarence Thomas asked when the government has applied the statute to other protests in the past.

Preloager said the DOJ has not limited the statute’s use solely to crimes of evidence impairment, but noted she is not aware of a similar circ*mstance “ever happening prior to Jan. 6.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett seemed amenable to a more middle of the road solution. Barrett questioned whether the statute could be used to charge defendants for trying to “obstruct the arrival of the certificates arriving to the Vice President’s desk for counting,” noting they would still be interfering with evidence in that hypothetical.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson likewise suggested the government may still be able to charge defendants if they limited the statute in this manner, clarifying that it applies to conduct that would obstruct an official proceeding “insofar as it is directed to preventing access to information or documents or records or things that the official proceeding will use.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan appeared more sympathetic to the government’s position. Kagan noted there has never “been a situation like this with people attempting to stop a proceeding violently.”

“So I’m not sure what a lack of history proves,” she said.

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House Republicans’ dissatisfaction with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is rapidly growing as Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Jim Banks (R-IN) are sharing their frustrations about what Banks called “insanity” in Johnson’s foreign aid framework, which includes over three times as much money for Ukraine as it does for Israel while neglecting the U.S. Southern border.

Perry took to X Tuesday to share an image of the framework, showing the bills allocate $48.83 billion to Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel, $2.4 billion for “Red Sea Operations,” $2.58 billion for “INDOPACOM,” and $3.3 billion for a “Submarine Industrial Base.”

Notice anything missing? @SpeakerJohnson failed to incorporate any border security into any of the FOUR of the bills he’s going to ram down our throats this week.

On more than half a dozen occasions in the last six months, he promised the American People this wouldn’t happen. pic.twitter.com/0QJJyw90hQ

— Rep. Scott Perry (@RepScottPerry) April 16, 2024

“Notice anything missing?” wrote Perry. Speaker Johnson “failed to incorporate any border security into any of the FOUR of the bills he’s going to ram down our throats this week.”

“On more than half a dozen occasions in the last six months, he promised the American People this wouldn’t happen,” Perry added.

Sharing Perry’s tweet, Banks called the package “Insanity,” emphasizing the plan would send three times as much money to Ukraine as it does Israel while simultaneously neglecting the U.S. Southern border.

Perry and Banks’ criticism of the four bills comes as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who filed a motion to vacate against Johnson ahead of Easter break, and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) signaled opposition to the multiple-impact reentry vehicles rule (MIRV) that Johnson seeks to merge the bills.

“Israel funding should not be held hostage by Ukraine funding. The American people deserve to know where their senators stand on each funding component,” Biggs wrote in a post on X

“MIRV—the process used to merge the bills—is about as ridiculous as ranked choice voting. The least popular option is the one that wins,” he added.

Greene declared she would vote against the rule, and with just a one-seat majority and growing Republican opposition, Johnson would need help from Democrats to get the rule passed to unlock votes for the aid.

Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) became a cosponsor of Greene’s motion to vacate the chair on Tuesday and urged the speaker to resign in the morning.

I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the Motion to Vacate that was introduced by @RepMTG.

He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024

After Massie announced on X that he advised Johnson to resign and that he was behind Greene’s motion to vacate, American Tribune co-founder Jason Robertson asked Massie, “What was the straw that broke the Camel’s Back? FISA? Foreign War Funding? Spending more than Nancy Pelosi? All of the above?”

Whoa. What was the straw that broke the Camel’s Back?

FISA? Foreign War Funding? Spending more than Nancy Pelosi?

All of the above?

— Jason Robertson (@JRobFromMN) April 16, 2024

“All of the above,” Massie replied. “This camel has a pallet of bricks.”

However, a defiant Johnson declared he would not step down in the afternoon.

“I am not resigning, and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson declared.

As Greene’s motion to vacate is not privileged, the House does not need to take it up immediately. Greene can make it privileged whenever she likes, which would force the House to consider it within two days.

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There were shocking scenes on the streets of New York City on Monday as Palestinian activists set fire to an American flag being held by Israel supporters while chanting ‘Death to America!’ right under the noses of the NYPD.

There were audible gasps as the Stars and Stripes being held by a pro-Israel counter-protestor was set alight and then waved in the air – as bright yellow flames could be seen coming from the flag.

Police officers stationed at the protest outside the New York Stock Exchange could be seen wrestling the flag and stamping out the fire as it was brought to the ground.

Moments later, a fellow protestor could be heard yelling ‘Death to America’.

Police officers appeared oblivious to what was happening right in front of them and in video footage appears to have little drive to chase down the man who shouted the offending phrase.

Watch:

🚨NY🚨 Someone sets an American flag on fire & a pro-Hamas supporter chants “Death to America.” pic.twitter.com/NNmJtMTuHV

— Stella Escobedo (@StellaEscoTV) April 16, 2024

The shocking sights were part of a day of planned protest across the country that saw activists block the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and roads to the Chicago O’Hare Airport in a coordinated attempt to bring America to its knees and cause maximum inconvenience.

Outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, another protester burned an American flag to cinders amid cheers of jubilation on Monday. In the background, a man chants: ‘America falls today. America falls now. America will forever fall.’

On Monday afternoon, more anti-Israel protestors took to the Brooklyn Bridge and were seen walking through traffic, chanting, banging drums and igniting flares.

New York Police made numerous arrests, saying 150 protesters were initially involved in the march around 3:15pm, but that number quickly grew. The bridge was fully reopened by 5pm.

Pro-Palestinian protesters used Monday’s tax day as a way to make a statement in a nationwide ‘A15’ protest.

The economic blockade was scheduled in solidarity with Palestine and called for an arms embargo and an end to US taxpayer funding for Israel.

Other protests broke out on Monday morning on a Philadelphia intersection and on Highway 880 in Oakland, California.

NOW: A protester sets an American flag on fire outside Brooklyn Borough Hall as protesters rally on the steps pic.twitter.com/aZy7ZzqDzP

— katie smith (@probablyreadit) April 15, 2024

Videos shared on X showed protestors with keffiyeh scarves on their necks and head as they shouted: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’

Some of the demonstrators were seen holding up signs while others marched and waved colored smoke in the air. Cars stuck on the bridge honked at them as the protestors walked in front of vehicles.

Demonstrators were also seen igniting flares before they tossed them into the east river. Police on bicycles managed to arrest some of the participants on the pedestrian walkway.

Nerdeen Kiwanis, an organizer from Within our Lifetime, told Abc7: ‘We don’t want our tax dollars to fund genocide. There’s a strike happening all across the country today.’

Other videos showed the New York protestors flooding subways, streets and Borough Hall as they waved Palestinian flags around.

Video of the dramatic scene in the Bay Area showed a large group of police standing in front of the stuck vehicles as protestors held up a large sign that said: ‘Stop the world for Gaza.’

Lines of backed up cars were seen as drivers hopped out and leaned against their vehicles during the travel nightmare that blocked the bridge for about five hours.

Some people were seen being arrested by police on the bridge, but it is unclear if they were involved in the protest. Others chained themselves to vehicles.

The multiple protests come just after Iran attacked Israel in a 350-missile airstrike early Sunday.

The attack has since been described as a ‘declaration of war’ as Israel’s president Isaac Herzog insisted that Israel did not want a war, but suggested they would retaliate after Iran’s audacious airstrike.

On Monday, around 8.23am, protestors sat in the middle of the Kennedy Expressway, linked to each other with PVC pipes and blocked the highway leading to O’Hare airport.

Frustrated travelers hopped out of their vehicles and trekked 20 minutes to make their flights in time.

Dramatic footage of the blockade showed dozens chanting ‘Palestine will be free! Free, free Palestine!’ with a loud drum roll in the background.

All lanes on I-90 were blocked between Bessie Coleman Drive and the airport, but according to O’Hare International Airport, inbound traffic later resumed.

‘Allow extra time if traveling to the airport this morning,’ the airport said in a post on X at around 8.30am on Monday.

The demonstrators stalled rows of traffic as some drivers were seen sitting on top of their cars. Law enforcement vehicles were present at the scene.

Many of the protestors were seen wearing keffiyeh scarves as they chanted and waved signs that read ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Stop Genocide.’

As they chanted, angry drivers started to blast their horns, while other got out of their vehicles and hopped the guardrail to make it to their flights.

The protest, which was organized by Chicago Dissenters, said that they decided to block the airport because it is ‘one of the largest in the country’ that should not be in business ‘while Palestinians suffer at the hands of American funded bombing by Israel.’

They decided to target the airport in an attempt to ‘disrupt Boeing’s operations,’ because the airplane manufacturer is ‘sending fighter jets and bombs to support Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.’

‘ON THIS TAX DAY, THERE WILL BE NO BUSINESS AS USUAL WHILE GAZANS ARE DYING,’ the group said in an Instagram post.

One angry female traveler raised her middle finger at the protestors as walked to the airport and shouted: ‘F*** you!’

Another passenger was seen pushing a protestor as he hurled his bags over the guardrail.

As people walked out of the cars, the protestors guided them to the side of the road, and instructed them to exit that way.

‘We have protestors putting their body on the line, they will not move until they are physically removed,’ an organizer said in a video.

The group also posted a picture of a map that showed the congestion on the road as they blocked traffic and said: ‘It’s day 191 of the genocide in Gaza and we are shutting sh** down.’

People took to social media and commented on the protest as one said: ‘It’s past time to criminalize obstructing interstate highways. 30 days in county jail is more than appropriate,’ and tagged Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

Others commented on police officers doing ‘nothing.’

A person commented: ‘Why do the cops just stand there, every time, and allow these upsets? Every. Single. Time.’

Around 8.15am, protestors were arrested in Philadelphia after they took over the intersection of Market Street and Schuylkill Avenue in Center City.

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Boeing engineer Sam Salehpour said in a Tuesday interview that he thinks all 787 jets should be grounded to allow for proper safety checks of the plane, which has come under fire in recent months following a slew of incidents.

The new interview — which will air in full Tuesday on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” — comes one day before Salehpour’s scheduled testimony before Congress about the safety concerns at Boeing that he laid out in a complaint filed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier this year.

“The entire fleet worldwide, as far as I’m concerned right now, needs attention,” Salehpour said in a preview of the interview NBC News released Tuesday, when asked about the 787 plane model specifically.

EXCLUSIVE TONIGHT ON #NN: Sam Salehpour, a current Boeing engineer, tells @tomcostellonbc that he became alarmed by what he was seeing in the production of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Boeing has insisted that the 787 is safe and shows zero signs of fatigue. pic.twitter.com/ji*zQtc6l9C

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) April 16, 2024

“And the attention is, you need to check your gaps and make sure that you don’t have potential for premature failure,” he added.

In a letter addressed to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker in January, attorneys for Salehpour said the Boeing engineer “repeatedly reported to Boeing management serious concerns about Boeing’s current production and quality control processes, which he believes are creating potentially catastrophic safety risks.”

The letter outlined problems with the production of the company’s 787 and 777 jets, saying specifically that sections of the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner are improperly fastened together and could break after thousands of trips. Salehpour told the agency these issues were the result of changes to the fitting and fastening of sections in the assembly line and alleged that the concerns were brushed off.

“I have come forward, and I have extended my neck,” Salehpour said in the interview. “But you know, I’m at peace with myself. Because this is going to save a lot of people’s lives.”

A Boeing spokesperson pushed back on Salehpour’s allegations, telling The Hill that Salehpour’s claims about the 787 were “inaccurate” and not representative of the “comprehensive work” that Boeing does to ensure the safety of the aircraft.

“We are fully confident in the 787 Dreamliner,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement. “The issues raised have been subject to rigorous engineering examination under FAA oversight. This analysis has validated that these issues do not present any safety concerns and the aircraft will maintain its service life over several decades.”

The spokesperson also said that while there have been changes to the 787 manufacturing process over the years, they were not the cause of the issues that Salehpour alleged.

The Senate Commerce Committee will hear testimony on Wednesday from Salehpour and three aviation experts, some of whom were involved in a February report that criticized Boeing’s safety culture as “inadequate and confusing.”

The report outlined 50 recommendations to Boeing and said the manufacturer should review and come up with a plan to address the issues within half a year. The experts said the plan should be shared with the FAA, which published the report.

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The Israeli military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire on Tuesday, with the terror group launching two attack drones at northern Israel as two top commanders behind recent attacks were killed in separate airstrikes.

Three people were lightly hurt in the Hezbollah drone attack, according to media reports and local authorities.

The Israel Defense Forces said the two explosive-laden drones struck areas near the northern community of Beit Hillel.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an Iron Dome battery in the area. The terror group has made similar claims in recent months, which have been dismissed by the IDF as empty boasts.

The IDF said it was investigating why sirens did not sound during the attack.

Footage circulating on social media purported to show one of the drones flying over the Galilee Panhandle.

Footage circulating on social media shows a drone flying over the Galilee Panhandle, with initial reports saying it exploded in the Beit Hillel area. The IDF has not yet commented on the incident. pic.twitter.com/xeKURvg3vF

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 16, 2024

Shortly after the drone attack, Lebanese media reported that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the Israel border.

The IDF later confirmed it had carried out the strike, saying it targeted and killed the commander of Hezbollah’s coastal region.

Ismail Yousef Baz, whose rank is equivalent to a brigade commander, was “a senior and veteran official in the military wing of Hezbollah,” holding several positions, the latest being the commander of the coastal region, the army said.

“As part of his position, he was involved in advancing and planning rocket and anti-tank missile launches towards the State of Israel from the coastal area in Lebanon,” it said.

بالفيديو – السيارة المُستهدفة في بلدة عين بعال pic.twitter.com/2Kr3DpDf5W

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) April 16, 2024

“During the war, he organized and planned a number of terror attacks against Israel,” the IDF added.

Hezbollah announced Baz’s death, saying he was killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes. The terror group did not refer to him as a commander.

Since October 8, Hezbollah has attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a daily basis with rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and other means, saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. The group is an Iranian proxy in Lebanon, and Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are backed by Iran.

Baz was the sixth Hezbollah officer with a rank equivalent to a brigade commander to be killed by Israel in recent months, according to the IDF. The military has said that more than 30 Hezbollah commanders have been killed in its strikes in the past six months.

Hours later, another drone strike was reported by Lebanese media on a vehicle in the town of Chehabiyeh, killing two members of Hezbollah.

The IDF later took responsibility for the strike, saying it had targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force.

Muhammad Shahouri, according to the IDF, was the commander of Radwan’s western district rocket unit.

Shahouri was killed while driving in the village of Kfar Dounine, adjacent to Chehabiyeh, the military said, publishing footage of the strike.

Guerra en el frente norte, Líbano
🇮🇱🔥🇱🇧
Ismail Yousef Baz, Comandante de la Brigada de la Costa, de Hezbollah, fue sorprendido y eliminado mientras conducía un automóvil en la localidad de Ain Baal, cerca de la Ciudad de Tiro. pic.twitter.com/Fv6OBunGGT

— Israel Defensa (Ñ) 🇮🇱 (@Defensa_Israel) April 16, 2024

The IDF said Shahouri was “responsible for the planning and execution of many rocket [attacks] toward the Israeli home front,” from the western and central areas of southern Lebanon.

Alongside Shahouri, another Hezbollah commander, Mahmoud Fadlallah, was killed in the strike. The IDF said he was also a member of Hezbollah’s rocket unit.

Hezbollah announced both their deaths.

السيارة المستهدفة بالغارة بين بلدتي الشهابية وكفردونين pic.twitter.com/frKV6MLpdv

— 🇱🇧BASSEM DHAYNI🇱🇧 (@BassemDhayni) April 16, 2024

The IDF said Tuesday it had also carried out strikes against buildings used by Hezbollah and where operatives were gathered in the towns of Ain Baal, Aalma ash-Shab, Hanine, and Yaroun.

The IDF said several rockets were fired at northern Israel throughout the day, causing no injuries.

It added that troops had shelled the launch sites with artillery.

Israel has threatened to go to war to force Hezbollah away from the border if it does not retreat and continues to threaten northern communities, from where some 70,000 people were evacuated to avoid the fighting.

So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in eight civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 278 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 54 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 60 civilians have been killed.

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Torrential rain and violent thunderstorms have brought apocalyptic scenes to Dubai with parts of the UAE brought to a standstill by heavy flooding.

Video shows luxury cars submerged in deep water and waves buffeting the traffic while high-end muscle cars and Teslas were seen struggling through the floods as city authorities advised people to stay home.

More than 4.7ins (120mm) of rain has already fallen today – the typical yearly average in the city – with more expected in the coming hours.

Nearly 50 flights in and out of Dubai have been cancelled since this morning, with shocking video showing several jets cutting through murky water at Dubai International Airport, the busiest for international travel.

Flood water cascaded through luxury underground malls while shoppers in designer clothes waded through water.

Above ground, howling winds blew furniture off tower-block balconies while the skies turned black with apocalyptic videos showing lightning strikes every few seconds.

Unstable weather conditions are expected to continue in the region through to Wednesday, UAE’s National Center of Meteorology said.

A clip shared on Twitter/X showed an entrepreneur trapped in his Rolls Royce in Dubai as deep water flooded the road.

‘My Rolls Royce got flooded and we’re stuck in the middle of the road in Dubai,’ he wrote.

‘Just like all my friends in crypto… today I am underwater,’ he posted in a follow-up.

my rolls royce got flooded and we’re stuck in the middle of the road in dubai 🙃 pic.twitter.com/3A9BPjusua

— Jordan Welch (@jrdnwelch) April 16, 2024

Underground, video showed water crashing through the ceiling of a Flying Tiger as shops began to flood and infrastructure buckle under the pressure.

This Flying Tiger looks like a Swimming Tiger #Dubai pic.twitter.com/PCYn5PuyWE

— What? (@thedamnwhat) April 16, 2024

Products were blasted out across the shop floor as water poured from the ceiling, bystanders helpless to act.

Bus services were promptly set up after water rushed into the Onpassive Metro station, causing severe disruptions.

Video shared online showed people wading through ankle-deep water, many removing their shoes to trudge through the flooded station.

Above the city, Dubai’s skies – usually electric blue and cloudless – darkened to night-like conditions in mid-afternoon as a second storm front blew in.

Lightning flashed across the sky earlier today, occasionally touching the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

And patio furniture was seen falling from high-rise buildings as strong winds rocked the city through Tuesday.

Authorities sent tanker trucks out into the streets to pump away the water. but some inland areas of the desert country recorded more than 80 millimetres (3.2 inches) of rain, approaching the annual average of about 100 mm.

Rain is not common in UAE, but occurs periodically during the cooler winter months. Many roads and other areas lacks drainage for managing floods.

The weather board ‘urged residents to take all the precautions… and to stay away from areas of flooding and water accumulation’ in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

A total of 17 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled during the morning and three were diverted, Dubai Airports said in a statement.

Operations at Dubai International Airport (DXB) were later suspended for 25 minutes on Tuesday due to an intense storm, the airport said in a statement this afternoon.

The airport later confirmed intentions to continue operating departures as normal – but said arrivals would be temporarily diverted until weather conditions improve.

Some residents were told to shelter if they felt in danger or were asked by authorities to do so.

Police and the military were sent out to help evacuate citizens in the hardest-hit province of Ash Sharqiyah North, state media reported.

The Asian Champions League football semi-final between the UAE’s Al Ain and Saudi side Al Hilal, due to be hosted in Al Ain, was postponed for 24 hours because of the weather.

Bahrain was also hit by heavy rain and flooding after being pummelled by thunder and lightning overnight.

‘I like to play in the rain, but for the first time it scares me,’ said nine-year-old Ali Hassan, as he helped his mother clear water from outside their house in Manama.

‘I was terrified by the sound of thunder and the sky was lit by lightning. I had never seen anything like this, so I hid with my mother… the sound of rain scared me.’

The country’s Interior Ministry issued public safety warnings late Monday amid thunder, lightning and high winds.

In Kuwait, the Meteorological Department warned of impending thunderstorms and advised the public to remain vigilant.

Saudi Arabia’s equivalent centre warned that significant rainfall and thunderstorms were to be expected until Wednesday.

Wind and hail are expected in Al Qassim, Riyadh and Al Sharqiya, where temperatures can push past 40C in summer.

The storms descended on the UAE, Bahrain and areas of Qatar after passing over Oman, where they caused deadly floods and left dozens stranded.

Both the Emirati and Omani governments have previously warned that climate change is likely to lead to more flooding.

Individual weather events are often difficult to link to climate change, but scientists say that it increases both the likelihood and strength of extreme weather events.

The Foreign Office separately issued a fresh warning for travellers to multiple destinations on Friday, including Egypt, the UAE (including Dubai), Jordan, Israel, Morocco, Oman and Tunsia, citing the ‘rising tension between Iran and Israel’.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.’

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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.

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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.

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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.’

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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.

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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 basem*nt 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.

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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 p*rn 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.

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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.

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