Today in The Nation we have a piece by Lujayn, a 14-year-old girl in Gaza, that has floored me every time I've read it. It's about what happened when an Israeli bulldozer came to destroy the house she was staying in, and you must, must, must read it. thenation.com/article/world/…

15 Jewish students at Columbia University have launched a formal complaint after self-described 'zionist' professor Shai Davidai called them 'Judenrat Kapost' for their human rights activism. Davidai's family is involved in weapons manufacturing. counterpunch.org/2024/04/22/col…

Pope Francis has never sat down for an extensive interview, one-on-one, with a U.S. television network. That changed when we spoke to him here in Rome. Part of our global exclusive tonight on the CBS Evening News and more to come on 60 Minutes

New paper from Norway: Banning smartphones in school

- significantly decreased doctors visits for psychological symptoms and diseases among girls
- reduced bullying among both genders
- improved girls’ GPA and attendance rates
- largest effect sizes were among the poorest kids

Reminder: court transcripts will be posted here.
Monday is now up

pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrum…

This from Sen. Mitt Romney re NY trial happening: “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump's character, and so far as I know you don't pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.”

The National Enquirer paid big sums of money to keep the American people from ever learning about negative stories about Trump, according to testimony from its' former CEO.

Pecker testifies agreement was if story was true- he would publish after election.
Pecker says they looked into it & story was untrue.
Prosecutor asks why pay 30k for untrue story?
Pecker says if it got out to another media outlet-it would’ve been very embarrassing for campaign

The former head of the National Enquirer admits they attacked Ted Cruz (including claims he had 5 mistresses) on orders of Trump campaign. Cruz recently said he's 'proud' to endorse Trump.

Pecker testifies Cohen would call & say
“we would like for you to run a negative article on a certain–for argument sake–Ted Cruz.Cohen would send me information about Ted Cruz or Ben Carson or Marco Rubio & that was the basis of our story & then we would embellish it from there.”

It's amazing how quickly we handed the keys over to AI. Stuff that will impact our lives forever, being decided by mistake-prone new tech.

AI-drafted police reports will absolutely result in mistakes enshrined as facts.

This will permanently impact peoples' lives & freedom.

Tensions high today here at lower Manhattan court. Judge Merchan sharply dismissing Trump lawyer Todd Blanche’s defense of Trump’s blizzard of social-media commentary, telling Blanche he lacks credibility for how he is defending Trump’s conduct on this front. Gag-order hearing.

Defense Attorney Todd Blanche says
“this gag order - we are trying to comply with it”
being very careful he says.....
Judge responds
“Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility right now.”

Judge to Defense attorney Todd Blanche (burden of proof on prosecution)

“you have no obligation of course, but you’ve presented nothing”
Judge says he's asked Blanche 8 or 9 times to show him the posts Trump is responding to

Blanche says that 'reposting an article from a news site' or 'a news program' doesn't violate the gag order.

Justice Merchan asks him where the case law supports that.

'I don't have any case law,' Blanche says, calling the proposition 'common sense.'

Prosecutors say they're not asking for incarceration
They say he seems to be angling for that.
They seek maximum 1k fine for each 10 violations and are asking him to remove offending posts
“it has to stop” they told the judge

Trump just claimed that the police have shut down the streets around the courthouse for blocks & that his protesters can’t be here.

Just…not true. There is one pro-Trump person here & the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic.

Attorneys and judge have been out of the courtroom speaking before hearing for a few minutes now.
The former president (usually sitting between attorneys) is sitting alone at the defense table.
His eyes shutting for periods of time.
He declined bottle of water.

UPDATE at Columbia University: Courses on main campus must offer hybrid learning option for the rest of the semester. This does not include arts or practice-based program, which can remain fully in-person, per school administration.
CBS New York