(NEW YORK) — On Sept. 10, 2022, Michael and Jill Katz received a devastating phone call that their 21-year-old daughter Sarah had collapsed while out to dinner with friends. They raced from their New Jersey home to Philadelphia, where Sarah was attending college.
Sarah Katz had suffered cardiac arrest and was then transported to a nearby hospital, where doctors informed her parents that she had suffered another cardiac arrest and ultimately passed away.
“The pain is just so hard and so deep,” Jill Katz said in an interview with “Nightline” about her daughter’s death. “It’s not something you get better from. Some people say oh time is all healing. It’s not. There’s no healing. It’s just acclimation.”
“It’s so many mixed emotions,” Michael Katz said. “There are no more photos. There are no more memories. It’s the memories that we have. And luckily, we’re very fortunate. We’ve got so many wonderful, incredible memories.”
Sarah Katz, a University of Pennsylvania student, was diagnosed when she was 5 years old with a heart condition called Long QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1). The diagnosis prompted her to become an advocate, and she began teaching CPR and defibrillator use when she was just 13 years old. She was also a Red Cap Ambassador for the American Heart Association. Due to her condition, Sarah avoided high-caffeine energy drinks at the recommendation of her doctors.
After Sarah’s death, her parents say they were able to pinpoint the cause.
“We had to go pack up her apartment in Philadelphia,” Michael Katz said. “When we went there, her roommate told us that she had had a drink from Panera, a Charged Lemonade drink. The reason why the roommate brought it up to us was that she had known about some of the dangers in these excessively caffeinated energy drinks that have multiple other ingredients. And so she was the one to put the pieces together. And then the doctor said that is absolutely something that could have contributed.”
The Katz family filed suit against Panera Bread Co. for wrongful death, negligence and several other counts, claiming that the company failed to properly warn consumers of its dangerous product. The suit alleges that a 30-ounce serving of Panera’s Charged Lemonade exceeds the caffeine in a 12-ounce Red Bull and a 16-ounce Monster Energy Drink combined.
Panera Bread issued a statement following Sarah Katz’s death.
“We were saddened to learn last week about the tragic passing of Sarah Katz. While our investigation is ongoing, out of an abundance of caution, we have enhanced our existing caffeine disclosure for these beverages at our bakery cafes, on our website and on the Panera app,” a spokesperson for Panera told ABC News in a statement.
Amid mounting pressure, Panera Bread announced on May 7, 2024, that the company would remove its Charged Sips drinks from the menu.
ABC News contacted Panera, which did not answer specific questions about its Charged drinks. However, it said it was undergoing a “menu transformation” and was launching low-sugar and low-caffeine options.
In addition to the Katzes’ lawsuit, the company faced two others: one from the family of a Florida man who allegedly died after drinking three Charged Lemonades, and another from a Rhode Island woman who claimed the drink caused her permanent heart issues.
Panera has denied wrongdoing in all three cases.
Dr. Roshini Malaney, a cardiologist who spoke with ABC News, warns that some energy drinks, due to their caffeine content, can pose a danger to specific individuals.
“Increasing the heart rate can lead to these abnormal heart rhythms that can be fatal,” said Malaney, who did not treat Sarah Katz and is not involved in the Panera lawsuit. “In addition, caffeine can weakly increase that recharging time, so both of these things together can create the perfect storm where someone with an underlying genetic disorder, like Long QT, can go into a fatal heart rhythm.”
The FDA does not mandate any specific warnings on energy drink labels. In response to Panera’s Charged products, the FDA told ABC News they contacted the company. The FDA added that it’s up to the companies to ensure they understand their responsibility to consumers when adding caffeine to their products.
“I’ve seen a lot of patients, not just with genetic cardiac issues, just with normal hearts come in with symptoms and abnormal heart rhythms after consuming energy drinks,” Dr. Malaney said. “So I would definitely say that the FDA should have some sort of labeling.”
Sarah Katz’s parents hope they can save other families from this type of tragedy.
“Nothing changes that our daughter’s gone,” Michael Katz said. “Nothing’s going to bring her back. But if we can help, and help others avoid this, this devastating loss for anyone else I think that will be worth the additional pain to make a positive impact.”
(NEW YORK) — While working on a boat docked in the Bahamas a couple weeks ago, Marlin Wakeman was jumping onto the vessel when it surged in the water and he slipped off the boat into the marina.
“I knew what was coming,” Wakeman said.
In a matter of seconds, the 24-year-old Floridian was able to pull himself back up onto the boat — but not before a Caribbean reef shark bit his leg.
The boat was docked at the Flying Fish Marina in Long Island, which regularly draws sharks thanks to the abundance of fish carcasses discarded by fishermen, Wakeman said.
“There’s at all times 20 sharks roaming around,” Wakeman told reporters during a press briefing Thursday at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he was treated for his shark bite. “Me and my buddies were talking about like, man, if you fell in here, like, you are done.”
He said the shark pulled him under the water then let go of his leg, and he was able to pull himself onto the boat before another shark bit him.
“I had so much adrenaline going through my body,” he said.
Wakeman said his boat captain tied a tourniquet on his leg once he got out of the water. Once the adrenaline wore off, he started to feel a lot of pain.
“I said, ‘Hey man, like, I really don’t want to die right now,'” he said he told his captain. “Like, this ain’t it.”
He went to a nearby clinic for “damage control” — where they stitched up the wound to stop the bleeding — before traveling to St. Mary’s Medical Center for surgery, according to Dr. Robert Borrego, a trauma surgeon at the hospital.
Judging by the circumference of the bite wound, Borrego estimated that the shark that bit Wakeman was at least 7 feet. The shark punctured the kneecap and just missed a nearby artery, Borrego said.
The team worked to clear out the wound due to the risk of infection and repaired the joint injury, Borrego said. Wakeman is expected to make a full recovery, he said.
“The fact that there’s 20 sharks in there and you were able to get out of there and still have a leg is amazing,” Borrego, who said he treats several shark bite victims a year, told reporters. “I think that is it almost to say how quickly he reacted and that he didn’t panic.”
Wakeman’s parents said they knew there was always a risk their son could get bitten by a shark since he works on the water, but they were still shocked to get the news when it happened.
“I know what they’re capable of,” his father, Rufus Wakeman, a boat captain, told reporters. “I have several friends who have been bitten and it’s a shocking revelation when you see some of the wounds these people have had to endure and now it’s my son. It’s our son. And it is just scary.”
His parents thanked everyone involved, from the crew on the boat to the doctors at the clinic and hospital.
“We’re just very grateful to be able to be here, that Marlin gets to tell his story,” his mother, Melynda Wakeman, told reporters.
Wakeman said he is also thankful to be able to share what happened.
“They’re an apex predator and if they bite you, it can be pretty ugly,” he said. “I got very lucky and it could have turned out to be a completely different, you know, outcome.”
Asked by a reporter how this might affect him going forward, Wakeman said he might “have some nightmares here and there” but thinks he will be OK.
“I would just maybe take another two seconds to be a little bit more careful when I jumped on the boat,” he said.
(JOLIET, Ill.) — An Illinois man was arrested and charged on Wednesday with attempted first-degree murder after he allegedly shot and injured a neighbor in an incident that “appears to be racially motivated,” according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO).
John P. Shadbar, 70, of Lockport Township, was arrested on Wednesday and was booked on four charges, including attempted-first degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.
Shadbar is being held at the Will County Adult Detention Facility and is set to appear in court for a hearing on Thursday afternoon. It is unclear if Shadbar has retained an attorney in this case.
The victim of the shooting is a 45-year-old female, according to authorities, but her identity has not yet been released.
According to the WCSO, sheriff’s deputies responded to the area of 144th Place and Rickerman Road in Unincorporated Lockport Township, just southwest of Chicago, at 5:37 PM local time on Tuesday in response to a complaint of shots fired.
“Witnesses to the incident advised 911 that the offender, John Shadbar, shot the victim outside and was walking around his property with a rifle,” WSCO said in a statement announcing Shadbar’s arrest. “A reverse 911 call was placed to area residents to shelter in place due to this incident. Witnesses stated that Shadbar fired dozens of rounds of ammunition with an assault-style rifle at the victim from different outside locations.”
According to the sheriff’s office, the suspect barricaded himself inside his residence for a brief time after the shooting and was later convinced by a crisis negotiator to exit his residence “with his hands up.”
“While speaking to the crisis negotiator, Shadbar made several incriminating statements,” according to a WSCO statement.”
“Detectives are confident that additional charges will be filed regarding this case, as this incident appears to be racially motivated,” the statement continued.
According to law enforcement, deputies provided aid to the victim and she was then transported to a local hospital “in critical condition,” where she has undergone surgery for her injuries, which include a gunshot wound to her chest that exited her back, and a gunshot wound to her hand.
Detectives and investigators obtained video evidence of the shooting and are working to recover additional evidence pending a search warrant of the suspect’s residence, according to WSCO, and will provide additional detail as the investigation progresses.
Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley thanked the “heroes” from the sheriff’s office, the Lockport Police Department, and Lockport Township Fire Protection, who responded to the scene.
“They put themselves in harm’s way, knowing that there was an armed individual in the area with the ability to shoot at them from a long distance,” Kelley said in a statement on Wednesday.
“[They] collaborated and worked together to ensure that the victim could be stabilized and transported out of harm’s way. This is a prime example on how teamwork and training are important aspects of this job,” Kelley added.
ABC News reached out to WSCO for additional information and inquired about the potential release of surveillance video evidence in this case, but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
(NEW YORK) — The borrowing cost for student loans is poised to reach a 16-year high.
The interest rate on a federal undergraduate student loan is expected to climb to 6.5% in July, which would mark its highest level since 2008, financial-aid expert Mark Kantrowitz told ABC News. The current interest rate of a new student loan is 5.5%.
The borrowing rate for student loans is set by adding a fixed amount of 2.05 percentage points to the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which is determined annually at a May auction. At the auction on Wednesday, 10-year Treasury bonds were sold at a 4.48% yield.
The yield for 10-year Treasury bonds, in turn, closely tracks the benchmark interest rate set by the Federal Reserve. That benchmark rate remained relatively low for years but has surged since 2022, when the Fed undertook an aggressive series of interest rate hikes to fight inflation. In response to rising interest rates, student loan rates have soared.
“It’s a shock because people had gotten used to low rates,” Kantrowitz said.
Since student loans are typically fixed, the forthcoming rate will apply to new loans but will not affect previous ones. The new rate will apply to loans for the 2024-2025 academic year beginning on July 1.
On a 10-year student loan of $28,000 under the forthcoming rate, the borrower will pay interest of about $10,000, which amounts to a roughly 35% higher cost for the borrower when compared with a student foregoing loans, Nancy Goodman, founder and executive director of higher-education nonprofit College Money Matters, told ABC News.
Under the forthcoming rate, such a borrower would pay an additional $2,000 over the course of the loan when compared with the current rate, Goodman explained.
“That’s a big burden,” Goodman added. “I hate to see that for students.”
In December, the Fed forecasted three quarter-point interest rate cuts over the course of 2024. Due in part to stubborn inflation since then, however, the Fed has recently cast doubt about whether those rate cuts will happen after all.
At a meeting earlier this month, the Fed held interest rates steady at their highest level since 2001.
Because the interest rate for student loans depends on the yield for 10-year Treasury bonds set at an auction in May, the postponement of interest rate cuts locked in high borrowing costs for students for the next academic year.
“Student loans have gotten caught up in the Fed’s attempt to rein in inflation, and the students who are borrowing are going to pay the price,” Goodman said.
The average annual tuition for a four-year, in-state public college stood at $11,260 for the most recent academic year, which amounted to a 2.5% increase before inflation adjustment, the College Board says.
For a private, four-year college, the average annual tuition stood at $41,540 over the most recent academic year, which marked a 4% increase before inflation adjustment, according to the College Board.
The jump in borrowing rates will exacerbate the rising cost of tuition, especially for low- and middle-income students, Kantrowitz said.
“College is becoming less and less affordable every single year,” Kantrowitz added.
Meanwhile, the rate of students pursuing federal loans has plummeted.
During the current academic year, roughly 35% of college students have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, according to data from the National College Attainment Network. That share of college students completing FAFSA forms marks a decline of 13 percentage points when compared to the previous academic year, the National College Attainment Network found.
The drop in aid applications suggests that many college students are pursuing low-cost options or opting against college altogether, Goodman said.
“Colleges should be a little concerned,” Goodman said. “Students are getting smarter about the cost of borrowing and colleges are having a more challenging time filling their classes.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court has rejected Hunter Biden’s effort to throw out gun charges against him, paving the way for a trial to begin next month.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed an effort by the president’s son to have his felony gun case in Delaware thrown out, rejecting his challenge to the charges on procedural grounds.
The three-judge panel said in its short ruling — just four pages total — that it did not consider the merits of Biden’s challenge at this stage, instead saying it was the improper time for them to take up such an appeal.
The ruling paves the way for Biden to stand trial in the case, which is set to begin on June 3, according to an order issued Thursday by Maryellen Norieka, the district judge overseeing his case.
Biden will next be scheduled to appear in court on May 24 for a pretrial conference.
Prosecutors say Biden lied on a federal form about his drug use when he obtained a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in 2018, after he later acknowledged in his memoir, “Beautiful Things,” that he was addicted to drugs around that time. He owned the firearm for 11 days and never fired it, his attorneys have said.
Biden was indicted by special counsel David Weiss last September.
A previous attempt to have the charges dismissed in April also failed.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Here’s how the news is developing:
May 09, 12:52 PM Checks for Trump to sign were sent to bodyguard’s home
As questioning of the Trump Organization’s bookkeeper continued, Trump, sitting at the defense table, continued to appear to give instructions to his attorneys.
Trump wrote down a note on a yellow legal bad and passed it to attorney Susan Necheles, who read it and then looked up at Trump and nodded in agreement. She then went back to her own notepad and took down a note.
Bookkeeper Rebecca Manachio is testifying as a custodian of records for the Trump Organization, as prosecutors have entered into evidence a series of emails and Fedex records.
The jury sees FedEx invoices for checks Manachio says she sent to Washington for Trump to sign while he was president. They have seen two instances where Manachio mailed checks to the home of Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, instead of directly to the White House.
Schiller also mailed the checks back, according to Manachio.
Asked who directed her to mail the checks to Schiller, Manachio said that either then-CFO Allen Weisselberg or Trump assistant Rhona Graff told her to do so.
May 09, 12:42 PM Bookkeeper testifies she mailed checks for Trump to sign
For their next witness, prosectors have called Rebecca Manochio, a Trump Organization employee.
Manachio, on the stand, said she has worked for the Trump Organization for 11 years, including working as former CFO Allen Weissleberg’s assistant for eight years. She now works as a junior bookkeeper at the company.
She said that she is testifying pursuant to a subpoena. “I was compelled to testify,” she said.
Manochio testified she was the one who personally mailed the checks for Michael Cohen to Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., while he was president, for him to sign.
“How frequently did you have to FedEx checks to Mr. Trump?” she was asked.
“About once a week,” she responded.
“Deb would give me the checks in a manilla folder, and I would put them in a FedEx envelope with a return,” she testified.
Manachio said she would send Trump a bundle of checks weekly via Federal Express.
Asked about how many checks she sent at one time, she said, “Maybe between 10 and 20. I am not sure though.”
Manachio said she would normally receive the signed checks back within a few days.
“Did you always check to make sure they were signed once you got them back?,” she was asked.
“Yes,” she affirmed.
“Who’s signature was on them?” she was asked.
“Mr. Trump’s,” she said.
May 09, 12:32 PM Stormy Daniels concludes testimony
During her redirect examination, Stormy Daniels suggested Trump targeted her in a Truth Social post.
“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU,” Trump wrote in August 2023.
Daniels said that Trump made the post shortly after he sued her for legal fees in Florida.
“I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was me,” Daniels said about the subject of the post.
Prosecutors previously told Judge Merchan that they planned to introduce social media posts to demonstrate a pressure campaign by Trump against known witnesses in the case.
On recross examination, defense attorney Susan Necheles suggested that the post likely referenced Trump’s attitude toward a Republican political action committee, not Daniels’ conduct.
With her testimony complete, Daniels stepped off the witness stand.
May 09, 12:24 PM Daniels says she’s been telling the truth about Trump
“Have you been telling lies about Mr. Trump or the truth about Mr. Trump?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Stormy Daniels.
Daniels answered, “The truth,” and she said it has cost her.
“I’ve had to hire security, take extra precautions for my daughter, move my daughter to a safe place to live, move a couple times,” she said.
Hoffinger concluded her redirect examination with this question: “On balance, has your publicly telling the truth about your experiences with Mr. Trump been net positive, or net negative?”
“Negative,” Daniels answered.
May 09, 12:19 PM Prosecutors display social posts disparaging Daniels
Prosecutors showed the jury disparaging tweets posted about Daniels, including one that said, “Good luck walking down the street after this.”
“Are these two tweets examples of some of the tweets that you have received … in relation to things you have said publicly about Mr. Trump?,” Hoffinger asked.
“Yes. These are tame actually,” Daniels responded.
May 09, 12:15 PM Daniels addresses questions from cross-examination
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Daniels about some of the topics from Daniels’ cross-examination.
Daniels, under questioning, said that her 2011 InTouch magazine interview – which defense attorney Susan Necheles used to highlight some inconsistencies in Daniels’ story about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump — was edited by the publication.
Hoffinger also asked Daniels about her interview with “60 Minutes.”
“You didn’t tell every single detail to Anderson Cooper, did you?” Hoffinger asked.
“No,” Daniels responded.
May 09, 12:06 PM Prosecutors begin Daniels’ redirect examination
Following the conclusion of defense attorney Susan Necheles’ cross-examination of Stormy Daniels, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger returned to the lectern for her redirect examination.
Hoffinger began her questions by asking Daniels to clarify why she wanted to go public with her allegations in 2016.
“You are safer hiding in plain sight,” Daniels said. “Something won’t happen to you if everyone is looking at you.”
May 09, 11:59 AM Defense seeks to distance Trump from nondisclosure
In her cross-examination of Stormy Daniels, defense attorney Susan Necheles sought to distance Donald Trump from the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed.
“You have no personal knowledge of his involvement in that [agreement] and what he did and didn’t do?” Necheles asked.
“Not directly,” Daniels said.
Necheles also emphasized that Daniels had nothing to do with the crux of the case, which is how the payment to her was labeled on Trump’s business records.
“And you know nothing about Trump’s business records, right?” Necheles asked.
“I know nothing about his business records, no.” Daniels responded. “Why would I?”
Daniels seemed to suggest she wasn’t entirely clear on the substance of the charges against Trump in this case — leading to a jab against the former president.
“You have no knowledge of what he’s indicted for?” Necheles asked.
“There are a lot of indictments,” Daniels responded.
The judge declined to strike that statement.
May 09, 11:51 AM Daniels returns to the stand following break
Trump reentered the courtroom after the break and returned to the defense table. Before he sat, he turned around to scan the room.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles entered in front of him, smiling.
Trump then conferred with Necheles at the defense table, whispering into her ear as she nodded in agreement.
As Daniels walked by him to the witness stand, he turned to his left to confer with attorney Todd Blanche, facing away from her.
May 09, 11:35 AM Trump gives fist-pump to reporters
Former President Trump gave a fist-pump as he exited the courtroom for the mid-morning break.
He did not address reporters on his way out .
May 09, 11:26 AM ‘It hasn’t changed,’ Daniels says of her story
Defense attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to try to find inconsistencies in the stories Daniels has previously told about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, but Daniels, on the stand, has remained steadfast.
“Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?” Necheles asked her at one point.
“No!” Daniels shouted into the microphone. “Not at all. You are trying to make me say that it changed, but it hasn’t changed.”
Several jurors, watching the exchange, looked like they were watching a tennis match, with their heads and eyes shifting back and forth.
The judge subsequently called for the mid-morning break.
As Necheles returned to the defense table, Trump gave her a pat on the waist, seemingly in approval. She nodded back to him.
Daniels smiled at prosecutors as she left the stand.
May 09, 11:14 AM Defense questions Daniels about feeling lightheaded
In Susan Necheles’ first sustained effort to call into question Stormy Daniels’ story of the alleged sexual encounter, which her client has steadfastly denied for years, the defense attorney turned to the details of what happened when Daniels says she exited the bathroom of Trump’s suite and saw Trump in his underwear.
Necheles attempted to cast doubt on Daniels’ account of feeling light-headed — highlighting her experience working with naked men in the adult film industry.
“But according to you, seeing a man on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts was so upsetting that you got light-headed, the blood left your hands and feet, and you almost fainted?” Necheles asked.
Daniels responded by highlighting Trump’s age, telling jurors she did not expect to find Trump undressed, and emphasizing the power imbalance in the room.
May 09, 11:05 AM Defense asks Daniels if she and Trump ate dinner
Defense attorney Susan Necheles pressed Daniels on whether she and Trump had dinner during their time in his suite.
According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch magazine in 2011 and Anderson Cooper in 2018 that she “had dinner” with Trump.
During Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday, Daniels said she never ate food during the interaction with Trump.
“I maintain that I didn’t see any food,” Daniels said today. “My story is the same … it was dinner, but we never got any food.”
Daniels alleged that Necheles was cherry-picking her past statements to falsely suggest her testimony was inconsistent.
“You are showing me one sentence of an entire conservation,” Daniels told Necheles.
“Your words don’t mean what you say, do they?” Necheles said.
Daniels’ posture during this exchange belied her confrontational tone with Necheles. She reclined in her seat, leaning slightly on her right elbow in a relaxed way. Her body was oriented toward the jury even as her face and eyes were turned to Necheles, periodically using hand gestures to emphasize a point.
Trump, meanwhile, remained sitting back in his chair, listening to much of Daniels’ testimony with his eyes closed.
May 09, 10:56 AM Defense presses Daniels on details of her story
Defense attorney Susan Necheles turned her focus to the alleged sexual encounter between Trump and Stormy Daniels in 2006.
Necheles recounted the details of the golf tournament where Daniels said she and Trump met in Lake Tahoe, California, asking Daniels to confirm each part of the story.
Necheles homed in on an apparent inconsistency between Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday and her description of the encounter to InTouch magazine in 2011.
“This is a totally different story than you told in 2011?” Necheles said.
“No,” Daniels responded.
According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch that Trump kept looking at her when they first met on the golf course and that he offered to take her out to dinner.
On Tuesday, Daniels testified that her interaction with Trump on the course was brief and said that Trump’s bodyguard extended the dinner invite on behalf of Trump.
May 09, 10:48 AM Defense suggests Daniels has experience with ‘phony stories’
Jurors saw photos of some of the merchandise Stormy Daniels sells on her online store, including T-shirts, comic books and a “Stormy Saint of Indictments candle.”
Defense attorney Susan Necheles used the line of questioning to again suggest that Daniels makes a “large part of her livelihood” by selling the story about her alleged affair with Trump.
Necheles suggested Daniels is well-practiced in making up stories about sex, pointing to her career in adult films.
“You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real?” Necheles asked.
“The sex in the films is very real, just like what happened to me in that room,” Daniels responded, adding that if she were to fictionalize her encounter with Trump, she “would have written it to be a lot better.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche let out a chuckle at one point when Daniels, in referring to the sex in adult films, said, “I think we all know how to do that.”
May 09, 10:44 AM Defense questions Daniels about her recent social posts
“Isn’t it a fact that you keep posting on social media that you would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail?” defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels.
“Show me where I say I would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail,” Daniels replied.
Necheles displayed for the court a social media post Daniels made responding to a message calling her a “TOILET,” that read: “”Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turn down.”
“I don’t see the word ‘instrumental’ or ‘jail,'” Daniels said. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
Daniels explained the joke, citing the reference to a “toilet” as her predicate for using the “orange turd” expression: “See how that works?”
Asked what she meant by “orange turd,” Daniels said: “I don’t know what I meant … I’m also not a toilet.”
Trump, at the defense table, put his elbows back on the table and leaned into the monitor in front of him as it displayed another post in which Daniels says she celebrated his indictment.
“You are drinking champagne because you are celebrating that Trump was indicted?” Nechelss asked Daniels.
“Yes,” Daniels responded.
Trump visibly shook his head no.
May 09, 10:38 AM Testimony turns combative as Daniels is pressed on social posts
Defense attorney Susan Necheles turned the topic of her cross-examination to Stormy Daniels’ recent social media posts related to the trial.
Jurors saw a March 2024 post on X where Daniels said she was the “best person to flush the orange turd down.”
Pressed by Necheles, Daniels initially refused to confirm if she was referring to Donald Trump in that post.
The questioning turned combative and Daniels appeared to get defensive.
“If they want to make fun of me, I can make fun of them,” Daniels said.
Daniels later relented, telling Necheles that she referenced Trump in the tweet.
“I absolutely meant Donald Trump,” Daniels admitted.
May 09, 10:32 AM Defense suggests Daniels profited off the publicity
Prosecutors sought to paint Stormy Daniels as someone who profited off the publicity she generated from her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump — pressing her on a CNN interview, a book deal, a strip tour using a pun on Trump’s infamous political slogan, a reality TV show.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles said the encounter “generated a ton of publicity” for Daniels.
“Lots of bad publicity,” Daniels retorted.
“The centerpiece of your book is your story about supposedly having sex with President Trump?” Necheles asked.
“No,” she said, before acknowledging, “Sadly, I thought it was what people would turn to first.”
May 09, 10:28 AM Daniels asked about ‘Make America Horny Again’ tour
Defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels about a tour of clubs she did in 2018, which one club dubbed the “Make America Horny Again” tour.
“I did not name that tour and I fought it tooth and nail,” Daniels said. “I never used that headline — I hated it.”
Daniels pushed back against Necheles suggesting that she marketed the tour by stoking animosity towards Trump. In her book, she noted how the crowds at the tour included supportive fans who opposed Trump’s presidency.
“The climate in the clubs absolutely changed, but I was not selling myself to a particular demographic,” Daniels said. “I just did the same job I always did.”
In the courtroom, attorneys displayed an advertisement for the tour. Trump had been sitting back in his chair before the advertisement was displayed, eyes seemingly closed, but he leaned forward and stared into the monitor when it was displayed.
May 09, 10:23 AM Defense presses Daniels on 2018 denial
Defense attorney Susan Necheles tried to distance Donald Trump from efforts to hide the Stormy Daniels story from voters by highlighting the efforts to keep it hidden in 2018.
“And he wanted you to deny it, correct?” Necheles asked about Trump in 2018.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
“And he wasn’t running for election in 2018?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels said.
“He was concerned about his family, correct?” Necheles asked.
“I was never mentioned anything about his family,” Daniels responded.
“But there was nothing about his election going on then?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels said.
“And you understand President Trump has a brand?” Necheles followed up.
“Yes,” Daniels responded.
May 09, 10:17 AM Defense asks Daniels about her 2018 denial
Defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels about her January 2018 denial of the sexual encounter with Trump, showing her the statement she signed that has been prepared by her then-attorney.
“To be clear, I did not write this statement,” Daniels said. “I was told I had to sign it.”
“I signed it, but I did not write it,” Daniels continued. “It was given to me and I was told I had to sign it.”
Necheles then asked Daniels a series of questions about legal language in her nondisclosure agreement.
Jurors appeared to remain engaged — but not to the extent that they were previously, when the testimony was more riveting.
One juror was sipping a glass of water, another was rubbing his eyes. Most were still jotting down notes or looking toward the witness stand.
May 09, 10:08 AM Daniels says lawyer on call referenced someone else
Stormy Daniels testified that she didn’t recall the conversation her then-attorney Davidson referenced in the secretly recorded phone call the jury just heard.
She added that Davidson referenced what someone else — her agent Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend — might say about the call, not her recollection of it.
“I never yelled at Keith Davidson over the phone,” Daniels said. “It sounds like a threat from Keith Davidson.”
May 09, 10:01 AM Jurors hear secretly recorded call between Daniels’ attorney and Cohen
Jurors heard a surreptitiously recorded phone call between then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ then-attorney, Keith Davidson.
“I just didn’t want you to get caught off guard, and I wanted to let you know what was going on behind the scenes,” Davidson says on the recording. “And I would not be the least bit surprised if, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you see in the next couple of days that Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend goes out in the media and tells the story that Stormy Daniels, you know, in the weeks prior to the election was basically yelling and screaming, and calling me a p—-.”
“Can I, can I ask you a question? Right,” says Cohen.
“No, hold on one second,” says Davidson. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he comes out and says, you know what, Stormy Daniels, she wanted this money more than you can ever imagine. I remember hearing her on the phone saying, you f—— Keith Davidson. You better settle this goddamn story. Because if he loses this election, and he’s going to lose, if he loses this election we lose all f—— leverage this case is worth zero. And if that happens, I’m going to sue you because you lost this opportunity. So settle this f—— case. That’s a far cry, that’s a far cry from far cry from being, you know, bullied and pushed into settling a case.”
Trump, sitting at the defense table, appeared highly pleased with this testimony — he hunched forward over the table in leaned into the monitor on his table that displayed the transcript of the call, firmly nodding is head yes in agreement repeatedly when the tape said “we lose all f—— leverage.”
Trump then looked directly at the witness stand when Daniels responded to the tape, saying she never yelled at Davison.
May 09, 9:52 AM Daniels said she wanted a ‘paper trail’
Stormy Daniels told defense attorney Necheles that despite the nondisclosure agreement effectively killing her story, the deal resulted in a “paper trail” that made her feel safe.
“I wanted the truth to be printed with some paper trail,” Daniels said. “With a target on my back on my family’s — it was the perfect solution.”
Necheles, who suggested on Tuesday that Daniels had been attempting to extort Trump, then resumed those efforts.
“You were threatening that you would try to hurt Trump politically if he didn’t give you money?” Necheles said.
“False,” Daniels retorted.
May 09, 9:48 AM Daniels says she chose nondisclosure for her safety
Defense attorney Susan Necheles resumed her cross-examination of Stormy Daniels by focusing on Daniels’ motivation for selling her story ahead of the 2016 election.
Daniels previously testified that she wanted to get her story out but was afraid for her safety, so she opted instead to sign the nondisclosure with Trump and receive $130,000.
Pressed on the topic, Daniels said she initially wanted to get her story out.
“I was asking to sell my story to publications to get the truth out,” Daniels. “I wanted to do a press conference.”
Daniels added that she thought she was “running out of time” to get the story out.
“You were running out of time to get money?” Necheles asked.
“No, to get the story out,” Daniels responded.
Daniels said she opted to sign a nondisclosure agreement to prioritize her safety.
“I choose to be safe,” Daniels said.
“You choose to make money, right?” Necheles said.
“I choose to take a nondisclosure,” Daniels replied.
May 09, 9:40 AM Stormy Daniels retakes the stand
“Good morning, Mr. Trump,” Judge Merchan said as he opened the day’s proceedings.
The judge began the morning by precluding defense lawyers from questioning Daniels about a past arrest that never resulted in a conviction.
“Anybody can be arrested,” Merchan said. “That does not prove a thing.”
Stormy Daniels entered the courtroom and took her seat on the witness stand for the defense to resume its cross-examination. Judge Merchan reminded her that she is still under oath.
Trump appeared to glance at her as she passed his counsel table.
May 09, 9:32 AM Court is back in session
Judge Juan Merchan has taken the bench and court is back in session for Day 14 of Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles is sitting on Trump’s right at the defense table, Todd Blanche is to his immediate left, and Emil Bove occupies the seat over.
A packed row of Trump’s supporters, including Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, occupy the first row of the gallery directly behind Trump.
May 09, 9:28 AM Trump enters courtroom
Former President Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.
As he made his way down the isle to his seat at the defense table, a man seated on the right side of the court room stood up — something that is not allowed — and gave Trump a thumbs-up as he passed.
May 09, 9:20 AM Prosecutors arrive in courtroom
Prosecutors have entered the courtroom.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was not with them when they came in.
May 09, 9:15 AM Five members of public are in court after waiting overnight
Members of the public lined up as early as 12:30 a.m. to get a spot in the courtroom to see Stormy Daniels’ testimony this morning.
Two friends who live in Brooklyn, who identified themselves as Shmuel and Levi, said their first attempt to watch the trial from the courtroom on Tuesday failed. They said they arrived at 3:30 a.m. but could only secure a spot in the overflow room, so they changed their approach this morning.
“We went back home last night … and decided to come at like 12:30 a.m.,” Shmuel told ABC News. “We figured that it would be safe.”
Both said they stayed awake while waiting overnight and appreciated the weather cooperating.
“It was really a beautiful night,” Levi said.
A total of five members of the public made it into the courtroom this morning.
May 09, 8:18 AM Stormy Daniels arrives at courthouse
Stormy Daniels has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of her second day of testimony.
Proceedings are scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET.
May 09, 7:54 AM Judge said defense’s concerns can be address on cross
On Stormy Daniels’ first day on the stand on Tuesday, her graphic testimony about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump — which Trump denies took place — prompted attorneys for the defense to seek a mistrial.
Daniels told the jury about noticing an “imbalance of power” with Trump, how she was “blacking out” and found herself nearly naked on the bed of Trump’s hotel suite, and how the two engaged in unprotected sex.
Defense attorneys for Trump argued that the testimony did enough damage to merit tossing the trial entirely on the grounds that it was prejudicial in the eyes of the jury.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the bid, saying the defense will have its say during their cross-examination — which began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue today.
May 09, 7:33 AM Stormy Daniels to return to the witness stand
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress whose allegations of a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump prompted the hush money payment that lies at the center of the Manhattan DA’s criminal case against Trump, is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning.
On Daniels’ first day on the stand on Tuesday, she testified that first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and that he invited her to his hotel suite. Daniels told the jury that when she came out of the bathroom, she found Trump on the bed dressed in only his underwear and a T-shirt.
“The next thing I know, I was on the bed,” said Daniels, who then described how they had sex. Trump has denied that the two ever had a sexual encounter.
Daniels told jurors that she became afraid to go public with her story of the encounter after she was threatened by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking lot in June 2011. She said that the 2016 offer from then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to buy her silence for $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 election allowed her to keep the allegations private while profiting from the deal.
“They were interested in paying for the story, which was the best thing that could happen because then my husband wouldn’t find out, but there was still documentation of a money exchange and a paperwork exchange, so that I would be safe and the story wouldn’t come out,” Daniels said.
(EAGLE PASS, Texas.) — The Department of Homeland Security is slated to propose a change to the process for those seeking asylum in the United States, three sources familiar with the plans told ABC News.
The new proposal, which could come as soon as Thursday, would allow asylum officers to determine earlier in the process whether an asylum-seeker is a national security risk and therefore ineligible to stay in the United States, according to the sources.
Currently, that determination is made later in immigration proceedings based on multiple factors. The new rule aims to allow that determination to be made during the initial screening phase.
The proposal would not go into effect immediately, as it would need to go through a public comment period and review before being implemented.
The proposed change would affect only a small group of asylum seekers, the sources said.
Homeland Security’s action comes as the Biden administration has been under increasing pressure to take executive action to deal with migrants crossing the border.
Conversations about what else the administration can do to address the border through executive actions are still ongoing, according to a source.
One action still under consideration is restricting individuals who enter the country between official ports of entry from seeking asylum.
People walk in a camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the border with Egypt on April 28, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war approaches the seven-month mark, renewed negotiations are underway to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization, as Israeli forces continue to prepare for an apparent invasion of the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 09, 11:50 AM Delegations leave Cairo without cease-fire deal
The delegations for Hamas and Israel have left Cairo without a cease-fire deal, Israeli and Egyptian officials said.
Hamas said earlier in the week that they had agreed to a cease-fire proposal, prompting celebration from both sides, but Israel soon after said the deal was not the one it had proposed and included “significant gaps.” However, Israel committed to send negotiators to Egypt anyway in hopes of coming to an agreement on a cease-fire deal that would also likely include the release of hostages held in Gaza.
It is unclear when negotiations will resume.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Ayat Al-Tawy
May 09, 11:41 AM 80,000 have fled Rafah in recent days: UNRWA
As the Israeli military steps up attacks in the southern Gaza enclave of Rafah in preparation for an apparent large-scale incursion, about 80,000 people have now fled, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the U.N. relief agency in Gaza.
“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” UNRWA said in a post on social media.
About 1.5 million people were living in Rafah recently after Israel directed people in the north to flee south during its initial incursion into the Gaza Strip. The U.S. has warned Israel against a large-scale attack in Rafah unless an evacuation plan can be carried out first.
May 09, 10:35 AM First aid ship leaves Cyprus for US-built pier off of Gaza
The first ship carrying aid for Gaza that will be offloaded at the floating military pier assembled off of Gaza has left Cyprus, according to the Pentagon.
The plan is for the aid aboard the M/V Sagamore to be staged onto the military ship M/V Roy P. Benavidez so that it can then be loaded onto trucks at a floating dock and then driven ashore off the floating pier. That dock and pier are fully assembled but are not currently off Gaza.
The dock and pier had to be moved to calmer waters off Ashdod, Israel, but once the mooring point in Gaza stabilizes they’ll be moved into position to begin the opening of the maritime corridor for aid for Gaza.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Anne Flaherty
May 08, 7:16 PM Hamas fired at area where IDF is preparing for pier, IDF says
Hamas operatives fired “mortar shells” toward the “engineering work area” where Israel Defense Forces troops are conducting preparations for the U.S. military’s humanitarian pier near Gaza earlier Wednesday, the IDF said in a response to an inquiry from ABC News.
The U.S. military began building the pier off the coast of Gaza last month to establish a maritime corridor to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza.
May 08, 6:40 PM Biden says US weapons have been used to kill civilians in Gaza
President Joe Biden said on CNN Wednesday that American bombs have been used to kill civilians in Gaza and doubled down on the administration’s plan to withhold weapons that Israel could use in a Rafah invasion.
Following the news that the U.S. has paused a munitions shipment to Israel, CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked whether any of the U.S. bombs sent to Israel have been used to kill civilians in Gaza.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden responded.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem,” he continued.
Biden said the U.S. will “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently.”
“But it’s, it’s just wrong,” he said. “We’re not going to — we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used, that have been used.”
Burnett also sought to nail down Biden’s view of what Israel is doing in Rafah right now, and if the president believes that qualifies as a major ground invasion.
“No, they haven’t gone into the population centers,” he said. “What they did is right on the border. And it’s causing problems with, right now in terms of — with Egypt, which I’ve worked very hard to make sure we have a relationship and help.”
“But I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet, they’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go in these population centers,” he continued.
May 08, 5:08 PM Aid blocked at Kerem Shalom due to ‘security concerns,’ no fuel allowed through, US says
Although the Biden administration said it expected the Kerem Shalom and Rafah gates to be at least partially opened for humanitarian aid by Wednesday, the State Department was much less optimistic. However, the U.S. vowed it would continue to press Israel to get both portals up and running again.
While Kerem Shalom reopened Wednesday, aid had not been allowed to pass through because of “logistical and security concerns on the ground,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said during a briefing Wednesday. He also said fuel had not been able to enter Gaza through Rafah.
“We think it’s critical that Rafah be open for fuel because without fuel deliveries into Rafah, humanitarian assistance that comes in through Kerem Shalom can’t actually be delivered. The two are critically linked,” Miller said. “We’re continuing to push for that to happen.”
Miller didn’t provide any updated timeline on when the U.S. expected the crossings would be functional again, but said it was imperative that Israel act to increase the amount of aid allowed into Gaza following what he described as a “fairly dramatic dip” this week.
“When it comes to the level of humanitarian assistance, the results as they are today are just unacceptable. There’s no other way to put it,” Miller lamented.
He continued, “We are making quite clear to the government of Israel that we need to see those decreases reversed. We need to get back to where we were, and we need to see the levels continue to increase and see those sustained, and that is why we need to see Kerem Shalom and Rafah opened.”
May 08, 12:02 PM Gaza Health Ministry says it has uncovered another mass grave at Al-Shifa Hospital
The Gaza Health Ministry said its medical teams have found a third mass grave inside Al-Shifa Hospital’s medical complex.
The health ministry has recovered 49 bodies so far as the exhumation process continues.
The ministry said this is the seventh mass grave found by medical teams inside hospitals — one in Kamal Adwan Hospital, three in the Shifa Medical Complex and three in the Nasser Medical Complex. A total of 520 bodies have been recovered from the graves.
In April, the Israel Defense Forces denied accusations from the ministry that they buried at least 283 bodies in a mass grave near Nasser Hospital in Gaza. The IDF alleged that during its operation near the area of Nasser Hospital, it examined corpses in that area in an effort to locate hostages.
May 08, 11:25 AM Austin confirms US paused 1 shipment to Israel
The U.S. has paused a munitions shipment to Israel, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed Wednesday, warning that a major Israeli operation in Rafah could change the U.S. calculus on security assistance.
Austin is the first senior administration official to publicly confirm the U.S. pause on military aid but added that no “final determination” has been made.
“We are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah,” Austin told a Senate subcommittee, emphasizing that supplemental funding the administration just passed is not in jeopardy.
“We’ve been very clear, senator, as you know, from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack on Rafah without accounting for and protecting those civilians that are hitting that battlespace. And, again as we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”
Austin maintained that the U.S.-Israel alliance is “ironclad.”
-ABC News’ Chris Boccia
May 08, 11:23 AM WHO says major hospital in Rafah no longer functioning
One of the three hospitals in Rafah, Al-Najjar, is no longer functioning due to the ongoing hostilities in its vicinity and Israel’s military operation, according to the World Health Organization.
“Hospitals in the south of Gaza only have three days of fuel left, which means services may soon come to a halt,” the WHO warned.
The closure of the border crossing continues to prevent the entry of fuel needed for aid operations; without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop, the WHO warned. Border closures are also impeding delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the WHO said.
“At a time when fragile humanitarian operations urgently require expansion, the Rafah military operation is further limiting our ability to reach thousands of people who have been living in dire conditions without adequate food, sanitation, health services and security. This must stop now,” the WHO said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 08, 10:50 AM Israel says it has opened the Kerem Shalom crossing
Israel said it has reopened the Kerem Shalom Crossing Wednesday for the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
“Trucks from Egypt carrying humanitarian aid, including food, water, shelter equipment, medicine, and medical equipment donated by the international community are already arriving at the crossing. After a thorough security inspection by the security personnel of the Ministry of Defense Crossing Authority, the equipment will be transferred to the Gazan side of the crossing,” Israel said in a statement.
Israel had closed the crossing after it said Hamas fired a rocket toward the area over the weekend, killing four Israeli soldiers.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 07, 4:56 PM 30 killed in Rafah as people start evacuating
Thirty people, including six children and eight women, have been killed and 146 others were injured in Rafah on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Al Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah told ABC News.
People in at least six neighborhoods have started evacuating in eastern Rafah.
“With more than 1.5 million civilians crowded into this sliver of land, an Israeli military escalation threatens to turn Rafah into a graveyard. We are calling for an immediate and sustained ceasefire to prevent more civilian deaths and injuries in Gaza and enable the urgent scale-up of humanitarian aid. The survival of civilians in Gaza depends on it,” Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA.
Aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, have called on Israel to halt its ground incursion in Rafah and across Gaza, warning that civilians have no place to go.
“The dire warnings of aid groups have materialized: Israeli forces have launched a ground incursion into eastern Rafah and have taken control of the Palestinian side of the border crossing. Over a million civilians are now in imminent danger and aid flow through the Rafah crossing has halted with no aid trucks entering since May 5,” said Bob Kitchen, IRC vice president of emergencies.
“Already, dozens of civilians are reported to have been killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on Rafah City, while hundreds of thousands more remain at grave risk from the threat of further conflict and a lack of access to life-saving assistance. It is unconscionable to target such a densely populated area, leaving 1.3 million people with no safe haven,” Kitchen said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Will Gretsky
May 07, 3:51 PM White House expects Kerem Shalom crossing to open, fuel to be delivered through Rafah Wednesday
The White House expects the Kerem Shalom crossing to reopen on Wednesday, but are working to move up that timeline to get vital humanitarian assistance into northern Gaza even sooner.
“Israel has committed to reopening the Kerem Shalom,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News. “We’ve been told that that’s going to happen tomorrow. We are working to move that up.”
“Fuel deliveries through Rafah should also commence tomorrow. That’s what we’ve been told. And we believe Rafah border crossing should also be quickly reopened for the movement of humanitarian assistance. We are insisting that there should be no disruptions of humanitarian assistance flows,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre would not say if the U.S. still expects the Israelis to alert them when they do plan to go ahead with a full-scale operation in Rafah, but reiterated that they do not support the IDF carrying that out.
“We do not want to see a major operation happening in Rafah. We want to see a plan, a comprehensive plan, on how Israel plans to protect the 1.5, more than 1 million civilians that are currently seeking refuge in Rafah,” Jean-Pierre said.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Justin Gomez
May 07, 3:03 PM Israeli hostage declared dead
Lior Rudaeff, 61, an Israeli hostage taken by Hamas, has been declared dead, after being killed in the Oct. 7 attack, the Hostage Release Center said.
Rudaeff volunteered as an ambulance driver. He was married to his wife, Yaffa, for 38 years and had four children: Noam, Nadav, Bar and Ben.
“The Israeli government has a profound moral duty to pursue every avenue in the current negotiations to bring Lior home. He deserves a dignified burial in his homeland, alongside the 38 other hostages brutally murdered. The government must also secure the swift return of all living hostages, so they can begin the long road to healing and recovery,” a spokesperson for the Hostage Release Center said in a statement Tuesday.
The bodies of 35 hostages who have been declared dead continue to be held by Hamas.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 07, 2:37 PM Situation in Rafah is not yet a major ground invasion, US says
The White House is watching the situation that is playing out in Rafah “very, very closely,” but arguing that based on what Isarel has told them, this is not equivalent to the full-scale invasion the U.S. has been warning Israel against undertaking, U.S. National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
“We’ve been told by our Israeli counterparts this operation last night was limited and designed to cut off from Hamas’ ability to smuggle weapons and funds into Gaza. Our views on Rafah remain the same. We’ve repeatedly and consistently expressed those views about a major operation in Rafah in densely populated areas that would give higher risk to civilians and civilian casualties,” Kirby said.
“President Biden made that very clear yesterday when he spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu as I said yesterday, and we’re going to be monitoring this situation very closely to see how it unfolds,” Kirby said.
Kirby was also asked if he believes that Isarel was abiding by international law, given the two main arteries to get aid into Gaza have been choked off. Kirby sidestepped the questions, underscoring the U.S. desire to get more aid into Gaza and Biden’s explicit ask of Netanyahu to make sure that happens during their call Monday.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
May 07, 2:32 PM Hamas delegation back in Cairo for negotiations
Hamas’ delegation has arrived in Cairo as cease-fire negotiations continue with mediators in Egypt and Qatar.
Hamas said Monday it had agreed to a cease-fire deal, but Israel said the agreement included “significant gaps” that needed to be worked out in negotiations.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 07, 12:41 PM Biden administration delaying ammunition deliveries to Israel: Sources
The Biden administration is delaying shipments of ammunition that were expected to be sent to Israel, according to three U.S. officials.
The Biden administration has been trying to pressure Israel to hold off on a full-scale invasion of Rafah until it has a plan to protect the million civilians now living there.
The Air Force has been told by the White House’s National Security Council to pause shipments of ammunition deliveries specifically from Dover Air Force Base, according to a U.S. official. The NSC was behind the decision to pause the munitions, a second U.S. official confirmed.
The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, Anne Flaherty, Matt Seyler and Ben Siegel
May 07, 12:41 PM Republican leaders blast Biden over reports US is withholding aid to Israel
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise have publicly accused the Biden administration of withholding aid to Israel following reports that some aid shipments have been halted. Johnson said that the Biden administration as recently as Friday had assured his staff that there would be “no delay” in assistance to Israel.
Johnson said he received a report this morning from on the ground in Israel that said “a shipload of munitions and precision weapons, which are to be used to help protect civilians and Rafah, is being withheld.”
In a letter to President Joe Biden, Senate Republicans Jodi Ernst and Ted Budd said they are “shocked” and “deeply concerned” that the Biden administration failed to notify Congress before withholding ammunition to Israel.
“If these reports are true, then you have once again broken your promise to an American ally,” they said.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Shannon Crawford
May 07, 12:07 PM Netanyahu says Hamas’ proposal intended to ‘torpedo’ Rafah operation
In his first comments since Israel’s offensive into Rafah began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas’ cease-fire proposal on Monday was “intended to torpedo the entry of our forces into Rafah.”
“It did not happen. As the War Cabinet unanimously determined, the Hamas proposal is very far from Israel’s necessary requirements,” Netanyahu said.
“I instructed the working-level delegation that went to Cairo: continue to stand firm on the conditions necessary for the release of our abductees, continue to stand firm on the essential requirements for guaranteeing Israel’s security,” Netanyahu said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 07, 3:39 AM Israeli tanks control Rafah border crossing, IDF says
Israeli tanks controlled Gaza’s Rafah border crossing early Tuesday, as military officials accused Hamas of using the crossing for “terrorist purposes.”
“Following intelligence that indicated that the Rafah Crossing in eastern Rafah was being used for terrorist purposes, IDF troops managed to establish operational control of the Gazan side of the crossing,” Israel Defense Forces officials said in a statement.
Mortars had on Sunday been fired “from the area,” killing four IDF soldiers, the Israeli military said.
A video and photos taken by the Israeli military and released Tuesday appeared to show several Israeli tanks operating on the Gazan side of the border.
May 07, 2:57 AM Israeli troops enter Rafah in ‘precise’ operation, taking control of border crossing
The Israeli military moved into eastern Rafah late Monday to begin a “precise counterterrorism operation” targeting Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday.
IDF troops also took “operational control” of the Gazan side of the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, officials said in a statement.
The operation in Rafah overnight included air strikes and on-the-ground troops, the military said. About 20 “terrorists” were killed and three tunnels were located, IDF officials said.
“IDF ground troops are continuing to operate against Hamas terrorist operatives and infrastructure in the area of the Rafah Crossing in eastern Rafah,” the statement said.
May 06, 6:36 PM Qatar to send mediators to Cairo
Qatar will send a delegation of mediators to Cairo on Tuesday to work on negotiations for a cease-fire deal, according to a spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry.
In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said they hope “talks will culminate in reaching an agreement for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of prisoners and detainees, and the sustainable flow of humanitarian aid into all areas of the Strip.”
May 06, 5:47 PM IDF spokesperson warns people in eastern Rafah to evacuate
As cease-fire talks continue, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari again warned Palestinians in the eastern part of the city to evacuate.
“Tonight, we also call upon those staying in specific areas which we have communicated and defined through every means — radio, media, internet, and flyers — in eastern Rafah, to move towards the expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi and Khan Yunis, where they will receive full humanitarian aid and where water, food, medical equipment, and shelter will be provided,” Hagari said.
May 06, 4:31 PM Israeli Minister Gantz says current Hamas proposal has ‘significant gaps’
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement Monday the current proposal put forth by Hamas “has significant gaps.”
“Despite this, we continue to turn over every stone and a delegation will go to Cairo,” he added.
Gantz said “every decision will be brought to the war cabinet,” which is made up of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and himself.
May 06, 4:17 PM ‘We are at a critical stage right now’ in negotiations, NSC spokesperson says
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the U.S. is reviewing the Hamas response to a cease-fire proposal.
Kirby did not reveal many specifics about where negotiations stand, but said they’ve reached a “critical stage.”
“I don’t know that it gets any more sensitive than right now,” Kirby said. “And the worst thing that we can do start speculating about what’s in it.”
May 06, 3:41 PM Israeli army continues attacks in Rafah even as delegation sent to negotiate cease-fire
With negotiations underway for a cease-fire agreement, Israel’s war cabinet said they would continue military operations in Rafah.
Israel will also send a delegation of mediators to work on a possible deal.
There have been at least 50 IDF strikes Monday on Rafah, officials said.
May 06, 3:36 PM Israel has received response from Hamas on cease-fire proposal
A senior Israeli official with knowledge of negotiations said they have received a response from Hamas on a cease-fire proposal.
It is not the same proposal that had been under discussion, the official said, adding that it will now be studied.
It will take some time before Israel officially responds, the official added.
Israel’s war cabinet is now holding a discussion, according to an Israeli political source.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israel will study every option to bring home hostages, including the latest response from Hamas, and said they would continue operations in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the Israeli Hostage Center urged the government to accept the deal.
“We welcome the announcement by Hamas to promote the ceasefire, which promotes the return of the 132 abductees who have been held captive by Hamas for 7 months,” it said. “Now is the time for the Israeli government to prove in action its commitment to its citizens — the cabinet must take the consent of Hamas and turn it into a deal for the return of all! The return of the kidnapped is the key to Israeli security!”
May 06, 2:29 PM US still trying to get full understanding of deal Hamas has accepted
The United States said it could confirm Hamas had issued a response to a recent cease-fire proposal, but is still trying to figure out the details of the apparent deal.
“We are reviewing that response now and discussing it with our partners in the region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a briefing. “As you know, [CIA] Director [Bill] Burns is in the region working on this in real time. We will be discussing this response with our partners over the coming hours. We continue to believe that they asked them to do what is in the best interest of the Israeli people.”
But Miller didn’t suggest the U.S. had a full understanding of exactly what Hamas had agreed to yet.
“We have only received a response in the last hour, 90 minutes,” he said. “So I don’t want to characterize the nature of that just yet.”
Miller also declined to say whether the U.S. believes the military and political factions of Hamas were on the same page.
“I’m just not going to speak for Hamas at all, as we have said for some time, there has been a significant offer on the table. The ball has been in Hamas’ court, we have made clear that they should accept that offer,” he said.
May 06, 1:28 PM Hamas says it has accepted proposal regarding cease-fire agreement
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, said in a statement the group has called the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian minister of intelligence “and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement.”
While few specifics were provided, senior Hamas leader Taher Al-Nono said the proposal “includes a ceasefire, reconstruction, the return of the displaced, and the liberation of prisoners.”
Al-Nono said representatives would visit Cairo in the near future to discuss the agreement.
A deal has not been confirmed or commented on by other parties, including Israel. ABC News has requested comment from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. on the apparent agreement.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
May 06, 12:59 PM Hamas says it has accepted proposal regarding cease-fire agreement
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, said in a statement the group has called the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian minister of intelligence “and informed them of the Hamas movement’s approval of their proposal regarding the ceasefire agreement.”
There were no further details about conditions of the cease-fire agreement.
A deal has not been confirmed or commented on by other parties, including Israel. ABC News has requested comment from Israel, Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. on the apparent agreement.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
May 06, 12:33 PM Pentagon says it still hasn’t seen ‘credible’ plan to protect civilians in Rafah
The Pentagon said it still hasn’t seen a “credible” plan from Israel on how it will protect some 1 million civilians in Rafah in the case of an invasion.
“We’ve seen kind of a concept, but nothing detailed at this point,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Monday morning.
He noted that the subject was raised Sunday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a phone call with Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, but he declined to say what policy changes the U.S. might consider if Israel begins a full-scale invasion of Rafah without that credible plan.
Austin is scheduled to testify Wednesday, the same day the administration is required by law to tell Congress whether it agrees with Israel that its government complies with humanitarian law.
Israeli army tanks take position in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip, May 6, 2024. “I think there are still concerns in terms of the, again, given the number of people there and how you’re going to take into account the safety and well-being of the million-plus people that are in Rafah as any operation commences,” Ryder said. “Again, we agree with our Israeli partners on the importance of defeating Hamas and preventing them from being able to conduct attacks like they’ve done in the past. But we want to see that operation done in a way that again, takes into account civilians, takes into account how you’re going to evacuate them off the battlefield. So those conversations will continue.”
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
May 06, 11:07 AM Biden speaks with Netanyahu as Rafah invasion looms, source says
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, a source confirmed to ABC News.
Biden was expected to again reiterate his position on Rafah, urging restraint when it comes to an invasion of the enclave holding more than 1 million Gaza refugees, as he did when they last spoke on April 28.
Click here to read more about the conversation.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Justin Gomez
May 06, 10:40 AM Biden speaks with Netanyahu as Rafah invasion looms, source says
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, a source confirmed to ABC News.
Biden was expected to again reiterate his position on Rafah, urging restraint when it comes to an invasion of the enclave holding more than 1 million Gaza refugees, as he did when they last spoke on April 28.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Justin Gomez
May 06, 9:35 AM Biden to speak with Netanyahu as Rafah invasion looms, source says
President Joe Bien will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, a source confirmed to ABC News.
Biden is likely to again reiterate his position on Rafah, urging restraint when it comes to an invasion of the enclave holding more than 1 million Gaza refugees, as he did when they last spoke on April 28.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Justin Gomez
May 06, 7:29 AM IDF jets strike Rafah overnight
Israeli military jets targeted areas of Rafah overnight, striking “terror targets” and military structures, including a sniper’s nest, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
The strike included areas of Rafah “from which projectiles were launched toward the area of Kerem Shalom yesterday,” IDF officials said on Telegram.
There were no immediate reports of injuries following Monday’s strikes. IDF strikes on Sunday had killed at least 12 people in Rafah.
-ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey and Joe Simonetti
May 06, 6:06 AM IDF drops flyers in Rafah, warning of danger
Israeli aircraft on Monday began dropping flyers in eastern Rafah, warning thousands of people sheltering in the city that they may be in danger ahead of a possible Israeli operation.
“The IDF will be operating against the terrorist organizations in the area where you are located, as it has operated until now,” the flyers read in Arabic, according to a translation provided by the Israel Defense Forces. “Anyone found near terrorist organisations endangers themselves and their family members.”
The flyers included directions for an evacuation, including information about the humanitarian area near Al-Mawasi, Israel said.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey
May 06, 4:36 AM UN agency says it won’t evacuate Rafah
The U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees said Monday it wouldn’t begin to evacuate its staff from Rafah, adding that a possible Israeli invasion into the refugee city would be “devastating.”
“UNRWA is not evacuating: the Agency will maintain a presence in Rafah as long as possible & will continue providing lifesaving aid to people,” the group said in a statement.
An invasion into the city “would mean more civilian suffering & deaths,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey
May 06, 3:42 AM IDF warns Rafah civilians to move to humanitarian area
Israeli military officials on Monday issued a warning to civilians in eastern Rafah to begin a “gradual movement” to a humanitarian area.
“Calls to temporarily move to the humanitarian area will be conveyed through flyers, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic,” Israel Defense Forces officials said in a statement posted to social media.
Israel said a humanitarian area around Al-Mawasi, a coastal town, had been expanded “to accommodate the increased levels of aid flowing into Gaza.” That aid included new field hospitals and additional food and water, IDF officials said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said last week that Israel would call for an evacuation of civilians prior to beginning its planned invasion into the southern Gaza city. Israeli officials haven’t yet detailed a timeline for the expected operation.
“The IDF will continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they’re holding in captivity are back home,” IDF officials said Monday.
-ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey
May 05, 11:36 AM Hamas says negotiations in Cairo have concluded
Hamas said Sunday that negotiations in Cairo have concluded and that its delegation will leave Cairo tonight.
May 05, 11:02 AM Israeli defense minister signals ‘action in Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip in the near future’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured part of the Gaza Strip on Sunday before speaking with reserve fighters in the division’s brigades, Israel’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“We recognize alarming signs that Hamas actually does not intend to go to any outline agreement with us, the meaning of this — action in Rafah and the entire Gaza Strip in the near future,” Gallant said, in part.
May 05, 8:51 AM Israel shuts Kerem Shalom crossing to humanitarian aid after rockets fired from Rafah, IDF says
Several people were injured Sunday and sent to the hospital after approximately 10 “projectile launches” crossed from an area adjacent to the Rafah crossing toward Kerem Shalom on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Kerem Shalom crossing is now closed to humanitarian aid trucks, the IDF said.
According to the IDF, Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
May 05, 8:43 AM Netanyahu says Israel won’t agree to Hamas’ demands
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Sunday regarding the talks for the release of hostages, claiming Hamas is “preventing the release of our abductees.”
“Israel was and still is ready to make a truce in the fighting to free our abductees. This is what we did when we released 124 hostages, and returned to fight — and this is what we are ready to do today,” he said Sunday in comments translated from Hebrew.
Throughout negotiations, Israel has “demonstrated a willingness to go a long way,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hamas “remained entrenched in its extreme positions, chief among them the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Strip, end the war and leave Hamas intact.”
Netanyahu said Israel “cannot accept this,” and that “surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat.”
“Therefore, Israel will not agree to Hamas’s demands, which mean surrender, and will continue the fighting until all its goals are achieved,” he added.
Netanyahu’s comments come a day after an Israeli official told ABC News that Israel will not agree to end the war as part of any potential deal.
Meanwhile, Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, said Sunday that Hamas is keen on reaching a comprehensive cease-fire that “ends the aggression, guarantees withdrawal, and achieves a serious prisoner exchange deal.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Nasser Atta
May 04, 5:07 PM Israeli official responds to US opposition on potential IDF operation in Rafah
An Israeli official responded to the Biden administration’s opposition to a military ground operation in Rafah saying, “we don’t see eye to eye on everything, but we have been able to overcome differences”.
The official added that, “Israel is a sovereign country that acts in accordance with its critical national interest.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
May 04, 7:04 AM Israel will not agree to end the war with Hamas as part of any deal
An Israeli official has told ABC News that Israel will not agree to end the war as part of any potential deal.
“Israel will under no circumstances agree to the end of the war as part of an agreement to release our abductees,” an Israeli official told ABC News on Saturday morning.
“As the political echelon decided, the IDF will enter Rafah and destroy the remaining Hamas battalions there – whether or not there will be a temporary ceasefire for the release of our hostages.”
May 03, 7:20 PM US ramps up pressure on Qatar to oust Hamas: Official
The U.S. has ramped up diplomatic pressure on Qatar to expel Hamas leaders from the country in recent weeks, an official familiar with the matter told ABC News.
This development comes as Qatar and other intermediaries between the U.S. and Hamas have struggled to effectively negotiate with the group on a cease-fire agreement, repeatedly expressing confidence the group will accept certain terms that Hamas leaders later reject.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed in the days following the Oct. 7 attacks that the Middle East could not continue carrying out “business as usual” with Hamas.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 03, 5:19 PM Hamas delegation returning to Cairo in ‘spirit to reach an agreement’
A Hamas delegation is returning to Egypt on Saturday to continue negotiations for a cease-fire with Israel.
The group released a statement stating leadership had a “positive spirit” in response to the cease-fire proposal that was offered.
“We are going to Cairo in the same spirit to reach an agreement,” the group said in a statement.
“We in [the] Hamas movement and the Palestinian resistance forces are determined to mature the agreement, in a way that fulfills the demands of our people for a complete cessation of aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the return of the displaced, relief for our people, the start of reconstruction, and the completion of a serious exchange deal.” -ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
May 03, 4:43 PM USAID announces $200 million aid to Gaza, other conflict zones
The U.S. will put $200 million toward addressing acute hunger in conflict zones around the world, including Gaza, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced Friday.
The money will go toward maximizing the procurement, production and distribution of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a nutrient-filled, peanut-based paste that is particularly useful for addressing malnutrition in children under 5 years old, in places like Gaza, Sudan and Haiti, a USAID official told ABC News.
In Gaza, USAID partners are already distributing RUTF, and the agency plans to ship additional RUTF supplies into the enclave from Kenya via the maritime corridor soon, the official added.
Humanitarian groups and the United Nations have warned for weeks about the threat of a full-fledged famine in Gaza as the conflict continues.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 03, 2:15 PM CIA director arrives in Cairo for cease-fire negotiations: Officials
CIA Director Bill Burns landed in Cairo to continue negotiations on the current proposal for a cease-fire and hostage deal, one Egyptian official and one U.S. official told ABC News.
A Hamas delegation will go back to Cairo on Saturday to resume negotiations, a senior Egyptian official told state-owned Al-Qahera News TV on Friday.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy in Cairo and Cindy Smith
May 03, 2:09 PM US briefed on initial plan for evacuations before Rafah invasion: Official
The U.S. has been briefed on some of the Israeli plans for humanitarian evacuations from Gaza ahead of a Rafah operation, an official with knowledge told ABC News.
The official stressed this is not a final plan.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
May 03, 11:27 AM Houthis threaten ships in Red Sea if Israel carries out Rafah operation
The Houthis threatened to “prevent all ships of these companies from passing through” the Red Sea if the Israeli operation in Rafah goes forward in a social media post Friday.
The Iranian-backed paramilitary group said in a Telegram post that if Israel goes through with its plans it would “impose comprehensive sanctions on all ships of companies that are related to supplying and entering the occupied Palestinian ports of any nationality.”
The Houthis, who have attacked U.S.- and U.K-flagged commercial ships since the Israel-Hamas conflict began, said they would “not hesitate to prepare for broader and stronger stages of escalation.”
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith and Ellie Kaufman
May 02, 5:21 PM Turkey halts all trade with Israel
Turkey’s Ministry of Trade announced Thursday that it would cease all exports and imports with Israel due to the deteriorating situation in the ongoing conflict.
“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” the ministry said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Engin Bas
May 02, 5:08 PM Israeli hostage confirmed dead
Dror Or, one of the Israeli citizens kidnapped on Oct. 7, is dead, Kibbutz Be’eri said Thursday.
Or, 49, a father of three, was killed during the Hamas attack that day and his body was taken into Gaza, according to the group.
Or’s death was determined by several groups including the Israeli Ministry of Health, intelligence agencies, the Israel Police, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the chief rabbi of Israel, according to Kibbutz Be’eri.
Or was kidnapped along with two of his children, Noam, 17, and Alma, 13, on Oct. 7. The teens were returned to Israel during an earlier deal, according to Kibbutz Be’eri.
There are currently 129 Israeli hostages still in captivity. Thirty-five hostages have been killed.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Jordana Miller
May 02, 4:11 PM Gaza’s economic development set back by 20 years, UN report says
The toll of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Gaza is so severe that it has set economic development in Gaza back by 20 years, a report released Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia.
The poverty rate in the country is now at 58.4% and projections indicate it could rise in three months to 60.7%, according to the report. Roughly 1.86 million Gaza residents would be in poverty in that scenario, the report said.
The report also assessed a sharp decline in Gaza’s Human Development Index (HDI), which the U.N. defines as a “summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living.”
The “setback in human development” in Gaza may exceed the period before 2004 when HDI was first calculated for the country, the report said.
“Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 02, 3:55 PM Hamas is ‘only barrier’ to a cease-fire: State Department
The Biden administration is still in a holding pattern over the ongoing cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and Israel, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Thursday.
Miller stressed that Hamas is the “only barrier” to a cease-fire and the world is awaiting their response to an offer from the Israelis.
“Every day that goes by without a cease-fire right now is on Hamas, because they are the ones that are holding up an answer to this proposal,” he said. “They’re the ones holding up an immediate cease-fire that would help alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 02, 2:03 PM Hamas says delegation returning to Egypt for negotiations
Hamas senior member Ismail Haniyeh said in a statement Thursday that the group’s delegation will return to Egypt soon to resume cease-fire negotiations and they are aimed at finalizing a deal.
Haniyeh said Hamas is reviewing the latest truce proposal in a “positive spirit” during a phone call with the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Abbas Kamel.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
May 02, 1:40 PM Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza reopens after 4-month closure
Al-Amal Hospital in Gaza reopened Wednesday after being closed for four months, local sources told ABC News.
Doctors were able to perform surgery, the hospital’s emergency room reopened and some medical students have also returned to the hospital to resume their training, according to the sources.
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
May 01, 6:49 PM Hamas says it will not negotiate if Israel carries out Rafah operation
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a statement that cease-fire negotiations with Israel will cease if it moves forward with its operation into Rafah.
“The Israeli enemy is trying to blackmail everyone with the Battle of Rafah,” he said in a statement.
Hamdan told Lebanese TV late Wednesday that a cease-fire deal had not been reached and Hamas was still “studying the swap deal proposal.”
“We have substantial notes on the proposal,” Hamdan told Lebanese TV.
“We are studying the proposal and we will respond to it in a way that serves our goals.”
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz, Ellie Kaufman and Ghazi Balkiz
May 01, 3:37 PM Gaza humanitarian pier construction over half complete, Pentagon says
The humanitarian pier being constructed off the coast of Gaza by U.S. soldiers is over 50% complete, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday.
The pier, known as JLOTS, is on track to meet the early May time frame for delivery, she said.
“The floating pier has been completely constructed and set up. The causeway is in progress,” she said.
Construction of a floating pier in the Mediterranean Sea off the Gaza Strip continues April 29, 2024. Singh said the United Nations will be responsible for distributing the aid once the pier is open, and that the drivers of the delivery trucks will be from a third party and not U.S. forces.
When asked how security will be handled to prevent strikes on aid workers, Singh said the Israel Defense Forces “has shown that they are taking steps to mitigate that from happening again.”
-ABC News’ Nathan Luna
May 01, 3:09 PM Jordan claims Israeli settlers attacked aid convoys en route to Gaza
Jordan’s foreign ministry alleged Israeli settlers attacked two of its humanitarian aid convoys that were en route to Gaza Wednesday.
Hussein Al-Shebli, the secretary general for the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, said in a statement that his organization sent a convoy of 97 trucks to two locations: the Beit Hanoun border crossing and Karam Abu Salem.
Al-Shebli claimed there were attempts “by many of the settlers and from the Israeli side, from Israeli citizens,” to prevent the arrival of the convoy at the crossings.
“The aid trucks were attacked, by trying to break them and the cutting of their air pipes,” he said in a statement.
Ultimately, the trucks were able to arrive at the crossings, according to Al-Shebli.
Israeli officials have not immediately commented on the allegations.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
May 01, 1:45 PM Hamas expected to respond to Israel cease-fire deal proposal ‘within hours’: Source
Hamas is expected to submit a response to Israel’s current hostage and cease-fire deal proposal “within hours,” a senior Egyptian official told ABC News Wednesday.
The official said efforts to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas are proceeding in a “positive atmosphere.”
“Negotiations are continuing with all sides to resolve a number of sticking points,” the official added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept the terms of the cease-fire deal.
“Israel has made very important compromises in the proposal that is on the table, demonstrating its desire and willingness to get this agreement and get it done,” he said while at the Port of Ashdod.
“There is no time for delay. There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there. They should take it,” he added.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Shannon Crawford
May 01, 1:42 PM Israel opens Erez Crossing for first time since Oct. 7
The Israel Defense Forces opened the Erez Crossing Wednesday for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7.
The Israeli government announced it would reopen the crossing last month after President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF said that 30 trucks of humanitarian aid “including food and medical supplies for the northern part of the Gaza Strip, arrived from Jordan and entered Gaza.”
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
May 01, 1:03 PM Blinken visits Gaza border crossing
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a previously unannounced visit Wednesday to the Kerem Shalom border crossing, becoming the first cabinet-level U.S. official to visit the border of Gaza since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Blinken attended a closed briefing on humanitarian assistance and deconfliction while he was at the site, which was shuttered for more than two months after the attacks.
Blinken was able to look into Gaza from the top of the massive concrete wall, according to pool reporters.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 01, 11:48 AM Blinken pushes ‘clear position on Rafah’ during meeting with Netanyahu
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem for 2 1/2 hours to discuss numerous topics about the ongoing conflict, according to the State Department.
Blinken discussed “the need to avoid further expansion of the conflict,” and “reiterated the United States’ clear position on Rafah,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“The secretary discussed ongoing efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal and emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a ceasefire,” Miller added.
Blinken also discussed improving aid delivery into Gaza and “reiterated the importance of accelerating and sustaining that improvement,” according to Miller.
Prior to meeting with Netanyahu, Blinken spoke with the families of hostages that had gathered outside his hotel in Tel Aviv.
-ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti
Apr 30, 6:29 PM World Central Kitchen resumes services in Gaza, serves 200k meals
The World Central Kitchen resumed aid services in Gaza for the first time since seven of its members were killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike.
The non-governmental organization said it served 200,000 meals to displaced Palestinians on Monday. The World Central Kitchen said it has provided nearly 43 million meals in Gaza to date.
Approximately “276 WCK trucks are ready to enter through Rafah with enough food for 8 million meals. We’re also sending trucks north,” the NGO said in a statement.
Chef José Andrés, the founder and chief feeding officer of World Central Kitchen, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, published Tuesday, discussing his decision to resume operations and stressed that more aid is needed.
“We cannot stand by while so many people are so desperate for the essentials of life. Food is a universal human right, and we will not cease until those basic human rights are respected,” Andrés wrote.
Apr 30, 3:18 PM UN chief says ‘incremental progress’ made toward averting Gaza famine
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provided an update on the hunger situation in Gaza and said there has been ” incremental progress recently” in preventing a famine.
However, Guterres warned there is still more work needed, “including the promised opening of the two crossing points between Israel and northern Gaza so that aid can be brought into Gaza from Ashdod, Port and Jordan are still obstacles including a lack of security for aid convoys.”
“Humanitarian convoys, facilities and personnel and people in need must not be targets,” he added.
Guterres said that civilians were dying from hunger and disease every day and pressed for a successful negotiation for a cease-fire.
“I strongly encourage the government of Israel and Hamas leadership to reach now an agreement. Without that I fear the war with all its consequences, both in Gaza and across the region, will worsen exponentially,” he said.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Apr 30, 12:57 PM Jordanian king warns of ‘catastrophic effects’ of a Rafah operation
The Jordanian government released a readout of the meeting between King Abdullah II and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.
Abdullah “warned of the danger of any military operation in Rafah, stressing that the catastrophic effects of the war in Gaza could spread to areas in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the entire region,” according to the readout.
The king also called for more aid to Gaza “through all available means,” the readout said.
“The King said supporting UNRWA is crucial to enable it to cover the basic needs of nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, as well as other Palestinian refugees in its areas of operation,” the readout said.
The U.S. and some other countries pulled funding for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, after Israel said several staffers took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith
Apr 30, 12:43 PM Israel will not send delegation to Cairo until Hamas responds to offer: Source
Israel will not send a delegation to Cairo for negotiations on a cease-fire deal until Hamas provides an answer to the proposal Israel has offered them, an Israeli source told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Apr 30, 12:40 PM White House stays mum on Netanyahu’s remarks on Rafah plans
White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to comment about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest comments about a possible operation into Rafah during a news conference Tuesday.
“Our position on Rafah is absolutely the same. We don’t want to see a major ground operation in Rafah. Certainly, we don’t want to see operations that haven’t factored in the safety and security of those 1.5 million folks trying to seek refuge down there,” Kirby said.
He also declined to say if Netanyahu has shared his plans to enter Rafah with or without a deal directly with the United States.
“They understand our concerns, and those concerns have not changed,” he said, adding that they have not seen a credible plan yet from Israel to take civilian safety into consideration though conversations continue.
Kirby reiterated that the new cease-fire deal is on the table, which would give a six-week pause in fighting and help get the hostages home.
Kirby downplayed expectations, but stressed “time is of the essence.”
“I wouldn’t say we’re overly confident. I would say we’re being very pragmatic about this,” he said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 30, 11:25 AM Netanyahu says Israel has ‘no other choice’ but to conduct Rafah operation
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an operation in Rafah will proceed in comments Tuesday.
“We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice,” Netanyahu said in comments translated from Hebrew. “We will destroy the Hamas battalions there, we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the repatriation of all our hostages.”
No timeline has been given for a military operation in Rafah, where over 1 million refugees have gathered in the wake of Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The prime minister also criticized the International Criminal Court, saying it “has no authority over the state of Israel.” The ICC is currently investigating Israel’s actions in Gaza, as well as the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that launched the Israeli response.
“The possibility that it will issue arrest warrants for war crimes against IDF commanders and state leaders, this possibility is a scandal on a historical scale,” Netanyahu said.
He added, “I want to make one thing clear: no decision, neither in The Hague nor anywhere else, will harm our determination to achieve all the goals of the war.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Apr 29, 6:18 PM Hamas delegation leaves Cairo, will return with response to Israeli proposal: Egyptian official
The Hamas delegation has left Cairo and will return again with a written response to Israel’s proposal for a truce and hostage-release deal, a senior Egyptian government official told ABC News.
Apr 29, 4:20 PM White House won’t get info specifics on cease-fire deal
The White House was careful not to get into specifics on the “extraordinarily generous” cease-fire proposal Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to earlier this morning, refusing to give specifics as they continued to call on Hamas to accept the proposal.
“I’m not going to characterize the proposal. I’m not going to get into any of the specifics. What we believe is that now is the time for Hamas to take this deal. It is on the table. It is time to, it is way past time to get these hostages home. It is way past time to get to a ceasefire and we need to make sure we continue to get that humanitarian aid,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre noted that Israel “has a lot on their plate,” but expressed a desire for an in-person meeting to take place, in addition to the two virtual meetings the U.S. and Israel have had in recent weeks.
“We would like to have an in-person meeting. That is certainly what we would like to do, but in the meantime, we’ve had two important virtual meetings and in the readout, yesterday, we mentioned that the potential Rafah operations did come up between the two leaders in their conversation,” she said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also spoke to President Joe Biden Monday about ongoing Gaza talks and Egyptian efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage deal in a phone call, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
The call discussed the risks of an Israeli incursion into Rafah, including the “catastrophic” impact on the worsening humanitarian crisis, and implications for the security and stability of the region, the statement added.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Ayat Al-Tawy
Apr 29, 3:53 PM Israel leaders concerned about possible ICC arrest warrants: Source
Israeli leaders are expressing concern over possible arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against key officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli official, who spoke under condition of anonymity, told ABC News.
It is believed that such potential warrants might be related to charges on the scope of humanitarian aid Israel allowed into Gaza, according to the official.
The ICC can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide under its powers.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Apr 29, 12:20 PM 21 killed, 6 injured after strike in Gaza
At least 21 people were killed in Gaza after an Israeli airstrike Monday, the Al Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah told ABC News. Six people were injured from the strike, the hospital added.
The updated death toll in Gaza is 34,488 killed and 77,643 injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
ABC News has reached out to the Israeli army for comment on the strike.
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
Apr 29, 8:36 AM Blinken calls for cease-fire in first stop on Middle East trip
U.S. Secretary of Antony Blinken, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, notably called for a cease-fire as “the most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza” during a session with his counterparts of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
“The most effective way to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to alleviate the suffering of children, women and men and to create space for a more just and durable solution is to get a cease-fire and hostages home, but also not waiting on a cease-fire to take the necessary steps to meet the needs of civilians of Gaza,” Blinken said.
“President Biden is insistent that Israel take specific concrete measurable steps to better address humanitarian suffering, civilian harm and the safety of aid workers in Gaza, including in his most recent call with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he added, referring to a Sunday call with the Israeli leader.
Blinken said the U.S. was “focused on addressing the greatest threat to regional stability and regional security — Iran.”
Apr 28, 6:00 PM United States Central Command and Royal Jordanian Air Force airdrop aid into Gaza
U.S. Central Command and the Royal Jordanian Air Force conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into Northern Gaza on Sunday.
The combined joint operation included Jordanian provided food and four U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft.
The U.S. C-130’s dropped over 25,000 Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), providing life-saving humanitarian assistance in Northern Gaza. Additionally, more than 13,080 meal equivalents of Jordanian food supplies were also delivered.
To date the U.S. has dropped nearly 1,110 tons of humanitarian assistance.
Apr 28, 5:22 PM American hostage’s niece opens up about ‘surreal’ new video
Hanna Siegel, niece of American hostage Keith Siegel, appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday morning and talked about the “surreal” feeling of seeing a recently released video purporting to show her uncle and talked about the possibility of a deal that would free him and other people thought to still be held by Hamas in Gaza.
“We’ve always believed that he was alive. We have to believe he’s alive — and his wife, my aunt, who was held for 52 days, [was] released in the deal that took place in November, she was with him,” Siegel said. “When she came out, she told us he was alive, but this is the first time that we’re seeing him, hearing him. It’s surreal.”
When asked about a potential hostage deal and temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Siegel said that she does think an agreement “can be reached” and pointed to an earlier deal that secured the release of her aunt and others during a brief pause in the war late last year.
Siegel also said that she believes the new release of purported hostage videos shows that Hamas is signaling they are ready to make a deal.
But she said that she is concerned that it might not be in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “political interest to close a deal,” though Netanyahu has said his goal is freeing the captives in Gaza as well as dismantling Hamas.
Siegel said that the Biden administration should “think about what they can do directly to bring our American citizens home.”
She also said she has felt the “commitment from the Biden administration to get him back,” referring to her uncle.
She became emotional talking about how her family missed her uncle during their Passover celebration and had a picture of him to pay tribute.
“I think there’s so much swirling in the political realm that it’s easy to forget that these are human beings. Keith is a grandfather, he’s a husband, he’s a brother, he’s an uncle,” she said.
She was asked whether her family is worried if a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, to further target Hamas fighters, could threaten her uncle’s safety. She responded that she and her family are “very concerned.”
Apr 28, 5:10 PM Hamas to send a delegation to Cairo for hostage and cease-fire negotiations
Hamas will send a delegation to Cairo, Egypt, on Monday to participate in hostage and cease-fire deal negotiations, ABC News has confirmed.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official also told the Agence France-Presse on Sunday that the organization has no significant problems with the proposed deal.
“The atmosphere is positive unless there are new obstacles from the Israeli side,” the Hamas official said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Here’s how the news is developing:
May 09, 11:51 AM Daniels returns to the stand following break
Trump reentered the courtroom after the break and returned to the defense table. Before he sat, he turned around to scan the room.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles entered in front of him, smiling.
Trump then conferred with Necheles at the defense table, whispering into her ear as she nodded in agreement.
As Daniels walked by him to the witness stand, he turned to his left to confer with attorney Todd Blanche, facing away from her.
May 09, 11:35 AM Trump gives fist-pump to reporters
Former President Trump gave a fist-pump as he exited the courtroom for the mid-morning break.
He did not address reporters on his way out .
May 09, 11:26 AM ‘It hasn’t changed,’ Daniels says of her story
Defense attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to try to find inconsistencies in the stories Daniels has previously told about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, but Daniels, on the stand, has remained steadfast.
“Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?” Necheles asked her at one point.
“No!” Daniels shouted into the microphone. “Not at all. You are trying to make me say that it changed, but it hasn’t changed.”
Several jurors, watching the exchange, looked like they were watching a tennis match, with their heads and eyes shifting back and forth.
The judge subsequently called for the mid-morning break.
As Necheles returned to the defense table, Trump gave her a pat on the waist, seemingly in approval. She nodded back to him.
Daniels smiled at prosecutors as she left the stand.
May 09, 11:14 AM Defense questions Daniels about feeling lightheaded
In Susan Necheles’ first sustained effort to call into question Stormy Daniels’ story of the alleged sexual encounter, which her client has steadfastly denied for years, the defense attorney turned to the details of what happened when Daniels says she exited the bathroom of Trump’s suite and saw Trump in his underwear.
Necheles attempted to cast doubt on Daniels’ account of feeling light-headed — highlighting her experience working with naked men in the adult film industry.
“But according to you, seeing a man on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts was so upsetting that you got light-headed, the blood left your hands and feet, and you almost fainted?” Necheles asked.
Daniels responded by highlighting Trump’s age, telling jurors she did not expect to find Trump undressed, and emphasizing the power imbalance in the room.
May 09, 11:05 AM Defense asks Daniels if she and Trump ate dinner
Defense attorney Susan Necheles pressed Daniels on whether she and Trump had dinner during their time in his suite.
According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch magazine in 2011 and Anderson Cooper in 2018 that she “had dinner” with Trump.
During Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday, Daniels said she never ate food during the interaction with Trump.
“I maintain that I didn’t see any food,” Daniels said today. “My story is the same … it was dinner, but we never got any food.”
Daniels alleged that Necheles was cherry-picking her past statements to falsely suggest her testimony was inconsistent.
“You are showing me one sentence of an entire conservation,” Daniels told Necheles.
“Your words don’t mean what you say, do they?” Necheles said.
Daniels’ posture during this exchange belied her confrontational tone with Necheles. She reclined in her seat, leaning slightly on her right elbow in a relaxed way. Her body was oriented toward the jury even as her face and eyes were turned to Necheles, periodically using hand gestures to emphasize a point.
Trump, meanwhile, remained sitting back in his chair, listening to much of Daniels’ testimony with his eyes closed.
May 09, 10:56 AM Defense presses Daniels on details of her story
Defense attorney Susan Necheles turned her focus to the alleged sexual encounter between Trump and Stormy Daniels in 2006.
Necheles recounted the details of the golf tournament where Daniels said she and Trump met in Lake Tahoe, California, asking Daniels to confirm each part of the story.
Necheles homed in on an apparent inconsistency between Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday and her description of the encounter to InTouch magazine in 2011.
“This is a totally different story than you told in 2011?” Necheles said.
“No,” Daniels responded.
According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch that Trump kept looking at her when they first met on the golf course and that he offered to take her out to dinner.
On Tuesday, Daniels testified that her interaction with Trump on the course was brief and said that Trump’s bodyguard extended the dinner invite on behalf of Trump.
May 09, 10:48 AM Defense suggests Daniels has experience with ‘phony stories’
Jurors saw photos of some of the merchandise Stormy Daniels sells on her online store, including T-shirts, comic books and a “Stormy Saint of Indictments candle.”
Defense attorney Susan Necheles used the line of questioning to again suggest that Daniels makes a “large part of her livelihood” by selling the story about her alleged affair with Trump.
Necheles suggested Daniels is well-practiced in making up stories about sex, pointing to her career in adult films.
“You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real?” Necheles asked.
“The sex in the films is very real, just like what happened to me in that room,” Daniels responded, adding that if she were to fictionalize her encounter with Trump, she “would have written it to be a lot better.”
Trump attorney Todd Blanche let out a chuckle at one point when Daniels, in referring to the sex in adult films, said, “I think we all know how to do that.”
May 09, 10:44 AM Defense questions Daniels about her recent social posts
“Isn’t it a fact that you keep posting on social media that you would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail?” defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels.
“Show me where I say I would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail,” Daniels replied.
Necheles displayed for the court a social media post Daniels made responding to a message calling her a “TOILET,” that read: “”Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turn down.”
“I don’t see the word ‘instrumental’ or ‘jail,'” Daniels said. “You’re putting words in my mouth.”
Daniels explained the joke, citing the reference to a “toilet” as her predicate for using the “orange turd” expression: “See how that works?”
Asked what she meant by “orange turd,” Daniels said: “I don’t know what I meant … I’m also not a toilet.”
Trump, at the defense table, put his elbows back on the table and leaned into the monitor in front of him as it displayed another post in which Daniels says she celebrated his indictment.
“You are drinking champagne because you are celebrating that Trump was indicted?” Nechelss asked Daniels.
“Yes,” Daniels responded.
Trump visibly shook his head no.
May 09, 10:38 AM Testimony turns combative as Daniels is pressed on social posts
Defense attorney Susan Necheles turned the topic of her cross-examination to Stormy Daniels’ recent social media posts related to the trial.
Jurors saw a March 2024 post on X where Daniels said she was the “best person to flush the orange turd down.”
Pressed by Necheles, Daniels initially refused to confirm if she was referring to Donald Trump in that post.
The questioning turned combative and Daniels appeared to get defensive.
“If they want to make fun of me, I can make fun of them,” Daniels said.
Daniels later relented, telling Necheles that she referenced Trump in the tweet.
“I absolutely meant Donald Trump,” Daniels admitted.
May 09, 10:32 AM Defense suggests Daniels profited off the publicity
Prosecutors sought to paint Stormy Daniels as someone who profited off the publicity she generated from her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump — pressing her on a CNN interview, a book deal, a strip tour using a pun on Trump’s infamous political slogan, a reality TV show.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles said the encounter “generated a ton of publicity” for Daniels.
“Lots of bad publicity,” Daniels retorted.
“The centerpiece of your book is your story about supposedly having sex with President Trump?” Necheles asked.
“No,” she said, before acknowledging, “Sadly, I thought it was what people would turn to first.”
May 09, 10:28 AM Daniels asked about ‘Make America Horny Again’ tour
Defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels about a tour of clubs she did in 2018, which one club dubbed the “Make America Horny Again” tour.
“I did not name that tour and I fought it tooth and nail,” Daniels said. “I never used that headline — I hated it.”
Daniels pushed back against Necheles suggesting that she marketed the tour by stoking animosity towards Trump. In her book, she noted how the crowds at the tour included supportive fans who opposed Trump’s presidency.
“The climate in the clubs absolutely changed, but I was not selling myself to a particular demographic,” Daniels said. “I just did the same job I always did.”
In the courtroom, attorneys displayed an advertisement for the tour. Trump had been sitting back in his chair before the advertisement was displayed, eyes seemingly closed, but he leaned forward and stared into the monitor when it was displayed.
May 09, 10:23 AM Defense presses Daniels on 2018 denial
Defense attorney Susan Necheles tried to distance Donald Trump from efforts to hide the Stormy Daniels story from voters by highlighting the efforts to keep it hidden in 2018.
“And he wanted you to deny it, correct?” Necheles asked about Trump in 2018.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
“And he wasn’t running for election in 2018?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels said.
“He was concerned about his family, correct?” Necheles asked.
“I was never mentioned anything about his family,” Daniels responded.
“But there was nothing about his election going on then?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels said.
“And you understand President Trump has a brand?” Necheles followed up.
“Yes,” Daniels responded.
May 09, 10:17 AM Defense asks Daniels about her 2018 denial
Defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels about her January 2018 denial of the sexual encounter with Trump, showing her the statement she signed that has been prepared by her then-attorney.
“To be clear, I did not write this statement,” Daniels said. “I was told I had to sign it.”
“I signed it, but I did not write it,” Daniels continued. “It was given to me and I was told I had to sign it.”
Necheles then asked Daniels a series of questions about legal language in her nondisclosure agreement.
Jurors appeared to remain engaged — but not to the extent that they were previously, when the testimony was more riveting.
One juror was sipping a glass of water, another was rubbing his eyes. Most were still jotting down notes or looking toward the witness stand.
May 09, 10:08 AM Daniels says lawyer on call referenced someone else
Stormy Daniels testified that she didn’t recall the conversation her then-attorney Davidson referenced in the secretly recorded phone call the jury just heard.
She added that Davidson referenced what someone else — her agent Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend — might say about the call, not her recollection of it.
“I never yelled at Keith Davidson over the phone,” Daniels said. “It sounds like a threat from Keith Davidson.”
May 09, 10:01 AM Jurors hear secretly recorded call between Daniels’ attorney and Cohen
Jurors heard a surreptitiously recorded phone call between then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ then-attorney, Keith Davidson.
“I just didn’t want you to get caught off guard, and I wanted to let you know what was going on behind the scenes,” Davidson says on the recording. “And I would not be the least bit surprised if, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if you see in the next couple of days that Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend goes out in the media and tells the story that Stormy Daniels, you know, in the weeks prior to the election was basically yelling and screaming, and calling me a p—-.”
“Can I, can I ask you a question? Right,” says Cohen.
“No, hold on one second,” says Davidson. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he comes out and says, you know what, Stormy Daniels, she wanted this money more than you can ever imagine. I remember hearing her on the phone saying, you f—— Keith Davidson. You better settle this goddamn story. Because if he loses this election, and he’s going to lose, if he loses this election we lose all f—— leverage this case is worth zero. And if that happens, I’m going to sue you because you lost this opportunity. So settle this f—— case. That’s a far cry, that’s a far cry from far cry from being, you know, bullied and pushed into settling a case.”
Trump, sitting at the defense table, appeared highly pleased with this testimony — he hunched forward over the table in leaned into the monitor on his table that displayed the transcript of the call, firmly nodding is head yes in agreement repeatedly when the tape said “we lose all f—— leverage.”
Trump then looked directly at the witness stand when Daniels responded to the tape, saying she never yelled at Davison.
May 09, 9:52 AM Daniels said she wanted a ‘paper trail’
Stormy Daniels told defense attorney Necheles that despite the nondisclosure agreement effectively killing her story, the deal resulted in a “paper trail” that made her feel safe.
“I wanted the truth to be printed with some paper trail,” Daniels said. “With a target on my back on my family’s — it was the perfect solution.”
Necheles, who suggested on Tuesday that Daniels had been attempting to extort Trump, then resumed those efforts.
“You were threatening that you would try to hurt Trump politically if he didn’t give you money?” Necheles said.
“False,” Daniels retorted.
May 09, 9:48 AM Daniels says she chose nondisclosure for her safety
Defense attorney Susan Necheles resumed her cross-examination of Stormy Daniels by focusing on Daniels’ motivation for selling her story ahead of the 2016 election.
Daniels previously testified that she wanted to get her story out but was afraid for her safety, so she opted instead to sign the nondisclosure with Trump and receive $130,000.
Pressed on the topic, Daniels said she initially wanted to get her story out.
“I was asking to sell my story to publications to get the truth out,” Daniels. “I wanted to do a press conference.”
Daniels added that she thought she was “running out of time” to get the story out.
“You were running out of time to get money?” Necheles asked.
“No, to get the story out,” Daniels responded.
Daniels said she opted to sign a nondisclosure agreement to prioritize her safety.
“I choose to be safe,” Daniels said.
“You choose to make money, right?” Necheles said.
“I choose to take a nondisclosure,” Daniels replied.
May 09, 9:40 AM Stormy Daniels retakes the stand
“Good morning, Mr. Trump,” Judge Merchan said as he opened the day’s proceedings.
The judge began the morning by precluding defense lawyers from questioning Daniels about a past arrest that never resulted in a conviction.
“Anybody can be arrested,” Merchan said. “That does not prove a thing.”
Stormy Daniels entered the courtroom and took her seat on the witness stand for the defense to resume its cross-examination. Judge Merchan reminded her that she is still under oath.
Trump appeared to glance at her as she passed his counsel table.
May 09, 9:32 AM Court is back in session
Judge Juan Merchan has taken the bench and court is back in session for Day 14 of Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles is sitting on Trump’s right at the defense table, Todd Blanche is to his immediate left, and Emil Bove occupies the seat over.
A packed row of Trump’s supporters, including Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, occupy the first row of the gallery directly behind Trump.
May 09, 9:28 AM Trump enters courtroom
Former President Donald Trump has entered the courtroom.
As he made his way down the isle to his seat at the defense table, a man seated on the right side of the court room stood up — something that is not allowed — and gave Trump a thumbs-up as he passed.
May 09, 9:20 AM Prosecutors arrive in courtroom
Prosecutors have entered the courtroom.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was not with them when they came in.
May 09, 9:15 AM Five members of public are in court after waiting overnight
Members of the public lined up as early as 12:30 a.m. to get a spot in the courtroom to see Stormy Daniels’ testimony this morning.
Two friends who live in Brooklyn, who identified themselves as Shmuel and Levi, said their first attempt to watch the trial from the courtroom on Tuesday failed. They said they arrived at 3:30 a.m. but could only secure a spot in the overflow room, so they changed their approach this morning.
“We went back home last night … and decided to come at like 12:30 a.m.,” Shmuel told ABC News. “We figured that it would be safe.”
Both said they stayed awake while waiting overnight and appreciated the weather cooperating.
“It was really a beautiful night,” Levi said.
A total of five members of the public made it into the courtroom this morning.
May 09, 8:18 AM Stormy Daniels arrives at courthouse
Stormy Daniels has arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse ahead of her second day of testimony.
Proceedings are scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. ET.
May 09, 7:54 AM Judge said defense’s concerns can be address on cross
On Stormy Daniels’ first day on the stand on Tuesday, her graphic testimony about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump — which Trump denies took place — prompted attorneys for the defense to seek a mistrial.
Daniels told the jury about noticing an “imbalance of power” with Trump, how she was “blacking out” and found herself nearly naked on the bed of Trump’s hotel suite, and how the two engaged in unprotected sex.
Defense attorneys for Trump argued that the testimony did enough damage to merit tossing the trial entirely on the grounds that it was prejudicial in the eyes of the jury.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the bid, saying the defense will have its say during their cross-examination — which began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue today.
May 09, 7:33 AM Stormy Daniels to return to the witness stand
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress whose allegations of a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump prompted the hush money payment that lies at the center of the Manhattan DA’s criminal case against Trump, is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning.
On Daniels’ first day on the stand on Tuesday, she testified that first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and that he invited her to his hotel suite. Daniels told the jury that when she came out of the bathroom, she found Trump on the bed dressed in only his underwear and a T-shirt.
“The next thing I know, I was on the bed,” said Daniels, who then described how they had sex. Trump has denied that the two ever had a sexual encounter.
Daniels told jurors that she became afraid to go public with her story of the encounter after she was threatened by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking lot in June 2011. She said that the 2016 offer from then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to buy her silence for $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 election allowed her to keep the allegations private while profiting from the deal.
“They were interested in paying for the story, which was the best thing that could happen because then my husband wouldn’t find out, but there was still documentation of a money exchange and a paperwork exchange, so that I would be safe and the story wouldn’t come out,” Daniels said.
As it happens, researchers are learning more about how the animals greet each other, and how relationships among the social species could impact that communication.
African elephants use different combinations of gestures and vocalizations in their greetings, such as ear-flapping and vocalizations – behavior that may promote individual recognition and social bonding, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology.
The study, which monitored the vocalizations and physical actions of nine semi-captive elephants living in a savannah within the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe, also found that the elephants may change how they greet one another depending upon whether the other elephant is looking at them.
When being watched by other elephants, they were more likely to use visual gestures to communicate – such as ear-spreading, trunk-reaching, or trunk-swinging, the researchers found. When not being watched, elephants were more likely to touch the recipient of their greeting with their trunk, or to use gestures that produce a sound, such as ear-flapping and slapping their ears against their neck.
“If you’re not looking at me, I might use a tactile gesture. I might touch you to tell you something,” Vesta Eleuteri, a University of Vienna researcher who studies African savannah elephant communication and the lead author of the study, told ABC News.
When studying elephant social groups, the human observer can often ascertain the relationships among the elephants based on how they greet each other, Eleuteri said. These relationships can include females with their offspring, and even two different families that have formed a bond group, she said.
“Often when they meet each other, they’re so excited that they rumble, trumpet, roar, and they just all bunch together to strengthen this relationship,” Eleuteri said.
Males, on the other hand, tend to use more “investigative” greetings, such has directing their trunk to the mouth, or to the temporal glands of other males, located midway between their eye and ear, to cautiously mediate their reunion, Eleuteri said.
“It’s more risky between males because of the higher competition,” she noted.
Between November and December 2021, the researchers observed 89 elephant greeting events consisting of 1,282 greeting behaviors, 1,014 of which were physical actions and the remainder of which were vocalizations, according to the paper.
The observations revealed that elephants greeted one another with specific combinations of vocalizations and gestures, such as rumbles with ear-flapping or ear-spreading, as well as other seemingly less deliberate physical movements, such as tail-raising and waggling, according to the study.
While previous research has reported that elephants often engage in greeting rituals involving vocalizations and physical actions, it has been unclear whether these physical actions were deliberate gestures used for communication. Also unclear was how gestures and vocalizations are combined during greetings, the researchers said.
“This is a first step to understanding the ways elephants communicate with vision and touch,” Eleuteri said. “There had been descriptions of them using different body movements, but we didn’t really know whether these were actually communicative.”
The majority of previous research regarding communication among mammals has been focused on chimpanzees and other apes. The lack of existing research in elephant communication inspired Eleuteri to embark on the study. After witnessing elephants interacting in the wild, she became convinced that the gestures they employed were intentional, she said, adding that greetings in the wild are “very elaborate.”
“If you spend time with elephants, you can even tell when they’re communicating at you,” she said.
