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(DOHA, QATAR) — The recent Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar have not led anywhere yet, the Qatari prime minister said Tuesday, citing a “fundamental gap” between the two parties, Israel and Hamas.

“One party is looking for a partial deal that might or have the possibility to lead to a comprehensive deal and the other party is looking just for a one-off deal and to end the war and to get all the hostages out,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said during a press briefing Tuesday. “And we couldn’t bridge this fundamental gap with whatever proposals we have provided.”

Rounds of negotiations have been ongoing in Doha over the past couple of weeks, he said.

Hamas claimed Tuesday that Israel has not been serious about the negotiations, saying in a statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is extending his delegation’s stay in Doha on a day-to-day basis without engaging in any serious negotiations, and no real talks have taken place since last Saturday.”

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office claimed Tuesday that Hamas is refusing the American proposal for the return of the hostages.

“After approximately one week of intensive contacts in Doha, the senior members of the negotiating team will return to Israel for consultations; the working echelon will — at present — remain in Doha,” the office said.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli negotiation team is working to “exhaust every chance of a deal,” including one that would include “the release of all hostages, the expulsion of Hamas terrorists [from Gaza], and the disarmament of the Strip.”

Amid the ceasefire talks, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday the start of a new “extensive ground operation” throughout northern and southern Gaza.

The escalation has been met with condemnation from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada, who called on Israel in a joint statement on Monday to stop its military operations and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, otherwise they “will take further concrete actions in response.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy subsequently announced Tuesday that the U.K. has suspended negotiations with Israel on a new free trade agreement and will impose sanctions on West Bank settlers, saying, “Despite our efforts, this Israeli government’s egregious actions and rhetoric have continued.”

Netanyahu had pushed back against the joint statement in a statement on X on Monday, saying that by “asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed,” the leaders in London, Ottawa and Paris are “offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.”

“The war can end tomorrow if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its murderous leaders are exiled and Gaza is demilitarized. No nation can be expected to accept anything less and Israel certainly won’t,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also brushed off the U.K.’s announcements on the free trade talks and sanctions on Tuesday, saying, “External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.”

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(NEW YORK) — A run-in with a rival record executive at Mel’s Drive-in, assault weapons with illegally defaced serial numbers and a sex performance at Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West were some of the topics that jurors in Sean Combs’ criminal trial heard about Tuesday, as prosecutors tried to build their racketeering and sex trafficking case against the rap mogul.

Across nearly six hours of testimony on the trial’s 11th day, federal prosecutors called to the stand Combs’ former personal assistant, a federal agent, the mother of the government’s star witness and a sex worker nicknamed “The Punisher.”

They argued that the wide-reaching testimony helps prove the lengths to which Combs was willing to go to benefit from and protect what they alleged is a criminal enterprise.

Combs has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers argued that his private conduct in the bedroom does not amount of sex trafficking. His lawyers have argued any violence alleged by witnesses was driven by love, jealousy and drug use — not a desire to coerce anyone into sex.

Prosecutors plan to continue their case Wednesday by calling Dawn Hughes, a psychologist who specializes in sex trauma, George Kaplan, a former assistant to Combs and Scott Mescudi, the rapper known as Kid Cudi and who briefly dated Combs’ former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

Combs’ former assistant testifies about Suge Knight encounter

Combs’ one-time personal assistant David James told jurors about the wide range of tasks he completed for the rap mogul: from stocking hotel rooms and allegedly buying drugs to being the driver when Combs – allegedly armed with multiple guns – wanted to confront rival record executive Marion “Suge” Knight.

Jurors first heard about the alleged interaction between Combs and Knight during the testimony of Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. It allegedly occurred in approximately 2008 or 2009 and was a moment that threatened to dredge up the violent history between the titans of 1990s rap music and the long-standing rivalries between the East and West Coasts.

Ventura testified that, after a so-called “freak off,” a security guard named D-Roc informed him that Knight, the former CEO of Death Row Records and a longtime rival of Combs, was spotted at Mel’s. Despite her pleas to stop, Ventura said Combs packed up his weapons and headed to the restaurant to confront Knight.

“I was crying. I was screaming, like, please don’t do anything stupid,” Ventura testified last week.

James told jurors the other side of the story, describing D-Roc confronting Knight when they were at Mel’s to pick up cheeseburgers for Combs.

“We pulled into the parking lot and D-Roc looks over and says, ‘That’s motherf——- Suge Knight,'” James said, describing how he drove back to Combs’ house to find Combs and Ventura arguing. “Cassie looked very distressed. She was telling him not to go,” James testified.

James testified that Combs, allegedly with three guns on his lap, ordered him to drive back to the diner. It was that moment, he said, that eventually prompted him to stop working for Combs.

“I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant that my life was in danger,” James testified.

Prosecutors have charged that Combs and his alleged associates used “violence, use of firearms, threats of violence, coercion” to protect and promote the “power of the Combs’ enterprise.”

James also testified about buying and supplying drugs for Combs and stocking the moguls’ hotel rooms with baby oil, Astroglide lubricant, condoms and prophylactics. He told the jury he once accidentally walked in on a freak-off, featuring Ventura and a male sex worker.

When questioned by defense lawyers, James testified that he once had sex with a prostitute and that he declined to pay for her services, and that he got into a physical altercation with another one of Combs’ employees. James said he spoke with prosecutors under a proffer agreement, meaning he had immunity from being prosecuted for anything he said on the stand.

“Have they given you some type of immunity?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked.

“I’d have to ask my lawyer that question,” he said. “My lawyer said I have no legal visibility.”

Cassie Ventura’s mother testifies about Combs blackmailing her daughter

Regina Ventura, the mother of star witness Cassie Ventura, took the stand on Tuesday to testify about taking a home equity loan to pay Combs in order to prevent him from following through on an alleged threat to release a sex tape of her daughter.

“The threats that have been made towards me by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs are that … he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me,” Ventura wrote in an email to her mother and Combs’ assistant Capricorn Clark on Dec. 23, 2011. Jurors saw the email when Cassie Ventura testified last week.

“I was physically sick. I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me,” Regina Ventura testified about the threat.

Regina Ventura testified that she and her husband decided to take out a loan so they could send Combs the $20,000 he demanded, though he ultimately returned the money.

“We decided that’s the only way we could get the money,” she said. “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.”

Regina Ventura also told jurors she decided to photograph the injuries her daughter allegedly suffered from Combs so that they would have a record of the alleged abuse.

Approximately 15 years after she documented the injuries, prosecutors last week showed the photos to the jury to underscore Cassie Ventura’s testimony about the violence she suffered at Combs’ hands.

‘The Punisher’ testifies about a dozen alleged freak-offs

Known professionally as The Punisher, male escort Sharay Hayes told the jury that he first met Combs and Cassie Ventura in 2012, when he was hired to help create a “sexy erotic scene” for what, Ventura said, was Combs’ birthday. He testified that he got his nickname when he was a teenager based on the way he played basketball.

He testified that Ventura, who used the name Janet when booking sex workers, instructed him to come to Trump International Hotel & Tower on Central Park West in Manhattan to perform a strip act. When he arrived, Ventura asked him to cover her baby oil while Combs watched, Hayes said.

“I was specifically told to not acknowledge her husband. Try not to look at him. No communication between me and him,” Hayes testified. “The room was dimly lit, maybe electronic candles. All of the furniture was covered in sheets and there was an area pretty much for me to sit and for her to sit across from me. There were bowls of water and bottles of baby oil.”

Hayes told jurors that Combs was nude for the encounter and wore a veil, occasionally masturbating during the interaction and offering “subtle directions” to Ventura.

After their first interaction, Hayes said he worked for the couple another eight to 12 times, receiving $1,200 to $2,000 on each occasion.

During their last encounter, Hayes testified Combs instructed him to have sex with Ventura but declined because he could not sexually perform under “a lot of pressure.”

Cross-examined by Combs’ lawyers, Hayes testified that he believed Ventura was comfortable during the exchanges, potentially undercutting the argument she was coerced to participate.

“I didn’t get any cues there was any discomfort there,” Hayes said when asked if Ventura seemed uncomfortable with the encounters.

The question of whether Ventura was forced or participated voluntarily is one of the most critical issues in the prosecution of the onetime cultural icon Combs.

Jurors see evidence of weapons with defaced serial numbers

For the final witness of the day, jurors heard from a federal agent who testified about recovering multiple assault-style weapons from Combs’ Miami Beach residence when it was raided in March 2024. The agent, Gerard Gannon, said the serial numbers of the weapons had been defaced – a violation of federal firearms laws.

Holding parts of the weapons in court for the jury to see, Gannon testified that investigators recovered a 30-round magazine containing 19 rounds and a full 10-round magazine in Combs’ home, with the ammunition on the same shelf as 7-inch platform heels and lingerie.

Prosecutors have alleged Combs and his associates relied on “violence, use of firearms, [and] threats of violence” to operate their criminal enterprise.

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(NEW YORK) — It’s the rivalry that has defined hip-hop for a generation. And, according to many in law enforcement, it has claimed the lives of at least two of rap’s brightest stars.

Sean “Diddy” Combs vs. Marion “Suge” Knight.

Their names are synonymous with the explosion of hip-hop, and the bad blood between the two moguls emerged as a central pop culture plotline of the 1990s. Inside the music industry, their respective record labels – Combs’ Bad Boy Records and Knight’s Death Row — vied for market share. On the streets of cities like Los Angeles and New York, their personas clashed and their allies fought as part of what came to be known as the battle between the East and West Coast rap scenes.

In the East, Combs stood tall. Bad Boy Records boasted the top talent of the Notorious B.I.G. – aka Biggie Smalls – and, authorities said, often hired members of the Crips street gang for security. In the West, it was the domain of Knight and Death Row Records, which, police said, had long-standing connections with the Crips’ rivals, the Bloods. Atop the Death Row roster was Tupac Shakur.

The grudge between Combs and Knight was a key focus of testimony Tuesday at Combs’ ongoing sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan, in which Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. On the stand, Combs’ former personal assistant, David James, said one night in 2008, he spotted Knight and his entourage eating at Mel’s Diner in Hollywood. He testified that Combs, upon hearing that, wanted to confront the rival group.

“I was really struck by it. I realized for the first time, being Mr. Combs’ assistant, that my life was in danger,” James testified. A short time later, he gave his notice and left the company.

The enmity between Knight and Combs was fueled by insults – perceived, real and even put to lyrics – and in the era of hip-hop getting hot in the mainstream, the two groups feuded on stage, and in the streets.

Taking the stage at the August 1995 Source Awards in New York City, Knight hurled a thinly-veiled insult at Combs, publicly taunting Combs for allegedly stealing the spotlight from the artists whose music he produced.

In June 1996, Shakur released “Hit ‘Em Up,” which called out Biggie, Combs and Bad Boy by name, and bragged about sleeping with Biggie’s wife. The song further inflamed the feud.

“The East Coast, West Coast rivalry led to a lot of bad blood between Suge, Death Row, and Puffy and Bad Boy. Both were big at the time,” said retired NYPD Det. Derrick Parker, the first cop assigned to investigate crime in the hip-hop world. Parker was known on the streets as the “Hip-Hop Cop.”

“As soon as these guys started to become big in the industry, they started aligning themselves with certain people – they started bringing in the gangs, people affiliated with the gangs, and then came the diss records,” Parker said.

“The beef between them started to go on wax, on records, on tapes, on music. And it just got worse,” Parker said. “And the beef got louder and louder, it got more problematic, more violent.”

The rivalry turned deadly in the fall of 1996. On Sept. 7, Shakur was riding around Vegas in a BMW driven by Knight when a fusillade of gunfire rained down on them. Six days later, Shakur was dead.

The only man ever arrested in connection with the killing has previously alleged that Combs requested the murder: Duane “Keffe D” Davis told police Combs put a bounty on the lives of his rivals, Knight and Shakur.

Combs has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing and has never been named as a suspect or a person of interest by authorities in connection with the homicide.

Davis, in police interviews, the pages of his own co-authored memoir and in media appearances, has previously told a different story – one he now denies.

“I’ll give anything for those dude’s heads,” Davis said Combs told him months before Shakur’s death, according to a police report on their interview with Davis in 2008. His accounts of alleged conversations with Combs came during interviews with police in 2008 and 2009, obtained by ABC News, and later in on-camera interviews and the 2019 memoir with his name on it, “Compton Street Legend.”

Amid mushrooming violence and tensions between the two groups, Combs worried about “retaliation” and “began to solicit Davis to kill Knight and Shakur,” according to the police report on Davis’ 2008 interview.

More than once, Combs repeated the offer, Davis alleged: summoning him at a Hollywood eatery, Combs “again told Davis he [Combs] needed to get rid of Knight and Shakur. Combs offered Davis $1,000,000 to handle the problem. Davis remembers Combs being very afraid of Knight,” the report said.

Tensions had already begun boiling over months before Shakur’s killing when a fight broke out between a number of Bloods and Crips over a coveted Death Row medallion. Among the scuffling group was Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, according to police interviews and grand jury testimony. It was an act of “war” between the two groups that would warrant “retaliation,” a Crip affiliate testified before Davis’ indicting grand jury.

On Sept. 7, 1996, gang members and glitterati alike convened in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson fight. In the crowds, Shakur and Knight caught sight of Davis’ nephew and identified him as the would-be medallion snatcher, according to prosecutors. A brawl ensued. That beatdown gave Davis and his crew “the ultimate green light” to take revenge, his memoir said – and which prosecutors have quoted. Paired with the request he said Combs had made, vengeance for his nephew was a “double whammy,” motivating him to seek out Shakur and Knight, according to the memoir.

Davis, behind bars and awaiting trial for orchestrating Shakur’s killing, now insists he is “innocent.” In his first interview since being arrested in September 2023, Davis told ABC News in March that he’s “never read” the memoir ascribed to him, and only confessed to his purported role in the crime because he was getting paid to lie.

His trial for Shakur’s murder is set for February 2026. He has pleaded not guilty.

Six months after Shakur was killed, Biggie Smalls was gunned down in Los Angeles, in what detectives have theorized was orchestrated revenge for Shakur’s murder. Smalls was killed after leaving through a rear entrance of an overcrowded awards afterparty that was also attended by Combs. The rapper and the mogul were in separate cars.

The hip-hop icons’ back-to-back deaths would punctuate years of escalating hostility and traded barbs between the groups.

“The rivalry between the gangs was all part and parcel of that East Coast-West Coast war,” Parker said. “This was how the rap world was. It was very violent, very turbulent at that time. That beef between them marked the hip-hop scene for more than a generation.”

Knight is currently in prison, serving a 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter stemming from a 2015 fatal hit-and-run. That case is not connected to Combs, Shakur or Smalls. He did not respond Tuesday to questions about the Combs trial.

Referring to the fact that he, Knight and Combs were all locked up at the time, Davis told ABC News in March: “All three of us are f—ed up now. All three of us are in jail. Me, Suge, and him.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Trump administration has reversed a pause on construction of a massive offshore wind project off the coasts of New York and New Jersey.

Work on Empire Wind, the wind farm being built 15 to 30 miles south of the coast of Long Island, can resume now that the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has lifted a stop-work order, according to Equinor, the Norweigian energy company developing the site.

On April 16, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on the wind project. In a post to X, Burgum claimed that further review was needed and that the Biden administration “rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”

Construction was about 30% complete, and the project was fully permitted at the time the stop order was issued, according to the energy company.

The stop-work order was lifted “following dialogue with regulators and federal, state, and city officials,” according to Equinor.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Monday that it took “countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials” to emphasize the importance of the project, while Burgum posted to X that he was “encouraged by Governor Hochul’s comments about her willingness to move forward on critical pipeline capacity,” although Hochul did not mention natural gas in her statement.

“New York’s economic future is going to be powered by abundant, clean energy that helps our homes and businesses thrive. I fought to save clean energy jobs in New York — and we got it done,” Hochul said.

The continuation of the project will allow Equinor to deliver energy while supporting local economies and creating jobs, Anders Opeda, president and CEO of Equinor ASA, said in a statement.

“I would like to thank President Trump for finding a solution that saves thousands of American jobs and provides for continued investments in energy infrastructure in the U.S.,” Opeda said. “I am grateful to Governor Hochul for her constructive collaboration with the Trump Administration, without which we would not have been able to advance this project and secure energy for 500,000 homes in New York.”

Wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the U.S., accounting for about 10% of electricity generated in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

What to know about Empire Wind

Norwegian energy company Equinor spent seven years obtaining permits to build Empire Wind, a project slated to power more than 500,000 homes in New York by 2026.

The site will encompass 80,000 acres with up to 130 or more wind turbines, according to the company.

The federal lease for Empire Wind was finalized during Trump’s first term, in March 2017, AP reported. In February 2024, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved Equinor’s operations and construction plan, and construction began later in the year.

The project is expected to deliver “abundant, reliable and affordable” domestic power to the Northeast as it capitalizes on billions of dollars invested and years of preparation to date and load continues to grow, Eric Hines, director of Tufts University’s Offshore Wind Graduate Program, told ABC News.

“Moving forward on Empire Wind, New York and the United States are setting the stage for a new era of American manufacturing,” Hines said.

The decision to resume construction on Empire Wind “is incredibly important for New York State,” especially since energy needs in the state are expected to double within the next 15 years, Lara Skinner, executive director of the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University’s ILR School, told ABC News.

“Offshore wind is particularly well-suited to New York because most of NY’s electricity is consumed in NYC and it’s difficult to get power into the city from upstate,” Skinner said. “There is not sufficient transmission infrastructure. Offshore wind helps alleviate the problem by generating power near the point of consumption.”

The project has already created 1,500 jobs at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and was on track to provide another 1,000 good union jobs in the construction of the project, Skinner said.

“Offshore wind is responsible for creating thousands of jobs across the U.S., powering homes with clean energy, and bolstering our nation’s energy independence,” Nancy Pyne, senior advisor for offshore wind at the Sierra Club, and environmental nonprofit, said in a statement.

A rapid buildout of renewable energy sources, “especially offshore wind,” will be required to achieve the greenhouse gas reductions required by New York’s climate law, Rachel Spector, deputy managing attorney at environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, told ABC News.

“The Empire Wind project will allow retirement of fossil fuel power plants that pollute the air, and in partnership with labor and community leaders it is supporting development of a staging and port facility that will further support the wind industry and create thousands of local jobs,” Spector said.

Trump’s past criticism of wind turbines

The reversal contradicts the critical stance Trump has been taking on wind power since his first term.

In May 2024, Trump claimed during a rally in New Jersey that wind turbines “kill” whales, vowing to write an executive order on “Day 1” to end offshore wind projects.

Trump kept that promise on Inauguration Day, when he signed an executive order that effectively paused the development of new offshore wind projects in the Outer Continental Shelf, withdrawing areas in the region from consideration for new and renewed leases.

The White House cited “alleged legal deficiencies” in the leasing and permitting of onshore and offshore wind projects that could lead to “grave harm” such as negative impacts on navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests and marine mammals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has refuted claims that the noise from offshore wind turbines causes whale deaths.

Earlier this month, attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration over an executive order signed on Inauguration Day that halted permits for wind projects.

“This arbitrary and unnecessary directive threatens the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments, and it is delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, lead of the coalition, said in a statement.

In the lawsuit, the coalition of states argued that the blockade on all wind energy projects was unlawful and sought a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the administration from enforcing the freeze.

“The attorneys general argue this unilateral halt on wind energy development is harming states’ ability to provide reliable, affordable electricity to their residents,” the statement read.

In a statement to AP, the White House accused Democrats of “using lawfare to stop the president’s popular energy agenda.

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(BOSTON) — Heavy storms are now reaching the East Coast as a Nor’easter heads toward New England ahead of the holiday travel period for Memorial Day weekend.

As a low-pressure system from the Mid-Atlantic moves out to sea, it will become a Nor’easter and move up the New England coast.

This late season Nor’easter will bring cold windswept heavy rain to New England, including Boston, on Thursday — with wind gusts up to 50 mph and the potential for minor coastal flooding.

The soaking rain will likely come to an end for Boston on Friday morning, but pockets of showers remain possible Friday afternoon into Saturday as the system continues north.

With scattered showers remaining in New England on Saturday, it won’t be completely dry again until Sunday as rainfall totals of 1 to 3 inches are expected through much of the Northeast Wednesday through Saturday.

Storms have also now reached the East Coast and even though most are not expected to be severe, a few scattered severe storms have been reported early Wednesday morning in the Southeast.

Washington, D.C. will have rain showers by 8 a.m. while thunderstorms are expected further south of Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia.

Elsewhere, Philadelphia is expecting a rainy morning and New York City will have occasional showers through the afternoon, but a washout is not expected today.

Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania are under a flood watch through Wednesday night because 1 to 3 inches of rain is possible which may create river, stream flooding and other low-lying flood-prone areas to become saturated as urban areas may also experience flooding from excessive rainfall.

On Wednesday afternoon, a few strong storms are also possible in eastern North Carolina and, overnight, strong storms are possible in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Meanwhile, in the last 48 hours alone, at least 31 tornadoes have been reported across nine states from Oklahoma to Alabama, with 11 tornadoes striking Alabama, Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas alone on Tuesday.

Baseball-sized hail was reported in Tennessee and Alabama on Tuesday night as wind gusts stronger than 70 mph were recorded in Tennessee overnight.

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