KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s air force claimed Friday it shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission.

Neither claim could be independently verified. Previous Ukrainian claims of shooting down Russian warplanes during their more than two-year war have met with silence or denials from Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russian missiles struck cities in the central Dnipro region of Ukraine, killing eight people, including a 14-year-old girl and 8-year-old boy, and injuring 28, local officials said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated Kyiv officials’ almost daily appeals for more Western air defense systems, again drawing a parallel with how Israel blunted a recent Iranian attack.

Missile and drone attacks can be thwarted, he wrote on social platform X: “This has been demonstrated in the skies over the Middle East, and it should also work in Europe.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba added: “Children must not be killed in airstrikes in modern Europe.”

Russia’s air force is vastly more powerful than Ukraine’s, but sophisticated missile systems provided by Kyiv’s Western partners are a major threat to Russian aviation as the Kremlin’s forces slowly push forward along the around 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in what has become a grinding war of attrition. Ukrainian officials say they expect a major Russian offensive in the summer.

Ukraine said the air force and military intelligence cooperated to bring down the Tu-22M3 bomber with anti-aircraft missiles. Russia commonly uses the bomber to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets from inside its own airspace. The plane can also carry nuclear warheads.

The Russian defense ministry said the warplane crashed “in a deserted area” in the southern region of Stavropol, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Three crew members were rescued after ejecting from the aircraft, and the search for a fourth is taking place, according to the ministry. But Stavropol Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov said one of the rescued pilots died.

On Christmas Eve, Ukraine claimed to have shot down two Russian fighter jets. In January, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down a Russian early warning and control plane and a key command center aircraft that relays information to troops on the ground, in what appeared to be a significant blow for the Kremlin’s forces. The next month, Ukraine said it knocked out another early warning and control plane.

Also in January, Moscow accused Kyiv of shooting down a Russian military transport plane that was carrying Ukrainian POWs who were headed for a prisoner swap.

Russian forces overnight conducted a combined aerial attack with the use of 22 missiles of various types and 14 Shahed drones during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. All the drones and 15 of the missiles were intercepted, it said.

The attack hit urban areas as well as train infrastructure in the Dnipro region, Ukraine’s National Railway Operator said. Among those killed in the strikes was employee Oksana Storozhenko, the mother of two teenage sons, it said.

JERUSALEM (JNS) – Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush has sent a letter to the United Nations demanding that the world body work to provide the 133 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza with matzah and wine for the Passover Seder.

“Unfortunately, not all of the people of Israel will be able to celebrate the Seder night according to the tradition of their ancestors,” Porush wrote in a letter to U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland.

“133 of our brothers and sisters are not with us and are being held captive by the Hamas terrorist organization, which has been holding them by force since the murderous attack on Simchat Torah,” he added.

Porush insisted that while Jerusalem hopes that all hostages would be freed before the holiday, which starts on Monday at sundown, the U.N. must step in to assist if they won’t be.

The haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Israeli official made the demand so that the remaining hostages “can at least symbolically observe the holiday, in the hope that this will uplift their spirits and enable them to endure their difficult situation until their swift release.”

On April 11, a mock Seder to demand the return of the hostages was held by family members in Kibbutz Nir Oz. In a statement, the families demanded the release of their loved ones before the holiday.

“Last Shabbat marked six months since they were cruelly kidnapped from their home. Six months and it feels as if they have been forgotten there,” said Ofri Bibas-Levy, the sister of Yarden Bibas, who was abducted during the Oct. 7 attacks along with his wife and two young children.

“Will they be granted the freedom so cruelly taken from them? Hasn’t the time come for the whole world to also shout for Ariel and Kfir? A shout for justice, for humanity, for an end to this nightmare. Let my family go! Let our people go!” Bibas-Levy added.

Hamas this week rejected the latest offer for a ceasefire, lowering the number of captives that it is willing to set free while raising its demands to increase the number of terrorists to be released from Israeli jail, and demanding that more violent terrorists be freed as well.

(JNS) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution on April 16 declaring the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” antisemitic.

Forty-four members of Congress, including Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Ill.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), voted against it. Forty-three of those votes came from Democrats, while one came from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of West Virginia.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Anthony D’Esposito (D-N.Y.) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) led the bipartisan resolution.

“Our resolution makes it clear that the slogan ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is antisemitic and calls for the total eradication of the Jewish, democratic State of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people,” said Gottheimer.

“From the river to the sea” refers to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and the slogan has been chanted on city streets and university campuses by anti-Israel protesters since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Before she was elected as a congresswoman in 2022, Kamlager-Dove told the Jewish Journal that Israel is “an example of what a young, vibrant democracy looks like, and we should be supporting it,” and that she didn’t subscribe to the anti-Israel rhetoric in her party from politicians like Omar.

“Who would I be to marginalize an important, vocal, engaged and vulnerable population in my community?” she said at the time. “I don’t know Ilhan [Omar]’s constituency, but I wouldn’t stand for it. We have an obligation to talk about the consequences of hateful language on all sides within our party, as well as outside of it.”

Kamlager-Dove represents the 37th District, which includes a large Jewish population in Pico-Robertson, Beverlywood and West L.A. According to Open Secrets, during the 2022 election cycle, she received $5,500 in donations from the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby and $17,830 from JStreetPAC, her third-largest donor, which calls itself a “pro-peace” and “anti-occupation” alternative to AIPAC.

On Nov. 3, Kamlager-Dove put out a statement that she supported a “humanitarian pause” in the Gaza Strip, saying that “Israel has a right to defend itself, and its military strategy must abide by international law, and work to protect civilian life.”

She went on to say, “I represent a large and diverse Jewish community in Los Angeles that has been grappling with the effects of this terrorist attack, including an alarming uptick in antisemitism. Many are also connecting with their Muslim and Palestinian brothers and sisters to rebuild a fractured community and continue the work of peace. The impact of this crisis has been a catalyst of hate crimes against American Muslims and American Jews.”

A month later, on Dec. 5, the congresswoman voted “present” for H.Res.894, which denounced and condemned all instances of antisemitism in the United States and globally. It also stated that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it passed.

After the vote, Kamlager-Dove said in a press release that “under the guise of condemning antisemitism, Republicans are weaponizing words and preying on the trauma of the American Jewish community by purposely including an overly broad definition of antisemitism that goes so far as to imply that it is antisemitic to criticize the actions of the Israeli government.”

In the same statement, she went on to say that “we also cannot forget that systematically rooting out antisemitism requires dismantling the bigotry and discrimination based on religious affiliation and national origin that is also the basis for Islamophobia against our Muslim and Palestinian brothers and sisters. The safety of these two communities is interlinked, at home and abroad.”

On March 19, Kamlager-Dove went on MSNBC and reflected on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s criticism of the Israeli government. She stood by him, telling the news channel, “Chuck Schumer said the quiet part out loud. He said there are four obstacles to peace: Hamas, Abbas, Israel’s right-wing government coalition, and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

After publication, the Journal heard back from Kamlager-Dove, who released this statement:

“While I recognize that ‘From the River to the Sea’ is, understandably, viewed as a hurtful phrase by many in the Jewish community, I voted no on this resolution because Republicans didn’t bring it up to actually address or condemn antisemitism.

“Speaker Johnson brought up this Republican-introduced resolution to exploit Iran’s attack on Israel to advance the GOP’s long-standing goal of equating antisemitism with criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian self-determination, thus restricting space around legitimate policy discussions. Weaponizing the real concerns of the Jewish community to advance a partisan political agenda is cynical and exploitative, and I will not allow my constituents to become pawns in House Republicans’ political games.”

She continued: “When ‘From the River to the Sea’ is said in the context of denying self-determination to Jews or Palestinians, advocating for the dismantling of the state of Israel, or calling for the displacement or elimination of any people, it is wrong and must be forcefully condemned.

“While it is regrettable that many advocating for an independent, democratic Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace and security employ this phrase without understanding the context, condemning these individuals as inherently antisemitic—as this resolution does—is wrong and only sows greater division between communities.”

Originally published by The Jewish Journal.

CAPRI, Italy (AP) — The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, but didn’t participate in the apparent attack, officials said.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who chaired the meeting of ministers of industrialized countries, said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the suspected attack.

Early on Friday, Iran fired air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site near the central Iranian city of Isfahan after spotting drones. It was part of an apparent Israeli attack in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country last weekend.

Tajani said the U.S. informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack by the U.S. It was a mere information.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declined to comment on the assertion, but emphasized that the U.S. was not involved in any attack and was committed to working for a “de-escalation” in the region.

“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,” Blinken said.

Asked to describe the current U.S.-Israeli relationship, Blinken noted that Israel makes its own decisions and the United States is committed to its security.

“We are committed to helping Israel defend itself and as necessary participating in its defense, as you saw just a few days ago,” Blinken said, referring to the U.S. and allied action to help Israel repel the weekend Iranian drone and missile attack.

“Again, Israel makes its decisions, but we have a commitment to defending it,” Blinken said.

Tajani said the G7 partners had all exchanged information Friday about what they knew about what had transpired in Iran. He said he shared that he had spoken on the phone with Italian embassies in Tel Aviv and Tehran and ascertained that the Italians living in Isfahan were all safe.

“There were no deaths or injuries,” Tajani said. “There is a group of Italians who live in the city where the drones arrived and they are all without problems. They say life has resumed regularly, and the Iranian airspace has reopened.”

“It seems the climate is better today than overnight,” he added.

In a communique following the three-day meeting, the ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States urged the parties “to prevent further escalation.”

The statement pledged support for Israel’s security and condemned “in the strongest terms” what the foreign ministers described as Iran’s “unprecedented attack against Israel of April 13-14, which Israel defeated with the help of its partners,” as well as the seizure of the Portuguese-flagged vessel MSC Aries in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We stand ready to adopt further sanctions or take other measures, now and in response to further destabilizing initiatives,” the document read.

The group also warned Iran against transferring ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia.

On the war in Gaza, the group called on Hamas to release hostages and reminded Israel to respect international and humanitarian law.

It added that G7 countries remained opposed to “a full scale military operation in Rafah that would have catastrophic consequences on the civilian population,” and called for increasing the flow of aid into Gaza.

“The G7 worked and will work for a de-escalation,” Tajani said in a closing press conference. He said that would include a de-escalation of tensions, followed by a cease-fire, liberation of hostages and aid to the Palestinian people.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prospective homebuyers are facing higher costs to finance a home with the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate moving above 7% this week to its highest level in nearly five months.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 7.1% from 6.88% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.39%.

When mortgage rates rise, they can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting how much they can afford at a time when the U.S. housing market remains constrained by relatively few homes for sale and rising home prices.

“As rates trend higher, potential homebuyers are deciding whether to buy before rates rise even more or hold off in hopes of decreases later in the year,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Last week, purchase applications rose modestly, but it remains unclear how many homebuyers can withstand increasing rates in the future.”

After climbing to a 23-year high of 7.79% in October, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage had remained below 7% since early December amid expectations that inflation would ease enough this year for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its short-term interest rate.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including how the bond market reacts to the Fed’s interest rate policy and the moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

But home loan rates have been mostly drifting higher in recent weeks as stronger-than-expected reports on employment and inflation have stoked doubts over how soon the Fed might decide to start lowering its benchmark interest rate. The uncertainty has pushed up bond yields.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to around 4.66% on Tuesday — its highest level since early November — after top officials at the Federal Reserve suggested the central bank may hold its main interest steady for a while. The Fed wants to get more confidence that inflation is sustainably heading toward its target of 2%.

The yield was at 4.64% at midday Thursday after new data on applications for unemployment benefits and a report showing manufacturing growth in the mid-Atlantic region pointed to a stronger-than-expected U.S. economy.

“With no cuts to the federal funds rate imminent and with the economy still strong, there is no reason to see downward pressure on mortgage rates right now,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “It seems increasingly likely that mortgage rates are not going to come down any time soon.”

Sturtevant said it’s likely the average rate on a 30-year mortgage will hold close to 7% throughout the spring before easing to the mid-to-high 6% range into the summer.

Other economists also expect that mortgage rates will ease moderately later this year, with forecasts generally calling for the average rate to remain above 6%.

Mortgage rates have now risen three weeks in a row, a setback for home shoppers this spring homebuying season, traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of the year.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last month as home shoppers contended with elevated mortgage rates and rising prices.

While easing mortgage rates helped push home sales higher in January and February, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage remains well above 5.1%, where was just two years ago.

That large gap between rates now and then has helped limit the number of previously occupied homes on the market because many homeowners who bought or refinanced more than two years ago are reluctant to sell and give up their fixed-rate mortgages below 3% or 4%.

Meanwhile, the cost of refinancing a home loan also got pricier this week. Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often used to refinance longer-term mortgages, rose this week, pushing the average rate to 6.39% from 6.16% last week. A year ago it averaged 5.76%, Freddie Mac said.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York would expand access to booze by allowing movie theaters to sell liquor and continuing to let people buy takeout cocktails from bars and restaurants under a series of measures unveiled Thursday.

The state Assembly passed the measures Thursday, which are part of the larger state budget agreement. The state Senate is expected to follow before it’s sent to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk for signature. The deal was struck between Hochul and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly after a series of closed-door talks.

Movie theaters in New York are only allowed to sell beer and wine, according to the New York State Liquor Authority, but this new legislation would add liquor to the mix.

“Someone should be able to enjoy a cocktail while they watch a movie,” said state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat who chairs a legislative committee where state alcohol laws pass through.

The measure comes with guardrails in an attempt to maintain a family-friendly environment at theatres that have licenses to sell booze. People would only be allowed to purchase one alcoholic beverage per transaction, and theaters must stop selling alcohol once the credits start rolling in for the last showing of the day.

New Yorkers would also be allowed to buy takeout cocktails at restaurants and bars for the next five years under another measure part of the state budget. The rule was set to expire next year after the state temporarily authorized the sale of to-go alcoholic drinks during the pandemic.

Skoufis, who supports keeping that measure permanent, said “it provides some short-term certainty for restaurants and businesses doing this.”

Lawmakers in Albany voted Thursday to push the state’s budget deadline again, though they are expected to vote on package of budget bills later in the week. Hochul announced on Monday the framework of a $237 billion budget, about two weeks after the original April 1 deadline.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson has unveiled a long-awaited package of bills that will provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel, replenish U.S. weapons systems and give humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

The package totals $95.3 billion in spending, which matches the total that the Senate passed in mid-February. But there are also a few differences with the Senate bill designed to win over some House conservatives.

Here’s a look at what is in the bills that Johnson hopes to pass by this weekend.

UKRAINE
The aid to support Ukraine totals about $61 billion. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said that more than a third of that amount would be dedicated to replenishing weapons and ammunition systems for the U.S. military.

The overall amount of money provided to Ukraine for the purchase of weapons from the U.S. is roughly the same in the House and Senate bills — $13.8 billion.

The main difference between the two packages is that the House bill provides more than $9 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine in the form of “forgivable loans.” The Senate bill included no such provision seeking repayment.

The president would be authorized to set the terms of the loan to Ukraine and also be given the power to cancel it. Congress could override the cancellation but would have to generate enough votes to override a veto, a high bar considering how the two chambers are so evenly divided.

Johnson, as he seeks GOP support for the package, noted that former President Donald Trump has endorsed a “loan concept.”

He also noted that the House package includes a requirement for the Biden administration to provide a plan and a strategy to Congress for what it seeks to achieve in Ukraine. The plan would be required within 45 days of the bill being signed into law. House Republicans frequently complain that they have yet to see a strategy from Biden for winning the war.

The bill said the report from the administration must be a multiyear plan that spells out “specific and achievable objectives.” It also asked for an estimate of the resources required to achieve the U.S. objectives and a description of the national security implications if the objectives are not met.

ISRAEL
Aid in the legislation to support Israel and provide humanitarian relief to citizens of Gaza comes to more than $26 billion. The amount of money dedicated to replenishing Israel’s missile defense systems totals about $4 billion in the House and Senate bills. An additional $2.4 billion for current U.S. military operations in the regions is also the same in both bills.

Some conservatives have been critical of the aid for Gaza. At the end of the day, though, Johnson risked losing critical Democratic support for the package if Republicans had excluded it. The humanitarian assistance comes to more than $9 billion for Gaza, where millions of Palestinians face starvation, lack of clean water and disease outbreaks.

INDO-PACIFIC
The investments to counter China and ensure a strong deterrence in the region come to about $8 billion. The overall amount of money and the investments in the two bills is about the same with a quarter of funds used to replenish weapons and ammunition systems that had been provided to Taiwan.

OTHER FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITIES
Under the plan, the House would also vote on a bill that combines a raft of foreign policy proposals. It includes legislation to allow the U.S. to seize and transfer an estimated $5 billion in Russian assets to a “Ukraine Support Fund.”

It also includes legislation that would ban the video app TikTok if it’s China-based owner, ByteDance, does not sell it.

The House had already voted earlier this year to force the sale of TikTok, but the measure before the House this week provides ByteDance more time to complete a sale before a ban would kick in, extending the deadline from six months in the prior legislation to as long as nearly one year.

If the company chooses not to sell, TikTok would be prohibited from app stores in the U.S. — such as those offered by Apple and Google — as well as web-hosting services.

TikTok has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if its asked.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York man has pleaded guilty to sending death threats to the state attorney general and the Manhattan judge who presided over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, prosecutors said Thursday.

Tyler Vogel, 26, of Lancaster, admitted to one felony count of making a terroristic threat and one misdemeanor count of making a threat of mass harm on Wednesday in state Supreme Court, according to Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane’s office.

Vogel had sent text messages late last month threatening New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron with “death and physical harm” if they did not comply with his demands to “cease action” in the Trump case, according to a complaint filed in a court in Lancaster, a suburb east of Buffalo.

State police said in the complaint that Vogel used a paid online background website to obtain private information about James and Engoron and that this “confirmed intentions to follow through with the threats were his demands not met.”

Keane’s office said Thursday that Vogel, in entering the guilty plea, will be allowed to participate in interim probation and must comply with the mandates of state mental health court.

Once the court and probation requirements are completed, Vogel will be permitted to withdraw his plea to the felony charge and be sentenced on the misdemeanor charge, according to Keane’s office.

He was released from custody and is due back in court April 23, but a temporary protection order issued on behalf of the two victims remains in effect, prosecutors said.

Vogel was initially charged with two felony counts of making a terroristic threat and two misdemeanor counts of aggravated harassment and faced a maximum of seven years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said at the time.

His lawyer didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Thursday and a spokesperson for James’ office declined to comment.

Trump, meanwhile, is again on trial in Manhattan this week.

The former Republican president, who is seeking a return to the White House in this year’s election, faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories about his sex life that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.

Trump has also appealed Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding that he lied about his wealth as he fostered the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency.

The civil trial focused on how Trump’s assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to get loans and deals.

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury of 12 people was seated Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s history-making hush money trial, propelling the proceedings closer to opening statements and the start of weeks of dramatic testimony.

The court quickly turned to selecting alternate jurors.

The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, an English teacher, a speech therapist, multiple lawyers, an investment banker and a retired wealth manager.

The first-ever trial of a former American president will unfold in the middle of this year’s race for the White House, ensuring that the legal troubles of the presumptive Republican nominee will be a dominant issue in the contest against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.

The trial will almost certainly feature unflattering testimony about the Trump’s personal life before he became president, with allegations that he falsifying business records to suppress stories in the final days of the 2016 election about his sexual relationships.

The jury selection process appeared wobbly earlier in the day when two jurors were dismissed, one after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair following disclosure of details about her identity and the other over concerns that some of his answers in court may have been inaccurate.

But lawyers who began the day with only five jurors settled on the remaining seven for the panel in quick succession, along with one alternate. Judge Juan Merchan has said his goal is to have six alternates.

In other developments, prosecutors asked for Trump to be held in contempt over a series of social media posts this week, and the judge barred reporters from identifying jurors’ employers after expressing privacy concerns.

The trial centers on a $130,000 payment that Cohen made shortly before the 2016 election to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the race’s final days.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He could get up to four years in prison if convicted, though it’s not clear that the judge would opt to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.

Appeals and legal wrangling have caused delays in the other three cases charging Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and with illegally hoarding classified documents.

The jury selection process picked up momentum Tuesday with the selection of seven jurors. But on Thursday, Merchan revealed in court that one of the seven, a cancer nurse, had “conveyed that after sleeping on it overnight she had concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case.”

And though jurors’ names are being kept confidential, the woman told the judge and the lawyers that she had doubts after she said aspects of her identity had been made public.

“Yesterday alone I had friends, colleagues and family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror,” she said. “I don’t believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision making in the courtroom.”

A second seated juror was dismissed after prosecutors raised concerns that he may not have been honest in answering a jury selection question by saying that he had never been accused or convicted of a crime.

The IT professional was summoned to court to answer questions after prosecutors said they found an article about a person with the same name who had been arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political posters pertaining to the political right in suburban Westchester County.

A prosecutor also disclosed that a relative of the man may have been involved in a deferred prosecution agreement in the 1990s with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Trump’s case.

Because the juror was questioned Thursday at the judge’s bench, off-microphone and out of earshot of reporters, it was not known whether the man confirmed or denied either instance was connected to him.

The process of picking a jury is a critical phase of any criminal trial but especially so when the defendant is a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee. Prospective jurors have been grilled on their social media posts, personal lives and political views as the lawyers and judge search for biases that would prevent them from being impartial.

Inside the court, there’s broad acknowledgment of the futility in trying to find jurors without knowledge of Trump. A prosecutor this week said that lawyers were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.”

After dismissing from the jury the nurse who had already been selected, Merchan ordered journalists in court not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.

“We just lost, probably, what probably would have been a very good juror for this case, and the first thing that she said was she was afraid and intimidated by the press, all the press, and everything that had happened,” Merchan said after dismissing the juror.

Prosecutors had asked that the employer inquiries be axed from the jury questionnaire. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche responded that “depriving us of the information because of what the press is doing isn’t the answer.”

The district attorney’s office on Monday sought a $3,000 fine for Trump for three Truth Social posts they said violated the order. Since then, prosecutors said he made seven additional posts that they believe violate the order.

Several of the posts involved an article that referred to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as a “serial perjurer,” and one from Wednesday repeated a claim by a Fox News host that liberal activists were lying to get on the jury, said prosecutor Christopher Conroy.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove said Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and Trump was just replying.

The judge had already scheduled a hearing for next week on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Trump’s posts.

(AP) – Tesla’s stock tumbled below $150 per share, giving up all of the gains made over the past year as the electric vehicle maker reels from falling sales and steep discounts intended to lure more buyers.

Shares in the Elon Musk-owned company slid nearly 4% in intraday trading Thursday, in what now stands as the third worst week for the stock in 2024, a year that has been dismal for Tesla investors. The Austin, Texas company’s shares are down 12.4% this week and more than 39% this year.

Shares of Tesla Inc. last traded at the $150 level in January 2023.

It’s also been a bad year for employees. Tesla said Monday that it was cutting 10% of its staff globally, about 14,000 jobs. The next day, Tesla announced it would try to re-instate Musk’s $56 billion pay package that was rejected by a Delaware judge in January, who said that the arrangement was dictated by Musk and was the product of sham negotiations with directors who were not independent of him.

At the time of the Delaware court ruling, Musk’s package was worth more than $55.8 billion, but the stock slide has cut that to $44.9 billion at the close of trading on Friday, according to a company filing this week.

Tesla shares hit an all-time intraday high of $415.50 in November of 2021, adjusted for a 3-for-1 stock split that took effect in August 2022.

Tesla sales fell sharply last quarter as competition increased worldwide, electric vehicle sales growth slowed, and price cuts failed to draw more buyers. The company said it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, nearly 9% below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year.

Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush who has been very bullish on Tesla’s stock, called the first quarter sales numbers an “unmitigated disaster.”

“For Musk, this is a fork in the road time to get Tesla through this turbulent period otherwise dark days could be ahead,” Ives wrote this week.

Yet on Thursday, Deutsche Bank joined other industry analysts in voicing concern over Musk’s big bet on autonomous vehicles as it stripped the company of its “buy” rating, citing Tesla’s “change of strategic priority to Robotaxi.”

Wall Street expects that Tesla will report a decline in first quarter earnings next week and many are wondering if there’s any near-term catalyst for growth that would end Tesla’s stock slide. Industry analysts were expecting a new small electric vehicle for the masses that would cost around $25,000, the Model 2, but there were reports last week that Musk was scrapping that project.

Musk disputed the reports, but wrote on X, the social media platform that he owns, that Tesla would unveil a robotaxi at an event on Aug. 8.

Uncertainty over the release of a cheaper vehicle from Tesla has altered the equation for analysts like Deutche Bank’s Emmanuel Rosner.

Such a delay would tie Tesla’s future more closely to “cracking the code on full driverless autonomy, which represents a significant technological, regulatory and operational challenge. We view Tesla’s shift as thesis-changing,” Rosner wrote.

Since last year, Tesla has cut prices as much as $20,000 on some models as it faced increasing competition and slowing demand.

Other automakers also have had to cut electric vehicle production and reduce prices to move EVs off dealership lots. Ford, for instance, cut production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup, and lopped up to $8,100 off the price of the Mustang Mach E electric SUV in order to sell 2023 models.

U.S. electric vehicle sales growth slowed to 3.3% in the first quarter of the year, far below the 47% increase that fueled record sales and a 7.6% market share last year. Sales of new vehicles overall grew 5.1%, and the EV market share declined to 7.15%.

In addition to massive job cuts this week, Tesla this week announced the departure of two high-placed executives.

Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, is leaving after 18 years with the company.

Rohan Patel, senior global director of public policy and business development and eight-year Tesla veteran, is also departing.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University on Thursday and arrested dozens of protesters.

Several students involved in the protest said they were also suspended from Columbia and Barnard College, including Isra Hirsi, who is the daughter of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Police did not immediately identify those taken into custody or say how many arrests were made.

The congresswoman, at a hearing on Wednesday, had questioned Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, about the school’s targeting of pro-Palestinian protesters.

i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings

i just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.

— isra hirsi (@israhirsi) April 18, 2024

The students had been protesting on campus since early Wednesday, demanding the school divest from companies they claim “profit from Israeli apartheid” and the Israeli military action in Gaza.

Shafik issued a statement saying the school had warned protesters on Wednesday that they would be suspended if the encampment was not removed. School officials made the decision Thursday to call in police and clear out the demonstrators.

“The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies,” she wrote.

Shafik also said the university tried through several channels “to engage with their concerns and offered to continue discussions if they agreed to disperse.”

The school said it was still identifying students involved in the protest Thursday and added more suspensions would be forthcoming.

Police moved in early Thursday afternoon using zip ties to arrest protesters and escort them to waiting buses before removing the tents.

They could not say how many people had been arrested or any charges they might face.

Pro-Palestinian protesters reorganized on campus a short time later, chanting, “Shame”

“We demand full amnesty for all students disciplined for their involvement in the encampment or the movement for Palestinian liberation,” the protest coalition said in a statement.

A voicemail message was left with Omar’s office on Thursday afternoon seeking comment.

(AP) – Booming sales of cold drinks at Starbucks have created a problem: growing amounts of plastic waste from the single-use cups that Frappuccinos, Refreshers, cold brews and other iced drinks are served in.

The coffee giant said Thursday it plans to alleviate some of that waste with new disposable cups that contain up to 20% less plastic. The cups are set to be rolled out to stores in the U.S. and Canada starting this month.

Amelia Landers, Starbucks’ vice president of product innovation, said the Seattle-based company spent the last four years developing the new containers. Engineers tested thousands of iterations to see how much plastic they could remove while still making the cup feel sturdy.

“We feel like it’s industry-leading,” Landers said. “It’s the best expression of a cold plastic cup.”

Starbucks says Frappuccinos and other cold drinks now account for 75% of its U.S. beverage sales, up from 37% in 2013. The company estimates the new cups will keep more than 13.5 million pounds of plastic out of landfills each year. Producing the tumblers also requires less water and creates fewer carbon emissions, a leading cause of climate change, it said.

Starbucks made other changes as part of the redesign. The new cold cups feature raised dots near the bottom, so baristas – including those with impaired vision – can quickly feel with the swipe of a thumb which size cup they’re holding. And the 12-ounce cup — that’s the “tall” size in Starbucks lingo — is shorter and wider to accommodate the same-size lid as larger cups.

Landers said the new cups are part of a sustained sustainability push at Starbucks. The company adopted strawless lids in 2019. Earlier this year, it said it would accept customer-provided cups for drive-thru and mobile orders in the U.S. and Canada.

The company plans to roll out a reusable cup program at thousands of stores in Europe, the Middle East and Africa by next year. Under the program, customers will pay a small deposit when they buy a hot or cold drink in a specially designed cup that can be used up to 30 times. They will get the deposit back when they return the cup to a store.

Starbucks also has tested U.S. reusable cup programs in California, Arizona and Colorado.

“Every market has their own challenges, their own requirements and customer behavior. Some are more prime for reusables, some are less prime for reusables,” Landers said. “There is no one silver bullet to a sustainable cup.”

Longer term, Starbucks has said it wants all of its packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030. The reduced-plastic cup making its debut is a small step toward that goal: even though the cup is recyclable, it still was designed for one-time use, Landers said.

The Plastic Pollution Coalition, an advocacy group that seeks to end global plastic waste, said Starbucks’ reduction in plastic is a positive step. But it would like to see the company further reduce beverage prices for customers who bring in their own cups.

“Starbucks and other food and beverage retailers need to shift away from single-use and instead rapidly prioritize plastic-free reuse in stainless steel, glass, or ceramic cups for both customers who stay in and take out,” the group said in a statement.

Landers said the company would continue to explore ways to make single-use cups more sustainable.

“I think we will never take our foot off the gas, evaluating new ways and new methods and new technologies to go further,” she said. “We’re not done.”

Starbucks isn’t the only company rethinking plastic packaging. In some markets, McDonald’s has introduced McFlurry cups without plastic lids, and salad boxes and cutlery made from renewable fiber. Late last year, Coca-Cola said it had developed a bottle made entirely from plant-based sources. Coke produced a limited-run of 900 bottles to show that the technology can be commercially scaled.