Headline News from The Associated Press
AP Headline News - May 16 2024 09:00 (EDT)
This is AP News. I'm Rita Folley. The prosecution star witness Michael Cohen returns to the stand today in Donald Trump's Hush Money trial. He has put the former president right at the heart of the alleged Hush Money scheme. The AP's Julie Walker is covering the trial. Trump says not so. It's unclear if he or anyone else will take the stand for the defense. The trial is off tomorrow so he can go to Sun Barren's High School graduation in West Palm Beach, Florida. Then it's off to Minnesota for the presumptive Republican nominee for president who has a fundraising dinner there. The Justice Department says President Biden is claiming executive privilege over audio of his interview with special counsel Robert Herr that's at the center of a Republican effort to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland and contempt of Congress. The transcript of the Herr interview showed President Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details. Donald Trump and President Biden have agreed on two campaign debates, the first on June 27th and the second on September 10th. Overseas, the hope is that much needed humanitarian aid can get into Gaza now that the U.S. military has finished putting in a floating pier. The maritime route is designed to increase the amount of aid getting into the Gaza strip. Although aid agencies say that land-based deliveries are far cheaper and more sustainable, U.S. officials say that American troops will not be setting foot in Gaza and Pentagon officials say that the maritime route would be temporarily shut down if fighting in Gaza threatens the new shoreline distribution area. A site was targeted by mortar fire during construction and Hamas has threatened to target any foreign forces in the Gaza Strip. Donna Warder, Washington. There's word from Slovakia that somebody they call a lone wolf has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Ficco. This is AP News. A professor will go on trial in the death of a Jewish counter protester in California in 2023, the AP's Jennifer King. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright has ruled there is enough evidence to try a Southern California college professor for involuntary manslaughter and battery in the death of a 69-year-old Jewish counter protester during demonstrations over the Israel Hamas War in November of 2023. Witnesses say Paul Kessler had been waving an Israeli flag in West Lake Village, northwest of Los Angeles. Luey Avdelfata El Naji, who was attending a free Palestine rally, is accused of striking Kessler with a megaphone during a confrontation. Kessler fell backwards, hit his head and died the next day at a hospital. El Naji is out on bail and I leave from his position as a professor of computer science at Moore Park College. He had reportedly espoused pro-Palestinian views on social media on accounts that were taken down after Kessler's death. I'm Jennifer King. And I'm Rita Folley, AP News.