Tuesday morning news: April 23, 2024

Trump trial » In a Manhattan courtroom, it is day-two of the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president in Donald Trump’s so-called hush money case.

Both sides made their opening pitch to jurors on Monday.

Arthur Aidala is a defense attorney not affiliated with this case. He explains what both sides were trying to accomplish.

AIDALA:  As the prosecutor, you need to talk about how powerful your case is, and when I'm done presenting all my evidence, you will have no choice, but to say this man is guilty because I have proven my case to you beyond a reasonable doubt.

The defense, he says, will look to discredit the prosecution’s witnesses. And that’s a job that may be made easier with the prosecution expected to lean heavily on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen served prison time for tax fraud and lying to authorities.

Current Trump attorney Will Scharf:

SCHARF: This is a show trial. Trump did absolutely nothing wrong, and we firmly believe that the evidence is going to bear that out in court in the coming weeks.

Prosecutors claim Donald Trump gave money to Cohen to, in turn, pay off a woman to keep quiet about an extramarital affair, and then illegally passed it off as a legitimate business expense.

UNRWA review » Israel is blasting a new report about the credibility of the U.N.’s Palestinian relief agency, known as UNRWA which Israel said had terrorists on its staff. WORLD’s Mark Mellinger has more.

MARK MELLINGER: The report details the findings of an independent review commissioned by the U.N. after Israel claimed 12 UNRWA staff members took part in the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel.

The report said Israel had a list of everyone on the agency’s staff and expressed no concerns about any of them until after the attack.

Israel countered that the staff lists didn’t include Palestinian ID numbers.

The review panel’s role was to assess the agency’s neutrality not Israel’s claims about its staff. And to that end, the panel found that UNRWA has robust safeguards.

Israel says the report glosses over serious concerns.

The U.N.’s internal watchdog is currently investigating possible UNRWA staff involvement in the October attack.

For WORLD, I’m Mark Mellinger.

Senate foreign aid » The Senate could vote as early as today on a $95 billion dollar foreign aid package that the House passed over the weekend.

Republican Senator Rick Scott says he’s likely to vote “no.”

SCOTT: The biggest issue in the country is we have terrorists, drugs, criminals flocking across our southern border. There is nothing in this bill, but we're going to help Ukraine, you know, protect their border. Look, I want Ukraine to win. I want Russia to lose, but I want a secure southern border.

But GOP Sen. Joni Ernst says securing the border is critically important, but so too is stopping Vladimir Putin in his tracks.

ERNST:  It's not our sons and daughters that are involved in this war. And if they move further, if they advance on the Baltics, if they advance on Poland, it will be our sons and daughters, and that is a risk I am not willing to take.

About $60 billion dollars of that aid would go to weapons and ammunition in Ukraine.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Ivy League schools » Police in Connecticut arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the campus of Yale University Monday just hours before the start of the Jewish Passover holiday.

SOUND: [Protest]

That as protests over the war in Gaza sweep across U.S. college campuses. Some of the protests have taken a darker turn not just pro-Palestinian, but anti-Semitic.

President Biden told reporters:

BIDEN:  I condemn the anti Semitic protests. That's why I've set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.

New York City’s Columbia University has canceled in-person classes Monday after the NYPD arrested dozens of demonstrators on that campus.

FOX: Housing is a human right. Housing is a human right. Housing is a human right.

SCOTUS homeless camps case » Protesters outside the Supreme Court Monday, where the justices are deciding whether a city can ban homeless people from sleeping outside in certain public places.

A city in Oregon started fining people for sleeping outside as tents sprung up in the city’s parks.

But a federal appeals court struck that policy down, calling it ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ to ban camping in places without enough shelter.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor:

SOTOMAYOR: Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this?

Conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch raised similar questions, but Kavanaugh also expressed concerns about federal courts micromanaging policy.

A ruling is expected by the end of June.

Human Rights Practices report » Secretary of State Tony Blinken says human rights are under fire in more ways and in more places across the globe.

He addressed reporters Monday as the State Department presented its annual Human Rights Practices report.

BLINKEN: The report that we’re putting out today presents the factual, systematic account of human rights records across nearly 200 countries.

Blinken called out violations in places like Afghanistan, Russia, Venezuela, and Sudan.

BLINKEN:  Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have committed war crimes. Rohingya in Burma, Uyghurs in Xinjiang, each victims of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Blinken is traveling to Beijing this week. And while there, the State Dept. says he will directly raise concerns about human rights abuses in China.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: New rules that put protections for women at risk. Plus, hope on the airwaves in Haiti.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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