BALTIMORE (AP) — Officials in Baltimore plan to open a deeper channel for commercial ships to access the city’s port starting on Thursday, marking a significant step toward reopening the major maritime shipping hub that has remained closed to most traffic since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last month.

The new channel will have a controlling depth of 35 feet (10.7 meters), which is a substantial increase over the three other temporary channels established in recent weeks. It puts the cleanup effort slightly ahead of schedule as officials previously said they hoped to open a channel of that depth by the end of April.

The cargo ship that took down the Key Bridge lost power and veered off course shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore headed to Sri Lanka. The Dali remains grounded amid the wreckage as crews work to remove massive pieces of mangled steel that came crashing down onto the ship’s deck.

Officials said crews have cleared enough wreckage to open the new channel to “commercially essential vessels” from Thursday until the following Monday or Tuesday. Ships will be required to have a Maryland pilot on board and two tugboats escorting them through the channel.

Starting early next week, the channel will be closed again until roughly May 10 to accommodate “critical and highly dynamic salvage operations,” port officials said in a news release Monday.

The port’s main channel, with a controlling depth of 50 feet (15.2 meters), is set to reopen next month. That will essentially restore marine traffic to normal.

In a court filing Monday, Baltimore’s mayor and city council called for the Dali’s owner and manager to be held fully liable for the bridge collapse, which they said could have devastating economic impacts on the region. They said the port, which was established before the nation’s founding, has long been an economic driver for Baltimore and the surrounding area. Losing the bridge itself has disrupted a major east coast trucking route.

The filing came in response to an earlier petition on behalf of the two companies asking a court to cap their liability under a pre-Civil War provision of an 1851 maritime law — a routine procedure for such cases. A federal court in Maryland will ultimately decide who’s responsible and how much they owe.

BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder and other crimes after prosecutors say she drunkenly smashed her SUV into a boat club that was hosting a birthday party, killing two young siblings and injuring several other people.

Marshella Chidester, 66, faces eight counts in Saturday’s tragic crash at the Swan Boat Club in Monroe County, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Detroit, court records show.

Chidester, who has been in jail since the crash, was due in court later Tuesday, prosecutor Jeff Yorkey said.

A message seeking comment was left for Chidester’s attorney. The Detroit News reported that Chidester is a former commodore at the boat club.

The crash killed 8-year-old Alanah Phillips and her 4-year-old brother, Zayn Phillips, the sheriff’s office said. Their mother and another sibling were among the injured.

Authorities haven’t said whom the birthday party was honoring.

The boat club located off Swan Creek near Lake Erie is a membership-based organization that hosts holiday parties and other events, and provides docking space for members who own boats, according to its website. The club also advertises on social media that members can rent the clubhouse or pavilion for personal events including birthday parties.

MOSCOW (AP) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain jailed on espionage charges until at least late June, after a Moscow court on Tuesday rejected his appeal that sought to end his pretrial detention.

The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was detained in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent over a year behind bars. Last month, his arrest was extended until June 30 in a ruling he and his defense lawyers later appealed. The appeal was heard by a Moscow appellate court on Tuesday and rejected.

In the courtroom on Tuesday, Gerhskovich, clad in a white T-shirt and an open checked shirt, looked relaxed, at times laughing and chatting with members of his legal team.

His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges.

Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years — including WNBA star Brittney Griner — have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.

In December, the U.S. State Department said it had made a significant offer to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, which it said Russia had rejected.

Officials did not describe the offer, although Russia has been said to be seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was given a life sentence in Germany in 2021 for the killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany.

President Vladimir Putin, asked this year about releasing Gershkovich, appeared to refer to Krasikov by pointing to a man imprisoned by a U.S. ally for “liquidating a bandit” who had allegedly killed Russian soldiers during separatist fighting in Chechnya.

Beyond that hint, Russian officials have kept mum about the talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeatedly said that while “certain contacts” on swaps continue, “they must be carried out in absolute silence.”

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB.

Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s U.N. mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Sales of new U.S. single-family homes rebounded in March from February’s downwardly revised level, drawing support from a persistent shortage of previously owned houses on the market, but momentum could be curbed by a resurgence in mortgage rates.

New home sales jumped 8.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 693,000 units last month, the highest level since last September, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. The sales pace for February was revised down to 637,000 units from the previously reported 662,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for more than 10% of U.S. home sales, would advance by a rate of 670,000 units.

“Mortgage rates have backed up, climbing above 7% in recent weeks, a headwind for buyers,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “Even so, a lack of supply of existing homes is likely to shift demand towards new homes.”

New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading indicator of the housing market. They, however, can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales increased 8.3% on a year-on-year basis in March.

Though the new housing market remains underpinned by the dearth of previously owned homes for sale, rising mortgage rates are taking a toll on affordability.

Data last week showed single-family housing starts and building permits declined in March. Sentiment among single-family homebuilders was unchanged in April, with the National Association of Home Builders noting that “buyers are hesitating until they can better gauge where interest rates are headed.”

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen back above 7%, data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac showed, as strong reports on the labor market and inflation suggested the Federal Reserve could delay an anticipated interest rate cut this year. A few economists doubt the U.S. central bank will lower borrowing costs in 2024.

New home sales rose in all four regions last month, with the Northeast posting a 27.8% surge. Sales in the Midwest gained 5.3% and vaulted 7.7% in the densely populated South. They increased 8.6% in the West.

The median new house price in March was $430,700, a 1.9% drop from a year ago. Builders are constructing smaller and cheaper houses. But the pace of the price decline is slowing as fewer builders cut prices, a trend that could persist.

The NAHB survey last week showed the share of builders cutting home prices fell to 22% in April from 24% in March and 36% in December. Fewer builders were also offering incentives to boost sales.

Overall house prices, however, continue to rise because of the supply squeeze in the home resales market. Data from mortgage finance agency Fannie Mae last week showed house prices increased 7.4% on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter compared to a 6.6% rise in the fourth quarter.

Most of the new homes sold last month were in the $300,000-$399,999 price range, followed by the $500,000-$749,000 price bracket. There were 477,000 new homes on the market at the end of March, up from 465,000 units in February. At March’s sales pace it would take 8.3 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, down from 8.8 months in February.

Houses under construction accounted for 59.1% of inventory. Homes yet to be built made up 22.2% of supply, while completed houses accounted for 18.7%.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025, avoiding a nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and will instead run for lieutenant governor.

A former member of ex-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration and a two-term mayor of the capital city, Stoney said he had wrestled with the decision since he and his wife welcomed their first child in March. While his campaign had sought to make the case in a memo just weeks ago that a Stoney-Spanberger primary would be competitive, he said Tuesday that “while there was a path to victory it was a narrow path.”

“After careful consideration with my family, I believe that the best way to ensure that all Virginia families do get the change they deserve is for our party to come together, avoid a costly and damaging primary and, for me to run instead for Lieutenant Governor,” Stoney said in a statement.

With the gubernatorial primary still more than a year away, there’s still time for another Democratic candidate to emerge. But Spanberger, a former CIA officer who launched her campaign in November, is seen by Democrats and Republicans alike as a formidable candidate, with strong name recognition, a record of winning tough races and a centrist identity in a state that’s tended to reward moderate candidates. Her bid could also be a history-making one: Virginia has never had a female governor.

Spanberger, who was first elected to Congress in 2018 as part of a wave of female candidates who helped Democrats retake the U.S. House that year, recently secured the nomination of Clean Virginia. The big-spending advocacy group founded by a wealthy investor to counter the influence of Dominion Energy at the state Capitol has given enormous sums to candidates it has backed in recent years and pledged an initial contribution of $250,000.

All three of Virginia’s statewide state government offices — governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general — are currently held by Republicans and will be on the ballot next year. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, like all Virginia governors, is prohibited from seeking a second consecutive term.

While no Republicans have formally announced statewide campaigns yet, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears are seen as likely contenders in the gubernatorial race.

Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, suggested Democrats were “prematurely” jumping into the 2025 races amid the current federal election cycle due to concerns about what he said would eventually be a strong GOP ticket.

Virginia Republicans ”look forward to building on our groundbreaking wins of 2021,” he said in a statement.

Stoney will join what’s shaping up to be a crowded race for lieutenant governor, a role that involves presiding over the state Senate and is often a stepping-stone to higher office.

Shortly after he announced his decision in an early morning news release, Democratic state Sen. Aaron Rouse formally announced his own candidacy for lieutenant governor. Rouse, a retired NFL player and former Virginia Beach councilman, said he had secured the support of more than two dozen elected officials around the state, including the state Senate budget committee chairwoman, Sen. L. Louise Lucas, and Sen. Mamie Locke, the Senate Democratic caucus chair.

“I’ve built my career on winning in tough spots when it matters — whether it be under the glare of NFL lights or flipping the State Senate seat needed to ensure we blocked Republicans’ assaults on reproductive freedom and voting rights,” said Rouse, who had a hand in some of this year’s highest-profile legislation.

Dr. Babur Lateef, an eye physician and surgeon who serves as chairman of the Prince William County School Board, entered the race last month and other candidates from both parties are still expected to join.

Stoney, who launched his gubernatorial campaign in a video that highlighted his modest upbringing and the struggles he overcame to become the first in his family to graduate from high school and college, said he would use the lieutenant governor post to ensure every Virginia family gets the same “fair shot at success.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is meeting with another foreign leader while he’s in New York for his criminal hush money trial.

The presumptive GOP nominee will host former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, one of the country’s most influential politicians, at Trump Tower on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been formally announced.

Aso is just the latest foreign leader to spend time with Trump in recent weeks as U.S. allies prepare for the possibility that he could win back the White House this November.

“Leaders from around the world know that with President Trump we had a safer, more peaceful world,” said Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes in a statement. “Meetings and calls from world leaders reflect the recognition of what we already know here at home. Joe Biden is weak, and when President Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, the world will be more secure and America will be more prosperous.”

Trump met last week with Polish President Andrzej Duda at Trump Tower and also met recently with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Trump was close with Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2022 and their relationship underscored the premium Trump puts on personal ties when it comes to foreign affairs.

Aso, 83, served as deputy prime minister and finance minister under Abe and is now vice president of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party and considered a kingmaker in the country. His trip comes amid growing concern in Japan over the impact of a possible Trump victory on the country’s trade relations and security ties with the U.S.

Trump has threatened to impose broad new tariffs if he wins a second term and has generally approached international agreements with skepticism.

Early Tuesday morning, Trump complained about the U.S. dollar reaching a new high against the Japanese yen, calling it “a total disaster for the United States.”

“When I was President, I spent a good deal of time telling Japan and China, in particular, you can’t do that,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “It sounds good to stupid people, but it is a disaster for our manufacturers and others.”

The U.S. dollar is trading at above 150 yen recently, up from 130-yen mark a year ago, which has made it more costly for Japan to import goods but has boosted exports.

Aso visited the U.S. in January, when he met with Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee who served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan when Trump was in the White House.

On Tuesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa declined to comment on Aso’s trip, saying “the government is not involved and it’s his personal activity” as a lawmaker.

President Joe Biden hosted current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House for talks and a state dinner earlier this month. During the visit, the leaders announced plans to upgrade U.S.-Japan military relations, with both sides looking to tighten cooperation amid concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and China’s increasing military assertiveness in the Pacific.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report from Tokyo.

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University’s main campus will switch to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester amid protests over Israel’s war with Hamas that have roiled colleges across the U.S., officials announced.

“Safety is our highest priority as we strive to support our students’ learning and all the required academic operations,” the Ivy League university’s provost, Angela V. Olinto, and chief operating officer, Cas Holloway, said in a statement late Monday.

The move came after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s upper Manhattan campus were arrested last week.

Students have protested Israel’s war in Gaza at many campuses in recent weeks, including at New York University a few miles south of Columbia, where an encampment swelled to hundreds of protesters and police began to make arrests Monday night.

A police spokesperson said he did not know how many NYU protesters had been arrested. University spokesperson John Beckman said NYU was carrying on with classes Tuesday.

Since the war began, colleges and universities nationwide have struggled to balance safety with free speech rights. Many schools long tolerated protests but are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline.

NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran tabloid publisher was expected to return to the witness stand Tuesday in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in opening statements Monday painted competing portraits of the former president — one depicting him as someone who sought to corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and another describing him as an innocent, everyday man who was being subjected to a case the government “should never have brought.”

David Pecker, the National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime friend of Trump’s, was the only witness Monday. He is expected to tell jurors Tuesday about his efforts to help Trump stifle unflattering stories during the 2016 campaign.

Prosecutors say Pecker worked with Trump and Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, on a “catch-and-kill” strategy to buy up and then spike negative stories. At the heart of the case are allegations that Trump orchestrated a scheme to bury unflattering stories about his personal life that might torpedo his campaign.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of those payments in internal business documents.

He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Before testimony resumes Tuesday, the judge will hold a hearing on prosecutors’ request to sanction and fine Trump over social media posts they say violate a gag order prohibiting him from attacking key witnesses.

The case is the first criminal trial of a former American president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.

Currently:

— Key takeaways from the opening statements in Donald Trump’s hush money trial

— Key players: Who’s who at Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial

— The hush money case is just one of Trump’s legal cases. See the others here

— Trump’s $175 million bond in New York civil fraud judgment case is settled with cash promise

— Without cameras to go live, the Trump trial is proving the potency of live blogs as news tools

Here’s the latest:

Judge Juan M. Merchan said Tuesday he would not make an immediate decision on whether Donald Trump violated a gag order barring him from making public statements about witnesses in his hush money case.

Following a hearing held before witness testimony was set to resume, Merchan suggested that instead of begging for forgiveness, Trump should have asked for clarity when considering social posts or reposts that might cross the line.

Trump’s lawyers had reiterated their argument that his posts about witnesses such as his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen were merely responses to political speech.

Prosecutors have sought sanctions against the former president, as well as fines of at least $3,000.

Last year, Trump was fined $15,000 for twice violating a gag order imposed at his New York civil fraud trial after he made a disparaging social media post about the judge’s chief law clerk.

In 2022, Trump was held in contempt and fined $110,000 for being slow to respond to a subpoena in the investigation that led to the civil fraud lawsuit.

Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s lawyer, peeled back the curtain on the ex-president’s Truth Social operation during a hearing on whether he recently violated a gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses in his hush money case.

According to Blanche, people working with Trump will pick out articles they think his followers would like to see and then repost them to Truth Social under his name.

Blanche had argued that reposting a news article, as in some of the posts at issue, doesn’t violate the gag order put in place by Judge Juan M. Merchan.

When the judge asked for citations to cases to back that supposition up, Blanche said he didn’t have any, but “it’s just common sense.”

As Merchan grew increasingly frustrated with Blanche, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass smiled, rolled his eyes and appeared to stifle a laugh. On the opposite side, Trump sat slumped in his chair, scowling.

Blanche insisted that Trump “is being very careful to comply” with the gag order. Judge Merchan shot back: “You’re losing all credibility.”

Prosecutors have asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt of court and to fine him at least $3,000 for the online posts in question.

Donald Trump’s lawyer said in court Tuesday morning that the former president didn’t willfully violate a gag order that Judge Juan M. Merchan put in place, barring him from publicly attacking key witnesses in his hush money case.

Fighting proposed fines, Todd Blanche hit a key defense argument on the matter: that Trump was just responding to others’ comments in the course of political speech.

“There is no dispute that President Trump is facing a barrage of political attacks,” including from Cohen and Daniels, Blanche said.

He again argued it’s unfair for those individuals to be unfettered in their comments — but for Trump to be muzzled.

A man has been taken into custody by court officers after causing a disturbance in the overflow courtroom for Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

The man had been admitted to the overflow courtroom, which is located next to the main courtroom, but officers said he declined to sit down and obey the rules of the court on Tuesday morning. He left the room and officers escorted him off the floor in handcuffs moments after the hearing began.

Court staff have repeatedly warned journalists and members of the public about violating rules in the overflow room, where a video feed of the trial’s proceedings is shown with a slight delay. At least two reporters have been barred from covering the trial after violating rules against recording and taking photographs, according to a court spokesperson.

A court system spokesperson confirmed an arrest but did not immediately provide details.

One of the prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money case says the former president violated a gag order barring him from publicly attacking witness yet again.

As a hearing began Tuesday about prosecutors’ claims that Trump violated the gag order 10 times in recent weeks, Christopher Conroy accused him of violating it again on Monday in remarks outside the courtroom door about his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.

Conroy pointed to Trump’s comments about Cohen’s representation of him and characterization of Cohen as a liar.

Before testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumed Tuesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan held a hearing on the prosecution’s request that Trump be held in contempt of court and fined at least $3,000 for allegedly violating his gag order.

Prosecutors cited 10 posts on Trump’s social media account and campaign website that they said breached the order, which bars him from making public statements about witnesses in the case.

They called the posts a “deliberate flouting” of the court’s order.

In one post, from April 10, Trump described his former lawyer-turned-foe Michael Cohen and porn actor Stormy Daniels as “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!”

Prosecutors are seeking a $1,000 fine — the maximum allowed by law — for each of the first three alleged violations. They did not specify the punishment they are seeking for the seven other posts, which date to the morning jury selection began in the trial last week.

Shortly after court resumed Tuesday morning, Donald Trump sat at the defense table alone as his lawyers and prosecutors left the courtroom with Judge Juan M. Merchan for a closed-door conference.

There was no indication as to what the conference was about.

One of the lawyers had asked the judge if they could all approach the bench, to which the judge agreed. A moment later the group walked out of the courtroom to a side room out of view and earshot of reporters.

Before entering the courtroom, Trump had focused on events well outside of the hush money trial.

“It’s a big day in Pennsylvania,” he said in the courthouse’s hallway, urging people to vote in the state’s GOP primary happening today.

Trump, in a red tie, said the pro-Palestinian protests happening at local colleges are “a disgrace. And it’s really on Biden.” He added that President Joe Biden has the wrong tone and the wrong words. “What’s going on is a disgrace to our country and it’s all Biden’s fault.”

Donald Trump plans to meet with another foreign leader while he’s in New York for his criminal hush money trial.

The presumptive GOP nominee will be meeting with former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso after court Tuesday at Trump Tower. That’s according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been formally announced.

Several foreign leaders have met with Trump in recent weeks as U.S. allies prepare for the possibility that he could re-take the White House.

“Leaders from around the world know that with President Trump we had a safer, more peaceful world,” said Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes.

Trump was close with Shinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2022.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — a charge punishable by up to four years in prison — though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars.

A conviction would not preclude Trump from becoming president again, but because it is a state case, he would not be able to pardon himself if found guilty. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Donald Trump’s attorney used his opening statement to attack the case as baseless, saying the former president did nothing illegal.

The attorney, Todd Blanche, challenged prosecutors’ claim that Trump agreed to pay porn actor Stormy Daniels in order to aid his campaign, saying Trump was trying to “protect his family, his reputation and his brand.”

Blanche indicated the defense will argue that the very point of a presidential campaign is to try to influence an election.

“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told jurors. “They put something sinister on this idea, as if it was a crime. You’ll learn it’s not.”

Blanche also portrayed the ledger entries at issue in the case as pro forma actions performed by a Trump Organization employee. Trump “had nothing to do with” the allegedly false business records, “except that he signed the checks, in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said.

And he argued that the records’ references to legal expenses weren’t false, since Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time.

Donald Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. But prosecutors made clear they do not want jurors to view this as a routine paper case.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said Monday the heart of the case is a scheme to “corrupt” the 2016 election by silencing people who were about to come forward with embarrassing stories Trump feared would hurt his campaign.

“No politician wants bad press,” Colangelo said. “But the evidence at trial will show that this was not spin or communication strategy. This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior.”

Two journalists covering Donald Trump’s hush money trial were removed and expelled on Monday for breaking rules prohibiting recording and photography in the overflow room, where reporters who can’t get into the main courtroom watch the proceedings on large screens, according to court officials.

One of the banned journalists had previously been warned for violating the rules during jury selection.

Uniformed court officers have been making daily announcements reminding reporters of the rules. Signs posted in the overflow room and around the courthouse make clear that photography and recording are not allowed.

Donald Trump’s hush money trial will adjourn early on Tuesday in observance of Passover. Judge Juan M. Merchan plans to end court proceedings at 2 p.m. for the holiday.

Prosecutors on Monday made history as they presented their opening statements to a jury in the first criminal trial against a former U.S. president, accusing Donald Trump of a hush money scheme aimed at preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public.

The dueling statements painted very different portraits of the man who, before serving in the White House, was best known for being a major real estate developer and his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”

One depicted him as someone who sought to illegally corrupt the 2016 presidential election for his own benefit and the other described him as an innocent, everyday man who was being subjected to a case the government “should never have brought.”

By Andrew Chung and John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday steps into the contentious unionization drive at Starbucks as the coffee chain challenges a judicial order requiring it to rehire seven employees at a Tennessee cafe who were fired as they pursued efforts to organize.

The justices are set to hear arguments in the company’s appeal of a lower court’s approval of an injunction sought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordering the reinstatement of the workers. It is a case that could make it harder to bring a quick halt to labor practices challenged as unfair under federal law while the NLRB resolves complaints.

The case centers on the legal standard that federal courts must use to issue a preliminary injunction requested by the NLRB under the a federal law called the National Labor Relations Act. Such orders are intended as an interim tool to halt unfair labor practices while a case is proceeding before the board.

Under section 10(j) of the labor law, a court may grant an injunction if it is deemed “just and proper.” Starbucks contends that if the lower courts had applied stricter criteria, similar to the standard used by some other courts and in non-labor legal disputes, the case would have come out differently.

About 400 Starbucks locations in the United States have unionized, involving more than 10,000 employees. Both sides at times have accused the other of unlawful or improper conduct.

Hundreds of complaints have been filed with the NLRB accusing Starbucks of unlawful labor practices such as firing union supporters, spying on workers and closing stores during labor campaigns. Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and said it respects the right of workers to choose whether to unionize.

In a break from the acrimony, both sides in February said they had agreed to create a “framework” to guide organizing and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.

The case began in 2022, when the workers at the Poplar Avenue store in Memphis became among the first to unionize. Early in their efforts, they allowed a television news crew into the Starbucks cafe after hours to talk about the union campaign. Seven workers present that evening were fired, including several who belonged to the union organizing committee.

Despite the dismissals, employees there later voted to join Workers United.

The union filed unfair labor charges with the NLRB over the firings and other discipline by managers. The NLRB sought an injunction, alleging that Starbucks unlawfully fired the workers for supporting the union drive and to send a message to other workers.

U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman granted the injunction in 2022, reinstating the workers in order to address the “chilling effect” of the dismissals on the unionization effort while the NLRB resolves the case. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction in 2023.

The 6th Circuit rejected the company’s argument that Lipman should have used a stringent four-factor test to weigh the bid for an injunction, as courts typically do in non-labor disputes. This test includes an assessment of whether the side seeking relief would suffer irreparable harm and is likely to succeed on the merits of the case.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected by the end of June.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung and John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany; Editing by Will Dunham)

By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Billions of dollars in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan should easily win approval in the U.S. Senate this week, after the House of Representatives abruptly ended a months-long stalemate and approved the assistance in a rare Saturday session.

The Senate on Tuesday will take up the package of four bills passed by the House, one providing $61 billion for Ukraine, a second with $26 billion for Israel, a third with $8.12 billion “to counter communist China” in the Indo-Pacific and a fourth that includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.

The package could pass the Democratic-led Senate as soon as late Tuesday, and head to the White House, where Democratic President Joe Biden has promised to sign it quickly into law.

That would clear the way for shipments of military assistance to Ukraine within days, providing a morale boost as its troops fight Russian invaders. The influx of weapons should improve Kyiv’s chances of averting a major Russian breakthrough in the east, analysts said, although it would have been more helpful if the aid had come closer to when Biden requested it last year.

It was not immediately clear how the money for Israel would affect the conflict in Gaza – Israel already receives billions of dollars in security assistance from the United States. The package includes humanitarian assistance, which supporters hope will help Palestinians in Gaza.

HUMANITARIAN CONCERNS

The Israel bill passed the House by an overwhelming 366 to 58 – with 21 Republicans and 37 Democrats opposed. The Republican “no” votes came from hardliners who generally oppose foreign aid. Democrats who voted no said they wanted more done to ease the devastating humanitarian toll of Israel’s campaign in Gaza as it retaliates for the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas fighters that killed 1,200 people and resulted in around 250 being taken hostage.

The Israeli military assault that followed those attacks has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza health authorities.

The Senate passed security aid for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific more than two months ago, with the support of 70% of the 100-member chamber, both Republicans and Democrats.

“The House has acted, now it’s the Senate’s turn, and the finish line is now in sight,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement after the House vote. “To our friends in Ukraine, to our allies in NATO, to our allies in Israel, and to civilians around the world in need of aid: rest assured America will deliver yet again.”

The White House said Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a phone call on Monday that his administration would provide new security assistance “to meet Ukraine’s urgent battlefield and air defense needs” as soon as he signs the supplemental spending bills into law.

Congressional aides said the funding for Ukraine includes $8 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which lets Biden send equipment to Ukraine from U.S. stocks.

The House passed the Ukraine funding by 311-112, with all 112 “no” votes coming from Republicans, many of whom were bitterly opposed to providing further assistance to Kyiv. Only 101 Republicans voted for it, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to rely on Democratic support and prompting calls for his ouster as House leader.

However, the House left Washington for a week-long recess, without triggering a vote to remove Johnson.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; editing by Don Durfee and Jonathan Oatis)