Good Monday afternoon. Michael Cohen is testifying at the hush money trial of his former boss Donald Trump, some 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah as Israeli forces advance on the city, and police say Louisiana parishioners stopped a teen with a gun when he tried to enter a church with dozens of children inside.
Good Monday afternoon. Michael Cohen is testifying at the hush money trial of his former boss Donald Trump, some 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah as Israeli forces advance on the city, and police say Louisiana parishioners stopped a teen with a gun when he tried to enter a church with dozens of children inside. Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown. |
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Jury hears secret tape of Trump as Michael Cohen testifies |
Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney and fixer for Donald Trump, is on the stand this afternoon testifying about the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign to keep quiet about her alleged affair with then-candidate Trump. Cohen said that Daniels’ story could have been “catastrophic” and “horrible for the campaign,” and that Trump instructed him to “just take care of it.” The jurors also heard this secret recording Cohen made of Trump discussing paying back the National Enquirer for buying Karen McDougal’s story, after the former Playmate also claimed to have had an affair with Trump. The defense has characterized Cohen as an “admitted liar,” after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to making false statements to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow. Trump is charged with falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement to Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels. Trump has denied the charges and the alleged affairs with Daniels and McDougal. |
360,000 Palestinians flee Rafah ahead of Israel ground operation |
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah over the past week, as Israel’s forces advance on the southern Gaza city. More than 1 million people had taken shelter in Rafah, many of them displaced by the fighting in other parts of Gaza. Israel has said it must go into Rafah to completely eliminate Hamas, though the militants have begun regrouping in parts of northern Gaza that the Israel Defense Forces said were cleared last year. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Sunday that even a full-scale ground assault on Rafah would not accomplish the goal of wiping out Hamas. Israel is “on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas,” Blinken said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” |
Jerry Seinfeld’s commencement speech prompts walkouts at Duke |
Dozens of students walked out of Duke University’s commencement on Sunday ahead of a speech by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the latest in a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled campuses across the country. Seinfeld was met with boos when he was introduced at Duke’s football stadium, and videos on social media show students waving Palestinian flags and leaving the ceremony. Seinfeld has been a vocal supporter of Israel, and he visited the country in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terror attack, meeting with the families of Israeli hostages. The comedian’s wife, Jessica Seinfeld, criticized the “small group” of protesters in a post on Instagram. “Despite their efforts, it had no impact on the ceremony. In fact, they were boo’d and it inspired the crowd of 7,000 to chant “Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!”’ and applaud even louder,” she wrote. |
Teen with rifle stopped during Louisiana church service, police say |
Parishioners confronted and stopped a teen armed with a rifle who was trying to enter a Louisiana church with dozens of children inside during a livestreamed service, authorities said. Police were called to Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, 20 miles south of Lafayette, on Saturday when the 16-year-old suspect opened the back door, according to the church and authorities. Around 60 children were inside the church at the time waiting to take their first Holy Communion, the church said. The livestream video showed police officers inside the church, as the clergy took shelter. The suspect was arrested and charged with terrorizing the church and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile. |
Canadian wildfire smoke triggers air quality alerts in Midwest |
Smoke from wildfires raging in Canada has drifted south, prompting air quality alerts today for multiple states in the Midwest and Plains. Canada has more than 140 active wildfires burning, including dozens in British Columbia and Alberta that are “out of control,” according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Last summer, smoke from Canada’s worst wildfire season in recorded history spread across much of the U.S., impacting the air quality in cities from the Midwest to the East Coast. |
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What else we're watching: |
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22 million people are at risk for severe thunderstorms today across the South and the Gulf Coast, including locations from Texas to the Florida panhandle. |
Jury selection began today in the criminal trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars in return for official acts. |
Russia says its forces have entered the border town of Vovchansk near Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, as they push deeper into northern Ukraine. |
Crews in Baltimore are expected to carry out a controlled demolition this evening on the last steel span from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. |
A 15-year-old girl was killed while waterskiing in a hit-and-run boat crash in Florida's Biscayne Bay, authorities said. |
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Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app. |
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