WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program.

The grants are being awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, which unveiled the 60 recipients on Monday. The projects are expected to eventually reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million annually, according to senior administration officials.

Biden’s latest environmental announcements come as he is working to energize young voters for his reelection campaign. Young people were a key part of a broad but potentially fragile coalition that helped him defeat then-President Donald Trump in 2020. Some have joined protests around the country of the administration’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Senior administration officials said young Americans are keenly invested in the Biden climate agenda and want to actually help enact it. The Climate Corps initiative is a way for them to do that, the officials said.

Solar is gaining traction as a key renewable energy source that could reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, which emit planet-warming greenhouse gases. Not only is it clean, but solar energy can also boost the reliability of the electric grid.

But solar energy can have high costs for initial installation, making it inaccessible for many Americans — and potentially meaning a mingling of environmental policy with election-year politics.

Forty-nine of the new grants are state-level awards, six serve Native American tribes and five are multi-state awards. They can be used for investments such as rooftop solar and community solar gardens.

Biden is making the announcement at northern Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park, about 30 miles southwest of Washington. It was established in 1936 as a summer camp for underprivileged youth from Washington, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to help create jobs during the Great Depression.

Biden used executive action last year to create the American Climate Corps modeled on Roosevelt’s New Deal. He is announcing Monday that nearly 2,000 corps positions are being offered across 36 states, including jobs offered in partnership with the North American Building Trades Unions.

Biden has often used Earth Day as a backdrop to further his administration’s climate initiatives. Last year, he signed an executive order creating the White House Office of Environmental Justice, meant to help ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm.

He has tried to draw a contrast with GOP congressional leaders, who have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices. Biden officials counter that GOP policies benefit highly profitable oil companies and could ultimately undermine U.S. efforts to compete with the Chinese in the renewable energy sector.

Biden will use his Virginia visit to discuss how “a climate crisis fully manifest to the American people in communities all across the country, is also an opportunity for us to come together,” said White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi.

He said the programs can “unlock economic opportunity to create pathways to middle-class-supporting careers, to save people money and improve their quality of life.”

The awards came from the Solar for All program, part of the $27 billion “green bank” created as part of a sweeping climate law passed in 2022. The bank is intended to reduce climate and air pollution and send money to neighborhoods most in need, especially disadvantaged and low-income communities disproportionately impacted by climate change.

EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said she was “looking forward to these funds getting out into the community, giving people skills, putting them to work in their local communities, and allowing people to save on their energy bills so that they can put those dollars to other needs.”

Among those receiving grants are state projects to provide solar-equipped roofs for homes, college residences and residential-serving community solar projects in West Virginia, a non-profit operating Mississippi solar lease program and solar workforce training initiatives in South Carolina.

The taxpayer-funded green bank has faced Republican opposition and concerns over accountability for how the money gets used. EPA previously disbursed the other $20 billion of the bank’s funds to nonprofits and community development banks for clean energy projects such as residential heat pumps, additional energy-efficient home improvements and larger-scale projects like electric vehicle charging stations and community cooling centers.

BERLIN (AP) — Four Germans were caught laying white roses in memory of Adolf Hitler at the house where the Nazi dictator was born in western Austria on the anniversary of his birth, and one gave a Hitler salute as they posed for photos, police said Monday.

Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn. After lengthy wrangling over the future of the house where he was born, work started last year on turning it into a police station — a project meant to make it unattractive as a pilgrimage site for people who glorify Hitler.

Police in Upper Austria province said the four Germans — two sisters and their partners, in their 20s and early 30s — went to the building on Saturday to lay white roses in its window recesses. They posed in front of the house for photos and one of the women gave the stiff-armed Hitler salute.

Patrolling officers noticed the group and took them to a police station for questioning. The woman said that she hadn’t meant the salute seriously, but officers said they found a chat with the others on her cellphone in which they shared Nazi-themed messages and pictures.

Police said they were reporting all four to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Austrian law that bans the symbols of Nazism.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will consider Monday whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The case is considered the most significant to come before the high court in decades on homelessness, which is reaching record levels in the United States.

In California and other Western states, courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to fine and arrest people sleeping in homeless encampments if shelter space is lacking.

A cross-section of Democratic and Republican officials contend that makes it difficult for them to manage encampments, which can have dangerous and unsanitary living conditions.

But hundreds of advocacy groups argue that allowing cities to punish people who need a place to sleep will criminalize homelessness and ultimately make the crisis worse.

The Justice Department has also weighed in. It argues people shouldn’t be punished just for sleeping outside, but only if there’s a determination they truly have nowhere else to go.

The case comes from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which started fining people $295 for sleeping outside to manage homeless encampments that sprung up in the city’s public parks as the cost of housing escalated.

The measure was largely struck down by the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which also found in 2018 that such bans violated the 8th Amendment by punishing people for something they don’t have control over.

The case comes after homelessness in the United States grew a dramatic 12%, to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, according to federal data.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong has long been a major producer and consumer of great food, and a great amount of plastic and Styrofoam to go with it.

That’s going to change as new legislation aiming to stop the sale and distribution of Styrofoam products and single-use plastic cutlery went into effect on Monday.

Under the new law, single-use cutlery such as forks, spoons, straws and plates cannot be sold or distributed for both dine-in and takeaway customers. However, plastic food containers and cups can still be given out for takeaways.

The regulation of disposable plastic tableware and other plastic products in Hong Kong aims to reduce their use at the source to cut down on pollution, Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department said in an emailed response to The Associated Press.

Restaurants were given a six-month grace period. A second phase of the ban, expected next year, will ban all single-use plastics including containers for both dine-in and takeaway.

Many restaurants have already begun implementing the new measure.

Kuen Fat Kitchen is a typical lunch stop for many people in Hong Kong. Even before the new law was introduced, it had already started to reduce the use of Styrofoam boxes.

Owner Kitty Chan said the changes will mean higher costs.

“For a single-use cutlery set, you might think it’s just a small change, but switching the plastic spoon to a paper spoon doubles the cost for us. So, it’s not so friendly to the business of the food and beverage industry,” Chan added.

Customers at Kuen Fat Kitchen have mixed feelings. Some don’t want to face extra hassle when going out to eat if they are asked to bring their own containers and utensils.

“When I’m at work, I only have an hour for lunch, and I need to eat efficiently. I don’t think it’s convenient for me to bring my own cutlery and do the washing up afterwards. It’s not convenient and I don’t think it’s a good idea,” said customer Darren Seng.

Others recognized the environmental impacts of their dining-out habits.

“I think it’s better for the environment,” said resident Thomson Choi.

Single-use plastic cutlery is the second-largest source of plastic waste after single-use plastic bags in Hong Kong, according to Greenpeace. Many businesses are changing to alternative plastics made of natural resources to comply with new rules, instead of improving their packaging, the organization added.

Greenpeace campaigner Leanne Tam hopes that the new law will discourage the throwaway culture and promote reusables, instead of “greener” disposables.

“Any kind of plastic ban policy should aim to influence the public to stay away from plastic. We should move on, and have a new approach,” said Tam. “But we would like to remind the government that it should devote more resources to promote reusable instead of disposable. This is the way to solve the root of the problem.”

According to the latest figures by Hong Kong’s government in 2022, the city disposed 11,128 tons of solid waste per day, among which plastics contributed 2,369 tons.

Hong Kong is reliant on the city’s three landfills to handle its waste, but they are expected to be filled up by around 2026, according to the government.

The city plans to implement municipal solid waste charging from Aug. 1, but the logistics have yet to be worked out. It would compel individual homes, restaurants, and all businesses to pay for trash they throw away.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Jewish Tunisians who organize an annual pilgrimage to one of the world’s oldest synagogues are planning a scaled-down event next month, citing concerns about security less than a year after a deadly shooting there shook their community.

Thousands regularly make the journey to Djerba — the North African island where many of Tunisia’s remaining 1,500 Jews reside — to celebrate the Jewish holiday Lag B’Omer. But this year, the community has decided to limit them to the 26-century-old El-Ghriba synagogue instead of the island-wide events traditionally held.

“Those who come to visit are welcome and they can hold religious rituals, light a candle, inside the synagogue,” Perez Trabelsi, the head of the island’s Jewish community, told The Associated Press.

The decision comes more than six months into the Israel-Hamas war, which has reverberated throughout the Middle East and North Africa, inciting mass street protests from Morocco to Iraq. In Tunisia, most of the protests have been peaceful but in October, demonstrators desecrated a synagogue in Al-Hammah on the mainland.

The limits to the Lag B’Omer pilgrimage are a blow to Djerba’s tourism industry after it welcomed more than 7,000 people for the three-day event last year. Days after it concluded, a 30-year-old national guardsman killed five people at the El-Ghriba synagogue, sparking panic among the population and visitors.

The shooting and the Israel-Hamas war are politically charged topics in the North African country. Trabelsi attributed the decision to limit this year’s Lag B’Omer festivities to security concerns over the shooting, not the war. He said the community didn’t feel threatened, but noted that its leaders felt obliged to protect it.

He praised Tunisian authorities for working to provide security for the event and in a statement on Friday underlined the significance of the pilgrimage: “Tunisia and Djerba will remain lands of tolerance, coexistence and peace.”

Similar questions have been raised about annual pilgrimages to Jewish sites in Morocco, historically home to North Africa’s largest Jewish community.

The International Federation of Moroccan Jews has called for canceling collective celebrations of the Mimouna holiday and avoiding festive events in public spaces, according to local media reports.

(JNS) – Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate head Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva on Monday announced his resignation over his failure to prevent Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.

Haliva decided to retire months ago following the intelligence failures that contributed to the massacre of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of more than 253 hostages to Gaza, but asked IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi to postpone the announcement.

Haliva’s announcement comes after the IDF withdrew almost all ground troops from the Strip, leaving only one brigade remaining in the enclave.

“On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a murderous surprise attack against the State of Israel, the consequences of which are difficult and painful. The Intelligence Directorate under my command did not live up to the task it was entrusted with,” Haliva wrote to Halevi.

Haliva, who served in the army for almost four decades, asked Halevi to relieve him of his duties following the conclusion of an internal investigation and after an “orderly learning and transition process.”

Earlier this year, Halevi announced an internal probe into the military’s failures leading up to Oct. 7, calling the investigation a “duty and not a privilege.”

In January, Israel’s Walla news site cited military sources as claiming that while the IDF was aware of Hamas’s repeated attempts to blow up the security fence on the Gaza border in preparation for the Oct. 7 attacks, it opted to dismiss the rehearsals as a “provocation.”

Hours before Hamas’s attack, IDF intelligence learned that hundreds of terrorists in Gaza activated Israeli SIM cards in their phones, the Military Censor cleared for publication in February.

The activations were detected around midnight on the night of Oct. 6, some six and a half hours before thousands of Palestinian terrorists breached the fence.

In October, The New York Times reported that Unit 8200, the IDF’s signals intelligence unit, stopped listening to Hamas’s handheld radios a year before the attacks, deciding it was a “waste of effort.”

(JNS) – Britain will continue to support Israel against “reckless” attacks by Iran and its terrorist proxies in the region, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed in his annual Passover holiday statement on Monday.

“My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones on the 7th of October and those who continue to be held hostage. And we will continue to stand with Israel against the kind of reckless attack that we saw earlier this month from Iran,” said Sunak in the video statement posted to X.

The British leader noted that Passover is “a moment for families and communities to give thanks, to gather around the Seder table and break matzah together.”

However, “for too many families, there will be empty seats,” he said.

“The promise of Passover is that better times lie ahead. So to the Jewish community in the U.K. and around the world, whether your loved ones are near or far, I hope that this holiday brings some comfort and a reminder of that promise of a better tomorrow,” said Sunak.

Earlier this month, Sunak marked six months since the Hamas massacre of some 1,200 people by calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the terrorist group and announcing additional aid to Gaza via the sea.

In January, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron sparked controversy when he suggested that London unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state so Palestinians “can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla knocked roughly a third off the price of its “Full Self Driving” system — which can’t drive itself and so drivers must remain alert and be ready to intervene — to $8,000 from $12,000, according to the company website.

Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk promised in 2019 that there would be a fleet of robotaxis on the road in 2020, but the promise has yet to materialize, and the system still has to be supervised by humans.

The cuts, which occurred on Saturday, follow Tesla’s moves to slash $2,000 off the prices of three of its five models in the United States late Friday. That’s the latest evidence of the challenges facing the electric vehicle maker.

Tesla reduced the prices of the Model Y, a small SUV which is Tesla’s most popular model and the top-selling electric vehicle in the U.S., and also of the Models X and S, its older and more expensive models. Prices for the Model 3 sedan and the Cybertruck stayed the same.

The price reduction came the day after Tesla’s stock dropped below $150 per share, wiping out all gains made over the past year. The Austin, Texas, company’s stock price has dropped about 40% so far this year amid falling sales and increased competition. Discounted sticker prices are a way to try to entice more car buyers.

(JNS) – Israel will inflict “painful blows” on Hamas in the coming days in an attempt to free the remaining 133 hostages held by the terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“Why is this night different, citizens of Israel? That on this night, 133 of our dear brothers and sisters are not at the seder table and are still held captive in the inferno of Hamas,” he said in his Passover remarks.

“We have already freed 124 of our hostages and we are committed to returning them all home—the living and the fallen,” continued the premier.

“And what is not different about this night? In every generation, they rise up to destroy us, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, delivers us from their hands,” he said, adding: “This time, too, we will overcome those who seek our lives, thanks to our faith, the courage of our soldiers and our unity.”

Comparing Hamas to the biblical villain Pharaoh, Netanyahu noted that Hamas is the only obstacle to reaching a ceasefire-for-hostages deal. “It hardens its heart and refuses to let our people go; therefore, we will bring it more painful blows—and it will happen soon,” he said.

The premier vowed to “increase the military and diplomatic pressure on Hamas, as this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve victory.”

“Together we will fight, and with God’s help, we will win. A kosher Passover to all of the Jewish people,” concluded Netanyahu’s remarks.

Preparing for operations in Rafah

Israel’s War Cabinet was set to convene on Sunday evening to discuss the deadlock in hostage release negotiations following the response by Hamas to a proposal from the United States.

The meeting was supposed to take place last week but was postponed due to the Iranian attack on Israel. It is being held at the behest of Ministers-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot.

Also on Sunday, Arab media reported significant airstrikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Hamas’s final terror battalions are holed up and where the senior leadership and remaining hostages are believed to be. The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a briefing to discuss “a series of measures to be taken in preparation for operations in Rafah, with an emphasis on the evacuation of civilians and the expansion of activities related to the delivery of food and medical equipment,” his office said.

LONDON (AP) — London’s police commissioner will meet with senior members of the Jewish community on Monday after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an “openly Jewish” man’s presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators.

Amid calls for his resignation, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley is also expected to meet with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary James Cleverly, who together are responsible for law and order in the city.

“We remain focused on doing everything possible to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe in this city,” the Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement Sunday. “We know recent events and some of our recent actions have contributed to concerns felt by many.”

The meeting comes as London police struggle to manage tensions sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, with some Jewish residents saying they feel threatened by repeated pro-Palestinian marches through the streets of the U.K. capital.

The marches have been largely peaceful. However, many demonstrators accuse Israel of genocide and a small number have shown support for Hamas, the group that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and which has been banned by the U.K. government as a terrorist organization.

The Metropolitan Police force has deployed thousands of officers during each of the dozen major marches as it seeks to protect the rights of the pro-Palestinian protesters and prevent clashes with counterdemonstrators and Jewish residents.

In addition to meeting with leaders of the Jewish community, senior police officers wrote to the man at the center of the latest controversy, offering to meet with him to apologize and discuss what more could be done to “ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe.″

Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap when he was stopped by police while trying to cross a street in central London as demonstrators filed past on April 13.

One officer told Falter he was worried that the man’s “quite openly Jewish” appearance could provoke a reaction from the protesters, according to video posted on social media by the campaign group. A second officer then told Falter he would be arrested if he refused to be escorted out of the area, because he would be “causing a breach of the peace.”

Metropolitan Police initially apologized for the language the officer used in describing Falter’s appearance, but said counterdemonstrators had to be aware “that their presence is provocative.”

The department later deleted that apology from its social media accounts and issued a second statement.

“In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offense,” the force said on Friday. “This was never our intention. … Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in the city.”

MASSACHUSETTS  (JNS/VINnews) – Ruth F. Lansing, who aided in the prosecution of leaders of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg trials, died  Canterbury Woods, Amherst on April 5. She was 105 years old.

born Ruth Friede Oberlander on Nov. 13, 1918, in a small town outside of Dusseldorf, Germany, to Friederike (“Ricka”) and Sigmund Oberlander.

On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, while visiting family in Dusseldorf proper, Lansing witnessed Kristallnacht (“The Night of Broken Glass”), when Jews across Germany and in parts of Austria were brutally attacked, and their stores and synagogues ransacked and burned.

Her sister Lucy and her husband were able to leave for the United States soon after that. Lansing later managed to get passage to England with the help of family–a move that would save her life. At the age of 18, she emigrated to British Mandatory Palestine.

In 1988, she recounted her experiences on Yom Hashaoh, Holocaust Remembrance Day, that “two stormtroopers came to arrest my host” and that “I believed they were going to shoot him then and there,” according to The Buffalo News. 

Lansing’s parents were rounded up and taken to Auschwitz in 1942. Another sister, Gerti, was taken to the same concentration camp years later, in 1945. All were murdered there.

Following World War II, Lansing returned to occupied Germany and became a civilian employee for the U.S. Army, working as a translator during the world-famous Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. She eventually managed to join her sister in the United States, moving there in 1948, where she met Eric Lansing, They married the next year and settled in Buffalo, N.Y., working for 20 years in real estate while raising their two children.

In 1955, Lansing and her husband became founding members of the synagogue now known as Congregation Shir Shalom in Amherst, Mass. She volunteered for Meals on Wheels; at hospitals and nursing homes; and was active with the Jewish Federation in Buffalo.

She and her husband traveled extensively, seeing 53 countries across six continents. Her husband died in 2014.

At her 100th birthday celebration in 2018, Lansing said: “We only have one life, so why not choose to make the world a better place. I think we would be a lot better off if we looked at our similarities, instead of focusing on our differences.”

Lansing is survived by a son and daughter, and two grandchildren.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial shifts to opening statements Monday, followed by the start of witness testimony. A jury of seven men and five women, plus six alternates, was picked last week.

The trial centers on allegations the former president falsified his company’s internal records to obscure the true nature of reimbursement payments to his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, who arranged hush money payments to bury negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential race.

The witnesses include a porn actor, a former tabloid publisher and Cohen, who went to federal prison for his role in the hush money matter and for other crimes, including lying to Congress. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass forewarned prospective jurors that they have “what you might consider to be some baggage.”

Here’s a look at the key players in the historic first criminal trial of a former U.S. president:

DEFENDANT

DONALD TRUMP — The former president of the United States and the presumptive Republican nominee, who parlayed his success as reality television star and celebrity businessman and won the presidential election in 2016, becoming America’s 45th president. The trial involves allegations that he falsified his company’s records to hide the true nature of payments to Cohen, who helped bury negative stories about him during the 2016 presidential campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty.

WITNESSES

MICHAEL COHEN — Trump’s former lawyer and fixer. He was once a fierce Trump ally, but now he’s a key prosecution witness against his former boss. Cohen worked for the Trump Organization from 2006 to 2017. He later went to federal prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations relating to the hush money arrangements and other, unrelated crimes.

STORMY DANIELS — The porn actor who received a $130,000 payment from Cohen as part of his hush-money efforts. Cohen paid Daniels to keep quiet about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.

KAREN MCDOUGAL — A former Playboy model who said she had a 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. She was paid $150,000 in 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship. Trump denies having sex with McDougal.

DAVID PECKER — The National Enquirer’s former publisher and a longtime Trump friend. Prosecutors say he met with Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower in August 2015 and agreed to help Trump’s campaign identify negative stories about him.

HOPE HICKS — Trump’s former White House communications director. Prosecutors say she spoke with Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without permission.

PROSECUTORS

ALVIN BRAGG — A former civil rights lawyer and law professor, Bragg is a Democrat in his first term as Manhattan’s district attorney. He inherited the Trump investigation when he took office in 2021. He oversaw the prosecution of Trump’s company in an unrelated tax fraud case before moving to indict Trump last year.

MATTHEW COLANGELO — A former high-ranking Justice Department official who was hired by Bragg in 2022 to lead the Trump investigation. They previously worked together on Trump-related matters at the New York attorney general’s office.

JOSHUA STEINGLASS — A Manhattan prosecutor for more than 25 years, he has worked on some of the office’s more high-profile cases, including the Trump Organization’s tax fraud conviction in 2022, and cases involving violent crimes.

SUSAN HOFFINGER — The chief of the district attorney’s Investigation Division, she returned to the office in 2022 after more than 20 years in private practice with her sister, Fran. She worked with Steinglass on the Trump Organization tax fraud prosecution.

TRUMP’S LAWYERS

TODD BLANCHE — A former federal prosecutor, Blanche previously represented Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a mortgage fraud case — and got it thrown out. Blanche successfully argued that the case, brought by the same prosecutor’s office now taking on Trump, was too similar to one that landed Manafort in federal prison and therefore amounted to double jeopardy.

SUSAN NECHELES — A former Brooklyn prosecutor, Necheles is a respected New York City defense lawyer who represented Trump’s company at its tax fraud trial last year. In the past she served as counsel to the late Genovese crime family underboss Venero Mangano, known as Benny Eggs, and defended John Gotti’s lawyer, Bruce Cutler, in the early 90s.

EMIL BOVE — A star college lacrosse player, Bove was a veteran federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. He was involved in multiple high-profile prosecutions, including a drug-trafficking case against the former Honduran president’s brother, a man who set off a pressure cooker device in Manhattan and a man who sent dozens of mail bombs to prominent targets across the country.

THE JUDGE

JUAN M. MERCHAN — The judge presiding over the case. He was also the judge in the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial in 2022 and is overseeing a border wall fraud case against longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon. Merchan has twice denied requests by Trump’s lawyers that he step aside from the case. They contend he is biased because his daughter runs a political consulting firm that has worked for Democrats, including President Joe Biden. Merchan has said he is certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”

CHICAGO (AP) — As President Joe Biden and Donald Trump step up their campaigning in swing states, a quieter battle is taking place in the shadows of their White House rematch.

The Republican National Committee, newly reconstituted under Trump, has filed election-related lawsuits in nearly half the states. Recent lawsuits over voter roll maintenance in Michigan and Nevada are part of a larger strategy targeting various aspects of voting and election administration.

It’s not a new strategy. But with recent internal changes at the RNC and added pressure from the former president, the legal maneuvering is expected to play an increasingly significant role for the party as Election Day in November approaches. The lawsuits are useful for campaign messaging, fundraising and raising doubts about the validity of the election.

Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the RNC and the Trump campaign, said the lawsuits were one of the organization’s main priorities this year.

“This is something that’s very important to President Trump,” she said. “He has said that this is something the RNC should do year-round.”

Democrats and legal experts are warning about how the lawsuits might overwhelm election officials and undermine voter confidence in the the results of the balloting.

The Democratic National Committee has a legal strategy of its own, building “a robust voter protection operation, investing tens of millions of dollars,” to counter the GOP’s efforts that seek to restrict access to the polls, spokesperson Alex Floyd said.

“The RNC is actively deploying an army of lawyers to make it harder for Americans’ ballots to be counted,” he said.

Election litigation soared after the 2020 election as Trump and his allies unsuccessfully challenged his loss to Biden in dozens of lawsuits.

Experts that year wondered whether the blitz of legal action was an aberration caused by false claims of a stolen election and changes to voting processes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Miriam Seifter, attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

They quickly realized that wasn’t the case as the 2022 midterms also generated a high number of election-related lawsuits. This year is projected to be similar, she said.

“Litigation seems to now be a fixture of each parties’ political and electoral strategies,” Seifter said.

Voter ID rules, mail ballots and voter roll maintenance are among the RNC’s litigation targets. The latest is a lawsuit this month alleging that Michigan has failed to keep its voter rolls up to date.

Maintaining accurate voter rolls by updating voters’ status is routine for election officials, who watch for death notices, changes in motor vehicle records or election mail being repeatedly returned. Michigan also uses ERIC, an interstate data-sharing pact that helps states update voter lists but has been targeted by conspiracy theories.

Opponents of the lawsuit have said it relies on unsubstantiated, flawed data and runs the risk of purging legitimate voters.

“They’re claiming there’s a problem because one piece of data doesn’t match another piece of data,” said Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor. “But the pieces of data they’re trying to match don’t measure the same thing. It’s like saying, ‘I just looked at the clock and it’s different from the temperature on my thermometer.’”

This is not a new tactic, said Caren Short, director of legal and research for the League of Women Voters, which has filed to intervene in the Michigan lawsuit. She said most previous lawsuits have been from “more fringe groups” rather than directly from the RNC.

“Now seeing a prominent political party attempting to purge people from the rolls, it’s very concerning,” she said.

In the past four years, Michigan’s voter rolls have been targeted in three similar unsuccessful lawsuits. Just days after the Michigan lawsuit was filed, the RNC filed a similar one in Nevada.

A federal appeals court earlier sided with the RNC in a lawsuit in Pennsylvania questioning whether officials should count improperly dated absentee ballots. A Wisconsin lawsuit is targeting absentee voting procedures and ballot drop boxes. An RNC lawsuit in Arizona is aiming to invalidate or adjust the state’s 200-page elections manual while another in Mississippi seeks to prevent mail ballots from being counted if they are postmarked by Election Day but received days later.

Various other groups have filed similar litigation recently, including a lawsuit against the Maryland State Board of Elections claiming the state’s voting system is not in compliance with federal and state law.

Marly Hornik, CEO of United Sovereign Americans, one of the groups behind the Maryland lawsuit, said more lawsuits are intended in other states this year. On its website, United Sovereign Americans, which Hornik said formed last summer, announced plans to file lawsuits in 23 states.

The GOP and affiliated groups are involved in dozens of other cases with more on the way, RNC officials have said. In this election cycle, the RNC’s legal team has been involved in more than 80 lawsuits in 23 states, said Alvarez, the RNC spokesperson.

She said part of the reason for the flurry of lawsuits was the lifting of a federal consent decree in 2018 that had sharply limited the RNC’s ability to challenge voter verification and other “ballot security.”

During an interview this month with Fox News, the RNC chairman, Michael Whatley, emphasized the party’s plans to prioritize election-related litigation. He said the RNC is recruiting and training tens of thousands of poll observers and working with thousands of attorneys.

On Friday, the RNC announced plans to train poll watchers, poll workers and lawyers and send out more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers to monitor vote-counting across battleground states in November.

Prioritizing election litigation also is reflected in recent changes within the RNC since Whatley and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, took control and reshaped the organization with a renewed focus on “election integrity.” The RNC now has “election integrity directors” in 13 states.

Christina Bobb, who has promoted false claims of a stolen 2020 election and was part of a Trump-backed fake elector scheme, was tapped to lead the department.

“One of our biggest changes from last cycle to this cycle was making the election integrity department its own department with its own dedicated budget and focus,” Alvarez said.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said most of the lawsuits are unlikely to win in court but “serve as a basis for fundraising and are trying to keep this issue front and center as a campaign issue.”

Democracy groups and legal experts said the lawsuits could pave the way for false narratives challenging the validity of the 2024 election while consuming time and staff at election offices across the country. Post-election lawsuits also could delay or obstruct certification of the results.

“I worry about these lawsuits that are not designed to clarify the rules but instead to lay the groundwork for false claims that an election their side lost was stolen or rigged,” said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, which advises local election officials nationwide. “We saw this in 2020. We saw it in 2022. And we’re beginning to see the planting of seeds of doubt in the minds of the electorate again in 2024.”

(JNS) – The Combat Antisemitism Movement has condemned Meta’s Oversight Board’s recommendation to end its ban on the use of the Arabic word shaheed, or “martyr” in English, after a year-long review.

Meta currently removes any posts using shaheed in reference to people appearing on the company’s list of “dangerous organizations and individuals,” which includes members of Islamist terrorist organizations.

Meta owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp

“The word shaheed is an honorific term for murderers. The recommendation by Meta’s Oversight Board could be seen as giving a green light for the glorification of murder,” said CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa.

“This term is used to honor those who murder, maim and terrorize people around the world, from Osama bin Laden to the Hamas perpetrators of the October 7 massacre, and allowing its usage sends entirely the wrong signal.

“It is clear that social media platforms have been used as recruitment centers for terrorist organizations over the last few years, and social media companies should be working to prevent rather than assisting this process,” added Roytman Dratwa.

Last year, one of the 23 members of the Oversight Board, Khaled Mansour, told Al Jazeera that Meta’s shaheed policy blocks Palestinian freedom of expression.

Mansour, who is from Egypt, has a history of anti-Israel statements. In November 2022, he wrote “Damn the Zionists.” In 2019, he tweeted that “Israel exports oppression to the world.”

Mansour also shared posts from the Israeli-designated terrorist group and PFLP proxy Al Haq, as well as articles opposing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

For years, anti-Israel groups have argued that Meta unjustly suppresses Palestinian content under campaigns such as “Meta, Let Palestine Speak” and “Facebook, Stop Censoring Palestine.” A key organizer is the terrorism-linked 7amleh, which has hosted the oversight board and has been featured at Oversight Board events alongside Mansour.