Speaker Johnson to appear at courthouse amid Trump hush money trial
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens during a news conference, Friday, April 12, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)SpeakerMike Johnson (R-La.) will appear at the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday as formerPresident Trump sits for another day of his hush money trial, a source confirmed to The Hill.
Johnson is the latest Republican lawmaker to visit the court amid Trump’s ongoing criminal trial, which has kept him largely off the campaign trail as he vies for another term in the White House.
His expected appearance was first reported by Punchbowl News.
The Speaker’s trip to New York comes less than a week after the House overwhelmingly blocked an attempt by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust him from office, an outcome that some have in part attributed to the former president’s backing of Johnson.
Trump voiced support for Johnson on a number of occasions amid the ouster threat — including during a joint appearance at Mar-a-Lago — and he posted on social media urging Republicans to vote to table Greene’s motion to vacate. That post, however, published minutes after the vote closed.
Toronto — Wildfire season has arrived in full force in Western Canada, prompting evacuation orders and alerts in several towns in British Columbia and neighboring Alberta due to the danger of uncontrolled blazes. According to the BC administration's latest wildfire situation report, seven evacuation orders and five alerts had been issued in the province since Friday, driving about 4,700 residents from their homes.
"The situation is evolving rapidly," British Columbia's emergency management minister Bowninn Ma warned Monday, as officials said there were 130 active wildfires burning, 14 of them deemed out of control.The 2023 wildfire season in Canada was the worst on record, with 6,551 fires scorching nearly 46 million acres, from the West Coast to the Atlantic provinces and the far north. The impact on the environment, particularly air quality, in both Canada and the United States was profound. As predicted, 2024 is shaping up to be another devastating wildfire season, and disaster and climate experts have a pretty good idea of why.Most of the fires now ravaging Canada have actually been burning since last fire season, having smoldered slowly during the winter under the snowpack.Scientists say these blazes, sometimes called zombie fires, are a stark reminder of the impact ofclimate change. Studies have linked the overwinter fires to ongoing drought conditions amid the increasingly hot, dry springs Canada has experienced in recent years. Scientists say less precipitation and warmer winter temperatures mean fires can keep burning in the dense layers of vegetation under the snowpack.
Sonja Leverkus, an ecosystem scientist in British Columbia who also works as a firefighter, told CBS News on Monday that the northeast of the Canadian province has so many wildfires at the moment "because we are in a severe drought for a third year in a row."
She said the parched conditions were likely to make things worse before they get any better.
Leverkus has been on the front line of the battle against fires in her hometown of Fort Nelson, where she and her teammates and their communities are currently under evacuation orders.
"Many of the current fires this week were 2023 wildfires that overwintered below ground," she said. "We are heavy into spring, with low relative humidity, high wind, heat, and zero precipitation. Hence, wildfires."Wildfire expert Ben Boghean, commenting this week on the blaze currently threatening the Parker Lake community in British Columbia, said Sunday that last year's severe drought conditions have enabled fires to spread at dizzying rates this spring, and due to the below-normal snowpack new fires are also erupting more easily.
Kelly Clarkson Sets the Record Straight on Ozempic Rumors Amid Weight Loss Journey
Kelly Clarkson revealed that she did not use Ozempic to help her lose weight, but instead used another medication that helps break down sugars in her body.Kelly Clarkson is definitely feeling stronger—but it's not because of that medication.
The "Since U Been Gone ''singer addressed recent rumors surrounding her weight loss, revealing she did not use Ozempic—a medication intended to treat type 2 diabetes that has become popular in Hollywood for dropping pounds.
"My doctor chased me for like two years and I was like, 'No, I'm afraid of it. I already have thyroid problems,'" she explained on the May 13 episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show "Everybody thinks it Ozempic. It's not."
Instead, Kelly confessed she has been using a different medication to help her slim down after she weighed in at 203 pounds at her heaviest point.
"It's something else," she noted of the unnamed treatment, "but it's something that aids in helping break down the sugar—obviously my body doesn't do it right."
As Kelly explained ''I ended up having to do that, because my blood work got so bad." She was prompted to begin her weight loss journey after watching a performance of herself and not recognizing who she was watching on screen.
"We were in my house in New York like watching," the 42-year-old said, "and then all of a sudden I paused and I was like, 'Who the f--k is that?' I swear to god, it sounds insane."She added, You see it. And you're like, ‘Well, she about to die of a heart attack.'"
Kellywho finalized her divorce from Brandon Blackstock in 2022—added that those in her inner circle also didn't notice her body changing over time.
"I looked at my manager who's known me for over 15 years," the TV host recalled, "and she was like, 'I know I'm kind of shocked as you.' And I think because your people are with you the whole time, so it's gradual. You don't even realize."
However, there's one other part of her health journey Kelly wanted to set the record straight on. The American Idol alum felt many were concerned her size meant she was "miserable and depressed," but she explained it was nothing of the sort, even joking that she was "was riding high with someone" and living her best life.
The "Because of You ''singer has been candid about her transformation as of late, noting she was further motivated to improve her health and change her diet after she was diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
"I eat a healthy mix. I dropped weight because I've been listening to my doctor—a couple years I didn't," she told People in January "And 90 percent of the time I'm really good at it because a protein diet is good for me anyway."
And while Kelly didn't use for her weight loss, keep reading to find out what other stars have said about the diabetes medication.
US believes Israel has enough troops next to Rafah to launch full ground op soon
Troops of the Givati Brigade operate in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout photo published May 13, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The US believes that Israel has enough troops just outside the southern Gaza city of Rafah to launch a full ground operation soon, according to a CNN report.
The report, citing two senior US administration officials, says the Biden administration is nevertheless not sure if Israel has made the decision to move ahead with a full ground invasion of the city, following President Joe Biden’s warning last week that such a move would prompt the US to withhold some additional weapons shipments.
Israel has urged residents of some neighborhoods in the city, which the IDF has called the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza, to evacuate over the past week, and estimates indicate that more than 350,000 have left, but hundreds of thousands are believed to remain.
Gaza war: Palestinians flee as Israeli forces go back into Jabalia
A UN agency said the operations in northern Gaza had "created more displacement and fear for thousands of families"
Fierce fighting has been reported in Jabalia in northern Gaza, after the Israeli military went back into areas where it said Hamas had regrouped.
Residents who fled said they had seen tanks advancing towards Jabalia's refugee camp, which has come under heavy bombardment since Saturday.
Palestinian armed groups also said they were battling troops in the camp.
Meanwhile, the UN has said 360,000 people have fled Rafah, in the south, since an offensive began a week ago.
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of the eastern third of the city, which is swollen with more than a million Palestinians taking refuge.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel that a full-scale offensive in Rafah might provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas.
His comments echoed briefings to Israeli media by unnamed senior Israeli military figures, who said Hamas's resurgence in northern Gaza was due to a lack of a specific plan from Israel's government for the "day after" the war.
The military scaled down operations in the north in January after declaring that it had "dismantled" Hamas's battalions there. But that left a power vacuum in which the group has been able to rebuild.
An estimated 300,000 people trapped in the devastated region are also experiencing a "full-blown famine" due to a lack of aid deliveries, according to the head of the World Food Programme.
UN hopes for Gaza's new Western Erez aid crossing
Gaza war weighs heavily on Israel's memorial day
Crack in US-Israel alliance for first time in decades
Residents who were filmed fleeing Jabalia on foot on Monday morning said they had decided to leave after seeing tanks advance into the area.
"We don't know where to go. We have been displaced from one place to the next," one woman told Reuters news agency. "We are running in the streets. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the tank and the bulldozer."The military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - which are both proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK, US and other countries - said their fighters were targeting Israeli forces in and around Jabalia camp with mortars, anti-tank missiles and machine-guns.
Hamas-affiliated Safa news agency also reported clashes between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli tanks east of Jabalia camp's market, near several UN-run schools which were being used as shelters by civilians.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa meanwhile reported that two people were killed in Israeli strikes on homes in Jabalia camp on Monday and that a number of other people were killed in a strike in Jabalia town.
It also cited ambulance crews as saying the bodies of 20 civilians had so far been recovered in Jabalia and taken to Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On Sunday, the IDF said troops had begun an operation in Jabalia the previous evening "based on intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area".
It came after civilians there were told to evacuate to western Gaza City.
The IDF also said it was operating in the Zeitoun area, in eastern Gaza City, to "eliminate terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructure".
Safa reported that Zeitoun was hit by Israeli shellfire on Monday morning.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said the bombardment and evacuation orders had "created more displacement and fear for thousands of families" in northern Gaza.
Unrwa also warned that the civilians affected, like the estimated 360,000 who have fled Rafah in the past week, had "nowhere safe to go".
After seven months of war in Gaza, Israel has insisted victory is impossible without taking Rafah and eliminating the last remaining Hamas battalions. But UN and Western powers have warned that an all-out assault could lead to mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe.
Gaza war: Palestinians flee as Israeli forces go back into Jabalia
.Residents who fled said they had seen tanks advancing towards Jabalia's refugee camp, which has come under heavy bombardment since Saturday.
Palestinian armed groups also said they were battling troops in the camp.
Meanwhile, the UN has said 360,000 people have fled Rafah, in the south, since an offensive began a week ago.
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of the eastern third of the city, which is swollen with more than a million Palestinians taking refuge.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel that a full-scale offensive in Rafah might provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas.
His comments echoed briefings to Israeli media by unnamed senior Israeli military figures, who said Hamas's resurgence in northern Gaza was due to a lack of a specific plan from Israel's government for the "day after" the war.
The military scaled down operations in the north in January after declaring that it had "dismantled" Hamas's battalions there. But that left a power vacuum in which the group has been able to rebuild.
An estimated 300,000 people trapped in the devastated region are also experiencing a "full-blown famine" due to a lack of aid deliveries, according to the head of the World Food Programme.
UN hopes for Gaza's new Western Erez aid crossing
Gaza war weighs heavily on Israel's memorial day
Crack in US-Israel alliance for first time in decades
Residents who were filmed fleeing Jabalia on foot on Monday morning said they had decided to leave after seeing tanks advance into the area.
"We don't know where to go. We have been displaced from one place to the next," one woman told Reuters news agency. "We are running in the streets. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the tank and the bulldozer."
The military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - which are both proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK, US and other countries - said their fighters were targeting Israeli forces in and around Jabalia camp with mortars, anti-tank missiles and machine-guns.
Hamas-affiliated Safa news agency also reported clashes between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli tanks east of Jabalia camp's market, near several UN-run schools which were being used as shelters by civilians.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa meanwhile reported that two people were killed in Israeli strikes on homes in Jabalia camp on Monday and that a number of other people were killed in a strike in Jabalia town.
It also cited ambulance crews as saying the bodies of 20 civilians had so far been recovered in Jabalia and taken to Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On Sunday, the IDF said troops had begun an operation in Jabalia the previous evening "based on intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area".
It came after civilians there were told to evacuate to western Gaza City.
The IDF also said it was operating in the Zeitoun area, in eastern Gaza City, to "eliminate terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructure".
Safa reported that Zeitoun was hit by Israeli shellfire on Monday morning.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said the bombardment and evacuation orders had "created more displacement and fear for thousands of families" in northern Gaza.
Unrwa also warned that the civilians affected, like the estimated 360,000 who have fled Rafah in the past week, had "nowhere safe to go".
After seven months of war in Gaza, Israel has insisted victory is impossible without taking Rafah and eliminating the last remaining Hamas battalions. But UN and Western powers have warned that an all-out assault could lead to mass civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe.
There have been desperate scenes in Rafah since the IDF said last Monday that it was beginning a "precise operation against Hamas" in eastern Rafah.
On Saturday, flyers were dropped ordering residents to evacuate more eastern neighbourhoods, including those close to the city centre.
Unrwa's deputy Gaza director Scott Anderson, who is based in western Rafah, told the BBC on Monday that the Israeli operation now extended "about a third of the way across Rafah" and encompassed the old town.
He said he could hear explosions and air strikes, and that the fighting had affected the operations of hospitals and many of Unrwa's facilities in Rafah refugee camp, including a primary healthcare facility.
Palestinian media reported that four people, including a child, were killed on Monday in an Israeli air strike on a home in the Brazil neighbourhood, which is just south-east of the camp.
Hamas's military wing also said it had targeted Israeli forces east of Rafah.
Many people sheltering in central and western areas that are not subject to evacuation orders have also been leaving out of fear that the Israeli operation will soon expand into a large-scale offensive.
Ghada el-Kurd, a mother-of-two, told the BBC on Monday that she had recently fled to Deir al-Balah in Gaza's Middle Area - the seventh time she has been displaced during the war.
She said the streets of Deir al-Balah were "full of sewage" and that the destruction of homes and infrastructure was "huge, not like Rafah".
She added: "I'm lucky enough to have a home, but most other people are living in tents and are [suffering from] the heat, a lack of water and a lack of food."
Deir al-Balah is part of the IDF-designated "expanded humanitarian area", which stretches north from the coastal strip of al-Mawasi to the city of Khan Younis and Gaza's Middle Area.
The IDF has told evacuees they will find field hospitals, tents and aid supplies there, but Mr Anderson of Unrwa said it lacked the necessary infrastructure.
In al-Mawasi, he explained, "everything that people have access to has to be trucked in... that includes food, water, moving solid waste".
"For people who are displacing to Khan Younis it is very similar... That is still recovering from the Israeli operation that took place a few months ago."
Mr Anderson also appealed to Israel and Hamas to agree to the creation of "fixed corridor" that would allow UN lorries to move safely in and out of the nearby Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel - a key entry point for aid.
Israel said it had reopened the crossing last Wednesday after closing it for four days due to Hamas rocket fire which killed four Israeli soldiers. But the UN said it was too dangerous to collect aid because of the hostilities in eastern Rafah.
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has also been closed since Israeli troops took full control of the Palestinian side last Tuesday.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Hamas accused Israel of "escalating their brutal massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip".
The UN said that one of its staff was killed and another injured when their vehicle was struck in Rafah on Monday.
Both worked for the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement, adding that the "Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation". The UN did not state who was responsible for the attack.
The IDF confirmed it received a report from the UNDSS saying that two of the organisation's workers were injured in the Rafah area on Monday.
It said: "An initial inquiry conducted indicates that the vehicle was hit in an area declared an active combat zone. The IDF had not been made aware of the route of the vehicle."
It added that, according to a report the IDF received, a worker from the UNDSS was receiving medical treatment at the European Hospital near the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden's top national security official Jake Sullivan told reporters he does not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide.
However, he went on to say that the US believes "Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians".
The US was "using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent" to reach this assessment, he added.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage.
More than 35,090 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens during a news conference, Friday, April 12, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will appear at the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday as former President Trump sits for another day of his hush money trial, a source confirmed to The Hill.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
