Headline
Porn Star Testifies Against Trump At Hush Money Trial

The porn star at the heart of Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial, Stormy Daniels, testified on Tuesday about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the former president in a hotel penthouse suite.
Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels on the eve of his 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, when the lurid story of marital infidelity could have sunk his campaign.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger announced “The people call Stormy Daniels,” as Trump, who is seeking to recapture the White House in November, sat at the defense table in the Manhattan courtroom flanked by his lawyers, AFP reports.
What followed was detailed testimony about the sexual encounter Daniels said she had with Trump – his pajamas, his boxer shorts, the sexual position, that he did not wear a condom – all while the former president, sitting just feet away, stared on in silence, stony-faced.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his defense team sought, unsuccessfully, to have a mistrial declared.
READ ALSO: Biden Calls Trump Main Threat To US Democracy
The extraordinary courtroom face-off comes six months before election day when Trump will try to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden.
Daniels walked prosecutors through her difficult childhood in Louisiana, a stint as a stripper and her eventually joining the adult film industry.
The 45-year-old, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe where she was employed as a greeter by X-rated movie company Wicked Entertainment.
Daniels said she was 27 at the time and Trump was “probably older than my father.”
She said a member of Trump’s security detail told her the real estate tycoon wanted to have dinner with her. She was reluctant but agreed after discussing it with her publicist.
When she arrived at the penthouse where Trump was staying he emerged wearing “silk or satin pajamas which I immediately made fun of,” Daniels told the jury.
READ ALSO: Trump Urges Republicans To Kill Ukraine Aid Bill
“I said ‘Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pajamas?’” she said in a reference to the outfit favored by the late Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.
Trump changed clothes and they began talking about adult movies.
“He was very interested in a lot of the business stuff,” Daniels said.
Trump, who was married at the time to his current wife, Melania, suggested Daniels be on his hit reality television show, “The Apprentice,” she said.
Daniels said she went to the bathroom at one point and when she emerged Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“It startled me,” she said. “The intention was pretty clear.”
“I was not threatened verbally or physically,” Daniels said, although there was an “imbalance of power.”
She said they had brief sex on the bed “in missionary position” and Trump did not wear a condom.
“I felt ashamed I didn’t stop it, didn’t say no,” Daniels said.
READ ALSO: Trump Indicted For Attempts To Overturn US 2020 Elections
Daniels said she met with Trump again on several occasions but cut off contact when it became clear she would not appear on “The Apprentice.”
After Trump announced his candidacy for president, Daniels said her publicist suggested she could sell her story and put her in touch with Keith Davidson, a Hollywood lawyer who testified previously at the trial.
“My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” Daniels said.
She said she entered into a non-disclosure agreement in October 2016 on the eve of the presidential election negotiated by Davidson and Cohen for which she was paid $130,000.
“I couldn’t tell my story, he couldn’t tell the story,” she said.
After a lunch break, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Judge Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial, objecting to some of Daniels’ testimony, particularly her claim that she was threatened in 2011 by a man in a Las Vegas parking garage who allegedly warned her not to talk about Trump.
“It’s extremely prejudicial to insert safety concerns into a trial about business records,” Blanche said.
Merchan denied the motion, saying “I don’t think we have reached a point where a mistrial is in order.”
Trump is under a partial gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, the jury or court staff.
Merchan has already fined him $10,000 for breaching the gag order and warned Trump he may face jail time for future violations.
Headline
Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.
“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.
READ ALSO:Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal
AFP
Headline
20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.
The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.
He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.
Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.
READ ALSO:China’s Trade Surges Despite US Tariff Threats
Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.
The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”
“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.
It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”
READ ALSO:US Threatens To Sanction Countries That Vote For Shipping Carbon Tax
According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.
The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.
According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.
The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.
Headline
South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.
The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.
“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.
READ ALSO:South African Court Finds Radical Politician Malema Guilty On Gun Charges
Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.
The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.
South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.
AFP
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