By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, PHILIP MARCELO and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed Trump bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission, longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified Friday at his hush money trial. Hicks, a former White House official, was compelled to testify by Manhattan prosecutors, who are hoping her remarks bolster their argument that the uproar over the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape hastened Trump’s then-lawyer to ..read more

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and SEAN MURPHY WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas and his wife were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges and taken into custody Friday in connection with a U.S. Department of Justice probe into the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. From 2014 to 2021, Cuellar, 68, and his wife accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico, and in exchange, Cuellar agreed to advance the interests of the country and the bank in the U.S., according to the indictment. Among other thin ..read more

By AMANDA SEITZ WASHINGTON  — Roughly 100,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children are expected to enroll in the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance next year under a directive the Biden administration released Friday. The move took longer than promised to finalize and fell short of Democratic President Joe Biden’s initial proposal to allow those migrants to sign up for Medicaid, the health insurance program that provides nearly free coverage for the nation’s poorest people. But it will allow thousands of people, known as “Dreamers,” to access tax breaks when they sign u ..read more

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — Protests on college campuses related to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian crisis inside Gaza that turned violent this week handed President Joe Biden a political headache and former President Donald Trump a new attack line. The unrest showed the risks of being the incumbent and allowed Trump to — once again — push his hardline views as disrupter in chief. Biden and his campaign aides have mostly dismissed criticism from Arab American groups for months over his “ironclad” backing of Israel. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian civilians have been ..read more

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and JOSH BOAK (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is arguing that a fractured democracy can have destructive effects on the economy — an indirect jab at Donald Trump. Yellen, in an address prepared for delivery Friday in Arizona, uses economic data to paint a picture of how disregard for America’s democratic processes and institutions can cause economic stagnation for decades. Yellen, taking a rare step toward to the political arena, never mentions Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, by name in her speech for the McCain Ins ..read more

By Allen G. Breed and Jocelyn Gecker | Associated Press In a way, the black-and-white Palestinian scarf draped over Hannah Sattler’s shoulders this week and the tie-dyed T-shirts of 1968 are woven from a common thread. Like so many college students across the country protesting the Israel-Hamas war, Sattler feels the historic weight of the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 70s. “They always talked about the ’68 protest as sort of a North Star,” Sattler, 27, a graduate student of international human rights policy at Columbia University, said of the campus organizers there. “Even ..read more

By Ryan Pearson, Julie Watson, Christopher L. Keller and Carolyn Thompson | Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall, a spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed Thursday. No one was injured, according to spokesperson Doug Cohen, who said there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity. He said Bragg’s office is conducting a review. He did not provide additional details on the incident, which was first ..read more

By David Klepper and Krutika Pathi | Associated Press NEW DELHI — Bollywood stars seldom weigh in on politics, so videos showing two celebrities criticizing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — and endorsing his main opposition, the Congress party — were bound to go viral. But the clips of A-list actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh were fake, AI-generated videos that were yet another example of the false or misleading claims swirling online with the goal of influencing India’s election. Both actors filed complaints with police but such actions do little to stanch the flow of such misinformati ..read more

By Arit John | CNN Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation Thursday repealing the state’s 160-year-old near-total abortion ban, setting the stage for a 15-week restriction to remain law. The Democratic governor signed the bill one day after it passed the GOP-held Senate, where two Republicans joined with all 14 Democrats in the chamber to advance the measure. The hourslong debate over the bill grew contentious as Republicans blasted the two defectors and railed against Democrats and a potential fall ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. At a sig ..read more

Wednesday morning, police continued to guard entrances to Cal Poly Humboldt. Police refused access to the campus to the Times-Standard following a crackdown on a week-long occupation of the quad area, with 32 protesters arrested by Tuesday. It’s unclear why the campus continues to be closed. Phone calls and emails to university media contacts to get access to the university went unanswered by the Times-Standard deadline Wednesday. Sheriff William Honsal noted in an email that it is the university’s prerogative to keep the campus closed. “The university continues the hard closure of campus thro ..read more