Another surprise revelation referencing possible extortion only weeks before the 2016 election was made regarding former US President Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump during the hush money trial on Monday.

Tiffany was a quieter member of the Trump family at the time.

She hailed from a wealthy and well-known family, just like her half-siblings Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, however she did not play the same role as her siblings during the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Michael Cohen asserted that Tiffany was being blackmailed.

Todd Blanche, the senior attorney for Trump, questioned witness Michael Cohen on Monday during cross-examination over the alleged “extortion” effort involving the former president’s daughter.

The idea was to prove that Cohen’s communications with Trump during a crucial time were motivated by more than just the Stormy Daniels case he testified about.

“You do realise that during the first two weeks of October, you had a lot going on in your personal life and with President Trump?” Blanche enquired. Cohen gave a nod of agreement.

“You remember on October 25th, you remember her talking to you about concerns about someone attempting to blackmail her?” Blanche asked.

Yes, sir, was Cohen’s reply. He claimed in his testimony to have dealt with it right away, talking to Tiffany, David Pecker, and other people.

This information was made public the day after Cohen testified that he used Trump’s longtime security director Keith Schiller’s phone to discuss the payoff with the porn star.

But based on Cohen’s messages with Schiller, Blanche had already noted that the date of the call corresponded with hoax calls Cohen was getting from a 14-year-old.

Tiffany was mentioned in the trial for the first time.

Blanche described it as a “possible extortion attempt” including pictures during Cohen’s Monday admission of stealing $60,000 from Trump’s trial.

Blanche suggested he had a number of things to talk to Trump about during their phone conversation, accusing Cohen of “lying” about the things they discussed. Blanche also mentioned that Trump was getting ready for the October 26 opening ceremony of his new hotel in D.C.

“So, did you think it was important to fix Tiffany Trump’s situation?” Blanche enquired.

“It was important I take care of things, but it wasn’t personally important to me,” Cohen retorted.

“Wouldn’t that be something you updated her father about when you spoke the next morning?” Blanche continued.

In response, Cohen said, “No sir.”

Throughout the trial, which lasted a month, this was the only mention of Tiffany Trump. Along with Eric Trump’s wife, Lara, who is a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Don Jr. and Eric Trump have all been in Manhattan criminal court with their fathers.

Ever since she graduated from Georgetown University Law School in 2020, Tiffany Trump has kept a low profile. In 2018, she went to Lindsay Lohan’s beach club in Greece, where she met Michael Boulos, her current spouse. at 2021, he proposed to her at the White House Rose Garden, and the following year, they were married at Mar-a-Lago.

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Both Israel and Hamas, who are currently fighting fiercely in the Gaza Strip, fiercely opposed attempts on Monday to have their leaders detained for war crimes in front of an international court.

Prosecutor Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court said he had requested arrest warrants for key Hamas and Israeli officials in connection with the fighting.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian organisation, declared that it “strongly condemns” the proposal, while Israel denounced the demand as a “historical disgrace” that targets Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

United States, Israel’s strongest friend, joined the censure, but France declared that it was in favour of the court’s autonomy and its “fight against impunity”.

“With disgust, I reject The Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas,” stated Netanyahu.

In a statement, Khan stated that he was requesting warrants for the Israeli officials to be charged with crimes such as “starvation,” “wilful killing,” and “extermination and/or murder.”

According to him, Israel was a part of “a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population” that began with Hamas’s historic October 7 strike, and during the conflict, Israel had committed “crimes against humanity.”

Khan added that Yahya Sinwar, the commander of Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, who is located in Qatar, “bear criminal responsibility” for the deeds carried out during the October 7 attack.

He listed these as “torture,” “rape and other acts of sexual violence,” and “taking hostages.”

“International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Khan stated. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader — no one — can act with impunity.”

Josep Borrell, the head of EU foreign policy, pointed out that if the warrants were approved by the ICC judges, any of the 124 ICC member states would theoretically have to detain Netanyahu and the others if they came there.

Nevertheless, the court lacks a way to make its warrants effective.

“There is no equivalency — none — between Israel and Hamas,” declared US President Joe Biden in response to the ICC bid, calling it “outrageous.”

Germany concurred, stating that the warrants presented “a false impression of equivalency” through a spokesman for the foreign ministry.

In a different court, the UN International Court of Justice, where South Africa has claimed that Israel’s war in Gaza is genocidal, Biden likewise dismissed allegations.

“What’s happening is not genocide,” Biden declared on Monday at a White House ceremony celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month.

The change at the ICC was welcomed by South Africa.

“Where are we going?”

Israeli forces are still engaged in combat with Hamas in the far-southern Gaza city of Rafah as well as other flashpoints in the central and northern regions of the territory.

Nearly two weeks ago, Israel moved forces into the congested civilian area of Rafah, which the military has termed as the final Hamas stronghold, defying international condemnation.

Netanyahu has pledged to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza until the Islamist organisation supported by Iran is vanquished and all captives are freed.

More than 812,000 Palestinians, according to the UN, had left Rafah, which is close to the Egyptian border.

“The question that haunts us is: where will we go?” stated 46-year-old Palestinian resident in need Sarhan Abu al-Saeed. “Certain death is chasing us from all directions.”

Medical professionals reported an airstrike on a residential structure in the western part of Rafah, while witnesses told AFP that Israeli naval troops had also targeted the city.

According to the IDF, Israeli forces had discovered “dozens of tunnel shafts” and “eliminated over 130 terrorists” in eastern Rafah while “conducting targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure”.

“Abruptly collapsing”

Based on Israeli official data, an AFP tally shows that more than 1,170 people, largely civilians, died as a result of Hamas’s strike on Israel on October 7, which precipitated the start of the conflict.

Approximately 250 hostages were taken by Hamas during the attack; 124 of them are still in Gaza, including 37 that the IDF claims are dead.

At least 35,562 individuals have died in Gaza as a result of Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas, the majority of whom were civilians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run region.

The bodies of four hostages who were freed from Gaza last week were discovered in tunnels beneath Jabalia in the north, the Israeli military announced on Monday.

Israeli forces have been engaged in combat in the country’s north and centre, where it was previously said that the majority of the jihadist population had been driven out. It claimed to have killed 200 militants in Jabalia.

The 2.4 million residents of the long-blockaded Gaza Strip are now without regular access to fuel, food, clean water, medications, and supplies due to Israel’s siege of the area.

Only infrequent relief supplies by air, land, and sea have lessened the hardship; nevertheless, truck arrivals have virtually stopped due to the Rafah operation.

Thirteen of Gaza’s thirty-six hospitals are closed, and the other eighteen are “on the verge of collapse, with more than 9,000 severely injured people at risk of dying,” according to a warning from the European Union.

According to the military, airstrikes are still occurring throughout Gaza, especially on Gaza City in the north.

According to Gaza’s civil defence, an airstrike on the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City resulted in the recovery of eight dead and many wounded.

At their meeting on Sunday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan advised Israel to connect the military campaign against Hamas to a “political strategy” for Gaza’s future.

Washington has pushed for both a wider diplomatic agreement that would normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel as well as a post-war plan for Gaza that involves Palestinians and is backed by regional powers.

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According to Iranian sources cited by Reuters, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian have been pronounced dead following the Sunday helicopter accident that carried them.

Monday morning, more than 12 hours after the rescuers had discovered the helicopter wreckage, the local media said that they had found “no sign of life” at the accident scene.

The latest information on the helicopter accident

About 600 kilometres (375 miles) northwest of Tehran, the capital of Iran, is the city of Jolfa, which is bordered by the country of Azerbaijan. This is where the helicopter accident event occurred.

Raisi was supposedly on his way back from adjacent Azerbaijan.

Nine people were reportedly on board the helicopter, including the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, the foreign minister of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the governor of the province of Eastern Azerbaijan, Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem, the leader of Tabriz’s Friday prayers, a pilot, a copilot, a head of security, and an additional bodyguard.

The helicopter accident was attributed by the local media to wind, fog, and intense rain; some even called it a “hard landing.”

The chief of staff of Iran’s army directed all army and elite Revolutionary Guards resources to be employed in search and rescue operations after hearing about the accident on Sunday. In the wee hours of Monday, a number of images appeared on social media showing a search squad in bright jackets and head lamps gathering around a GPS unit while they scoured a snow-covered, pitch-black slope on foot.

In an effort to calm Iranians, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word over all foreign policy decisions including the country’s nuclear project, promised that state affairs would not be disrupted.

A number of world leaders voiced their worry over the chopper accident and volunteered to assist with the rescue efforts. Iraq, Syria, Russia, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the European Union were among the nations who extended their assistance. To help with the hunt, the EU also turned on its fast reaction mapping service.

The Bell 212 helicopter is utilised by law enforcement, emergency medical services, military personnel, the energy sector, and firefighting. It can transport up to 15 passengers, including the crew, per its type certification documentation with the European Aviation Safety Agency, according to Reuters. Originally designed in the late 1960s as an improvement for the UH-1 Iroquois, it was intended for use by the Canadian military.

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