Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump have heard a recording of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president. A visibly irritated Trump leaned forward at the defense table and jurors appeared riveted as prosecutors on Thursday played the September 2016 recording that attorney Michael Cohen secretly made of himself briefing his celebrity client on a plan to buy Karen McDougal’s story of an extramarital relationship. Testimony resumes Friday.

Hamas says it's sending a delegation to Egypt as soon as possible to continue talks in the latest sign of progress in the fragile cease-fire process. The group’s supreme leader Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday he had spoken to Egypt’s intelligence chief and Hamas negotiators would travel to Cairo "to complete the ongoing discussions with the aim of working forward for an agreement.” But chances for the deal are entangled with the question of whether Israel can accept an end to the war without reaching its stated goal of destroying Hamas. The stakes in the cease-fire negotiations were made clear in a new U.N. report that said if the war in Gaza stops today it will still take until 2040 to rebuild.

A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall. That’s according to a spokesman for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. No one was injured in the shooting late Tuesday. The gunfire came as police officers stormed Hamilton Hall, where pro-Palestinian protesters had been barricaded inside for more than 20 hours. Police had said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. More than 100 protesters were taken into custody. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The number of people arrested in connection with protests on college campuses against the Israel-Hamas war has now topped 2,000. The Associated Press has tallied arrests at 35 schools since a tent encampment began at Columbia University on April 17. Some of the campus protests popping up over the last two weeks have led to agreements with administrators to consider the protesters demands. At Fordham, Northwestern, Minnesota and Brown, students will be able to make their case to university leaders about divesting from Israel. More frequently, demonstrators have been arrested after refusing to disperse or vandalizing property.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont says the major traffic artery linking New England with New York will be closed for days around the area where a tanker fire damaged a bridge over Interstate 95. The tanker truck filled with gasoline burst into flames in a three-vehicle crash Thursday on I-95 in southwest Connecticut. The East Coast’s main north-south highway subsequently closed, causing major traffic jams. The crash caused damage to the bridge above it, which the governor said will need to be demolished and replaced. Lamont says the hope is to reopen the interstate by Monday morning.

For the past 52 years, the United Methodist Church had officially declared “the practice of homosexuality ... incompatible with Christian teaching.” But that has ended now that church delegates removed that phrase from their official social teachings at their legislative General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The action comes a day after delegates removed a ban on LGBTQ clergy. The delegates have replaced the denomination's non-binding Social Principles with a new document. It defines marriage as a covenant between “two people of faith,” without limiting it to a man and a woman. The progressive shift follows the departure of a quarter of U.S. congregations in the United Methodist Church amid disputes over LGBTQ issues.

A Maryland transportation official says the state plans to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in just over four years at an estimated cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion. Transportation department spokesman David Broughton said Thursday the state plans to build a new span by fall of 2028. As salvage efforts continue, authorities also announced late Wednesday they had recovered the body of a fifth person who died in the March 26 collapse. Meanwhile, the broker for the bridge’s insurance policy confirmed Thursday that a $350 million payout will be made to the state of Maryland.