Former President Donald Trump used a day off from his hush money trial Friday to headline a Republican fundraiser in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state that he boasts he can carry in November. Trump headlined the state GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan dinner in St. Paul, which coincides with the party’s state convention. Trump declared his appearance to be “an official expansion” of the electoral map of states that could be competitive in November. No Republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972. But Trump came close to flipping the state in 2016, when he fell 1.5 percentage points short of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip have rolled across a newly built U.S. pier and into the besieged enclave for the first time. Friday's shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day. It comes as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered the delivery of food and other supplies seven months into the Israel-Hamas war. But the U.S. and aid groups warn that the floating pier project is not a substitute for land deliveries that could bring in all the food, water and fuel needed in Gaza. Before the war, more than 500 truckloads entered the territory on an average day.

WASHINGTON — An upside-down American flag, a symbol associated with former President Donald …

A Pennsylvania man whose father is a prominent conservative activist has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol. Leo Brent Bozell IV smashed a window, chased a police officer and invaded the Senate floor during the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Bozell’s father, L. Brent Bozell III, founded the Media Research Center and other conservative media organizations. The younger Bozell turned to apologize to two Capitol police officers sitting in the courtroom gallery before U.S. District Judge John Bates sentenced him to three years and nine months behind bars.

Donald Trump’s lawyers have sought to portray the star prosecution witness in his hush money trial as a serial fabulist who is bent on seeing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee behind bars. During hours of cross-examination Thursday, defense attorney Todd Blanche pressed former Trump attorney Michael Cohen for hours with questions that focused as much on his misdeeds as on the case’s specific allegations. The defense is trying to sow doubt in jurors’ minds about Cohen’s crucial testimony implicating the former president. Whether the defense is successful in undermining Cohen’s testimony could determine Trump’s fate. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The Pentagon says that humanitarian aid will soon begin flowing onto the Gaza shore through the new pier that was anchored to the beach overnight and will reach those in need almost immediately. Trucks will drive the aid into the Palestinian enclave, besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war. The United Nations, however, warns that fuel imports have all but stopped and this will make it extremely difficult to deliver the aid to the more than a million Palestinians in critical need of food and other supplies.