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OMG – Trump, Sons, Associate Hit With $364 Million Fraud Fine

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Donald Trump and his real estate company suffered a major defeat in New York’s civil fraud suit over his inflated asset valuations, after a judge barred the former president from running any business in the state for three years and ordered $364 million in penalties plus interest.

The 92-page verdict Friday by Justice Arthur Engoron in Manhattan is a significant victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said in a social media post after the decision that with interest the fine tops $450 million.

Engoron’s ruling is a threat to Trump’s real estate empire and the latest legal setback as the Republican frontrunner campaigns to return to the White House. His two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were also found liable and barred from being officers of a company in New York for two years.

During a three-month trial, James claimed Trump inflated asset values on annual financial documents for more than a decade to dupe Deutsche Bank AG and other lenders into giving him better terms on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans.

“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again,” Engoron wrote. “They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”

Trump is sure to appeal, potentially dragging out a final resolution of the case well beyond the November election. Even if he appeals, he would be required to put up a large chunk of the damages in the form of an escrow or bond.

The judge also found former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and former company comptroller Jeffrey McConney liable in the suit.

The fine was close to the $370 million sought by the attorney general, who also requested that interest be repaid on the illegal profit. It also exceeded the $250 million included in the original complaint, which she increased based on additional evidence presented at trial.

The fine was mostly based on the $168 million Trump saved by getting lower interest rates on four loans by lying about his wealth. It also includes the $127 million profit from the Old Post Office hotel deal in Washington and $60 million from the sale of Ferry Point golf course in New York, which the state says he wouldn’t have been able to purchase without inflating the value of his assets. The sum also includes the return of bonuses paid to employees who participated in the fraud.

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Middle East Crisis

3 Israelis killed in attack at West Bank-Jordan border crossing, Israeli military says

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JERUSALEM — Three people were shot and killed Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said, in what appeared to be an attack linked to the 11-month-old war in Gaza.

The military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said they were all men in their 50s.

Jordan is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra News Agency reported. The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza.

The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River is mainly used by Israelis, Palestinians and international tourists.

The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has also been a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

In Gaza, meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official in the Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.

The Civil Defense said the strike targeted the home of its deputy director for north Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and only targets militants.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. They abducted another 250, and are still holding around 100 of them after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories the Palestinians want for a future state — in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control over its airspace, coastline and most of its land crossings. Along with Egypt, it imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

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Mother of mass shooting suspect called Apalachee High School with warning

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The mother of the teenager suspected of killing four people during a Georgia school shooting called to warn a school counselor prior to the shooting, the suspect’s aunt and grandfather said Saturday.

Colt Gray, 14, apologized to his mother Marcee Gray on the morning of the mass shooting at Apalachee High School — sending an alarming early-morning text that prompted the mother to warn the school, his grandfather told the New York Post.

Marcee Gray’s father, Charles Polhamus, told the New York Post his daughter was at his home in Georgia on Wednesday morning when Colt texted her to say: “I’m sorry, mom.”

Colt has been charged with four counts of murder after committing a mass shooting earlier this week at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, prosecutors said. He will be tried as an adult.

Marcee Gray broke her silence Saturday, apologizing for the “absolutely horrific” shooting.

“I am so, so sorry and can not fathom the pain and suffering they are going through right now,” she told the Washington Post in a text.

The mother called the school about an unspecified “extreme emergency” involving Colt sometime before the shooting began, Gray’s sister Annie Brown told the Washington Post and later confirmed to CNN.

A 10-minute call was placed from Marcee Gray’s phone to the school at 9:50 a.m., the Washington Post reported. Police were notified of the shooting around 10:20 that morning, CNN previously reported.

Marcee Gray later confirmed the call to the Washington Post, which reported Gray “declined to elaborate on what had prompted her to call in the warning to the school, but said she had shared that information with law enforcement.”

According to the Post, Brown has a shared phone plan with the family which allowed her to see a log of the calls made by her sister.

The Barrow County School District did not return CNN’s request for comment. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation referred CNN’s request for comment to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.

CNN has reached out to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office Saturday evening. CNN has also reached out to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, who previously said he had no knowledge of any phone call to the school prior to the shooting.

The 14-year-old suspect is expected to face additional charges accounting for the injured victims, officials said Friday.

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Africa

Sudan: Major cholera outbreak as heavy rains hit displacement camps and no end to fighting

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Thousands of children in eastern Sudan are at risk of cholera following a major outbreak caused by widespread flooding, contaminated water and with a decimated health system after 16 months of conflict, Save the Children said.

Nearly 2900 cases of cholera and 112 deaths have been reported between July 22 and the beginning of September with Sudan’s Ministry of Health officially declared the outbreak on August 12. However, the actual numbers may be higher as limited access to health facilities and delayed community referrals are leading to a significant underreporting, according to the latest report from Sudan’s Health Cluster— a partnership including the UN, the Federal Ministry of Health, and NGOs including Save the Children.

In El Damer in River Nile State and in Gedarif in Gedarif State, Save the Children teams are reporting a huge spike in cholera cases among children under five, who account for nearly 15% of the confirmed cases and deaths across the country.

The spike in cholera comes with no end to the fighting that started in April last year and has devastated the country’s health and sanitation systems. Cholera spreads rapidly due to inadequate sewage treatment, flooding, and unsafe drinking water—conditions worsened by relentless heavy rains that have battered much of the country for the past three months.

The flooding has already claimed at least 173 lives and injured 505 people since June, according to the National Council for Civil Defence. The downpour has also caused the collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Red Sea state on 24 August, which is the main source of drinking water for the coastal city of Port Sudan, a vital humanitarian hub.

Heavy rains and flooding have also displaced 4,300 people from displacement camps in North Darfur State, including the Zamzam camp, where famine was recently declared. The flooding has destroyed around 900 tents and washed away latrines within these camps, severely disrupting humanitarian aid efforts.

With more than 25.6 million people across the country in need of aid, the crisis has escalated food scarcity, putting children at heightened risk of malnutrition.

Mohamed Abdiladif, Interim Country Director for Save the Children in Sudansaid:

“Children in Sudan have gone from horror to horror. Even before the conflict erupted last year the country was home to one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, with existing localised conflicts, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and economic degradation leaving 15.8 million people in need. That figure has now escalated to 25.6 million people, and diseases like cholera will only trigger a greater increase. Conflict is not just about immediate violence but is also a slow but deadly drip-feed of other grave threats to children’s lives, such as malnutrition and disease.

We are working to ensure access to clean water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene promotion activities to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as a cholera in conflict-affected areas. However, we urgently need a huge injection of funds to deliver the treatment needed for cholera.”

Save the Children is conducting daily water quality testing, monitoring and chlorination at 35 water sources within the Sawakin locality, Red Sea state, and has disposed of 125 tons of solid waste at designated dumping sites.

In Gedaref state, Save the Children is supporting with treatment and management of cholera cases and providing safe drinking water to cholera treatment centres. The aid agency is also providing cash assistance to vulnerable families to enable them buy basics such as food, water, and afford health care.

Save the Children has worked in Sudan since 1983 and is currently supporting children and their families across Sudan providing health, nutrition, education, child protection and food security and livelihoods support. Save the Children is also supporting refugees from Sudan in Egypt and South Sudan.

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