DELIBERATIONS: The jury in Donald Trump’s criminal trial asked to re-hear four sections of testimony as well as the judge’s instructions before they were dismissed for the day yesterday afternoon. They had deliberated about 4 ½ hours.

  The jury wants to hear three sections of testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer tabloid, and Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer/fixer who is the most crucial witness.

  Court re-convenes at 9:30 this morning and the court reporter estimated that the readback will take about half an hour.

  The testimony in question involves the August 2015 meeting between Trump, Pecker, and Cohen in which Pecker agreed to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s 2026 presidential campaign and flag any negative stories to Cohen. The prosecution has described that meeting as the hatching of the conspiracy to “catch and kill” unfavorable stories about Trump, ultimately resulting in a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and hiding it in business records.

  The jury would have to find that Trump falsified business records in order to influence the 2016 election to find him guilty of felonies. Trump said yesterday that “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged.”

THE WAR ROOM: Israel’s national security adviser said that he expects military operations in Gaza to continue through at least the end of the year. Tzachi Hanegbi said in a radio interview that, “We expect another seven months of combat in order to shore up our achievement and realize what we define as the destruction of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s military and governing capabilities.” 

This counters earlier estimates by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said in April that the country was “on the brink of victory.” 

  Israeli troops have been entering the southern area of Rafah, and they’ve had to return to northern Gaza to fight back a resurgence by Hamas militants.

  Israel faces increasing pressure to wind down its campaign and reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would result in the release of hostages held in Gaza. Israel has killed more 38,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians. The Israelis faced further outrage over the weekend after killing 45 people in the bombing of a refugee tent camp.

  The US has been guardedly critical of Israel’s conduct of the war and its lack of plans for what comes after. About 70 percent of housing in Gaza has been destroyed. “In the absence of a plan for the day after there won’t be a day after,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters while on a trip to Moldova. “If not, Hamas will be left in charge, which is unacceptable. Or if not, we’ll have chaos, lawlessness, and a vacuum.”

PATRIOT GAMES: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says he will not recuse himself from two cases involving the 2020 election even though flags bearing a political message were flown over both of his homes. “My wife is fond of flying flags,” the justice wrote in a letter to members of Congress who had demanded he step down from the cases related to the January 6^th insurrection. “I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”

  Both homes also belong to the justice as well as his wife. An upside down American flag, a signal of distress adopted by the “Stop the Steal” movement, flew over the Alito home while the 2020 election was being contested. Another flag, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag carried by Capitol rioters and also waved by people who want a Christian government, was raised above the Alito New Jersey beach home.

 Alito said he asked his wife to take down the inverted American flag and she refused. “My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly,” the justice wrote in his letter. “She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.”

PANDAMONIUM: Despite strained relations with the US, China has agreed to loan two giant panda bears to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington.

Two-year-old male Bao Li and two-year-old female Qing Bao are expected to arrive later this year.

  First Lady Jill Biden called it a “historic moment”. The announcement came just six months after a family of three pandas was returned to China from the National Zoo.

THE SPIN RACK: In a violent election season, Mexico appears to be on the verge of electing former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to be its first woman president. As many as 30 candidates, mostly for local offices, have been murdered as criminal gangs attempt to sway elections.  — Criminal charges against professional golfer Scottie Scheffler were dismissed after further investigation into the incident in which he was accused of striking and dragging a police officer with his car at a traffic stop while driving to the PGA tournament in Louisville. Video evidence did not support the officer’s claim. — The Russian defense and education ministries have been distributing comic books to school children glorifying the war on Ukraine. “Out of hatred for Russia, the West arms their puppy neo-Nazis in occupied Kyiv,” one of the books reads.

BELOW THE FOLD: Police in Azusa California have finally tracked down and arrested a man known as the elusive “slingshot shooter.” For nearly 10 years someone has peppered a local neighborhood with ball bearings fired from a slingshot, breaking windows in homes and cars while narrowly missing some people.

  The police were finally able to obtain a search warrant for a home in which they found ball bearings and a slingshot. They arrested a man named Prince King. He’s 81 years old.

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