# A diverse coalition owed money by Rudy Giuliani meets virtually for first bankruptcy hearing
By **JAKE OFFENHARTZ**
January 19, 2024. 8:59 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - A group of people and businesses who say they are owed money by Rudy Giuliani gathered virtually Friday for the first court hearing since he declared bankruptcy last month after losing a defamation suit to two Georgia election workers.

During a two-hour Zoom hearing, an attorney for Giuliani told a U.S. bankruptcy judge that the former New York City mayor lacks the funds to pay the $148 million he owes the election workers for spreading a conspiracy about their role in the 2020 election. Others with claims against Giuliani should expect to wait as well.

"There's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," the attorney, Gary Fischoff, said, noting that Giuliani was making his living as a radio and podcast host while dealing with a wide range of "financial issues."

The bankruptcy filing has brought forth a diverse coalition of creditors who previously sued Giuliani for unrelated issues.

In addition to the election workers, creditors include a supermarket employee who was thrown in jail for patting Giuliani's back, two elections technology companies that he spread conspiracies about, a woman who says he coerced her into sex, several of his former attorneys, the IRS and Hunter Biden. Biden is suing Giuliani, saying he wrongly shared his personal data after obtaining it from the owner of a computer repair shop.

Giuliani's bankruptcy filing last month came one day after a judge ordered him to immediately pay $148 million to Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss. The Chapter 11 declaration halted the judgment but also prevented Giuliani from challenging the verdict.

During Friday's hearing, Giuliani's attorney tried to convince the bankruptcy judge, Sean Lane, to temporarily lift a stay to allow him to appeal the judgment.

Lane agreed to the procedural step, with certain conditions, adding, "There is a legitimate concern here about the expenses and the cost and the delay."

Some of Giuliani's creditors have expressed concerns that he is taking advantage of the bankruptcy process to avoid paying his debts.

Noting that Giuliani has a "transactional relationship with the truth," an attorney for a group of creditors, Abid Qureshi, urged the judge to set guardrails ensuring the litigation did not drag on unnecessarily.

And he hinted at possible conflict among those who say they are owed money by Giuliani, cautioning that the judge's decision could carry "unintended consequences of a certain creditor jumping the queue."

Ron Kuby, an attorney representing Daniel Gill, a ShopRite employee who is suing Giuliani for allegedly fabricating an assault against him, said there was "no disharmony among the creditors."

The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 31.


# Rifts emerge among top Israeli officials over how to handle the war against Hamas in Gaza
By **JULIA FRANKEL**, **NAJIB JOBAIN**, and **BASSEM MROUE**
January 19, 2024. 8:01 PM EST

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JERUSALEM (AP) - A member of Israel's War Cabinet cast doubt on the country's strategy for releasing hostages held by Hamas, saying only a cease-fire can free them, as the prime minister rejected the United States' calls to scale back its offensive.

The comments by Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, marked the latest sign of disagreement among top Israeli officials over the direction of the war against Hamas, now in its fourth month.

In his first public statements on the course of the war, Eisenkot said that claims the dozens of hostages could be freed by means other than a cease-fire amounted to spreading "illusions" - an implicit criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the five-member War Cabinet and who insists that pursuing the war will win their release.

Eisenkot's statements came as some relatives of hostages have intensified their protests, a sign of mounting frustration over the government's seeming lack of progress toward a deal to release the remaining captives.

Eli Shtivi, whose 28-year-old son Idan has been held in Gaza since he was kidnapped by Hamas militants from the open-air Tribe of Nova music festival on Oct. 7., began a hunger strike Friday night outside Netanyahu's private residence in the coastal town of Caesarea. Shtivi pledged to eat only a quarter of a pita a day - the reported daily meal of the hostages - until the prime minister agrees to meet with him. Dozens of people joined him for what organizers said was an overnight protest.

The day before, rifle-toting Israeli police scuffled with protesters who blocked a major highway in Tel Aviv to call for an immediate deal to release the hostages. Police detained seven protesters overnight, according to Israeli media.

Meanwhile, communications began to gradually return in Gaza after a nearly eight-day blackout, the longest such cutoff since the war began. The phone and internet blackout made it nearly impossible for people in Gaza to communicate with the outside world or within the territory, hampering deliveries of humanitarian aid and rescue efforts amid continued Israeli bombardment.

For the past week, Gaza residents have struggled to get a signal on their phones. Many head to the beach, where some can pick up a non-Palestinian network. With families scattered across the tiny Mediterranean territory, networks are critical to make sure relatives are still alive as Israeli airstrikes crush homes.

"The people behind me came to check on their friends, family and loved ones," said Karam Mezre, referring to others sitting with him on a rock at the beach in central Gaza, scanning their phones.

Even when communications return, "it is intermittent and not stable," said Hamza Al-Barasi, who was displaced from Gaza City.

The blackout has also made it difficult for information to get out of Gaza on the daily death and destruction from Israel's offensive. The assault has pulverized much of the Gaza Strip, home to some 2.3 million people, as Israel vows to crush Hamas after its unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into Israel. In the attack, about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 250 others taken hostage. Israel has said more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but not all of them are believed to be alive.

Israel's offensive, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and uprooted more than 80% of the territory's population.

Israel has also cut off all but a trickle of supplies into the besieged territory, including food, water and fuel, causing what U.N. officials say is a humanitarian disaster.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, has provided strong military and political support for the campaign, but has increasingly called on Israel to scale back its assault and take steps toward establishing a Palestinian state after the war - a suggestion Netanyahu has soundly rejected.

Speaking during a nationally televised news conference Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated his longstanding opposition to a two-state solution, saying Israel "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River."

On Friday, President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone after a glaring, almost four-week gap in direct communication amid fundamental differences over their visions for Gaza once the war ends.

Biden, for his part, in Friday's call reaffirmed his commitment to work toward helping the Palestinians move toward statehood.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have also said the fighting will continue until Hamas is crushed, and argue that only military action can win the hostages' release.

But commentators have begun to question whether Netanyahu's objectives are realistic, given the slow pace of the offensive and growing international criticism, including genocide accusations at the United Nations world court, which Israel vehemently denies. Critics accuse Netanyahu of trying to avoid looming investigations of governmental failures, keep his coalition intact and put off elections. Polls show that the popularity of Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has plummeted during the war.

Speaking to the investigative program "Uvda" on Israel's Channel 12 television, Eisenkot said the Israeli hostages "will only return alive if there is a deal, linked to a significant pause in fighting." He said dramatic rescue operations are unlikely because the hostages are apparently spread out, many of them in underground tunnels.

Claiming hostages can be freed by means other than a deal "is to spread illusions," said Eisenkot, whose son was killed in December while fighting in Gaza.

Defense Minister Gallant has said troops disabled the Hamas command structure in northern Gaza, from which significant numbers of troops were withdrawn earlier in the week, and that the focus is now on the southern half of the territory.

But Eisenkot also dismissed suggestions that the military has delivered a decisive blow against Hamas.

"We haven't yet reached a strategic achievement, or rather only partially," Eisenkot said. "We did not bring down Hamas."

The militant group has continued to fight back across Gaza, even in the most devastated areas, and launched rockets into Israel.

In his interview, Eisenkot also confirmed that a preemptive strike against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia was called off at the last minute during the early days of the war. He said he was among those arguing against such a strike in an Oct. 11 Cabinet meeting that he said left him hoarse from shouting.

Such an attack would have been a "strategic mistake" and would likely have triggered a regional war, Eisenkot said.

In a thinly veiled criticism of Netanyahu, Eisenkot also said strategic decisions about the war's direction must be made urgently and that a discussion about an endgame should have started immediately after the war began.

He said he examines every day whether he should remain in the War Cabinet, which also includes Netanyahu, Gallant, former Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Ron Dermer, strategic affairs minister in the Netanyahu government. Eisenkot is a parliament member from the opposition National Unity alliance headed by Gantz.

"I know what my red line is," Eisenkot said when asked at what point he would quit. "It's connected to the hostages, that is one of the objectives, but it's also connected to the way in which we need to run this war."

The war has rippled across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target international shipping despite U.S.-led airstrikes.

The United States conducted a sixth strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Friday, taking out anti-ship missile launchers that were prepared to fire, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations. President Joe Biden has acknowledged that bombing the militants has yet to stop their attacks on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor.


# Women and children are the main victims of the Israel-Hamas war with 16,000 killed, UN says
By **EDITH M. LEDERER**
January 19, 2024. 10:10 PM EST

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**UNITED NATIONS (AP)** - Women and children are the main victims in the Israel-Hamas war, with some 16,000 killed and an estimated two mothers losing their lives every hour since Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, the United Nations agency promoting gender equality said Friday.

As a result of the more than 100-day conflict, UN Women added, at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of households and at least 10,000 children may have lost their fathers.

In a report released Friday, the agency pointed to gender inequality and the burden on women fleeing the fighting with children and being displaced again and again. Of the territory's 2.3 million population, it said, 1.9 million are displaced and "close to one million are women and girls" seeking shelter and safety.

UN Women's executive director, Sima Bahous, said this is "a cruel inversion" of fighting during the 15 years before the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Previously, she said, 67% of all civilians killed in Gaza and the West Bank were men and less then 14% were women.

She echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' calls for a humanitarian cease-fire and the immediate release of all hostages taken captive in Israel on Oct. 7.

"However much we mourn the situation of the women and girls of Gaza today, we will mourn further tomorrow without unrestricted humanitarian assistance and an end to the destruction and killing," Bahous said in a statement accompanying the report.

"These women and girls are deprived of safety, medicine, health care, and shelter. They face imminent starvation and famine. Most of all they are deprived of hope and justice," she said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, 70% of them women and children. The United Nations says more than a half million people in Gaza - a quarter of the population - are starving.

In Israel, around 1,200 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war, and some 250 people were taken hostage by militants. More than 100 hostages are believed to still be held captive in Gaza.

Bahous said UN Women had heard "shocking accounts of unconscionable sexual violence during the attacks" by Hamas, and she echoed U.N. calls for accountability, justice and support for all those affected.

Despite escalating hostilities in Gaza, the agency said women-led and women's rights organizations continue to operate. It found that 83% of women's organizations surveyed in the Gaza Strip are at least partially operational, mainly focusing on the emergency response to the war.

But UN Women said its analysis of funding from last year's flash appeal for Gaza found that just 0.09% of funding went directly to national or local women's rights organizations.

Bahous said there is a need for much more aid to get to Gaza, especially to women and children, and for an end to the war.

"This is a time for peace," she said. "We owe this to all Israeli and Palestinian women and girls. This is not their conflict. They must no longer pay its price."


# Dior puts on a daytime fashion ballet under the Parisian stars
By **THOMAS ADAMSON**
January 19, 2024. 5:36 PM EST

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PARIS (AP) - Dior's menswear maestro Kim Jones transformed a sunny afternoon in Paris into a starlit evening of balletic grandeur at Paris Fashion Week, in a display of fashion theatrics.

Inspired by the legendary ballet icons Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, Jones delivered an exuberant spectacle at the Ecole Militaire annex on Friday.

Amid the haunting melodies of Sergei Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," the collection intertwined Dior's fine tailoring with a joyful explosion of theatrical glamour. It drew screams and cheers from a VIP audience - as it explored the duality of an artist's persona onstage and backstage.

Here are some highlights of the fall-winter 2024 men's shows:

## DIOR'S BALLET STARS
In a front row as starry as the simulated night sky above, luminaries like Lewis Hamilton, Bill Nighy, Kate Moss, Nicholas Hoult, Rita Ora, Princess Eugenie and Pharrell Williams witnessed a fashion ballet that transcended the traditional runway. Their presence underscored the collection's appeal to a diverse audience, from royalty to pop culture icons.

Jones' mastery in blending traditional codes with modernity was evident. Muted beiges and grays, signature to Dior's palette, were enlivened with exuberant bursts of color - saffron yellow socks, lilac blue sandals, and handbags, and vividly striped sweaters.

The pieces de resistance included a gleaming Renaissance cape-shawl with silver scallop fringe and woolen coats reinvented with double sleeves, cascading down poetically.

Echoing Jones' own words, "The collection, or rather collections, are about contrast: the contrasts in the House of Dior in terms of ready-to-wear and haute couture. It's the difference between onstage and backstage; the life of Nureyev theatrically and in reality."

This sentiment was captured in contrasts between the subdued tones and tailoring of the first half of the show and the shimmer, gleam and sparkle that dominated the latter part in a dazzling crescendo.

The collection verged on the encyclopedic. A silver Uchikake kimono paid homage to Nureyev's lavish style. Alongside this were modern silhouettes - sleek trousers and ribbed knits, each a testament to Jones' contemporary flair.

As the show culminated, the audience was left half in awe and half grappling for their cameras as the neon stage rose up like a sci-fi movie carrying the models into the air. Thus it melded styles from the past with a futuristic, space-age edge.

## NIGO'S SOFT KENZO WARRIORS
In a fashion-forward fusion of traditional themes and streetwise flair, designer Nigo's Friday night show for Kenzo whispered of soft warriors and echoed the brand's past.

This season's collection signified a slight departure from the previous spring's focus on preppy and collegiate themes.

Nigo began fall with an reinterpretation of checks - a microscopic view transforming into blown up patterns, with silhouettes comprising broad shoulders and cascading lapels. A highlight was a pastel furry vest, resembling armor, yet with a streetwear edge. This piece, adorned with a diagonal black strap reminiscent of an Asian sword tie, encapsulated the theme of "soft warriors." Likewise, so did the martial arts-style belts adorning several women's outfits.

Nigo, Kenzo's first Japanese designer since founder Kenzo Takada, stepped into the spotlight in his January 2022 debut, marking a pivotal moment in fashion history. His journey, from the vibrant streets of A Bathing Ape to the luxurious corridors of Kenzo, reflects a shift in the industry's approach to diversity and creativity.

The parallels between Nigo and Takada are striking. Both share Japanese roots, attended the same Tokyo fashion college, and possess an East-meets-West artistic vision. Nigo's tenure at Kenzo brings a blend of his streetwear heritage and the house's traditional motifs.

## JUNYA WATANABE'S THRIFT-SHOP CHIC
Junya Watanabe unveiled a collection that was a masterful blend of eerie mood-setting and aggressive urban fashion. The spot-lit runway, casting elongated shadows, set the stage for a show that echoed Watanabe's long-standing tradition of avant-garde experimentation and cultural fusion.

The models, sometimes adorned with black punk-styled hair and draped in billowing jewelry, walked down the runway in dark ensembles that seemed to capture the essence of Watanabe's unique design ethos.

Their attire, a chaotic yet intentional layering of styles, evoked the sense of a meticulously curated thrift shop adventure. This approach, reminiscent of Watanabe's earlier works, highlighted his ability to transform the shambolic into the sublime.

The clothes featured a mix of traditional tailoring and streetwear elements, a nod to his 2001 debut when he first merged high fashion with everyday wear. The collection's tailored jackets were reinterpreted with the house's unique perspective, blurring the lines between formal and casual.

This creative contradiction was seen in the use of unconventional fabric combinations and turning classic silhouettes into something very contemporary. The eclectic, layered pieces, seemed to embody the spirit of Watanabe's philosophy: a fusion of the traditional and the avant-garde.


# A baby lived because an Oregon teen couldn't stand by after she saw 3 people get electrocuted
By **CLAIRE RUSH** and **GENE JOHNSON**
January 19, 2024. 8:49 AM EST

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**PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)** - Majiah Washington noticed a flash outside her home this week in Portland, where a dangerous storm had coated the city with ice. Opening her blinds, she saw a red SUV with a downed power line on it and a couple who had been putting their baby in the car.

The woman screamed to her boyfriend to get the baby to safety, and he grabbed the child and began to scramble up the driveway on concrete so slick it was almost impossible to walk. But before he made it halfway, he slid backward and his foot touched the live wire - "a little fire, then smoke," Washington said.

The mother, six months pregnant, tried to reach the baby, but she too slipped and was electrocuted. So was her 15-year-old brother, when he came out to help.

Washington, 18, was on the phone with a dispatcher when she saw the baby, lying on top of his father, move his head - the 9-month-old was alive. Having just seen three people shocked to death, she decided to try to save the boy.

She kept a low crouch to avoid sliding into the wire as she approached, she said at a news conference Thursday, a day after the deaths. As she grabbed the baby she touched the father's body, but she wasn't shocked, she said.

"I was concerned about the baby," said Washington, who recognized the woman as her neighbor's daughter. "Nobody was with the baby."

Portland Fire and Rescue spokesman Rick Graves praised Washington for her heroism but confessed he didn't understand how she and the baby weren't also electrocuted. The baby was examined at a hospital and is fine, authorities have said.

"We do have fortunately with us a toddler that is going to be able to thrive and do what they possibly can as they move forward," Graves said. "And they are here, in part, because of the heroic acts of a member of our community."

The snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures that hammered the Pacific Northwest in the past week have now been blamed for at least 10 deaths in Oregon, from hypothermia and falling trees or utility poles, along with five from hypothermia in the Seattle area.

Oregon's governor declared a statewide emergency Thursday night after requests for aid from multiple counties "as they enter the sixth day of severe impacts" from the weather.

The ice weighs down trees and power lines making them prone to snap, especially in strong winds. That appears to be what caused the electrocution deaths: A large branch broke from a tree, landed on utility wires and pushed one onto the vehicle.

Washington's neighbor, Ronald Briggs, declined to speak with The Associated Press beyond confirming that his 21-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had been killed.

But he told Portland television station KGW that his daughter had come over to use the internet after hers went out. He and his wife had just gotten in their own car to run an errand when they heard the boom and saw the SUV apparently on fire.

He watched as the couple slid to their deaths - and then told his 15-year-old son, Ta'Ron Briggs, a high school sophomore, to keep his distance, to no avail.

"I told him, 'Don't go down there - try to get away from them.' And he slid, and he touched the water, and he, and he died too," Briggs said. "I have six kids. I lost two of them in one day."

"It just hurt," he said. "Being a good father cannot solve this right now."


# Good girl! Officer enlists a Michigan man's dog to help rescue him from an icy lake
January 19, 2024. 11:06 AM EST

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**TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP)** - A man who fell through the ice on a frozen Michigan lake was rescued after a quick-thinking state police officer used the stranded man's dog to get rescue equipment to him and pull the man to safety.

Bystanders called 911 on Thursday after the 65-year-old Traverse City man fell through ice-covered Arbutus Lake, state police said.

The body camera worn by Michigan State Police Motor Carrier Officer Kammeron Bennetts captured the rescue, initially showing the man trapped in frigid waters with just his head and shoulders above the thin ice, and his dog standing at his side.

It shows Bennetts first trying to throw a rescue disc tethered to a rope out to the man. When it fails, Bennetts asks the man to send his dog to him.

"Send your pup here. Will she come to me?" he yells to the man, who replies that his dog's name is Ruby.

"Ruby come here! Come here Ruby!" Bennetts shouts in the video before whistling for the canine, which runs to him and arrives tail wagging.

The officer ties the rescue disc to the dog's collar and asks the man to call Ruby back to him. When she returns to her owner, Bennetts tells the man to take the disc from Ruby and to start kicking his legs.

"Bring your feet up to the surface by kicking your feet!" he yells, pulling the man onto the lake's icy surface and urging him to hold onto the disc as he keeps pulling on the rope, dragging him onto safer ice near the lake's edge. Bennetts and a local firefighter are then able to grab his arms to complete the rescue, with Ruby still attached to the rope.

State police said the man was taken by ambulance to a hospital for treatment and later released. The agency cheered the rescue in a posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, praising Ruby in particular.

"What a good girl!!! Amazing ice rescue from 7th District, MCO Bennetts. Creative thinking helped save a life!! EXCELLENT JOB MCO Bennetts and RUBY!!" the tweet states, adding, "Great team work and well done!"


# Lions finally giving fans, including Eminem, chance to cheer for a winner after decades of futility
By **LARRY LAGE**
January 19, 2024. 3:57 PM EST

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**DETROIT (AP)** - Eminem stood alongside Pro Football Hall of Famers Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson before the Detroit Lions hosted a playoff game for the first time in three decades, soaking up an electric atmosphere at Ford Field.

"The energy in the building was amazing," Johnson said in a telephone interview, taking a break from snowboarding in Utah. "You could feel it. I wish we could've had that kind of experience."

He's not alone.

Detroit was an NFL powerhouse a long time ago, winning three league titles from 1952 to 1957 in the pre-Super Bowl era, but the franchise had only one postseason win since.

Until last Sunday's victory.

The Lions beat the Matt Stafford-led Los Angeles Rams 24-23 in a wild-card game that whipped the crowd into so much of a frenzy that the decibels were almost as loud as a jet engine.

Detroit's party might get kicked up a notch.

The Lions are hosting Tampa Bay on Sunday, playing a second home playoff game in one postseason for the first time in team history.

Singer Bob Seger, actor Jeff Daniels, actor, writer and producer Keegan-Michael Key - all from Michigan - are expected to attend the divisional game along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and one of the team's biggest fans: Eminem.

The rapper has expressed himself and shared his fandom recently on Instagram, saying his New Year's resolution was for the Lions to win the Super Bowl and asking Stafford for a favor.

"Can you just let us have this one?" Eminem asked in a post last week.

Now, Eminem is playfully asking coach Dan Campbell to put him in the game.

"I'm going to be there that night," Eminem said. "I will suit up, and I will score us the winning touchdown in the third quarter."

If Detroit, which is favored by almost a touchdown by FanDuel Sportsbook, beats the Buccaneers it will move a step closer to potentially reaching the Super Bowl for the first time.

While there are scores of long-suffering fans in the Motor City, it has also attracted some new ones and engaged with them in the digital age.

Sweta Patel, who was born in India and lives in suburban Detroit, didn't know what a first down was about a decade ago. The 41-year-old Patel has developed her knowledge of the game and affinity for the organization thanks to some interactions on social media and in person as a season-ticket holder.

When she posted on social media about having knee surgery, Lions players wished her a speedy recovery. When Patel shared that she had a miscarriage in 2021, she heard from Campbell himself shortly after he was hired.

"He's just a man of the people," she said. "His voice was almost cracking in that video, and it just really brought some comfort to me."

Mike McCord and millions more in Michigan have waited a long time for their favorite team to bring them joy.

The 68-year-old McCord was a toddler when his late father, Darris, a Pro Bowl defensive lineman, helped Detroit beat Cleveland at Briggs Stadium, which was later known as Tiger Stadium, for the NFL title in 1957.

McCord began attending games six-plus decades ago and his family has had season-tickets for more than a half-century, passing the passion for the Honolulu Blue and Silver down to his 36-year-old daughter, Riley.

"It's been a long 50 years," he said. "We've been through thick and thin - mostly thin."

The Lions hit rock bottom in 2008, becoming the NFL's first 0-16 team, during the worst nine-season stretch in the league since World War II. During a particularly putrid stretch of futility, football historians had to go back to the Dayton Triangles during the 1920s to find a team that lost so often.

When coach Matt Patricia was fired during the 2020 season, Mike McCord was ready to give up his tickets on the 40-yard line in the 22nd row behind Detroit's bench.

McCord's daughter, hoping to seal the deal to renew the family's four tickets, had a custom coffee cup made with the words "One More Year" under the team's logo.

"We didn't know what that next season was going to look like," Riley McCord said. "So, I got that cup."

Team owner Sheila Ford Hamp began to turn the team around three years ago when she finally landed a winning combination in the front office and on the sideline, hiring general manager Brad Holmes and Campbell.

The Lions built momentum by closing the last season with eight wins over the last 10 games and lived up to unusually high expectations in 2023, tying a franchise record with 12 wins in the regular season and earning a division title for the first time in three decades.

"Detroit's a great sports town," McCord said. "We've seen the Tigers win it. We've seen the Pistons win it. We've seen the Red Wings win it. We've seen a lot of good things, but never from our Lions.

"We hope this is the year to finally relieve that pain, and I think they could do it. That's the good thing. We're still in it, and we could go all the way."


# Biden is skipping New Hampshire's primary. One of his opponents says he's as elusive as Bigfoot
By **WILL WEISSERT**
January 19, 2024. 1:33 PM EST

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**PETERBOROUGH, N.H. (AP)** - Trying to upset President Joe Biden in New Hampshire's primary, Democratic challenger Dean Phillips is running a TV ad across the state comparing him to Bigfoot - the argument being both are hard to find.

"I'm something of an expert on elusive creatures," a man dressed as sasquatch intones in the spot. "So I challenged myself to find President Biden in New Hampshire during this primary season. I thought I was good at hiding."

Biden isn't campaigning here. He pushed through Democratic rule changes that prioritized voters of color, deemphasizing New Hampshire's primary. That angered party officials here who forged ahead with a primary anyway.

With his name not on the ballot, Biden's allies are running a write-in campaign to try and ensure he doesn't lose - or come uncomfortably close to losing - to any of the nearly two dozen candidates actually on it - a motley collection including a hopeful whose first name is President and a performance artist who wears a rubber boot on his head.

While Tuesday's vote won't affect the numbers in the Democratic nomination fight, it does carry risks for an incumbent with low approval ratings and nagging worries within his party about his reelection prospects. Biden's challengers also include Phillips, who is a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, and self-help author Marianne Williamson, and both are raising questions about Biden's age and electability that his team would rather avoid.

Anything less than a strong finish for the president could hurt, further fueling concerns about his chances in November in a likely a rematch with former President Donald Trump. But Biden supporters in New Hampshire echo his campaign's arguments that he must be reelected to thwart the dire threat Trump poses to the country's core values.

"There's definitely some frustration and disappointment for how this played out, but I trust that Granite Staters are able to look at the bigger picture and realize the stakes of this election," said Angela Brennan, a first-term New Hampshire representative backing the write-in campaign. "This is truly a choice between democracy and dictatorship."

Phillips is perhaps Biden's highest-profile challenger in New Hampshire, though he has revamped his message over several months and been sharply criticized by his colleagues in Congress.

His campaign has faced an often bumpy ride. No voters showed up to one recent event he held, leading him to deadpan to reporters, "Sometimes, if you build it, they don't come."

On Thursday, Phillips won the endorsement of entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who garnered national attention running a longshot Democratic bid in 2020. As Yang declared during a Dartmouth rally that he was endorsing Phillips, organizers cued blaring walk-up music and the congressman bounded into the room cheering into his own handheld mic.

Only Yang wasn't finished with his speech. "No, no, no," he cried. "I have more time here."

"Oh," replied Phillips, as he eventually headed back into the hallway. "Bye everybody!"

But he and others have soldiered on through the New Hampshire winter. Earlier in the week, Phillips stood in a state legislator's kitchen in his stocking feet. Heavy snowy had fallen the day before and around 15 attendees were asked to leave their slushy shoes at the door.

That kind of personal access is prized by people here who cherish their state's first-in-the-nation primary.

"We'll be showing them that it's not just the polls, it's voters saying, 'It's time to move on,'" Phillips said of his chances of pulling a New Hampshire upset. He calls Biden "a good man" who will nonetheless lose to Trump if he doesn't step away.

His host that night was Peter Leishman, a 66-year-old representative from Peterborough who works in the railroad business and supported Biden's three previous runs for the White House, in 1988, 2008, and during his win over Trump.

"It's time for a change," Leishman said.

The White House and Biden's reelection campaign generally aren't commenting on Phillips other than noting his near-uniform voting record supporting the president's legislative priorities. But New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley, who once warned that the new calendar meant a major Democratic challenger could embarrass Biden, now says his write-in campaign should easily prevail.

People vote on key issues like abortion, not a party delegate rule, he said.

"It doesn't seem to be having any impact at all," Buckley said.

Also running and seeking a boost from Biden's skipping New Hampshire is self-help author Williamson, another 2020 contender who recently told an audience in Portsmouth, "Even if the Democratic Party can take delegates away from me or any other candidate, they can't take the significance of the New Hampshire primary away from you."

Phillips has spent almost $2.5 million on television and digital ads in New Hampshire, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. The Bigfoot-style spot has racked up nearly 4 million impressions on TV and online, according to AdImpact.

The Biden write-in push has just one paid staffer and no official support from the president's reelection campaign. Relying on volunteers, it works out of an office lent by the AFL-CIO and is spreading the word mostly by visiting Democratic gatherings around the state and holding house parties, while producing thousands of yard signs, as well as hand-held placards it hopes supporters will hoist at every polling location on Tuesday.

A super PAC called Granite for America is also sending mail to New Hampshire Democrats with three-step instructions on how to cast a write-in vote, and trumpeting Biden pledges to protect Social Security and abortion rights, while preventing Trump from returning to the White House.

How much is being spent on that effort isn't clear but it seems substantial. One Democratic voter received five mailers from the super PAC in two days this week, and one of the group's leaders, former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Kathy Sullivan, said she got a call from a woman saying, "I've had seven mailings and I'm going to vote for him. You can stop sending them."

Sullivan promised that only one more would be coming.

"I'm very happy with what we've done and I hope that it works, but this being New Hampshire, we never know until the election," she said with a laugh. What would constitute a Biden win? "I don't have a number in mind, I don't have a percentage in mind."

Ellen Lavoie Cooke, a 65-year-old Democrat from Dover, said she plans to write in Biden's name: "I'm not embarrassed to be an American like I was when his predecessor was in office."

Yet Desmond Kager, a 24-year-old engineering consultant from Plymouth, is a Democrat who doesn't support Trump but noted of Biden: "I probably won't be voting for him because of the write-in."

"If Republicans or Democrats can put someone on the ticket that actually is, you know, worth voting for, then I'll I vote for them," he said. "But it's been hard the last couple elections."

Write-in organizers are attempting to manage expectations, noting that undeclared New Hampshire voters can participate in either party's primary. That means Biden supporters could vote in the Republican primary, where Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are locked in a fiercer and higher-profile battle for the state's GOP delegates.

Tracy Moloney, 63, a math department administrator at Dartmouth College, came to hear Phillips speak at the event with Yang and plans to vote for him - though she said she'd ultimately vote for Biden in November if he's the nominee.

"I don't know how he does that," Moloney said of Phillips beating Trump. "But I also don't know how Biden does it. That should scare everyone."


# Fetterman backs Andy Kim as Democrats scramble to keep Menendez's Senate seat in New Jersey
By **MIKE CATALINI**
January 19, 2024. 11:34 AM EST

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**TRENTON, N.J. (AP)** - Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has backed Rep. Andy Kim in the congressman's bid to win a contested primary for New Jersey's Senate seat, as Democrats jockey to push indicted Sen. Bob Menendez out of office.

Fetterman was an early proponent of calling for Menendez's ouster from Congress after federal prosecutors charged Menendez, his wife and business associates with taking bribes in cash and gold bars in exchange for helping the government of Egypt - and, in a later indictment, Qatar as well.

Menendez and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty, and the senator has vowed to fight the charges. Unlike the first time he was indicted - charges that ultimately led to a hung jury in 2017 - Menendez has lost support within the Democratic Party in his home state, where his influence was once virtually unassailable.

Fetterman called Kim, a three-term congressman from southern New Jersey's 3rd District, a man of integrity and "deep honor." Without mentioning Menendez by name, Fetterman drew an implied contrast with him.

"I feel very secure knowing that he has no gold bars underneath his mattress and won't ever be accused of being a foreign agent for Egypt or Qatar," he said.

It's unclear the extent to which endorsements will resonate with voters, but they can help campaigns with fundraising, generate a sense of momentum or inevitability and project strength.

Fetterman's endorsement comes amid a pitched internal struggle among New Jersey Democrats who have called for Menendez's ouster and are competing to succeed him.

Menendez hasn't said if he'll run again and has so far withstood calls for his resignation.

The June primary is shaping up as a battle, so far, between Kim and the state's first lady, Tammy Murphy. Other Democrats are also campaigning in the race, though Murphy and Kim have gone tit-for-tat with a number of high-profile endorsements, and each has raised millions so far.

Murphy unveiled the backing this week of officials in the Democratic stronghold of Atlantic City as well as the state trooper's union. She's already received backing from influential county party chairmen whose support is key to how the ballot is drafted, with preferred candidates getting favorable placement.

Fetterman's backing on Thursday seemed to come in response.

"To have someone who is a sitting senator, who knows the job, knows the role of a legislator at this moment, and also just understands the crazy, chaotic moment that we live in right now, that's something that stands out, and I'm glad to have his support," Kim said in an emailed statement.

Murphy's campaign said in an emailed statement that she's traveling the state to earn support from voters. She will "stand up for key Democratic values in DC," said campaign spokesperson Alexandra Altman.

Fetterman joins fellow Pennsylvanian Gov. Josh Shapiro in wading into the race. Shapiro has raised money for Murphy, according to her campaign.

Also seeking or considering a run on the Democratic side are long-time civil rights organizer Lawrence Hamm and labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina.

"This race for U.S. Senate is very contentious now," Hamm said, referring to Murphy and Kim. "We know at least two of these candidates are expected to spend millions."

The GOP primary is also still shaping up. Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, a declared candidate, said through a spokesperson on Friday that the Democratic Party "enabled" corruption by supporting Menendez for years.

Keeping New Jersey's Senate seat in Democratic hands is crucial for the party, which has narrow control of the chamber heading into this fall's election. New Jersey hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.


# Potential problems with New Hampshire's aging ballot scanners could prompt conspiracy theories
By **CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY**
January 18, 2024. 5:05 PM EST

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When New Hampshire voters cast their ballots in Tuesday's first-in-the-nation primary, many will do so using scanners that are at least 15 years old - with some potentially dating back to Bill Clinton's presidency.

Election experts say the aging AccuVote ballot tabulators in use across roughly half the state's towns and cities don't pose additional security risks. The concern is their age.

With a dwindling supply of replacement parts, breakdowns could create Election Day headaches for local election officials, who might be forced to count ballots by hand - a process that could delay reporting their results. Malfunctions and ballot-counting delays in other states in recent years have sometimes been used to promote conspiracy theories that undermine public confidence in the vote, despite no evidence of any widespread problems with voting machines.

Franklin, a small city about 20 miles north of the state capital, has no wiggle room if something goes awry with its scanners.

"We have three machines and three polling places. That's it, no backup," said Olivia Zink, a member of the Franklin City Council who also is executive director of the voter advocacy group Coalition for Open Democracy. "If one goes down, we hand count."

Zink, who will be working at her local polling place Tuesday, said she is less worried about hand counting even if turnout is robust among the 4,500 registered voters because the ballot contains only the presidential primary. She urged everyone to be patient if results are delayed. One potential glitch: If it's snowy or rainy, damp ballots can mess up a ballot scanner.

"If it's a sunny, beautiful day, we're in great shape," Zink said.

Reducing the chances of a major disruption is the ballot itself, with just a single race and a state requirement that vote counting continue uninterrupted until finished. New Hampshire will hold primaries for state and local races later in the year.

All New Hampshire voters mark their ballot by hand, but how those ballots are counted depends on the city or town. Just under half opt to hand count and have done so for years, but those are among the least populated in the state. The most populous towns and cities use machine tabulators, so most ballots cast in the state are counted electronically using the AccuVote scanners.

The same type of ballot scanners are used by local voting jurisdictions in five other states, according to Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that tracks U.S. voting equipment.

"You could say it's primitive technology. You could say it's simple and reliable technology. Both of those things can be true," said Mark Lindeman, the group's policy and strategy director.

He said New Hampshire's tabulators have been kept in good condition and that the biggest challenge for election officials is finding replacement parts. He sees the worst-case scenario as local election officials having to resort to hand counting because a tabulator has failed and they don't have access to a backup.

"As worst cases go, that's a pretty good one," Lindeman said. "The ballots are safe. This will not prevent New Hampshire voters from voting or prevent New Hampshire voters from having their votes counted."

Even so, any problems with voting machines or ballot counting devices provide an opening for those who want to cast doubt on the outcome. Former President Donald Trump, who won this week's Iowa caucuses but faces a potentially tougher test in New Hampshire, regularly signals that an anticipated close election will be "rigged."

His false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, has produced a tsunami of conspiracy theories about voting machines.

"If there are major failures and results come really late, and if there is not information ahead of time to the public that we might be hand-counting and what that involves - in a worst-case scenario the vacuum that leaves could allow folks to come forward with conspiracy theories and question what the results are," said McKenzie St. Germain with the voter advocacy group America Votes NH.

In Derry, south of Manchester, Town Clerk Tina Guilford tested her eight tabulators this week to ensure they were working properly and counting ballots correctly. It's a process being repeated across the state as local election officials prepare for the primary.

Derry's tabulators are roughly turn-of-the-century technology - each about 20 to 22 years old, Guilford said. The town agreed to buy replacements that officials hope will be in place by March when new tabulators will be certified for use in the state.

Derry, with its nearly 20,000 registered voters, doesn't need all eight AccuVote scanners running at the same time, so they have options if one were to be taken out of service, Guilford said. It has happened before, when hand sanitizer gummed up a machine in 2020 during the pandemic.

"I don't foresee any issues," she said.

Secretary of State David Scanlan, New Hampshire's top election official, said he has been encouraging local officials to make sure they have enough staff to handle any hand counting that may be necessary.

It's expected that every jurisdiction will have to count some ballots by hand given Biden's decision to skip the state's primary in favor of a revamped Democratic schedule that elevated South Carolina over Iowa and New Hampshire. That has prompted a write-in campaign for him, and any ballots with write-in candidates will have to be tallied by hand.

In recent years, hand counting has gained favor among those pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election as they seek to ban voting machines and electronic tabulators. While hand counting is used in some parts of the country, it usually occurs in small jurisdictions where the process is manageable.

Last year, New Hampshire lawmakers rejected a proposal that would have required all votes to be counted by hand.

Experts say not only are machines faster, but studies have shown they are more accurate. Many election officials do rely on some measure of hand counting as part of their post-election process to verify that the machines worked correctly.

Scanlan said he has been encouraging voters to understand that it's not unusual for some machines to have problems and stressed that election officials have plans to deal with it, even if it means a delay in releasing results.

"That just happens in any election," he said. "I would expect that this election is going to be no different than any other election we've conducted in the past."


# Nevada Republican Senate primary candidates take aim at absent front-runner in debate
By **GABE STERN**
January 19, 2024. 3:58 PM EST

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**RENO, Nev. (AP)** - Seven Republicans vying for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in Nevada circled the familiar talking points of GOP politics at a debate on Thursday, while also taking shots at the front-runner, who made an apparently strategic decision not to attend.

The debate in a Reno casino ballroom focused on increased border security, anti-abortion stances and cutting government spending and size, but candidates spent much of their time criticizing retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, whose backing in Washington, D.C., and formidable 2022 campaign have made him a fundraising juggernaut above the crowded primary field.

Nearly every candidate called out Brown for his absence and described him as an establishment candidate not willing to face voters, a combative signal by a group of lesser-known Republicans attempting to gain ground in an otherwise cordial debate.

"Don't vote for Sam Brown. Look at one of these candidates up here," said Bill Conrad, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former deputy mayor of Modesto, California, who co-founded Redmove, the conservative group hosting the debate.

Brown's campaign said the decision to skip the debate reflected his comfortable lead in resources and grassroots support. The non-engagement strategy has been employed by other campaign front-runners, most notably by former President Donald Trump.

"The numbers say it all: Sam Brown is the only candidate in this race with the resources, support and grassroots energy to take on Jacky Rosen," Brown's campaign said in a statement. "Nevada Republicans are uniting behind Donald Trump and Sam Brown because they are the only conservative champions who can defeat Biden and Rosen in November."

Former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter also was not on stage after backing out last month, due to him speaking at another Republican event, according to a campaign spokesperson.

"I will debate Scam Brown at any time," Gunter said in the statement, employing a nickname he often uses to disparage Brown.

The other candidates on stage included Jim Marchant, a former candidate for Nevada secretary of state and outspoken election denier; Tony Grady, an Air Force veteran and former candidate for lieutenant governor; Stephanie Phillips, a real estate broker; and Ronda Kennedy, an attorney.

Former President Donald Trump has skipped all Republican primary debates in the current presidential campaign, electing to hold rallies or appear on rival television networks in a strategy that has deprived the events of viewership and media attention while he remains the dominant front-runner. The last GOP primary debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley drew fewer than 2.6 million viewers.

Brown, a Purple Heart recipient, was a heavily recruited candidate for Republicans in Washington looking to avoid a repeat of their lackluster showing in the 2022 midterm elections, when flawed GOP candidates helped Democrats win battleground races and hold the Senate majority.

Two years ago, Brown was a longshot Senate candidate who criticized Republican front-runner Adam Laxalt for agreeing only to a pre-recorded debate instead of a live, prime-time broadcast.

"He must feel safe at 8 a.m., on a Monday morning, in a closed studio, where working-class Nevadans can't challenge him," Brown said of the former Nevada Attorney General, who enjoyed the backing of the Republican Party's most influential figures, from former President Donald Trump to then-Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

Laxalt won that primary handily but lost narrowly in the general election to incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

This cycle, Brown often has brushed past questions about his primary opponents to focus attacks on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. He said the crowded field was a product of Rosen's leadership, not his.

But on Thursday, Rosen was seldom mentioned as Brown weathered attacks from his opponents.

"I hope you remember the one that's not here," Kennedy said.


# In snowy DC, the March for Life rallies against abortion with an eye toward the November elections
By **ASHRAF KHALIL** and **ALANNA DURKIN RICHER**
January 19, 2024. 5:01 PM EST

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of opponents of abortion rights rallied under falling snow on Friday at the annual March for Life, as speakers urged the impassioned crowd to capitalize on the movement's major victory in the Supreme Court and keep fighting until abortion is eliminated.

Months before a presidential election that could be heavily influenced by abortion politics, anti-abortion activists packed the National Mall carrying signs with messages such as "Life is precious" and "I am the pro-life generation." After listening to speeches, the crowd, braving frigid temperatures, marched past the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. One group planted in front of Court, beating a drum and chanting: "Everyone you know was once an embryo."

Friday's March for Life is the second such event in the nation's capital since the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal protection for abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade. Last year's march was triumphant, with organizers relishing a state-by-state fight in legislatures around the country.

Speakers praised the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade but said it was more important now than ever to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to advance abortion restrictions.

"Roe is done, but we still live in a culture that knows not how to care for life," said Benjamin Watson, a former NFL player who is now an anti-abortion advocate. "Roe is done, but the factors that drive women to seek abortions are ever apparent and ever increasing. Roe is done, but abortion is still legal and thriving in too much of America."

Friday's event appeared smaller than in past years as ice and snow complicated travel plans. But the crowd was fired up as speakers, which included members of Congress and Michigan University Football Coach Jim Harbaugh, urged participants to keep fighting until abortion becomes "unthinkable."

"Let's be encouraged, let's press on and hope that we can join together and make this great difference," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. "We can stand with every woman for every child, and we can truly build a culture that cherishes and protects life."

The snow fell heavily throughout the speeches as young people built snowmen and had snowball fights behind the stage. Near the Capitol, the crowd celebrated as a group on a balcony of the Cannon House Office building cheered on the march.

"I almost didn't come when I saw the forecast, but this is just incredible," said Stephanie Simpson, a 42-year-old grocery store employee from Cleveland, who has attended the last four marches.

Roberto Reyes, a Mexican native and Carmelite friar, said: "All these people are going to remember this year's march for the rest of their lives!"

Members of the crowd described overturning Roe v. Wade as a victory, but said the anti-abortion fight rages on.

"The key message this year is that our work is not done," said Bishop Michael Burbidge, chair of the committee for pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The movement has seen mixed results. The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization reverted abortion lawmaking back to the states, and 14 states are now enforcing bans on abortion throughout pregnancy. Two more have such bans on hold because of court rulings. And another two have bans that take effect when cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy - often before women know they're pregnant.

But abortion restrictions have also lost at the ballot box in Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky. And total bans have produced high-profile causes for abortion rights supporters to rally around. Kate Cox, a Texas mother of two, sought an abortion after learning the baby she was carrying had a fatal genetic condition. Her request for an exemption from Texas' ban, one of the country's strictest, was denied by the state Supreme Court, and she left Texas to seek an abortion elsewhere.

Movement organizers now expect abortion rights to be a major Democratic rallying cry in President Joe Biden's reelection campaign.

"The pro-abortion forces, that's one of the major things they're going to run on," said Susan Swift, president of Pro-Life Legal and a veteran anti-abortion activist. "That's one of the only things that seems to animate their base."

Biden campaign officials openly state that they plan to make Biden synonymous with the fight to preserve abortion rights.

Vice President Kamala Harris has led the charge on the issue for the White House. She will hold the first event in Wisconsin on Monday, which would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the lawsuit that led to the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.


# Lawyer hired to prosecute Trump in Georgia is thrust into the spotlight over affair claims
By **KATE BRUMBACK** and **ALANNA DURKIN RICHER**
January 19, 2024. 3:51 PM EST

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**ATLANTA (AP)** - Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired attorney Nathan Wade to lead the Georgia prosecution of Donald Trump and 18 others over efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Now, allegations of a romantic relationship between Willis and Wade are raising questions about his past work and qualifications and threaten to taint one of four criminal cases against the former president.

She has defended her hiring of Wade - who has little prosecutorial experience - and has not directly denied a romantic relationship. The claim surfaced last week in a motion filed by a defense attorney representing a former Trump campaign staffer, who did not provide concrete proof. The lawyer is seeking to get the indictment tossed and to remove Willis and Wade from the case.

The district attorney's relative silence for over a week has allowed Trump and other critics to exploit the claims as the former president vies to win back the White House. But while it's created a political storm, the legal implications are less clear.

"It's certainly a huge political problem, it is certainly scandalous and salacious, if true," said Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor who is following the case. But he questioned whether it affects prosecutors' ability to handle the case professionally.

"Where is the line between an ethical lapse or a political misjudgment and something that kind of taints this office?" he asked.

Outside of any effect on this case, Willis, an elected Democrat, is up for reelection this year, and this could become a campaign issue depending on how she ultimately responds.

The motion filed last week by lawyer Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, alleges that Willis paid Wade large sums and benefitted personally when he, in turn, used his earnings to take her to Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean. Wade has been paid more than $650,000 at a rate of $250 an hour since his hiring, according to records Merchant cited.

Wade did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The judge has scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing on the matter and ordered prosecutors to file a response by Feb. 2.

Merchant has not provided proof of a romantic relationship. She wrote that filings in Wade's pending divorce are sealed. She also cited "sources close" to the two without elaborating. She is now seeking to unseal Wade's divorce case. The Associated Press and other news organizations have also filed to unseal the case.

Wade's wife has subpoenaed Willis for a deposition in the divorce case. In a filing Thursday seeking to quash that subpoena, a lawyer for Willis accused Joycelyn Wade of trying to obstruct and interfere with the criminal election interference case.

In a response filed Friday, a lawyer for Joycelyn Wade wrote that Nathan Wade has taken trips to to San Francisco and Napa Valley, Florida, Belize, Panama and Australia, as well as taking Caribbean cruises since filing for divorce and that Willis "was an intended travel partner for at least some of these trips as indicated by flights he purchased for her to accompany him."

The filing includes credit card statements that show Wade - after he had been hired as special prosecutor - purchased plane tickets in October 2022 for him and Willis to travel to Miami and bought tickets in April to San Francisco in their names.

Joycelyn Wade's filing says she is seeking to question Willis about "her romantic affair" with Nathan Wade, saying there "appears to be no reasonable explanation for their travels apart from a romantic relationship."

Willis spokesperson Jeff DiSantis declined to comment Friday on Joycelyn Wade's filing.

Willis vigorously defended Wade's credentials at a church service on Sunday and suggested the questioning of his hiring was rooted in racism. She has three special prosecutors working on the election case - a white woman, a white man and a Black man - "they only attacked one," she said, referring to Wade.

The other special prosecutors are John Floyd, a nationally recognized expert on anti-racketeering laws, and Anna Cross, who worked for two decades as a prosecutor and handled numerous high-profile cases.

Willis cited Wade's 10 years as a municipal court judge and more than 20 years in private practice. But Wade's prosecutorial experience is thin. He worked for the Cobb County solicitor general's office, which handles misdemeanor cases, for less than a year in the late 1990s, a county spokesperson said.

In a December 2010 letter, then-Attorney General Thurbert Baker designated Wade a special assistant attorney general. Baker left office the next month. A spokesperson for the attorney general's office said they "have not found any information to confirm that Mr. Wade has served as a Special Assistant Attorney General."

It's not the first time Wade's qualifications have been challenged.

After his firm was tapped in 2020 by then-Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren to review operations at the local jail, a TV news station sued the sheriff, alleging the investigation was a sham designed to prevent the release of records about inmate deaths. The lawsuit said Wade had "no apparent experience, qualifications, or training in conducting jailhouse investigations."

Months into the investigation, Wade told the TV station's lawyer that he had no notes or other written documentation of his work, saying he had only "what's going on in my mind about it."

Records obtained by the AP through an open records request indicate that Wade billed the sheriff's office $44,000 for 80 hours of work, or $550 an hour, in November and December 2020. The sheriff's office said it had no report or other documents produced from that investigation.

Wade was also very involved with the special grand jury investigation that preceded Trump's indictment. That panel's foreperson told the AP that Wade generally led those proceedings, describing him as "very much a prosecutor." Since Trump and the others were indicted, Wade has been a near-constant presence in the courtroom during hearings. But it's generally other prosecutors who argue motions, cross-examine witnesses or write briefs.

The Trump team - including outside Georgia - is following the fracas. Defense lawyers in the federal classified documents case have demanded any records related to 2022 meetings between Wade and White House staff. Records show Wade billed for what he described as "travel to Athens; conf with White House Counsel" in May 2022. There's another charge for "Interview with DC/White House."

A review of visitor logs at the White House did not turn up any meeting with Wade. There was a conference call in May 2022 between Willis' team and the White House counsel's office to ask whether investigators could interview former White House officials, or whether they would be bound by federal rules that prohibit unauthorized disclosures of official information, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about it. But it wasn't immediately clear whether Wade was on that call.

It's not surprising that Trump has seized on the Willis and Wade allegations.

Trump took a similar tack during the FBI's investigation into Russian election interference amid revelations that the lead agent in that probe had had an extramarital relationship with a lawyer for the bureau. The two had traded anti-Trump texts, including messages calling him an "idiot" and "loathsome human" and describing the prospect of a Trump victory in 2016 as "terrifying."

Trump used the texts to try to undermine the investigation and to paint the FBI as politically biased against him. The agent, Peter Strzok, was later fired, though a subsequent Justice Department inspector general report did not find evidence that investigative steps during the Russia probe had been taken for partisan or political reasons.

Robert James, who was previously district attorney in DeKalb County, Georgia, said if Wade and Willis are romantically involved, it's an optics problem, but he doesn't see anything inherently improper about a relationship. Even if Wade spends money on Willis, that's likely not an issue unless there's evidence of some sort of conspiracy to profit, he said.

"I have no belief, unless something different than what I've heard comes out, that Fani Willis is going to be disqualified from this case," James said.


# Democratic drama and Biden write-ins promise a New Hampshire primary to remember
By **ROBERT YOON**
January 17, 2024. 9:37 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Is a New Hampshire primary without the frontrunner on the ballot and no delegates up for grabs still a New Hampshire primary? Depends on who you ask.

On Tuesday, voters in the Granite State will once again help kick off the presidential primary season, on the heels of the Iowa caucuses that began the nomination process on the Republican side Monday. But this year, there's something different about the traditional first-in-the-nation primary, at least on the Democratic side.

For starters, the Democratic National Committee, which has the ultimate say in how its presidential nominee will be picked, says state party officials violated national party rules by scheduling its contest earlier than allowed. As a result, the primary will have zero delegates at stake on Tuesday. Normally, the contest would have determined how the state's original allotment of 23 pledged delegates to the presidential nominating convention in Chicago this summer would be allocated to the various candidates.

Furthermore, President Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for a second term, decided to skip New Hampshire since their primary violates party rules and will not appear on the ballot. It was Biden's idea to bump the state from its prized primary calendar slot in favor of South Carolina, which resuscitated his struggling campaign in 2020. That year, Biden placed fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in New Hampshire with only 8% of the vote.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party is nevertheless proceeding with the primary - which they note state law requires to be held before any other primary - and has already started the process of selecting people to serve as national convention delegates. This earned a sharp rebuke from the DNC, which called the upcoming primary both "meaningless" and "detrimental."

In response, state Democratic party chairman Ray Buckley said in a statement, "Well, it's safe to say in New Hampshire, the DNC is less popular than the NY Yankees. State law requires the New Hampshire Secretary of State to conduct the first-in-the-nation primary and he is going to follow the law - period. Nothing has changed, and we look forward to seeing a great Democratic voter turnout on January 23rd."

Although Biden's name will not appear as a printed option on the ballot, some New Hampshire Democrats have mounted an effort to encourage primary voters to cast their ballots for Biden as a write-in candidate. Write-in candidates are eligible to win elections in New Hampshire. President Lyndon Johnson did exactly that in 1968 when he won the New Hampshire primary as a write-in candidate, although he dropped out of the race 19 days later after what was widely perceived as a disappointing 8-point win over Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

In the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic primary, write-in votes comprised only 2% of the total vote, or about 6,000 votes. A large-scale write-in effort would increase the workload for local elections officials, but New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has said that he expects results to be available on primary night, including a tally of write-in votes for Biden.

"It sounds like it would be a big job, but you have to remember, it is one race where it is 'vote for one,' and it's fairly easy to sort through the ballots," he told reporters at a briefing in October. "It's going to be some extra work. I don't know that it's going to be that formidable."

Scanlan has also said the counting process will be largely unaffected in communities that already hand-count ballots. The process will take longer in larger jurisdictions that use machines to count regular ballots because they will have to hand-count write-ins. He added that local officials are enlisting additional help to speed up the count.

"I think that is a challenge that can be overcome," he said. "I fully expect the towns are going to be able to get the volunteer resources they need to help with that."

The New Hampshire primary ballot provides would-be write-in voters with the following instructions: "To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write in the name of the person in the 'WRITE-IN' space, and completely fill in the oval opposite your choice...." Scanlan advises voters to follow these instructions but adds that it's important for local elections officials to determine the voter's intent when reviewing ballots.

"If somebody wrote in the name of a candidate and they did not fill in the oval, that does not disqualify that vote," he said in an interview with WMUR-TV. "The intent of that voter would be for the name that they actually wrote on the ballot. And that's how that ballot would be counted."

In New Hampshire, ballots without a darkened oval in a particular contest are typically categorized as "blank." Thus, write-in votes where the oval is not filled in might be initially included in the "blank" total instead of the write-in total. This would be corrected as local election officials determine whether a ballot initially categorized as "blank" is actually a valid write-in vote.

As for variations in the spelling of a write-in candidate's name, Scanlan says the name doesn't have to be spelled correctly or written a specific way if the voter's intent is clear.

"If they write in just 'Biden,' I think that intent is very clear. If they write in 'Bidon,' I think the intent is still pretty clear," he said in October. "If they just write 'Joe,' then you have to ask the question, well, are there any other Joe's on the ballot or running. If there are, then you probably don't know which 'Joe' the person's voting for."

The Associated Press will report a running total of unprocessed write-in votes as provided by election officials. The AP will then provide a breakdown of write-ins for Biden as well as a combined total of non-Biden write-ins as local officials sort the ballots throughout the night and the following days. As the number of write-ins for Biden and "Other write-ins" goes up, the number of unprocessed write-ins will go down.

A total of 21 Democrats will appear by name on the New Hampshire primary ballot on Tuesday, in addition to the option to vote for a write-in candidate. Republicans will also hold a primary, which features 24 listed candidates (while Republicans can also vote for a write-in candidate, the percentage exercising that option is expected to be minimal).

As for delegates, if recent history is any guide, it's still possible that New Hampshire Democrats will send a delegation to the Democratic National Convention this summer and that they'll cast votes for the nomination. In 2008, when Michigan and Florida held primaries earlier than allowed under party rules, the DNC initially said both states would be stripped of all their delegates. Then, after negotiations with the campaigns of then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it announced that delegates from both states could each cast half a vote. By the time the convention began, party officials voted to grant Michigan and Florida delegates full voting rights in the interest of party unity.

The last successful statewide write-in effort for federal office was in 2010, when Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska lost the Republican primary but won the general election despite not appearing on the ballot. She received 99% of the write-in votes cast, but the final result wasn't known for more than two weeks after Election Day.


# President Joe Biden signs bill to avoid a partial government shutdown
January 19, 2024. 1:31 PM EST

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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Joe Biden on Friday signed a short-term spending bill that keeps the federal government operating until early March.

The bill averts what would've been a partial government shutdown starting Saturday. It does not address additional aid for Ukraine, which remains in limbo as key legislators continue to negotiate a border security measure that would go in tandem with more support for Kyiv.

Congress, ahead of the winter snowstorm that struck Washington, D.C., on Friday, passed the short-term bill with large bipartisan majorities on Thursday. The vote was 77-18 in the Senate and 314-108 in the House.

Under the bill, funding for agencies overseeing agriculture, veterans affairs, energy, transportation and housing runs through March 1. Funding for the rest of the federal government now runs through March 8. It's meant to buy lawmakers extra time to draft full-year spending bills through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will continue to face pressure from House conservatives who want him to abandon a bipartisan agreement that sets overall spending levels for those full-year bills at $1.66 trillion. Those conservatives say that is too much money, but Democrats and moderate Republicans say Congress must abide by that deal and avoid legislative dysfunction during an election year.


# US Navy fighter jets strike Houthi missile launchers in Yemen, officials say
By **LOLITA C. BALDOR**
January 19, 2024. 6:31 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - U.S. fighter jets struck Iranian-backed Houthi rebel sites for the sixth time Friday, taking out three anti-ship missiles in Yemen that were prepared to fire, according to U.S. officials.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations, said the strikes were carried out by F/A-18 aircraft off the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. And they resembled similar U.S. attacks on Houthi launchers that have been occurring almost daily this week.

In a statement later Friday, U.S. Central Command said the strike was at about 6:45 p.m. local time in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, and that the missiles were aimed into the southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch. It said the U.S. determined they presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region, and so struck them in self-defense. The statement did not say how the strikes were carried out.

President Joe Biden acknowledged Thursday that the bombardment of Houthi sites, including a massive array of strikes on Jan. 12 by U.S. and British forces, has yet to stop the militants' attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping.

Al-Masirah, a Houthi-run satellite news channel, said there were air raids in the western city of Hodieda on Friday, targeting the al-Jabaana neighborhood in the west of the city. The location of the U.S. strikes could not be immediately confirmed.

U.S. warships and aircraft, in rapid succession, have taken out Houthi missiles poised to launch over the past few days, underscoring the military's increasing ability to watch, detect and strike militant activities in Yemen.

At the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby noted the uptick in preemptive missions.

"This is the fourth preemptive action that the U.S. military has taken in the past week against Houthi missile launchers that were ready to launch attacks, in this case, anti-ship missiles," he said, adding that the self-defense strikes are aimed at improving security in the shipping lanes.

But so far the strikes have not deterred Houthi attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea or Gulf of Aden, which also have been happening nearly daily.

The Biden administration put the Houthis back on its list of specially designated global terrorists. The sanctions that come with the formal designation are meant to sever violent extremist groups from their sources of financing, while also allowing vital humanitarian aid to continue flowing to impoverished Yemenis. And the White House has made it clear that the retaliatory strikes will also continue.

"They continue to have offensive capability, and they still continue to be willing to use it," Kirby said. "We also have plenty of defense capability available to us and we continue to use it as well."

For months, the Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea that they say are either linked to Israel or heading to Israeli ports. They say their attacks aim to end the Israeli air-and-ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. But the links to the ships targeted in the rebel assaults have grown more tenuous as the attacks continue.


# Maine's top election official appeals the ruling that delayed a decision on Trump's ballot status
By **DAVID SHARP**
January 19, 2024. 1:27 PM EST

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**PORTLAND, Maine (AP)** - Maine's secretary of state is appealing a judge's ruling that put on hold her decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a similar case in Colorado.

Shenna Bellows concluded last month that Trump didn't meet ballot qualifications under the insurrection clause in the U.S. Constitution, citing his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. That made her the first election official to ban the Republican ex-president from the ballot under the 14th Amendment.

But a state judge this week sent the case back to Bellows, a Democrat, with instructions to await the U.S. Supreme Court decision before withdrawing, modifying or upholding her decision.

On Friday, Bellows filed a notice of appeal. She said she welcomes guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court but also wanted an expedited review from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

"I know both the constitutional and state authority questions are of grave concern to many," Bellows said Friday in a statement. "This appeal ensures that Maine's highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections."

Bellows said previously that she will follow the rule of law and abide by any decision issued by the courts.

The timelines are tight as the March 5 primary approaches. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the Colorado case on Feb. 8, which likely means there wouldn't be enough time to meet statutory deadlines for Bellows to reissue a ruling on Trump's ballot status and for additional appeals to be filed before Election Day.

The state will begin mailing overseas ballots on Saturday, and Trump's name is on the ballots. If Trump were to be kept off the ballot, then Bellows would have to notify local election officials that votes cast for him would not be counted.

The nation's highest court has never ruled on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits those who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office. Some legal scholars say the post-Civil War clause applies to Trump for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and encouraging his backers to storm the U.S. Capitol after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Activists conducted a campaign urging election officials to bar Trump under the clause.

Trump's campaign slammed Bellows' decision to remove him from the ballot, saying, "We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter."

Maine Republicans continued to attack Bellows' motives on Friday. "There is a coordinated national effort to win this election for Joe Biden before a single vote is cast," Maine GOP Chair Joel Stetkis said.


# Grand jury indicts Alec Baldwin in fatal shooting of cinematographer on movie set in New Mexico
By **MORGAN LEE**
January 19, 2024. 4:09 PM EST

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**SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)** - A grand jury indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on an involuntary manslaughter charge in a 2021 fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico, reviving a dormant case against the actor.

Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used. They declined to answer questions after spending about a day and a half presenting their case to the grand jury.

Defense attorneys for Baldwin indicated they'll fight the charge.

"We look forward to our day in court," said Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, defense attorneys for Baldwin, in an email.

While the proceeding is shrouded in secrecy, two of the witnesses seen at the courthouse included crew members - one who was present when the fatal shot was fired and another who had walked off the set the day before due to safety concerns.

Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger, and the gun fired.

The charge has again put Baldwin in legal trouble and created the possibility of prison time for an actor who has been a TV and movie mainstay for nearly 40 years, with roles in the early blockbuster "The Hunt for Red October," Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" and the sitcom "30 Rock."

The indictment provides prosecutors with two alternative standards for pursuing an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in the death of Hutchins. One would be based on negligent use of a firearm, and the other alleges felony misconduct "with the total disregard or indifference for the safety of others."

Judges recently agreed to put on hold several civil lawsuits seeking compensation from Baldwin and producers of "Rust" after prosecutors said they would present their case to a grand jury. Plaintiffs in those suits include members of the film crew.

Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing the slain cinematographer's parents and younger sister in a civil case, said Friday that her clients have been seeking the truth about what happened the day Hutchins was killed and will be looking forward to Baldwin's trial.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers firm in Los Angeles, pointed to previous missteps by prosecutors, saying they will need to do more than present ballistics evidence to make a case that Baldwin had a broader responsibility and legal duty when it came to handling the gun on the set.

Special prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. They later pivoted and began weighing whether to refile a charge against Baldwin after receiving a new analysis of the gun.

The analysis from experts in ballistics and forensic testing relied on replacement parts to reassemble the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts of the pistol were broken during testing by the FBI. The report examined the gun and markings it left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger had to have been pulled or depressed.

The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Forensic Science Services in Arizona stated that although Baldwin repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, "given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver."

The weapons supervisor on the movie set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in the case. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.

"Rust" assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a suspended sentence of six months of probation. He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the shooting.

An earlier FBI report on the agency's analysis of the gun found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could go off without pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer, such as by dropping the weapon.

The only way the testers could get it to fire was by striking the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the cartridge, or by pulling the trigger while it was fully cocked. The gun eventually broke during testing.

The 2021 shooting resulted in a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death claims filed by members of Hutchins' family, centered on accusations that the defendants were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those allegations.

The Rust Movie Productions company has paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators after a scathing narrative of failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before the fatal shooting.

The filming of "Rust" resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the cinematographer's widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer.


# Jesse Eisenberg had to throw out his playbook to direct Kieran Culkin in 'A Real Pain'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
January 19, 2024. 11:45 AM EST

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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - Jesse Eisenberg had not seen "Succession" when he was writing his new film "A Real Pain." But his sister Hallie Eisenberg knew from years of watching Roman Roy that Kieran Culkin would be perfect.

The film, which premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, follows two very mismatched cousins, one anxiety ridden and rule following and the other a more spontaneous spirit, on a trip to Poland. They're reuniting to see where their late grandmother was from and also explore some Holocaust locations.

Eisenberg had wanted to play the spontaneous one, which was similar to a character he'd played on stage in "The Spoils" in England. But he was gently talked out of it. It was, he realized, a taxing role that might be too much to handle while also directing. And so, Culkin became aspirational.

They'd met previously through their mutual friend Emma Stone, who also produced "A Real Pain," but he really didn't know him well. And he'd quickly discover that casting Culkin and directing him, even getting him on set, was a different kind of challenge that he hadn't expected.

Three weeks before shooting, when Eisenberg was "knee-deep in securing locations," Culkin told him he was thinking of dropping out. He didn't drop out, but he also arrived on set only a day before filming, telling Eisenberg simply that he understood the character and that he also works best without blocking.

"I had spent months blocking out the scenes with Polish actors," Eisenberg said. "Halfway through day one we had to change our plan. And it was completely to the advantage of the movie because Kieran is such a live wire. He's such a spontaneous actor and he's so brilliantly funny. To kind of hem him in with my pre-planned shot list would have killed the spontaneity and the energy of the movie."

It both "flummoxed and elated" his cinematographer who had never worked with an actor who didn't adhere to marks. But, Eisenberg said, the scenes where they could ditch the dolly and just follow Culkin "sparkled."

"I love both characters so much," Eisenberg said. "I suspect audiences will just assume I'm very much like the character I play. But both are people I know. At once I am kind of the nervous person in the room who wishes I can get out of my own head. And on the other hand, I am a performer."

"A Real Pain," which is seeking distribution at the festival, is both funny and profound - an odd couple trip and an exploration of ideas of modern pain in the face of historical family traumas.

Eisenberg has been wanting to set a movie in Poland for about 18 years. The first play he'd written was about a self-centered young American who goes to Poland to stay with his cousin, a survivor of the war, to take advantage of a free room in an exotic locale. It was based in part on an experience he'd actually had. On stage, Vanessa Redgrave played his cousin.

"I tried for years to adapt that into a movie, and it was never good," Eisenberg said.

It took on various iterations too, including one about cousins who are more contemporaries going to Mongolia for Tablet Magazine. But it wasn't until he saw an advertisement that said "Auschwitz Tour (with lunch)" that the story cracked open.

"I remember thinking, oh, that's the story. It's these kind of middle-class trips to the most horrific places on Earth where the interpersonal dynamics of the group could be explored against a backdrop of real historical trauma," he said "You can explore the dramatic irony of taking one of these trips, but staying in the Radisson Hotel. Seeing Auschwitz during the day and drinking wine at night with your group."

He enlisted the help of renowned Polish film producer Ewa Puszczynska, who was fresh off "The Zone of Interest," which would be essential both in legitimizing this American production abroad and in managing logistics for a very complex shoot.

"We are in a different location every day and every location has challenges. We are in airports, on trains, in city centers, at monuments, at a concentration camp. The first feature film to be able to film at this concentration camp," he said. "It was just this incredibly ambitious production. And thank goodness we had the best producers in the country shepherding it."

Those in the tour group, led by a character played by "White Lotus" star Will Sharpe, are mostly retired Jewish Americans (Jennifer Grey among them). But Eisenberg also wanted to broaden the story and included a character, Eloge, (Kurt Egyiawan) based on a friend of his who survived the Rwandan genocide and later converted to Judaism in Winnipeg. His hope is that "A Real Pain" speaks to a cross-cultural, universal experience - though he's also worried that sounds too much like a commercial. What he really wants, though, is for audiences to find it funny.

"It plays lighter than the themes might imply," he said.

"A Real Pain" is his second as a director, after the mother-son film "When You Finish Saving the World" which premiered at the festival a few years ago. It's a busy Sundance for Eisenberg. In addition to trying to sell "A Real Pain," Eisenberg is also starring in "Sasquatch Sunset," about a family of Sasquatches. And on opening night he presented a tribute award to his friend and oft-co-star Kristen Stewart, who said she hopes that he gets behind the camera more often.

"He been a real reluctant filmmaker. He's always like, 'Oh, I could never,'" Stewart said. "I'm like, no, no, you are a born storyteller. And that's the way that his acting comes across. Like some actors really service other people's stories. And then some people are writers themselves, even within their acting. Jesse is just like a kind of virtuoso artist."


# 'Freaky Tales,' Kristen Stewart and Christopher Nolan help kick off Sundance Film Festival
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
January 19, 2024. 2:26 AM EST

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**PARK CITY, Utah (AP)** - Thousands of cinema lovers, Hollywood celebrities, industry executives and filmmakers from around the world have arrived in a very snowy Park City, Utah, for 10 days of movie watching.

The 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival, the world's premier showcase for independent film, kicked off Thursday with a starry gala honoring festival veterans such as Kristen Stewart and Christopher Nolan and numerous world premieres.

Nineteen films played on day one, including documentaries about Brian Eno, Lollapalooza and Frida Kahlo, Yance Ford's inquiry into policing in America, "Power," as well as the mock government experiment "Girls State." In fiction premieres, some lucky ticketholders were among the first to see Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's 80s-set "Freaky Tales" or "Thelma," featuring June Squibb as a Los Angeles grandmother who gets scammed and goes on a mission to get her money back with the late Richard Roundtree.

The festival has always been a major sales market for studios and distributors looking for films to fill their slates, including both theatrical and streaming releases. But in the aftermath of the dual Hollywood strikes, sales this year could be even more robust. The theatrical release calendar for the first half of the year was "decimated," producer Jason Blum noted at the opening day press conference. Around 80% of the 91 features playing do not yet have distributors.

"The one positive thing about the strike is that movies that might have struggled shouldn't because there's so many holes in the release schedule," Blum said. "I hope that a bunch of Sundance movies end up in theaters quickly."

Festival director Eugene Hernandez added that "these films are ready for their audience."

Blum, a Sundance board member, has had a longstanding relationship with the festival going back to the premiere of "Reality Bites" in 1992, which he said he almost missed because he was trapped "in a snowbank with Ethan Hawke."

Over the years, Blum has experienced both sides of the acquisition coin at Sundance, as the one buying films (including, he laughed, one of the least successful acquisitions ever, "Happy, Texas") and the one selling them (like Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash.") He also brought Jordan Peele's "Get Out" to the festival and said the response to that first screening "started the whole thing."

The main hub of activity remains in Park City, where many of the shops and restaurants on Main Street have been transformed into a hub of branded lounges from various sponsors and media partners. In addition to the venues playing movies around the clock, there are various talks and panels on everything from the legacy of Sundance to making your first feature. There will also be screenings in Salt Lake City, and, beginning on Jan. 25, online showings of select films for virtual festival passholders.

Slightly outside of town Thursday, some of the festival's most well-heeled attendees gathered at the DeJoria Center in Kamas, Utah, for an opening night fundraising gala in which Nolan, Stewart, "Past Lives" director Celine Song and "The Eternal Memory" director Maite Alberdi received tribute awards.

Eisenberg gave the award to Stewart, who he has worked with on three films: "two gentle talkies and one aggressive shoot 'em up," he said.

"Kristen is one of these rare performers where she is so committed, so authentic, so feeling, that you almost want to make sure she's okay at the end of the day," he said.

Stewart has been coming to Sundance for 20 years and this year has two films debuting: Rose Glass's crime thriller "Love Lives Bleeding," which is heading to theaters in March, and "Love Me," with Steven Yeun, in which a buoy and a satellite fall in love.

"My whole life I have loved this festival," Stewart said. "I knew that in my bones this was just like a place full of 'yes' in a world full of 'no.' I couldn't even understand why, but I knew it."

Robert Downey Jr. also was on hand to toast his "Oppenheimer" director, who, he said, "is a bit blue because a terrible tragedy has befallen him and I don't mean to bring this up and I know it's very personal: He has become recognizable on the street."

Nolan won a screenwriting award for "Memento" after it screened at Sundance in 2001. Both that film and "Following," which played "up the hill" at Slamdance, were independently financed before he and his wife and producer Emma Thomas went on to have great successes with studio films.

But Nolan said he doesn't think he has ever been an independent filmmaker, insofar as filmmaking is dependent on other people, from the crew to those who help get a movie out to the world.

"A lot of people know it came to Sundance, a lot of people know that it was a hit and enabled so much more that came after it for us," Nolan said.

But, he said, not a lot of people know that earlier, when the film was finished, all the independent distributors passed on buying it and the filmakers found themselves in "terrible limbo" for a year not knowing whether it would ever be seen by an audience.

"It was an appalling position to be in, but so many people became so important in that moment," Nolan said. "These people who saw the film, believed in it and stood by it, those are the people you depend on as a filmmaker. You can't get anywhere without them."

The film festival runs through Jan. 28.