US Domestic News Roundup: Trump ordered to end attacks on judge's family in hush money case; Trapped vessels start moving out of Baltimore after bridge collapse and more

In a court filing, prosecutors asked Justice Juan Merchan to make clear that his existing gag order, which bars Trump from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff, also applies to family members. Florida top court allows for near-total abortion ban; says voters can decide issue in November Florida's top court on Monday cleared the way for a Republican-backed law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy to take effect, but also approved an initiative to let voters decide whether to amend the state's constitution to establish a right to an abortion.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

US anti-Muslim incidents hit record high in 2023 due to Israel-Gaza war

Reported discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians reached a record high in the U.S. in 2023, driven by rising Islamophobia and bias as the Israel-Gaza war raged late in the year, data from an advocacy group showed on Tuesday.

Complaints totaled 8,061 in 2023, a 56% rise from the year before and the highest since the Council on American-Islamic Relations began records nearly 30 years ago. About 3,600 of those incidents occurred from October to December, CAIR said.

Trump ordered to end attacks on judge's family in hush money case

Donald Trump must stop verbal attacks on family members of the New York judge and others in his upcoming trial on charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn star, the court ruled on Monday, after the former U.S. president disparaged the judge's daughter. New York prosecutors argued on Monday that Trump is trying to scare potential witnesses and urged Justice Juan Merchan to make clear that his existing gag order, which bars Trump from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff, also applies to family members.

Judge rejects Hunter Biden's request to dismiss tax charges, court documents show

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday rejected a string of motions filed by U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, to dismiss tax charges filed against him, court documents show. Among the claims that U.S. District Judge Marc Scarsi rejected in eight separate motions were that federal prosecutors caved to pressure from Republicans or that Hunter Biden, 54, had immunity from a previous plea deal he had negotiated.

Trump posts $175 million bond in civil fraud case, averting asset seizures

Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, averting asset seizures by state authorities that could have hobbled the former U.S. president’s business empire. The Republican Trump, set to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November U.S. election, was found liable on Feb. 16 for fraudulently inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to secure better loan and insurance terms.

Trapped vessels start moving out of Baltimore after bridge collapse

The Port of Baltimore opened a temporary channel on Monday, freeing some tugs and barges that had been trapped by last week's bridge collapse, but officials said wider restoration of commercial shipping remained frustrated by unyielding conditions. Baltimore's shipping channel has been blocked since a fully loaded container ship lost power and collided with a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last Tuesday, killing six road workers and causing the highway bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River.

Wide swath of US will get buggy as two cicada broods intrude

Cicadas, the noisy but rather tame insects that spend most of their lives underground, are poised to put on quite a show starting this month in a wide swath of the United States. Two sizable adjacent broods of periodical cicadas - the kind that spend a specific number of years underground as nymphs before popping up together for a brief bacchanalia of singing and mating - are set to emerge simultaneously, one concentrated in Midwestern states and the other in the South and Midwest.

Trump aims to scare witnesses in hush-money trial, prosecutors say

New York prosecutors on Monday urged a judge to forbid Donald Trump from criticizing family members of those involved in his upcoming hush-money trial, arguing that he is trying to scare potential witnesses. In a court filing, prosecutors asked Justice Juan Merchan to make clear that his existing gag order, which bars Trump from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff, also applies to family members.

Florida top court allows for near-total abortion ban; says voters can decide issue in November

Florida's top court on Monday cleared the way for a Republican-backed law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy to take effect, but also approved an initiative to let voters decide whether to amend the state's constitution to establish a right to an abortion. In a pair of rulings, the Florida Supreme Court upheld an existing law that banned abortion after 15 weeks, and by doing so, cleared the way for a six-week ban to take effect.

Republicans hope to win Black voters for Trump. It won't be easy

Orlando Owens, a rare Republican activist in a majority-Black district of Milwaukee, had hoped this election season would be different. With national polls showing waning enthusiasm for Democratic President Joe Biden, especially among Black voters who say they are frustrated with his performance on the economy and other issues, state Republican party officials and activists saw an opening.

Trump expected to highlight murder of Michigan woman in immigration speech

Donald Trump is expected to highlight the murder of a young Michigan woman and the arrest of a suspect who had entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in a speech on Tuesday focused on his Democratic opponent Joe Biden's immigration policies. The former Republican president, who has posted on his Truth Social account about the murder of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia in Grand Rapids last month, is due to make remarks in the city that his campaign has titled "Biden's border bloodbath." Police say Garcia was shot in her car by Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, who she was dating.

(With inputs from agencies.)