Medical Examiner Reveals Maleesa Mooney’s Trigger Of Loss of life

Last month, two models were found deceased in their apartments days apart. Police have denied any connection in the cases, and Nichole Coats’ cause of death was ruled accidental. Now, the Los Angeles County Examiner has revealed details about how the second model, Maleesa Mooney, passed away.

According to docs reviewed by PEOPLE, the official cause of death is “homicidal violence.” However, as of Monday, no suspects have been arrested.

RELATED: Two Models Found Dead In Downtown LA Just A Couple Of Days Apart

Surveillance footage at the model’s apartment complex last shows her on Sept. 6.

Medical Examiner Describes Maleesa Mooney’s Injuries

Maleesa was allegedly about two months pregnant when a welfare check on Sept. 12 ended in the discovery of her body. She was reportedly beaten, bound, and stuffed into her apartment refrigerator.

“The blunt force traumatic injuries observed at the autopsy are generally not considered acutely life-threatening on their own. However, based on the circumstances of how Ms. Mooney was found, these injuries suggest she was likely involved in violence/physical altercation prior to her death,” the autopsy reportedly says.

The medical examiner found traces of cocaine and alcohol in Mooney’s system. But, the role of either substance in her death remains “uncertain.”

Victim’s Sister Describes “Chilling” Crime Scene

Maleesa pregnancy was first shared with the media by her sister Jourdine Pauline. Jourdine also spoke to PEOPLE last month about the state of Maleesa Mooney’s apartment after her body was found.

“From what we saw at the coroner and mortuary, my sister was in a struggle, and it’s devastating. It’s a very monstrous act. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. A lot of things just don’t make sense to us,” Pauline said. Adding, “It was honestly so chilling. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

The victim’s sister said parts of Mooney’s carpet were “ripped up,” and the fridge was gone. She feels that whatever happened to Maleesa Mooney was “very scary and traumatic.”

“I know she was so scared. I just hate to think about it,” Pauline said.

As mentioned earlier, Maleesa’s death was uncovered just two days after Nichole Coats on Sept. 10. Last week, the medical examiner ruled Coats’ death “accidental.” The case remains open. Her family says she was discovered with her legs up in the air and a bloody bed, per KTLA.

RELATED: Update: Nichole Coats’ Death Ruled ‘Accident’

Pharmacy workers from Walgreens, chains like CVS to stroll out once more

A sign advertises COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine shots at a Walgreens Pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, August 14, 2023.

Brian Snyder | Reuters

Some pharmacy staff from Walgreens and other drugstore chains are planning to walk out this week in the latest pushback against what they call unsafe working conditions that put both employees and patients at risk. 

Organizers of the effort and some pharmacy employees told CNBC they hope the work stoppage will push companies to make meaningful changes to address the long-standing grievances of many retail pharmacy staff, who have complained about having to grapple with what they describe as understaffed teams, insufficient pay and increasing work expectations imposed by corporate management. 

The walkout, which organizers have dubbed “Pharmageddon,” will occur Monday through Wednesday across different retail pharmacy locations nationwide, organizers of the effort told CNBC. 

An organizer named Shane Jerominski, an independent pharmacist who used to work for Walgreens, said the walkout could tentatively affect hundreds of stores across different chains.

Jerominski, who is a pharmacy labor advocate, said organizers still don’t have a definitive count of employees who will participate in the effort. But he noted that the “bulk” of those who have signaled they plan to walk out are staff from Walgreens — who laid the groundwork for the initiative — and employees from CVS and Rite Aid.

Organizers are also planning to hold rallies outside a few locations in different parts of the country, according to Jerominski and a second person involved with the planning, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

Jerominski and the person, who is a former pharmacy manager at supermarket chain Publix, also said they are considering a push for unionization of pharmacy staff who are currently not represented. There are no concrete agreements to move forward to join a labor group. 

A spokesperson for Walgreens said the company recognizes the “incredible work our pharmacists and technicians do every day” and that it has taken several steps in its pharmacies “to ensure that our teams can concentrate on providing optimal patient care.” 

The company’s ongoing efforts are focused on how it can recruit, retain and reward pharmacy staff, the spokesperson said. They added that Walgreens has improved technology and centralized many operations to help maintain appropriate workloads in pharmacies. 

A CVS spokesperson said in a statement that the company isn’t seeing any “unusual activity regarding unplanned pharmacy closures or pharmacist walkouts currently.” 

The spokesperson added that the company is engaging with staff to directly address any concerns they might have, and is focused on developing a “sustainable, scalable action plan” to support both pharmacists and customers. 

A spokesperson for Rite Aid did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the upcoming walkout. 

The work stoppage will come weeks after some pharmacy staff from Walgreens locations around the country, and CVS stores in the Kansas City area, engaged in separate walkouts over working conditions. Notably, CVS management apologized to Kansas City pharmacy staff and committed to a series of improvements — including adding staff and paid overtime — after the walkouts there ended. 

The demonstrations at pharmacies add to what has been one of the most active years for the U.S. labor movement in recent history. 

CVS and Walgreens were the biggest pharmacies in the U.S. based on prescription drug market share in 2022. Both chains operate around 9,000 retail store locations across the country. 

CVS has more than 30,000 pharmacists and 70,000 pharmacy technicians, while rival Walgreens has more than 86,000 health-care service providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other positions. CVS pharmacists make $61.44 an hour on average, while Walgreens pharmacists make $53.85 per hour on average, according to employment website Indeed.

Who is participating in the pharmacy walkouts? 

As pharmacy workers prepare to walk off the job, Jerominski and the former Publix pharmacy manager said some independent and retail pharmacy locations have committed to staying open to provide patients with service options.

Many of the pharmacy staff who are interested in walking out appear to be from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Indiana, according to Jerominski.

Two pharmacy staff members from Walgreens and another two from CVS, all of whom asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told CNBC that they plan to walk out. One CVS store manager, who also asked to remain anonymous for the same reason, said they would participate if their location’s pharmacist does.

A CVS location in New York, US, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.

Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Other employees don’t intend to walk out, even if they support the broader effort to secure better working conditions.

A CVS employee, who was the main organizer of the Kansas City area walkouts, said the CVS pharmacy staff in that region that they represent are not inclined to participate. The employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said CVS has negotiated with Kansas City staff “in good faith and made good on commitments thus far,” so walking out again would be “going backwards.”

A CVS pharmacy manager, who works in a different part of the country, said they have seen positive changes at their own store following the Kansas City walkouts. 

But the pharmacy manager, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they will participate in one day of the upcoming walkout — and hope their colleagues will too — because they believe employees need to replicate the solidarity seen in Kansas City “on a larger scale” to ensure CVS continues to listen to their concerns.

Why are pharmacy staff walking out?

For years, many retail pharmacy employees have complained that companies such as Walgreens and CVS are placing unreasonable performance demands on employees, without providing enough staffing or resources for them to safely and responsibly execute tasks. 

They believe the issue got worse during the Covid pandemic, when pharmacists and technicians were also required to administer back-to-back tests and vaccinations on top of their normal duties. 

Many pharmacy staff told CNBC that a diminishing number of workers have to juggle ever-increasing daily tasks, which they said can force errors and put patients at risk of serious harm. 

“It boils down to us not being as attentive as we need to be when it comes to making sure people get the right medicines or making sure patients are properly educated and assisted,” a CVS pharmacist said.

Roughly 100,000 prescription errors are voluntarily reported to the Food and Drug Administration annually. Between 7,000 and 9,000 people in the U.S. die every year due to medication errors.

Some employees said the working conditions also weigh on their mental and physical health. Many staffers described feeling burnt out by their workloads.

In addition to filling and verifying prescriptions, pharmacy employees often have to juggle patient phone calls, administer vaccines every 15 minutes, resolve issues with insurance companies and doctors, perform rapid Covid and flu tests and deal with in-store customers.

“We come home and you can’t even think of doing other things because you’re just so exhausted,” a Walgreens pharmacy technician told CNBC, likening their work shift to a marathon. “I’ve been falling asleep just sitting down.”

New vaccine COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) by Pfizer, available at CVS Pharmacy in Eagle Rock, CA. 

Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Some pharmacy staff told CNBC that company-imposed performance metrics, such as filling a specific number of prescriptions a day or administering a certain number of vaccines, add even more pressure on them. 

Jerominski, the organizer and pharmacy labor advocate, claimed immunizations have become a chief priority for retail pharmacy chains because the margins on vaccines are significantly higher than the average prescription.

The CVS spokesperson said the company has reduced the number of metrics it uses in recent years, but noted the information “gleaned from safety and quality metrics provides us with a clearer picture of what’s working and where improvements may be needed.” 

Meanwhile, Walgreens announced the elimination of performance-based metrics last year, making it the only drugstore chain to do so. 

However, some Walgreens pharmacy staff told CNBC that the company continues to push their stores to hit performance goals for tasks like verifying prescriptions. Walgreens has denied employee claims that those metrics still exist.  

The former Publix pharmacy manager claimed that those types of working conditions are why few people want to work for large retail drugstore chains.

What else are pharmacy staff hoping for?

Unionization is “one hugely important piece of this process,” no matter which existing labor union steps up to represent pharmacy employees who aren’t currently represented, Jerominski said. 

He noted the vast majority of pharmacists and technicians from Walgreens and CVS have no union representation, while pharmacy staff from a handful of grocery retailers such as Kroger do. 

Jerominski said he has organized a fundraiser for a national push to unionize, which had collected nearly $60,000 as of Friday. Organizers have been in talks with multiple existing unions over the past two months, but there is no concrete agreement yet to move forward, he added. 

Jerominski said the organizations include IAM Healthcare, a union representing thousands of professionals in the health-care industry, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents food, retail and health-care workers across the U.S. and Canada. 

IAM Healthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while UFCW has expressed its support for the recent walkouts staged by Walgreens and CVS pharmacy staff.

People make their way near a Walgreens pharmacy in New York City, March 9, 2023.

Leonardo Munoz | Corbis News | Getty Images

Some pharmacy employees also told CNBC they hope the upcoming walkout will help patients better understand the conditions employees are working in and why they may lead to longer wait times, medication errors or similar issues.

One Walgreens pharmacist said they believe patients are understandably upset when they can’t pick up their medications in a quick and seamless way. However, it can be emotionally taxing for employees when they have to deal with patients who get aggressive or, in rare cases, violent, the pharmacist said. 

Similarly, the CVS store manager said they hope the walkout will make patients more understanding.

“At the very least, I hope this results in one customer that can come in and say, ‘Hey, I get it. I’ll be right here and I’ll be patient,'” the CVS store manager said. “If it changes one customer from coming in an immediately cussing and screaming at myself — even if it’s rightfully so — then it’s absolutely worth it.”

Decide Slaps Federal Gag Order Again On Trump

Judge Chutkan reversed her stay and reimposed the gag order that she issued on former president Donald Trump.

Reuters reported:

A federal judge on Sunday reinstated a gag order she imposed on Donald Trump in the Washington case accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, denying his bid for a stay pending appeal.

The order prohibited Trump from targeting the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election loss.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order at the Justice Department’s request. She temporarily lifted it on Oct. 20 after Trump’s lawyers appealed. And she reversed that decision on Sunday evening, according to the court’s docket.

Trump has been virtually begging for the gag order to be reimposed as he has launched nearly daily attacks on prosecutors, judges, and what probably got the order reimposed, his attack on former chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was reportedly given immunity in the 1/6 case.

Gag orders will probably become common in most, if not all, of Trump’s criminal cases. The only one where he might not be gagged is the classified documents case, where Trump-friendly judge Aileen Cannon is presiding over the case.

Trump has already violated the gag order in the New York civil fraud case against the Trump organization and has been fined a combined $15,000.

Trump’s strategy is to use his criminal cases in his presidential campaign, but if he can’t use his campaign to intimidate others, a big part of his plan will be taken away.

Donald Trump will probably try to violate the gag order, but there will be consequences, potentially very expensive consequences.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

Stellantis, union negotiators comply with phrases of a deal

United Auto Workers members rally outside Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. after the union called a strike at the plant on Oct. 23, 2023.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT — Negotiators with the United Auto Workers union and Stellantis have in principle agreed to the terms of a tentative deal following roughly six weeks of targeted U.S. labor strikes by the union, according to sources briefed on the talks.

The terms of the deal must still be approved by UAW leadership before the union plans to officially brief local union leaders and then publicly announce the tentative agreement on Saturday, according to three sources who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

The tentative agreement, which would still need to be approved by union leaders and ratified by members, is patterned off a 4½-year agreement reached between the union and Ford Motor on Wednesday, sources previously told CNBC.

UAW President Shawn Fain was with Stellantis in intense talks Thursday and Friday before turning his attention to General Motors. UAW and GM are expected to resume talks midday Saturday in hopes of also reaching a deal, according to a source familiar with the talks.

The UAW plans to hold a meeting early Saturday afternoon with local Stellantis union leaders following the sides agreeing in principle to the terms of a deal.

Bloomberg News first reported Saturday the company made additional concessions to the UAW and the union aims to announce a tentative agreement this afternoon that includes a new product for an idled assembly plant in Illinois.

The deal comes after the union reached an agreement on Wednesday with Ford. That agreement still needs to be approved by union leaders and ratified by members.

The tentative agreement is expected to end six weeks of targeted labor strikes by the union after the sides failed to reach new deals for 146,000 UAW members before a Sept. 14 deadline. The union called back more than 16,000 striking Ford workers after reaching a tentative deal with the automaker.

Ford’s deal included 25% pay increases over the term of the agreement, including an initial increase of 11%. The raises and benefits cumulatively raise the top wage to more than $40 an hour, including an increase of 68% for starting wages to over $28 an hour.

It also reinstated cost-of-living adjustments, reduced an eight-year path to top wages to three years and allowed the right to strike over plant closures, among other significantly enhanced benefits.

The strikes have collectively cost GM, Ford and Stellantis billions of dollars in lost production. Ford said Thursday that the union’s strike has cost it $1.3 billion and the deal, if ratified by members, would increase labor costs by roughly $850 to $900 per vehicle produced.

GM said Tuesday the strike had cost it about $800 million.

The proposed agreements are record-setting for the union, which was far more confrontational and strategic during the talks than in recent history.

The union initiated negotiations with all three automakers at once, breaking from recent history when UAW leaders would bargain with each automaker individually, select a lead company to focus efforts on and then pattern the remaining deals off a leading tentative agreement.

It’s not immediately clear how much the labor deals will increase labor costs for the companies, which had argued that giving in to all of the union’s demands would affect their competitiveness and even long-term viability.

Deutsche Bank recently estimated the overall cost increase of the agreement at Ford to be $6.2 billion over the term of the agreement; $7.2 billion at GM; and $6.4 billion at Stellantis.

Ford will postpone about $12 billion in EV funding

Ford workers produce the electric F-150 Lightning pickup on Dec. 13, 2022 at the automaker’s Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center (REVC).

Michael Wayland | CNBC

Ford Motor said Thursday that many customers in North America are no longer willing to pay a premium for an electric vehicle over an internal-combustion or hybrid alternative.

As a result, it’s postponing about $12 billion in planned spending on new EV manufacturing capacity.

Customers’ reluctance to pay extra for EVs has complicated Ford’s ambitious and expensive plans to sharply increase production of those vehicles. While Ford’s – and the industry’s – sales of EVs are growing, they aren’t growing at the pace Ford had expected.

Ford executives emphasized that the company isn’t cutting back its spending on future electric vehicle models. But it now plans to ramp up its EV manufacturing capacity, and its spending on that capacity, more gradually than previously planned.

“We’re not moving away from our second generation [EV] products,” CFO John Lawler said in a media briefing Thursday. “We are, though, looking at the pace of capacity that we’re putting in place. We are going to push out some of that investment.”  

Ford Motor said Thursday that many customers in North America are no longer willing to pay a premium for an electric vehicle over an internal-combustion or hybrid alternative.

Lawler said that Ford will postpone about $12 billion in planned spending on manufacturing capacity for EVs, including a planned second battery plant at a new campus in Kentucky. But, he noted, construction of Blue Oval City – Ford’s new EV manufacturing campus in Tennessee – will continue as originally planned.

“The customer is going to decide what the volumes are,” Lawler said. “Ford is able to balance production of gas, hybrid and electric vehicles to match the speed of EV adoption in a way that others can’t.”

As part of its third-quarter earnings report, Ford said on Thursday that its electric-vehicle business unit, called Ford Model e, lost $1.3 billion on an operating basis in the period. That’s roughly double its year-ago loss, despite a 26% increase in revenue.

Through the first three quarters of 2023, Model e posted an operating loss of about $3.1 billion, on track with Ford’s previous guidance calling for a full-year operating loss of $4.5 billion for the Model e business unit.

Ford withdrew all of its 2023 guidance Thursday in light of its tentative deal with the United Auto Workers labor union.

Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi exhibits promise as injection

Eisai on Wednesday said an injectable version of the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi showed promising initial results in a clinical trial, potentially paving the way for a new and more convenient option for administering the antibody treatment. 

However, the injection did not cause lower rates of brain swelling and bleeding, which are Leqembi’s most concerning side effects.

Leqembi, made by Eisai and its partner Biogen, is the first medicine proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in people at the early stages of the memory-robbing disease. U.S. regulators in July approved a version of Leqembi that is administered twice monthly through the veins, which is a method known as intravenous infusion. 

But Eisai and its partner Biogen are hoping to win approval for a subcutaneous version of the drug, which would be an injection under the skin. That method would allow patients or caregivers to administer the Leqembi at home, freeing them from the need to travel to an infusion center such as a hospital every two weeks.

Eisai and Biogen said in a release that they plan to apply for U.S. approval of subcutaneous Leqembi by the end of March.

Eisai presented the preliminary results, from an extension to a late-stage trial that supported the approval of intravenous Leqembi, at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease conference in Boston. That study tested subcutaneous doses of Leqembi and measured the drug’s safety and effects on a protein called amyloid – also known as plaque – that builds up in the brain and is associated with Alzheimer’s. 

The study showed that a set of two injections administered once weekly produced similar results after six months to twice-monthly intravenous infusions in terms of safety, the concentration of the drug in the blood and its ability to clear plaque buildups in the brain, Eisai said.

The study specifically showed that the injectable form of Leqembi removed 14% more plaque than the approved intravenous formulation. Blood concentration levels of the drug were 11% higher with subcutaneous Leqembi than the other version.

But the newer form still showed side effects known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, or ARIA. The removal of plaques from the brain can be associated with brain swelling and bleeding – also known as ARIA-E and ARIA-H – which can be severe or even deadly in rare cases.

Almost 17% of patients who got weekly injections had ARIA-E, compared with 13% who got the drug via intravenous infusion. And 22% of those taking the shots had ARIA-H, versus 17% who received the other form.

Roughly 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. That group is projected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050.

One in three seniors die with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, which kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, the association said. The neurodegenerative disease begins with mild memory loss but eventually impairs a person’s ability to think and carry out daily activities.

There is a wealth of research on Alzheimer’s, but it has been notoriously difficult to treat. Multiple drugs designed to target the disease have failed in trials. The sheer cost and length of that research further impede drug development. And in recent years, scientists have ignited a debate over the true cause of the disease and what the drugs should target.

Ex-president storms out, choose points gag order advantageous

Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, October 25, 2023.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Donald Trump stormed out of his $250 million New York fraud trial Wednesday, shortly after a judge fined him for violating his gag order and then rejected a defense attorney’s bid for a verdict in Trump’s favor.

The visibly angry former president’s sudden departure elicited gasps from the courtroom and sent his own Secret Service agents chasing after him, NBC News reported.

Trump left while Michael Cohen, his former personal lawyer who is a star witness against him in the case, was still on the stand.

Cohen, under cross-examination, said he did not recall if Trump had asked him to inflate the values of his assets on financial records at the heart of the civil case.

Cliff Robert, an attorney for the Trump family, then asked Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron for a directed verdict based on Cohen’s answer. The judge denied the request — and Trump immediately got up and left.

During Trump’s absence, Cohen clarified that while Trump did not explicitly tell him to inflate the numbers, he communicated the outcome he wanted. Trump speaks like a “mob boss,” Cohen explained.

Trump later walked back into the courtroom, and Robert again asked the judge for a directed verdict.

“Absolutely not,” Engoron said, telling the attorney, “there’s enough evidence in this case to fill the courtroom.”

After the trial adjourned, Trump headed straight from the courthouse to LaGuardia Airport.

The clash between the judge and the defendants was only the latest round of fireworks to erupt that afternoon.

Trump breaks gag order, again

Shortly beforehand, Engoron fined Trump $10,000 for once again violating a gag order barring him from targeting the judge’s staff.

Engoron had summoned Trump to the witness stand to explain comments he made outside the courtroom earlier in the day, when he complained about a “very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”

The judge took that as a reference to his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, who sits next to Engoron in court.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump watches as his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen is questioned by a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, before Judge Arthur F. Engoron during the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, October 24, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

Trump had previously been barred from making public statements about Engoron’s staff, after he sent a social media post attacking Greenfield on the second day of the trial.

Under questioning from Engoron about his latest remarks, Trump said that he was referring to Cohen, who has been testifying throughout the trial day.

But Engoron said that answer was not credible, based on the language Trump used.

“Don’t do it again or it will be worse,” Engoron warned after issuing the fine.

Engoron’s ruling is the second time Trump has been found in violation of his gag order in the fraud trial. Engoron fined Trump $5,000 last week, warning that future violations could carry much more severe sanctions, including imprisonment.

Cohen’s credibility

The dramatic developments came at the end of an already contentious second day of testimony from Cohen, who faced a barrage of attacks about his credibility as a witness.

Trump and his legal team had spent much of the previous trial day targeting Cohen’s criminal history, attempting to paint him as a “serial liar” whose word could not be trusted.

Trump doubled down Wednesday during a midmorning break, saying Cohen “went to jail for lying” and branding him “a totally discredited witness.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case accuses Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and top executives of falsely inflating the values of Trump’s real estate properties and other assets in order to get tax benefits and better loan terms.

James seeks around $250 million in damages, and she wants to bar Trump and his co-defendants from running another business in New York.

In his first day on the stand, Cohen had accused Trump of directing him and another Trump Organization executive to falsely inflate the values of his assets on financial statements.

Trump “would look at the total assets and say, ‘I’m actually not worth $4.5 billion. I am really worth more like $6 billion,'” Cohen testified under oath.

But Trump’s attorney Alina Habba grilled Cohen on cross-examination, highlighting his 2018 guilty plea on charges including lying to Congress. Habba asked him if he lied to the judge in that case during his plea hearing, and Cohen replied that he had.

Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen looks on at court during a break in the former presidents’s fraud trial in New York on October 25, 2023.

Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images

On Wednesday, Habba picked up where she left off, needling Cohen on his admission of lying to the judge before accusing him of “cashing in” on his current antagonism toward Trump.

Cohen has implicated his former boss in some of the crimes that he himself pleaded guilty to, including making secret hush-money payments to women who said they had extramarital affairs with Trump, and lying about his business dealings with Russia. Trump has pleaded not guilty in a separate New York criminal case charging him with falsifying business records related to the hush-money payments.

Cohen, Trump’s once-loyal aide, is now a star witness against him in James’ trial. Cohen’s 2019 testimony to Congress about Trump’s allegedly fraudulent business practices is what led James to open her sweeping investigation.

Engoron, who will deliver verdicts in the no-jury trial, has already found Trump liable for fraud and ordered the cancellation of the defendants’ New York business certificates. The trial, which is expected to stretch into late December, will resolve James’ six remaining claims.

Cohen’s ‘animosity’ toward Trump in focus

Habba, in an apparent attempt to establish a financial motive for the witness, contrasted Cohen’s current loathing for Trump with his past statements overflowing with praise for his then-boss.

Cohen confirmed in court that he once had said he would “take a bullet” for Trump and had vowed to “never walk away” from him.

She then questioned whether Cohen sought a job in Trump’s White House following his 2016 election victory. Cohen said he did not, adding that he received the job of personal attorney that he had asked for.

Habba quoted Cohen’s words from his tell-all memoir “Disloyal,” saying that “of course” he was “cashing in” on his relationship with Trump.

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When she asked if Cohen had “significant animosity” toward Trump, Cohen replied, “Yes, I do.”

Cohen also agreed that his career now involves publicly attacking Trump.

The bubbling tensions between the lawyers and the witness occasionally boiled over.

“I have answered every question that you want. Why are you screaming at me?” Cohen asked Habba at one point. 

Trump, who stared down Cohen in court on Tuesday and Wednesday, repeatedly attacked his former lawyer in between the proceedings. He called Cohen a “proven liar,” a “felon” and a “disgrace” outside the courtroom, among other names.

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What subsequent if Israel embarks on a Gaza floor assault

Israeli soldiers listen to Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as he meets them in a field near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel October 19, 2023.

Ronen Zvulun | Reuters

Israel is widely expected to embark on a major ground incursion into Gaza, seeking to wipe the Palestinian militant group Hamas “off the face of the Earth” in response to a devastating and coordinated terror attack earlier this month.

The prospect of an imminent mass incursion has raised questions about what a post-war future could look like, particularly since Israel’s military strategy does not appear to have a clear endgame.

It comes just over two weeks since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 assault on Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostage. More than 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 15,000 injured since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to Palestinian authorities.

Samuel Ramani, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said Monday that a ground assault by Israel into Gaza now appeared inevitable — albeit not likely over the next 48 to 72 hours or even the rest of the week.

The bigger question, Ramani said, may be what comes next.

Asked whether there is a danger that Israel may end up in a position that it can’t then get out of, Ramani replied, “That’s actually what some of the Israeli officials have even been saying, you know, off the record and privately to various media outlets: We don’t really know what will happen next.”

“One thing that the Israeli political establishment seems to be firmly united against is the notion of occupying the Gaza Strip or reoccupying it,” Ramani told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“But the big question is when you remove the Hamas leadership, what exactly do you replace it with? Do you replace it with the Palestinian Authority, which has extremely low levels of popularity in the Gaza Strip?”

Ramani highlighted a Hamas senior political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, is more popular among Palestinians than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “by a significant margin,” since many view Abbas as a corrupt pillar of the status quo.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content | Israeli soldiers practice firing their rifles in a field close to the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 23, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Thomas Coex | Afp | Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is likely to be reluctant to look like they are collaborating with Israel, Ramani said.

“So, it is very, very hard to understand what will happen once Hamas goes, and the risk is that many civilians die in this war, Hamas could be going underground, or new extremist movements could develop and Israel’s security could be threatened once again,” he added.

A spokesperson for Israel’s government did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, has said a full surrender of Hamas and the return of Israeli hostages could end the war in the Gaza Strip.

“The aim here is to totally dismantle Hamas from its military capabilities. If that can be done from the air, and with standoff measures, with very limited exposure to our troops and less damage on the ground, that would be great,” IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus told ABC Radio Melbourne.

‘Violence will just breed more violence’

The United Nations has previously called for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire” amid the Israel- Hamas war, pushing for Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release those it is holding captive and urging Israel to allow unrestricted access of essential basic supplies to Gaza.

The Gaza Strip is a narrow portion of land sandwiched between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with more than 2 million people living in conditions that human rights organizations have equated to an “open-air prison.”

Israel-Hamas war: There needs to be a more 'sophisticated' approach to Hamas, analyst says

Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow at Chatham House, said Monday that there was “no magic wand” to bring an end to this kind of war, a conflict which he said had been left “to fester for way too long.”

“I think right now, gradually everyone understands that wiping out Hamas is not a matter of just bombing Gaza and not a matter of even a ground offensive. You have to deal with Hamas as a military force, Hamas as a political force and also Hamas as an idea,” Mekelberg told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.”

“At the same time, we see the magnitude of destruction and death among Palestinians right now. It is not a crisis anymore, it is a disaster … which is unacceptable,” he continued.

“How you reconcile between all of this, reducing the casualties, the suffering of Palestinians but at the same time ensuring that Hamas is not capable of hurting Israel the way it did is a challenge,” Mekelberg said. “It probably won’t be resolved in a matter of days or weeks in just one operation.”

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 22, 2023 amid the ongoing battles between Israel and Palestinian groups.

Said Khatib | Afp | Getty Images

To find a political solution to the Israel-Hamas war, Mekelberg said, policymakers would need to take a fresh approach to the root cause of the conflict. “You need new leadership in both political entities. You need people to think along peaceful co-existence,” he said.

“You need innovative and creative ideas, and you need a new generation that understands that violence will just breed more violence and bloodshed and won’t improve the life of either side one iota.”

Operating a franchise enterprise like quick meals is getting dearer

A customer views a digital menu at the drive-thru outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Peru, Illinois.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

McDonald’s decision to raise royalty fees for the first time in nearly three decades doesn’t mean a wave of franchisees across corporate brands are about to see their cost of doing business go up, but it does underscore the need for business owners to keep up with changes in the franchise business model. The economics of being in the franchise business may, in fact, continue to increase based on a number of factors, from regulation of the industry to the cost of technological adaptation.

In McDonald’s case, the change from 4% to 5%, starting Jan. 1 — which applies to franchisees in U.S. and Canada who add new restaurants, buyers of company-owned restaurants, relocated restaurants and other scenarios that involve the franchisor, but not existing franchisees — brought the fast-food giant more in-line with other restaurant franchises, many of whom already charge royalty fees in the 5% to 6% range, said Kenny Rose, chief executive of franchise investing platform FranShares.

Outside fast food, franchise royalty fees can be even higher, up to 12% or more based on the type of franchise business, according to the International Franchise Professionals Group, a membership-based organization.

Here’s what franchisees need to know about the changing landscape:

Royalty fees could continue to rise

While industry participants said they don’t expect franchisors to raise royalty fees en masse, there could be some franchisors that follow McDonald’s lead, especially if they are below industry norms, said Keith Miller, a principal at Franchisee Advocacy Consulting and spokesman for the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers, a trade association. 

In fact, the McDonald’s increase is right on the industry average, according to the International Franchise Association. In the quick-service restaurant space, 62% of brands changed royalties over a 30-year period by an average of 1.3%, according to its data. 

For comparison, Wendy’s charges royalty fees in the 4% to 6% range; Burger King charges 4.5% and Subway has a royalty fee of 8% of gross sales, according to information they disclose on their respective websites.

Franchisors are in a race to stay ahead of their own corporate rivals and there is significant value associated with a brand like McDonald’s.

“Franchisors compete against each other for quality franchisees,” said Robert Branca Jr., who owns several Dunkin’ franchises and serves on both the Coalition of Franchisee Associations and the International Franchise Association boards. “Everybody knows who and what McDonald’s is. They have the clout to get a higher royalty fee than a lesser brand.”

That’s not to say all McDonald’s franchisees were happy about the new fee model.

In a letter from a McDonald’s franchisee-owner group shared with CNBC, they noted that their restaurants are generating less cash flow today than they were in 2010 despite what they described as record revenue for McDonald’s Corporation. The owners’ group warned that reinvestment decisions should be reconsidered as it will not provide a historic return and “it’s time for every owner-franchisee to begin focusing on protecting their business, employees and family.”

McDonald’s says 2023 is expected to be one of the highest cash flow years in franchisees’ history.

Other franchise business costs will inevitably increase

Over the last five years, initial franchise fees as well as royalty rates have basically kept pace with the rate of inflation, according to Matt Haller, chief executive of the IFA.

But that means inflation significantly boosted the cost of opening new business units. In 2022, according to the IFA, the cost of investing in a franchising unit increased by as much as 30% — when combined with higher interest costs. In the service industry, from 2019 to 2023, there was an compound annual growth rate of 4% to 5% in initial franchise fees.

It’s inevitable that franchise fees will go up over time to account for factors such as inflation and the fast pace of technological change. Franchise fees include royalty fees, marketing assessments, reservation fees and guest loyalty program fees.

Some costs simply have to increase, even mid-contract, Branca said. “Things change and you need to stay relevant to your consumer if you want to stay in business.”

He gave the example of mobile apps, digital ordering and electronic menu boards, which may not have been as relevant if a franchise agreement was signed several years ago.

It’s important for franchisees and prospective franchisees to remember that fee increases can lead to increased sales and profits for their businesses, such as investments in marketing which drive more customers to stores. There is no guarantee this will be the result and it won’t be the result in every single case, but there is a relationship between costs and business opportunity that cannot be summarily dismissed.

Franchise disclosures are being scrutinized, including by the FTC

One of the first places a prospective franchisee goes for information about investing in a franchise business is the Franchise Disclosure Document.

Branca is part of an International Franchise Association committee working to simplify the information in the FDD, which contains essential information on costs and expenses. The current format, which can run several hundred pages long, is decades old and not user-friendly, he said. The goal is to modernize disclosures to prospective franchisees and make the information more easily understood.

That may include an executive summary that more easily answers questions like: How much will it cost me and what other expenses can I expect that the FDD might not disclose?

Other questions the summary could address include: How much can I make, what are the risks and how can I exit the enterprise if it’s not working out?

“The more you can ferret out through improved disclosure, the better outcomes you’re going to get for brand growth and franchisee profitability,” Haller said.

That industry effort comes amid a review by the Federal Trade Commission of the Franchise Rule it enforces to govern the relationship between franchisors and franchisees. Earlier this year, it sought public comment on its concerns “about how the franchise relationship is working, and how it is not,” according to a March release.

“It’s clear that, at least in some instances, the promise of franchise agreements as engines of economic mobility and gainful employment is not being fully realized,” said Elizabeth Wilkins, Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning in the release.

More than 5,500 comments were received, including from the IFA and big brands including Marriott, Hilton and Yum! Brands, as well as McDonald’s franchisees. An FTC proposal for amendments to the rule could come by the end of the year, according to previous CNBC reporting.

Pending changes in federal labor law could upend franchise economics

It’s also worth watching what happens with the National Labor Relations Board’ proposed rule on joint-employer status, expected to be finalized this month.

Under the proposed rules, franchisees would be considered employees of and/or co-employers with their franchisor. This could mean higher employment costs for franchisors, which could upend the economics of the franchise model, Haller said.

“If it stands, it could lead to franchisors pursuing more of a corporate model than a franchising strategy,” he said.

In this scenario, according to an analysis conducted by Oxford Economics (commissioned by the IFA), franchisors might reduce or eliminate many of the services they typically provide to franchisees. From training, to uniforms, tools and equipment, and customer service standards, costs could be transferred costs to franchisees.

But the Oxford Economics report says the model could move in the other direction as well, with a change in the law leading to even greater control of the individual franchise locations as franchisors seek to avoid potential violations, fines and litigation. That would likely increase the franchisor’s management expenses — “more audits, new departments, additional technologies, and the presence of a franchisor’s employee on site” — and franchisees should expect that at least some of these expenses will be passed on, potentially reducing their return on investment.

Franchise owners should take an active role and organize

With costs increasing and regulatory changes looming, franchise owners should start by keeping up on what a particular franchisor is doing with respect to fees and other policies.

But they should also be organizing among peers to defend their interests and business models, says John Motta, chairman of the Coalition of Franchisee Associations, an advocate for member franchisees. He suggests franchisees get involved in their franchisor’s advisory council, if one exists. This is a good way to get a “sense of what’s ahead,” he said.

And if there is no council, it could be worth starting one to help facilitate communication with the franchisor, said Motta, who owns 32 Dunkin’s across New Hampshire and Virginia.