An appeals court says Michael Cohen can't hold ex-president Donald Trump, his former boss, liable for allegedly jailing him in retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected Cohen's attempt to revive a lawsuit that a lower-court judge had tossed out. The appeals court said Cohen got relief by getting a judge to order his release from imprisonment to home confinement several weeks after he was abruptly put behind bars in 2020 when the government claimed he violated severe restrictions on his public communications. Cohen says he'll appeal to the Supreme Court. A Trump lawyer praised the ruling.

Harvard University President Claudine Gay has resigned amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy. Gay announced her departure, which came just months into her tenure, in a letter to the Harvard community on Tuesday. She and the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania came under fire last month for their lawyerly answers to a line of questioning from New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the colleges’ code of conduct.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to appeal rulings from Colorado and Maine that he is no longer eligible for the presidency. It would set up a high-stakes showdown over a 155-year-old addition to the Constitution that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.” The appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court ruling would go to the U.S. Supreme Court, while the appeal to the ruling by Maine’s Democratic secretary of state would go to that state’s Superior Court. It would mark the first time the nation’s highest court could rule on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It was added to the Constitution after the Civil War to prevent Confederates from returning to their former government posts.

New Year’s Day arrived to cheers from thousands in New York’s Times Square where a sparkling crystal ball descended to start 2024 with hope for some, even as the world’s ongoing conflicts subdued celebrations and raised security concerns across the globe. The march of midnight across time zones included pyrotechnic displays centered on iconic locations including Sydney’s Opera House, the Acropolis in Athens, the world’s tallest building in Dubai and the bamboo-shaped Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have affected this year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations in a myriad of ways. Many cities deployed extra security and some places canceled events altogether.