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Briana: Tonight on "NJ Spotlight News," the markets continue to nosedive, wild swings in trading fueling recession fears as the Trump Administration doubles down on sweeping tariffs.

Plus hands off.

Thousands take to the streets of New Jersey, protesting the Trump Administration agenda.

>> People here are really concerned about what we have always taken for granted, a country founded on the rule of law and on the basis of our Constitution and democracy.

Briana: Also, tense negotiations over the war in Gaza, protesters rally against a Princeton University campus appearance by a former Israeli Prime Minister.

>> Enabling of apartheid, and aside and annexation, juice at Princeton say not in our name.

Briana: And after a week of delays, the federal bribery case against Nadine Menendez resumes.

"NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

>> From NJPBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us.

We begin with a few of today's top headlines.

First a volatile day on Wall Street.

Stocks tumbled and surged during a roller coaster trading session as investors searched for signs that President Trump's tariffs could be negotiated or even paused but in his latest move, the president doubled down, threatening to slap an extra 50% tariff against China as both countries look to retaliate against each other.

The White House put to rest any suggestion the administration would consider a 90 day halt to the tariffs, calling it fake news, reiterating the new trade policy will take effect as planned on April 9.

The S&P today edged near bear market territory as stocks hit record lows for a third straight trading day.

Stocks in Europe and Asia also plunged.

The tariffs seemingly paralyzing global trade and investment.

Economists to say this is the worst start to a presidential term in modern history, with trading lows matching only that of the 1987 crash, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid crash of 2020.

Also tonight, anti-Trump protesters across New Jersey, with thousands taking part in the national movement called hands-off, speaking out against the Trump Administration policies since taking office two months ago.

That includes the tariff war, threats of cuts to Medicaid and Social Security and the massive overhaul of the federal government by billionaire advisor Elon Musk.

New Jersey alone had more than two dozen demonstrations.

In Toms River close to 2000 people lined the road outside the V.A.

clinic, many veterans themselves, holding signs directed at some of the language President Trump has used calling them suckers and losers.

Protests were also in Cape May and Brookdale Park in Mount -- in Montclair where U.S.

Senator Cory Booker addressed the crowd.

Protesters flooded the streets outside the Statehouse in Trenton.

Gatherings were planned at capitals in all 50 states.

Demonstrators say they had different reasons for turning out.

Retirees and those close to it say they feared for their 401(k)'s.

Loretta Weinberg, a lifelong activist got a group of seniors from her retirement home to do their part.

We will speak with her later in the show about why they got involved.

An update on the timeline for those I-80 sinkhole repairs which have wreaked havoc in Warren.

According to the state department of transportation, two westbound lanes are slated to reopen on May 4 to eastbound lanes and if everything goes according to plan, all lanes will reopen by June 25.

The road closures have had a significant impact on local businesses so in response, the Murphy administration on Friday announced a $5 million grant program that will help owners with 50 or fewer full-time employees.

Applicants have to prove their business has suffered at least $1000 during the first quarter of the year.

The U.S. small business administration will open a center on Tuesday where businesses can apply for federal disaster loans.

Following the decision to declare the situation and economic injury disaster, paving the way for those loans.

We will have more on that piece of the story tomorrow.

After a week of delays, the federal bribery trial of Nadeem Menendez resumed today with the prosecution's star witness taking the stand.

They are one of three New Jersey businessmen originally indicted with Menendez and her husband, former U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez.

The couple excepted bribes for political favors.

Both plead not guilty but Bob Menendez was convicted on all counts and is scheduled to start an 11 year prison sentence in June.

It is unclear exactly why the trial was delayed, and whether Nadine Menendez's recent treatment for breast cancer had anything to do with it.

Our Senior correspondent was inside the Manhattan federal court room today and joins us with the latest.

Everyone wants to know what did the witness have to say?

Reporter: Your remember that the prosecution claims it was Nadeem Menendez who did the dirty work in this bribery case and today it was the government's star key witness who tried to help the jury conduct those dots.

Essentially he said yes he pleaded guilty in this case because he says he did bribe Bob Menendez, he explained however he agreed with Nadine Menendez that he would provide a Mercedes-Benz, in order to buy her husband's influence.

He won at the center mark -- Senator to try and derail two investigations of fraud by the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

The first one involved a company that was run by his good friend, but the second one, the dots connected again, possibly to his own company and Uribe was afraid for his extended family.

He was desperate, he wanted to stop that case and he told the jury today quote, I provided a car to Nadine to protect my family.

Briana: And of course that infamous Mercedes we saw a photo of.

Who else was on the stand today?

Anyone to corroborate that bribery scheme?

Reporter: They called the former Attorney General of New Jersey to the stand, Grewal, because he testified that he was contacted twice by Senator Menendez and asked to come in for meetings.

They did discuss the case -- the situation once over the phone.

The other time Grewal went to Menendez's office in Newark and he said that both times, Menendez try to talk about a specific case.

Grewal said he refused to discuss the case and said it is against his protocol and standard operating procedure and he indicated Menendez did not ask him to do anything specifically but that he made it very clear he did not like the way the case was being handled.

Menendez says as he and his assistant were leaving, the assistant turned to him and said I quote, that was gross.

The defense on cross-examination asked did you ever discuss any of this with Nadine Menendez, to which Grewal replied I did not.

Briana: What do we know about the trial being delayed?

Why we have had these fits and starts for the trial?

Reporter: The trial was originally delayed because Nadine Menendez was being treated for breast cancer.

She had reconstructive surgery not long before this trial started.

The trial was postponed a couple days last week because according to her attorney, Nadine was in distress, in pain.

She was crying at the desk in the courtroom, according to several observers.

She was back in court today and according to observers, she walked in and she is wearing a pink breast cancer awareness pin and the prosecution asked the judge if he could request that Mrs. Menendez remove that pin, saying essentially, inferring it might sway the jury, that might draw some sympathy, knowing what she has been going through.

The judge refused to do that, and that was the end of that.

The testimony will continue tomorrow.

Briana: Great reporting is always.

-- as always.

Significant to see her walk in today, a much different state.

Thanks so much.

Reporter: Thank you.

Briana: As we mentioned at the top of the show, the nationwide hands-off rallies this weekend drew big turnouts, including from Democratic heavyweights like Senator Cory Booker, Congressman Frank Pallone and Josh Gottheimer who joined the protests and retired Senate majority leader Loretta Weinberg, who organized one, gathering dozens of seniors from her living home who thought they could not sit on the sidelines.

The 90-year-old former Democratic State Senator says everyone has an obligation to rise up and use their voice, regardless of their age.

Former Senator Loretta Weinberg is with us now.

Good to talk with you.

You had quite a turnout at this event.

How did you get people to want to be involved or was that not the difficult part?

Loretta: That was the easiest part.

This kind of bubbled from the bottom up, not from the top down.

We had done a demonstration after the Roe v. Wade issue came out of the Supreme Court.

We had done a big demonstration on a woman's right to choose.

We are all old enough to remember what life was like before Roe v. Wade.

I said let's do another demonstration.

There was another big demonstration going on at the municipal green, that had hundreds of people in attendance.

But with the seniors and that miserable weather, over 100 seniors turned up, from the building and the Bristol in Inglewood.

I have since been contacted by others who would like to join a coalition.

In a way, it was sort of depressing that we still have to be out doing this, and yet energizing to have so many people gather together to do it in unison.

Briana: I know a lot of folks came out for different concerns at all of the demonstrations, but the group that you gathered in particular, what is the top line?

Loretta: There are three top lines but there is one that goes over all of them and that is democracy.

People here are really concerned about what we have always taken for granted, a country founded on the rule of law and on the basis of our Constitution and our democracy.

Next to that comes Social Security, and certainly with the last week, with what's been going on, people are worried about their savings and their 401(k)'s, etc.

Briana: Let me ask you just in general, the Democratic response and what you make of it.

I know you attended Senator Booker's town hall he had over the weekend, fresh off of his marathon record-breaking speech on the Senate floor.

Is that the start of what we might expect to see from the party?

Loretta: As I said earlier, a lot of this that led to the hands-off March, at least for our participation was from the bottom up.

It really came from the grassroots, from my friends and neighbors and that spread over the country.

That I think Cory Booker stepped into a vacuum of national leadership, by the very dramatic very appropriate stand up he did for 25 hours and more.

For me it wasn't only the so-called filibuster, but the fact that he filled those 25 plus hours with facts and figures and worries and hope, for a democratic nation.

Briana: I wonder more broadly about the response.

You have been an activist your whole life.

Have Democrats been going about it the right way?

Loretta: I think everyone has tried and they try in their own ways but I think there was a lack of overall leadership, of national leadership that could be both appropriate and inspiring.

That is where Senator Booker came in.

Those of us in New Jersey and people right near my friends and neighbors, they listened, they tuned in, that evening at dinner, that was the only conversation about what was going on, so I think he captured people's imagination.

Briana: Definitely got the conversation started and continued.

Senator Loretta Weinberg, thank you so much for your time.

New Jersey state and federal leaders are also speaking out about the death of a 14-year-old American citizen from Saddle Brook who was shot and killed by Israeli military forces in the West Bank on Sunday.

In a statement the IDF confirmed troops opened fire on three people, killing one, calling them terrorists.

All three were teenagers.

The incident comes amid a rise in tensions and violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

As President Trump and is really prim -- prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House to talk about a possible cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Meanwhile at Princeton University tonight, there is mixed reaction over an invitation for former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to speak whose recent appearance at Harvard and Columbia universities also drew protests.

Some students and Princeton locals told debt -- Ted Goldberg they felt disturbed and threatened by Bennett's visit due to his controversial political history.

Reporter: Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is speaking at Princeton tonight, drawing a wide range of reactions.

>> It is our>> honor to bring that head of state.

>> Bennett's violent and racist rhetoric violates Jewish teaching and law.

Reporter: -- says Princeton is proud to host Bennett.

>> This is an opportunity for the students and the university community to meet someone who speaks for the state of Israel and to be in open dialogue and to have free discourse, to be able to bring the conversation to the students and community and to allow this kind of high-level nuanced conversation to happen.

Reporter: Some have harshly criticized Princeton forgiving Bennett a platform.

Bennett has consistently opposed the two state solution and has been accused of using racist language against Arab and Palestinian people.

>> To the racist fresh -- racist fascists like Naftali Bennett who spew gated hatred and violence against Arabs, I want you to know that you are responsible for the debts of all of these innocent people >> >>.

Just a couple months ago, my uncles house was burned to the ground by Israeli settlers and not a single person has ever been brought to justice because of racist policies and people like Naftali Bennett.

Reporter: Princeton tells us the campus is open to any speaker who students or faculty have invited and if arrangements have been made with the University.

>> The same Naftali Bennett that boasted about killing Arabs and said that it is OK to do so.

The same war criminal Bennett that a few weeks ago at Harvard University during his talk mocked giving pagers to pro-Palestinian protesters in reference to the war crimes that Israel committed against Lebanese and Syrians.

>> This is the core experience of living in a dynamic diverse free-speech environment on a college campus, that everybody is going to be made uncomfortable.

Reporter: This isn't the first protest Princeton has seen around Israel.

Last May, students called for the school to die first -- divest from Israel and formed a pro-Palestinian cam at that lasted three weeks.

The school has a allegations of anti-Semitism and saw research funding paused though it is unclear if they are connected.

Despite these tensions, Bennett is still scheduled to speak tonight and he is excited to draw a large protest outside.

>> His presence on our campus is a desecration of God's name, to his enabling of apartheid, genocide and annexation, Jews Princeton say not in our name.

>> Everybody has a voice and everybody has an opportunity to bring speakers and have their own voices heard and their own opinions expressed.

That is certainly what we've been doing in the Jewish community both on the left and the right and that is certainly continuing now in this event and for everyone else on this campus and all of the diversity of views and perspectives.

Reporter: Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire that lasted about two months.

Israel resumed Arst -- airstrikes in Gaza on March 18 and the effects are still being felt worldwide.

Briana: As the upcoming gubernatorial primary race gets closer, the GOP candidates in New Jersey are in a fight of their own.

Not only trying to win the approval of voters but also vying for the endorsement of President Trump.

His backing is considered the X factor in the high Merry but a liability in the general election.

Our senior political correspondent reports.

Reporter: The battle for the heart and mind of Donald Trump is the prevailing theme of this Republican gubernatorial primary .

A Trump endorsement is seen as a sure path to victory and so both sides are showing how Trumpy they are, if only by showing how not Trumpy the other guy is.

>> Two to really back on President Trump.

>> Finally we have a president committed to securing our border, yet Bill Stadia thinks we should let millions of illegals in.

Reporter: Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac says.

>> That would be me and not the others.

My competitors have wavered, called him a charlatan, called him a failure.

The president right now needs governors to work with, who have fixed values, beliefs that align with his and have always supported him.

Reporter: Kranjac is on the ballot but an unlikely recipient of a presidential endorsement.

Still he is not wrong about his opponents.

Both Spadea and Ciattarelli have said things about Trump and Trump policies that they probably would like to take back today.

>> Certainly Trump had some policy successes but he also had some policy positions that weren't good for New Jersey whether it was offshore drilling, lack of support for the Gateway project or elimination of the salt adduction.

It is hard to support a candidate for the presidency who isn't in sync with what is important to New Jersey.

>> It is time we talk about a pathway to citizenship for people who are here and they are undocumented.

There are millions of people here that are hard-working, they want to be here, they want to pay taxes and I say let them.

Reporter: There are some signs of Trump fatigue out there.

Folks are on overload with tariffs and tax cuts and the price of eggs.

Are Republicans here still hot enough for Trump to even come out for a race where he is not at the top of the ticket?

One Republican assemblyman says he is not convinced Trump will even get involved in the race.

>> It is all risk, no reward for him.

What we witnessed in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race is people like Donald Trump for Donald Trump.

That doesn't mean it cascades to everyone around him by any stretch.

I think all the candidates, particularly Ciattarelli and Spadea, have been a good job confusing everybody as to who is the more Trumpy person.

It will take a lot, even if Trump does an endorsement for Spadea, for the messaging to take and make a difference.

Reporter: It looks lately like the president's light may be sought -- maybe shining on Ciattarelli although Ciattarelli , his eye on the general election is not really crowing too much about it.

>> I do think it is actually changing for Jack should a really.

It is much more a game of keep away for Spadea.

It is not that they want the endorsement.

Of course they will welcome anything that is going to help them get the nomination.

But they must feel like they are in a good place as far as the nomination goes, so therefore don't necessarily do more to tie yourself to a guy who is an anchor around your neck but really what they are hoping is to keep the nomination, keep the support, keep the endorsement away from Spadea.

If they can do that, then you are achieving your purpose.

Reporter: Meanwhile, the other guy in the race, John Brandon Lake, watches the delicate dance, content and his decision made long ago, that no Trump is good Trump, even in a Republican primary.

Briana: That's going to do it for us tonight but before we go, a reminder you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us any time by subscribing to the "NJ Spotlight News" YouTube channel.

You can follow us on Instagram and blue to stay up-to-date on all of the big headlines.

For the entire team at "NJ Spotlight News," thanks for being with us.

Have a great evening.

We will see you here tomorrow.

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