5 things to know for April 23: Trump trial, Gaza, Ukraine, Health care privacy, Dubai floods
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NASA has regained communication with Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after a five-month computer glitch. The mission team was thrilled to receive the signal from interstellar space — an uncharted cosmic territory about 15 billion miles away. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. Prosecutors delivered opening statements Monday in former President Donald Trump’s historic and unprecedented criminal trial. The prosecutors told jurors that the reimbursement of hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels was part of a larger conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election. The former president’s attorneys responded by telling the jury that Trump was innocent and not involved in the creation of the 34 business records he’s charged with falsifying. On another legal front, the Supreme Court is set to hear Trump’s claim that he should have presidential immunity from prosecution. The move puts the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination on track for another high-stakes battle that could have a sweeping impact on his legal challenges. The US State Department’s annual report on human rights raises sharp concerns about the conflict in Gaza, noting allegations of war crimes by Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. The report details widespread disparities between Israelis and Palestinians and the “degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities after October 7.” A UN expert separately warned that the psychological terror of Israel’s offensive in Gaza could manifest years from now in the form of increased mental health illnesses among Palestinians there. Meanwhile in the US, heightened tensions around pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University have led the school to keep almost all classes hybrid until the end of the semester. Similar protests have prompted arrests at other campuses, including Yale and New York University. A $60 billion military aid package for Kyiv is due to go to the Senate today as Ukrainian officials struggle to fend off Russia’s advance. “To win, we need ammunition … our artillery is starving,” an artillery reconnaissance commander told CNN. For months, Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines have spoken of being badly outgunned by Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said the ratio was 10 to 1 in Russia’s favor. If the legislation is passed in Congress’ upper chamber, President Joe Biden has said he will sign it into law immediately, so that “we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs.” The Biden administration has issued a new rule to protect patients’ privacy when it comes to their medical information. The rule specifically prohibits the disclosure of a patient’s health records, even when they travel to another state for an abortion, IVF, birth control or other types of reproductive health care. “No one should have to live in fear that their conversations with their doctor or that their medical claims data might be used to target or track them for seeking lawful reproductive health care,” Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the Office for Civil Rights, said in a news conference. The new rule comes at a time when 14 states have total abortion bans.
The first week of testimony in Brian Walshe’s murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts, has come to an end. The jury heard from about two dozen witnesses called by the commonwealth in its case against Walshe as prosecutors work to prove he killed his wife, Ana Walshe, around New Year’s Day in 2023.
The US Army officially stood up a new command on Friday to oversee the Army’s activities in the Western Hemisphere in the latest signal of increasing focus on homeland defense.
A former high-level Drug Enforcement agent was indicted on charges of conspiring to traffic drugs and launder millions of dollars for a Mexican cartel.
A federal judge in Florida ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts and other records in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein granting the Justice Department’s request.
The Indiana House approved new congressional maps designed to hand Republicans all nine of the state’s US House seats on Friday, setting the stage for a showdown next week in the state Senate.
Honduran presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla said last-minute interference from US President Donald Trump in the country’s closely fought election had damaged his chances of winning and left him trailing as vote counting dragged on.
Vice President JD Vance said he and second lady Usha Vance are largely amused by the online chatter dissecting their marriage, including a recent spate of headlines over photos of her without a wedding ring.
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter said.
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The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?