5 things to know for May 28: Trump trial, Gaza airstrikes, Severe storms, Papua New Guinea, Pope Francis
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The summer movie season historically draws the largest theater audiences of the year. However, the 2024 box office is seeing slumping sales following monthslong production delays and strikes that brought Hollywood to a standstill. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. Former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented criminal hush money trial is expected to be in the hands of jurors this week. The closing arguments set to begin today will allow prosecutors to explain to the 12 jurors how each witness they called and piece of evidence they presented bolsters their case for a guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. After Trump’s attorneys also present their closing arguments, the judge presiding over the case will instruct the jury as to the charges it must consider against the former president. After that, the jurors will begin their deliberations. If convicted, the judge could sentence Trump to probation or a sentence of up to 4 years on each count in state prison, with a maximum of 20 years. Global outrage is mounting over Israel’s airstrike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah that killed at least 45 people and wounded 200 others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a “tragic error” but reaffirmed that he would not end the war in Gaza until his military’s goals were accomplished. The White House said it is “actively engaging” with officials in Israel to determine what precisely happened. The deadly strike comes just weeks after President Joe Biden told CNN that he’d halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel if it invades Rafah. Israeli bombings in other areas of Gaza also killed at least six others today, a Palestinian news agency said. Around 47 million people are at risk for severe weather today as powerful storms continue to ravage parts of the central, southern and eastern US. Destructive thunderstorms and tornadoes were responsible for at least 23 deaths over the holiday weekend, including four children, in parts of Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama. The storms killed 15 in Arkansas and Texas alone. Another five people died in Kentucky. Central and northern Texas appear to face the most serious threat of severe weather today. The area, which includes Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth, could be pelted by large hail, lightning and wind gusts as strong as 80 mph. A few tornadoes may also stir up, according to the National Weather Service. Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate Papua New Guinea following a massive landslide last week. As many as 2,000 people are feared to have been buried in the disaster that rattled the mountainous Enga region on Friday. Rescuers have struggled to reach such a remote part of what is already one of Asia’s poorest nations, leaving locals with little choice but to dig through the mountainside with whatever tools they have. The area continues to pose an “extreme risk,” officials said, as rocks continue to fall and the soil is exposed to constant increased pressure. It’s not clear what caused the landslide, but geologists say rainfall could have altered the minerals of the bedrock, weakening the rock that forms the steep hillsides.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced a state of catastrophe in two regions in the south of the country early on Sunday as raging wildfires forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate and left at least 16 people dead.
The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for deployment to Minnesota, according to defense officials cited by The Washington Post and ABC News, as Minnesota officials have also mobilized the National Guard.
The Democratic Party has a deeply motivated base and a clear advantage on the generic congressional ballot ahead of this fall’s midterms despite dismal impressions of its current leaders in Congress, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
American Battleground: Demolition Man – How Trump’s first year back is changing the nation’s capital
On a breezy autumn morning beneath skittering clouds, the demolition crew strikes quicker than almost anyone expected. Working seemingly under the sole command of President Donald J. Trump, who has long fashioned himself the Builder-in-Chief, they take only days to reduce the 123-year-old East Wing of the White House to rubble. No drawn-out debate. No approval by independent preservationists.
What was once a place of worship filled with precious objects packed with meaning now sits in heavy layers of dark soot, burdened by the pungent smell of smoke after someone set fire to Mississippi’s largest and oldest synagogue.
Dos semanas después del derrocamiento de Nicolás Maduro, los ciudadanos venezolanos que viven en diferentes países de la región siguen con atención lo que ocurre en la tierra que los vio nacer. Jimena de la Quintana visitó Gamarra, el emporio comercial más grande de Perú y uno de los más importantes de Latinoamérica, que es fuente de empleo de muchos venezolanos. ¿En qué condiciones regresarían esos migrantes venezolanos a su país? ¿Para ellos es suficiente que Maduro ya no esté en el poder?
The US on Saturday announced it conducted a lethal strike in Syria on an al Qaeda affiliate leader it says had direct ties to an ISIS attacker who killed three Americans in early December.
President Donald Trump has leaned into his presidential clemency powers much more aggressively in his second term –in fact, he’s pardoned one woman twice.
The Pentagon has ordered the military command that oversees new recruits’ enlistment to hold off on initial training for people who are HIV-positive and recently enlisted in the military, CNN has learned, saying that a decision on reinstating a Defense Department ban on their joining the military was “expected in the next few weeks.”
Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into office Saturday as Virginia’s first female governor, amid a cold drizzle outside the state Capitol after centuries of men holding the commonwealth’s top office.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.
Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.
Celebrities and laypeople are sharing fond memories from 2016, the era of face “baking” and #ImWithHer, when some of the biggest national dramas pitted Kim Kardashian against Taylor Swift.