5 things to know for May 6: Generals, Israel, HHS lawsuit, ‘Weather weapons,’ Jennifer Aniston
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“I’m sorry. We’re unable to connect your call right now. The cardinal you’re trying to reach is voting for a new pontiff …” The process of choosing a successor to the late Pope Francis begins Wednesday. To maintain absolute secrecy, the Vatican plans to confiscate all electronic devices from the 133 participating cardinals and deactivate all mobile phone signals for the duration of the conclave. Signal jammers will also be set up around the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic surveillance or communication. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered significant cuts to the highest ranks of the US military. According to a memo he signed on Monday that was obtained by CNN, senior Pentagon leadership must reduce the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20%, the number of general officers in the National Guard by 20% and the total number of general and flag officers across the military by 10%. These removals are in addition to the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Navy chief in February. Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host, has previously railed against senior officers in the military, claiming they were “playing by all the wrong rules.” “And so they’ll do any social justice, gender, climate, extremism crap because it gets them checked to the next level,” he said in a podcast interview. Israel launched airstrikes in Yemen last night, one day after a Houthi attack on Tel Aviv over the weekend. The rebel group fired a ballistic missile in the vicinity of Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday “in rejection of (Israel’s) crime of genocide” against the people of Gaza, it claimed. Despite numerous attempts, the Israeli military was unable to intercept the missile. Although no one was injured or killed in the attack, it appears to be the first time Israel’s international airport — one of the most heavily protected sites in the country — has been successfully targeted by the Houthis. In response, the Israel Defense Forces sent 20 fighter jets to bomb dozens of Houthi targets in Hodeidah and surrounding areas. At least one person was killed and another 35 were injured, the Houthi-run Ministry of Health reported. Another lawsuit has been filed against the Trump administration, this time to protest the restructuring at the Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and Washington, DC, filed the suit against HHS, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other health officials, claiming that firing thousands of federal health workers and terminating numerous health programs endangers the public. The states are seeking an injunction to halt the firings and restore the programs. “HHS is responsible for protecting and preserving public health. And since taking office, this administration has fired scientists, closed labs, shuttered lifesaving programs, without rhyme, reason or any legal authority,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a news conference Monday. An HHS spokesperson said the Trump administration is following the law and simply making reforms to strengthen the agency. The National Weather Service has received threats from a violent militia-style group that apparently views Doppler radars as “weather weapons.” An internal NOAA email that was sent on Monday said the anti-government organization Veterans on Patrol is calling for “penetration drills on NEXRAD sites to identify weaknesses which can be used to ultimately destroy the sites.” The Next Generation Weather Radar system (NEXRAD), which is used by meteorologists, the FAA and the Air Force, detects precipitation and wind and helps pinpoint tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. It’s unclear what exactly the militia believes the radars are doing, but NWS staffers have been urged to adopt a buddy system when working at remote sites and be alert for suspicious activity.
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?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.