Start your week smart: Huge winter storm, New Orleans grit, Mike Johnson, hush money case, Cybertruck explosion
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you the news you need to start your week smart
January brought some good news for seniors on Medicare: a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug costs. It’s one of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act’s most helpful provisions to lower prescription prices. Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • Nearly 70 million people are under winter alerts nationwide, with a powerful weather system expected to bring a potent mix of snow, ice and blizzard conditions, accompanied by winds gusting up to 50 mph. The storm will create treacherous travel conditions and potential power outages across at least a dozen states.• For a generation now, New Orleans residents have been tested by a bevy of high-profile scourges. So many have internalized a hard and potent lesson that often gets celebrated here as “resilience” but really boils down to this: How to carry on in the face of the unimaginable.• President-elect Donald Trump helped get Mike Johnson across the finish line, but the dramatic House speaker vote signals that there are challenges ahead. Johnson informed Republicans at a closed-door meeting that Trump favored moving his agenda as one sweeping package.• Trump will face no legal penalties for his conviction in the hush money case, a New York judge ruled. Judge Juan Merchan, however, upheld his conviction. Merchan set sentencing for January 10 but indicated the case is essentially over.• The active-duty US Army Green Beret who authorities say exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas struggled with injuries relating to his military service and said he was depressed while they were together, an ex-girlfriend told CNN. MondayCongress will convene in a joint session to count electoral votes and certify the results of the presidential election. TuesdayFormer President Jimmy Carter, who died last week at the age of 100, will lie in state at the US Capitol as members of the public are invited to pay their respects. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, accused of setting fire to a woman who was asleep on a New York City subway, will be arraigned on murder and arson charges.
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.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
A new poll shows more than 70% of Republicans with Obamacare coverage don’t want their enhanced premium subsidies to expire.
A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting a man taking part in a “No Kings” protest last June in Salt Lake City while firing at another man he believed to be a potential mass shooter has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The specter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown looms over the Somali diaspora in the Twin Cities – home to the nation’s largest Somali population.