Start your week smart: Iranian assassination plot, Ukraine drone attack, setback in Gaza talks, markets soar, Tuskegee shooting
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you all the news you need to start your week smart.
Need a little inspiration to get off the couch this Sunday? Look no further than this octogenarian who recently completed her 21st marathon! Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • The Justice Department announced federal charges in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election. According to court documents, Farhad Shakeri is still at large in Iran. Meanwhile the final presidential projection showed that Trump will win Arizona, completing a sweep of the battleground states and bringing his total number of projected Electoral College votes to 312, compared with 226 for Kamala Harris. Follow live updates.• Russia and Ukraine have exchanged record numbers of drone strikes, with Moscow launching a total of 145 drones – the most ever in a single nighttime attack of the war. Ukraine, meanwhile, fired an unprecedented number of drones toward Russia’s capital.• Qatar is suspending its role as a mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas after concluding that the two sides are no longer negotiating in good faith, its foreign ministry said. Qatar, alongside Egypt, served as an intermediary for the two sides, which do not officially maintain direct contact.• US stocks closed at record highs, notching their best week all year after Trump’s election victory. The S&P 500 briefly crossed 6,000 points for the first time ever before closing at about 5,996. The Dow rose about 260 points.• One person was killed and several others were injured in a shooting on the last day of homecoming week at Alabama’s Tuskegee University. Social media video shows people ducking for cover at a parking lot as gunshots rang out. MondayNovember 11 is Veterans Day, a holiday honoring men and women who have served in the US armed forces. TuesdayThe judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial earlier this year is expected to decide whether to wipe away Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to an adult film star, or to proceed with sentencing the president-elect later this month. Judge Juan Merchan’s self-imposed deadline follows the Supreme Court’s decision this summer granting a president partial presidential immunity. If Merchan decides to wipe away the conviction, the charges will be dismissed. WednesdaySenate Republicans will choose a successor to Mitch McConnell, who announced in February that he would not run for leader in the next Congress, ending what will be an 18-year tenure. Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Senate GOP Whip John Thune, the two top candidates to succeed McConnell, poured millions into GOP candidates’ campaign accounts and stumped for them on the trail as part of an effort to lock up support. A third leadership candidate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, is seen as a long shot, even though he has been in regular contact with Trump in their home state.
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.
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.