Start your week smart: Teacher layoffs looming, Trump trial, thousands fleeing Rafah, Eurovision winner, Steve Bannon
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you all the news you need to start your week smart.
Today is Mother’s Day … but why? Take a trip back in the CNN time machine to learn about the origins of the holiday, and why its creator later regretted starting it. Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • Schools across the country are announcing teacher and staff layoffs as districts brace for the end of a pandemic aid package that delivered the largest one-time federal investment in K-12 education. The money must be used by the end of September, creating a sharp funding cliff.• One of Donald Trump’s closest White House aides wrapped up her testimony in the former president’s hush money trial, clearing the way for the prosecution’s key witness to take the stand. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, is expected to testify Monday.• At least 300,000 people have fled the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of an Israeli ground offensive, the United Nations said. There is growing alarm over the humanitarian situation in Rafah, with food aid running very low. Follow live updates.• Switzerland’s Nemo won a chaotic and politically fraught Eurovision Song Contest, triumphing in a competition overshadowed by controversy and booing over the presence of Israel. Nemo sang a stunning rendition of “The Code,” about the journey toward accepting their non-binary identity.• A federal appeals court upheld the contempt-of-Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Trump who was found guilty after failing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee. MondayJury selection is set to begin in the federal corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez. The New Jersey Democrat has said he thought he was acting for the “good of the public” when helping Egypt and Qatar, while prosecutors allege Menendez and his wife took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in a scheme involving the foreign governments to fund their lavish lifestyle. Menendez, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will be tried alongside two New Jersey businessmen who are co-defendants. His wife, Nadine, also has been charged but will be tried separately. Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty to the charges, as have the other co-defendants. Also on Monday, Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is expected to begin his testimony in the former president’s criminal hush money trial. Prosecutors said it’s “entirely possible” they will rest their case by the end of the week. Cohen says Trump directed him to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump denies the allegations. TuesdayMaryland, Nebraska and West Virginia will hold primary elections, while voters in North Carolina head to the polls for runoff elections. Under North Carolina state law, a second-place candidate in a primary may request a second primary if no candidate receives more than 30% of the votes cast in that contest.
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.
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.