Supercharged seaweed, condo cracks, inside a company in crisis: Catch up on the day’s stories
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CNN’s 5 Things PM brings you the stories you might have missed during your busy day.
👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! A Texas mother is accused of buying ammunition and tactical gear for her son, despite repeated warnings about violent plans at his middle school. The boy’s grandmother alerted police. Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day: 1️⃣ Toxic bloom: At least 31 million tons of supercharged seaweed are moving toward Florida and around the Caribbean, threatening a putrid invasion of idyllic beaches. As the sargassum rots on shore, it emits gases and produces an awful stench that repels tourists during the busy travel season. 2️⃣ Red flags: Hurricane preparations at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have slowed to a crawl, and the disaster relief agency “is not ready” for the June 1 start to the season, according to an internal review. The document outlines FEMA’s struggles and raises a number of concerns. 3️⃣ Company in crisis: UnitedHealth Group, one of America’s biggest corporations, is unraveling. The CEO stepped down abruptly for “personal reasons,” and then came news that the health care giant is under criminal investigation for possible Medicare fraud. 4️⃣ Buyer beware: Apartment owners at a luxury New York skyscraper are suing the building’s developers over alleged structural defects — including thousands of severe cracks on the super-skinny Park Avenue tower’s facade.
The US Army officially stood up a new command on Friday to oversee the Army’s activities in the Western Hemisphere in the latest signal of increasing focus on homeland defense.
A former high-level Drug Enforcement agent was indicted on charges of conspiring to traffic drugs and launder millions of dollars for a Mexican cartel.
A federal judge in Florida ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts and other records in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein granting the Justice Department’s request.
The Indiana House approved new congressional maps designed to hand Republicans all nine of the state’s US House seats on Friday, setting the stage for a showdown next week in the state Senate.
Honduran presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla said last-minute interference from US President Donald Trump in the country’s closely fought election had damaged his chances of winning and left him trailing as vote counting dragged on.
Vice President JD Vance said he and second lady Usha Vance are largely amused by the online chatter dissecting their marriage, including a recent spate of headlines over photos of her without a wedding ring.
During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter said.
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The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
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.