Tracking Santa, rocket’s sonic booms, modern twist on Bible stories: Catch up on the day’s stories
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things PM brings you the stories you might have missed during your busy day.
Editor’s Note: CNN’s 5 Things newsletter is your one-stop shop for the latest headlines and fascinating stories to start and end your busy day. Sign up here. 👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Just because you’re spending the holidays alone doesn’t mean you have to be lonely. Experts explain how to make the most of your solitude this season. Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day: 1️⃣ Tracking Santa: The big night is finally here! Have you been naughty or nice? When you wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll know the answer. Here’s how you can keep tabs on Santa Claus and his reindeer on their journey around the world. 2️⃣ ‘A rite of passage’: Parents who buy a gun for their child as a holiday present say it brings the family together around a shared interest and represents an initiation into the next phase of life. But there are risks too, of course — and it’s a delicate balance. 3️⃣ Sound controversy: SpaceX’s Starship — the most powerful rocket system ever built — may be a stunning spectacle, but its sonic booms have some scientists worried. They say the atmospheric shockwaves must be “carefully watched.”
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.
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.