5 things to know for May 17: Trump trial, Southern storms, Middle East, Immigration, Marijuana
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you the news you need to know every morning.
A giant planet as fluffy as cotton candy has been spotted about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Astronomers say it’s the second-lightest planet ever found and will be key to research investigating atypical planetary formation. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer spent hours Thursday tediously moving through inconsistent statements that Michael Cohen has made over the years to knock his credibility. Cohen is the prosecution’s key witness in Trump’s criminal hush money trial, which centers on allegations that Trump broke the law by falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. In the heated questioning, Trump’s attorney cast doubt on Cohen’s memory of interactions with Trump in 2016 and portrayed him as a liar out for revenge. Court is off today so Trump can attend the high school graduation of his son, Barron. But summations may begin Tuesday — meaning the jury could have the case as early as next week. A dangerous, life-threatening storm system is unfolding in the South as torrential rain pummels Texas and Louisiana. The storms have killed at least four people in Houston and left more than 1 million homes and businesses without power, officials said. The wind was so strong Thursday that it blew out the windows of buildings in downtown Houston, littering the area with glass as traffic lights went dark. Forecasts show the storms will shift east today and target more of the Gulf Coast with heavy downpours. Around 14 million people are at risk of severe weather in the region, with swaths of Mississippi and Alabama under the moderate, Level 3 of 4, risk of excessive rainfall. Trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza are now moving ashore after arriving through the floating pier built by the US military. The pier was anchored to a beach in Gaza on Thursday and will be used to funnel aid from various countries into the besieged enclave as all other border crossings remain closed. Also on Thursday, the US House voted to prevent President Joe Biden from withholding weapons to Israel as Republicans criticize his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The bill is unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-led Senate and the White House has said that Biden would veto the bill if Congress passed it. The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department have announced new plans targeting migrants who have unlawfully crossed the US southern border. Some migrants will be placed on a new court docket and will have their cases resolved within 180 days — cutting the process down by months if not years. The docket applies to single adults who are released from government custody and headed to one of five destination cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. This comes as the immigration court backlog exceeds 3 million pending cases, according to an analysis of immigration court data.
A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.
For more than a decade, Chinese students have flocked to the United States, drawn by the prestige of an overseas education and the glamor of the American Dream. But that’s changing now – and recent statistics suggest the allure may be wearing off.
After rarely being seen in public in the two weeks since he delivered a brief, 46-second victory speech on election night, JD Vance reemerged this week to play one of the most important roles he will be expected to fill as Donald Trump’s No. 2: His point person on Capitol Hill.
A Florida man was arrested Wednesday and charged in a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange this week, according to the FBI.
The Senate on Wednesday voted down an effort led by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders to block a series of planned US weapons sales to Israel.
Republicans on the House Ethics Committee fell in line behind GOP leaders and voted not to release the results of their investigation into Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz, despite growing calls from the Senate GOP to make the findings public ahead of his confirmation hearing.
Senate Democrats have confirmed some of President Joe Biden’s picks for the federal bench this week in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for a total GOP blockade of judicial nominations – in part because several Republicans involved with the Trump transition process have been missing votes.
A former University of Virginia student pleaded guilty Wednesday to fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the Charlottesville campus in 2022.
Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality and people who have served on his US Secret Service detail to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking tell CNN.
The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, on the grounds it would not have secured the release of hostages.
A Democratic election official in Pennsylvania offered an impassioned apology Wednesday for claiming “precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country” to justify counting about 600 faulty ballots in defiance of state Supreme Court rulings.