5 things to know for May 21: Middle East, Severe weather, Trump trial, Climate, Italy earthquakes
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CNN’s 5 Things brings you the news you need to know every morning.
ChatGPT unveiled five fictional voice assistants last year — Breeze, Cove, Ember, Juniper and Sky. Now, the company behind the AI tool is pausing one of the synthetic voices after it received criticism from actor Scarlett Johansson for being “so eerily similar” to hers. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants on charges of war crimes for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister, and three Hamas leaders. President Joe Biden slammed the court’s efforts as “outrageous,” saying the move puts the terrorist organization and a top US ally on equivalent footing. If the ICC were to grant an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his defense minister, the decision would make it extremely difficult for them to travel to any of the 124 countries that are party to the court’s laws, including top US allies such as Britain and Germany. Notably, France on Monday broke away from its Western allies — including the US, the UK and Italy — to express support for the ICC. More than 22 million people in the Midwest are under severe weather threats today as a relentless storm system rips through the region. Large hail, heavy winds and a few tornadoes are possible, forecasts show. The biggest area of concern is concentrated in much of Iowa, northwest Illinois, southwest Wisconsin and northern Missouri, which are under a Level 4 of 5 threat. Though they are not in the bullseye of the storm, cities including Chicago, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha and Madison are also at risk of seeing severe weather. Lower chances of severe storms stretch from Texas to Michigan, including Dallas, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Detroit. The prosecution rested its case against former President Donald Trump on Monday in his criminal hush money trial, which is nearing a conclusion as soon as next week. Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen wrapped up his testimony with an admission that he stole $60,000 from the Trump Organization for a payment he made on Trump’s behalf to a tech company. Analysts say this could potentially damage his standing with the jury. Prosecutors have used Cohen to try to convince jurors that Trump falsified business documents to cover up a payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, which they claim impacted the outcome. Ocean water is rushing miles underneath Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier,” new research shows, meaning global sea level rise projections could be significantly underestimated. The Thwaites Glacier, which already contributes 4% to global sea level rise, holds enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts as a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica, scientists have estimated its complete collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise — a catastrophe for the world’s coastal communities. New data helped to create an X-ray of the glacier and could help improve the accuracy of its forecasted timeline.
The Trump administration ordered legal service providers working with unaccompanied migrant children to stop their work, according to a memo obtained by CNN.
Louis DeJoy, the head of the US Postal Service, intends to step down, the federal agency said Tuesday, after a nearly five-year tenure marked by the coronavirus pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston was forced to close Tuesday due to the “sudden dismissal of federal employees,” the library’s foundation said in a statement to CNN.
Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been charged in connection with an attempted coup d’état, according to documents filed by prosecutors Tuesday evening.
A federal judge considering whether to indefinitely block President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender service members described it on Tuesday as having “unadulterated animus” toward transgender Americans.
Argentine President Javier Milei has defended himself for promoting a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch, likening those who invested in the token after his endorsement to gamblers at casinos.
A federal judge declined on Tuesday to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data systems at a slew of executive branch agencies.
A Maryland court on Tuesday ordered a blogger known as Ziz who leads a cultlike group connected to six killings held without bail.
As President Donald Trump orders federal workers to return to the office, he spent the fourth straight day at home here at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The federal judge overseeing the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider the Justice Department’s controversial motion to dismiss the charges.
Brazil’s government on Tuesday approved joining OPEC+, a group of major oil-exporting nations, signaling the country’s evolution into a major oil state just nine months ahead of hosting the United Nations’ annual climate summit.
The Trump administration has quietly fired multiple members of the “privacy team” and other officials from the office that oversees the hiring of federal workers, a move that limits outside access to government records related to the security clearances granted to Elon Musk and his associates, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
A Canadian woman “attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs,” the territory’s environmental department said.