Start your week smart: Foreign aid package, surveillance bill, Memphis shooting, VW union vote, USC graduation drama
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CNN’s 5 Things brings you all the news you need to start your week smart.
The pandas are coming! The pandas are coming! China will send giant pandas to live at the San Francisco Zoo, the city’s mayor announced on Friday. The timeline for their arrival will be set by the completion of a new panda enclosure at the zoo. China said back in February it also plans to send two giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo — the first time it has granted new panda loans to the US in two decades. Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • House Democrats joined Republicans to pass a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region. The measures now go to the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson defied the right flank of his party to shepherd the legislation through.• President Joe Biden signed a bill that reauthorizes a key surveillance authority after the Senate passed the legislation despite a contentious debate over privacy concerns, avoiding a lapse in the controversial program.• Two people were killed and at least six others were injured in a shooting at a block party in Memphis, where up to 300 people were gathered, police said. They believe at least two people opened fire at the party.• Hourly workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelming voted to join the United Auto Workers, a major breakthrough in the union’s effort to organize workers at plants nationwide.• The University of Southern California called off appearances by prominent speakers and honorees at graduation, days after the institution canceled the commencement speech of Muslim valedictorian Asna Tabassum due to what it called security concerns. MondayOpening arguments and the first witness testimony could begin in the first criminal trial of former President Donald Trump. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his alleged role in a hush money scheme before the 2016 election. It is just one of four criminal cases he faces while running again for president. April 22 is Earth Day, an annual event designed to highlight the importance of environmental conservation and sustainability. The Jewish holiday of Passover begins at sundown.
Four days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk’s top lieutenants at the Treasury Department asked its acting secretary, a career civil servant, to immediately shut off all USAID payments using the department’s own ultra-sensitive payment processing system.
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Security for the Super Bowl in New Orleans will feature more boots on the ground, more tech and more intelligence – spearheaded by a federal official who grew up 40 miles from where kickoff will take place.
The Trump administration’s rapid moves to dismantle the US Agency for International Development have left thousands of workers scrambling to figure out what comes next and scores of those posted in dangerous hotspots around the world afraid for their safety.
President Donald Trump’s bid to remake the federal government is already affecting some vulnerable populations in the United States, according to nonprofits and health care providers who are grappling with delays in federal funding, new rules and changed guidance.
President Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship in the United States. What is it, which other countries apply the policy and who would be affected by the order?
Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal.
The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of using her office to impede the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 26-year-old’s death fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system.
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.