Start your week smart: Iranian assassination plot, Ukraine drone attack, setback in Gaza talks, markets soar, Tuskegee shooting
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you all the news you need to start your week smart.
Need a little inspiration to get off the couch this Sunday? Look no further than this octogenarian who recently completed her 21st marathon! Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • The Justice Department announced federal charges in a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before the presidential election. According to court documents, Farhad Shakeri is still at large in Iran. Meanwhile the final presidential projection showed that Trump will win Arizona, completing a sweep of the battleground states and bringing his total number of projected Electoral College votes to 312, compared with 226 for Kamala Harris. Follow live updates.• Russia and Ukraine have exchanged record numbers of drone strikes, with Moscow launching a total of 145 drones – the most ever in a single nighttime attack of the war. Ukraine, meanwhile, fired an unprecedented number of drones toward Russia’s capital.• Qatar is suspending its role as a mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas after concluding that the two sides are no longer negotiating in good faith, its foreign ministry said. Qatar, alongside Egypt, served as an intermediary for the two sides, which do not officially maintain direct contact.• US stocks closed at record highs, notching their best week all year after Trump’s election victory. The S&P 500 briefly crossed 6,000 points for the first time ever before closing at about 5,996. The Dow rose about 260 points.• One person was killed and several others were injured in a shooting on the last day of homecoming week at Alabama’s Tuskegee University. Social media video shows people ducking for cover at a parking lot as gunshots rang out. MondayNovember 11 is Veterans Day, a holiday honoring men and women who have served in the US armed forces. TuesdayThe judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial earlier this year is expected to decide whether to wipe away Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to an adult film star, or to proceed with sentencing the president-elect later this month. Judge Juan Merchan’s self-imposed deadline follows the Supreme Court’s decision this summer granting a president partial presidential immunity. If Merchan decides to wipe away the conviction, the charges will be dismissed. WednesdaySenate Republicans will choose a successor to Mitch McConnell, who announced in February that he would not run for leader in the next Congress, ending what will be an 18-year tenure. Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Senate GOP Whip John Thune, the two top candidates to succeed McConnell, poured millions into GOP candidates’ campaign accounts and stumped for them on the trail as part of an effort to lock up support. A third leadership candidate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, is seen as a long shot, even though he has been in regular contact with Trump in their home state.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal from John Nassif, a January 6 defendant who challenged a law that bans “parading, picketing, and demonstrating” at the US Capitol as a violation of the First Amendment.
A group of people carrying Nazi flags demonstrated outside a community theater performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Livingston County, Michigan, in a display of antisemitism.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Brussels Tuesday as President-elect Donald Trump’s possible moves on support for Ukraine, NATO and tariffs raise serious questions and concerns among European officials.
Plenty of House Republicans are privately jockeying for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. There’s one big problem: Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford to lose their votes in the next Congress.
It was an uncharacteristically warm November night in the nation’s capital Wednesday, when a few dozen people gathered on a street corner outside the city’s biggest jail. Some have come to the same spot for the last 800 nights, for a vigil protesting the incarceration of the January 6 rioters.
Donald Trump won’t arrive back in the White House until January. But he’ll have fingerprints over every piece of the lame duck Congress.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego will win a closely watched US Senate seat in Arizona, CNN projects, defeating Republican Kari Lake to become the state’s first Latino senator.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego are hoping to drastically shorten the time between a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment with their AI platform that identifies biomarkers in breast and ovarian cancer tumors.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to two people familiar with the selection.
The Israeli government has failed to meet criteria set out by the US to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a group of eight humanitarian aid organizations said in a joint “scorecard” released Tuesday.
Dangerous wildfires are burning Monday on the East and West coasts, with firefighters in New York and New Jersey working to contain a deadly blaze spurred by an ongoing, historic drought – while strong winds in Southern California could fan a destructive fire in Ventura County.