Start your week smart: Trump on trial, presidential poll, measles on the rise, Chinese interference, Andrew Tate
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CNN’s 5 Things brings you all the news you need to start your week smart.
An Austrian company plans to build a vessel worthy of a James Bond villain: a customized submersible superyacht that’s more than 500 feet long and can remain below the ocean’s surface for up to four weeks. Eat your heart out, Jeff Bezos. Here’s what else you need to know to Start Your Week Smart. • Jurors have a three-day weekend to think about the first full week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial. Lawyers’ questioning of a former tabloid publisher set the stage for witnesses such as adult film star Stormy Daniels and former lawyer Michael Cohen. The trial will resume Tuesday.• Trump continues to hold an advantage over President Joe Biden as the campaign moves forward, according to a new CNN poll. Most Americans say that Trump’s term as president was a success, while a broad majority says Biden’s has been a failure. At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Biden took jabs at his predecessor and poked fun at his own age.• The number of measles cases around the world nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, researchers say, presenting a challenge to efforts to achieve and maintain elimination status in many countries. Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that can cause serious health consequences or death.• Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US has seen evidence of Chinese attempts to “influence and arguably interfere” with the upcoming elections, despite an earlier commitment not to do so. Blinken just returned from a three-day to trip to China, where Xi Jinping said the countries should be “partners rather than adversaries.”• The human trafficking and rape trial of self-proclaimed “misogynist” online influencer Andrew Tate can move forward, a Romanian court said. Tate was indicted in June along with his brother and two Romanian citizens. They have denied the allegations. TuesdayBritain’s King Charles III will resume public duties following “a period of treatment and recuperation,” Buckingham Palace announced Friday, two months after revealing that the 75-year-old monarch was being treated for cancer. King Charles will be joined by his wife, Queen Camilla, for a visit to a cancer treatment center “where they will meet medical specialists and patients,” according to a palace statement. WednesdayFlorida’s six-week abortion law, which includes limited exemptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother, goes into effect. The measure makes Florida one of the most restrictive states in the country in which to obtain an abortion and sets up a presidential-year fight over reproductive rights in the Sunshine State. Floridians will decide in November whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state’s constitution when they head to the polls. Constitutional amendments in Florida need the support of at least 60% of voters to be approved. The Federal Reserve wraps up a two-day meeting on interest rates, with policymakers widely expected to stay the course and keep rates where they are until the country makes clearer progress on taming inflation.
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.