The former president’s claims of executive privilege to keep former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in the Jan. 6 insurrection probe were rejected by a federal appeals court.
With just days until the deadline for the nation to default, the Senate now is racing against the clock to pass a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement and avoid what would be an economically catastrophic failure to pay the country's bills. Debate began Thursday morning as the chamber's leaders urged swift passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, with critics voicing their concerns with the bill. "Time is a luxury the Senate does not have if we want to prevent default," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks from the floor.
Five people were rescued after a private plane crashed into waters near the Bahamas on Thursday, the Bahamas' Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority told ABC News. The plane was en route to Florida when it crash-landed into the water about 10 nautical miles north of Andros, an island in the Bahamas, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said during a press conference Thursday. Two pilots and three passengers were aboard the flight, according to Volunteer Pilot Group, a Florida-based organization that connects volunteer pilots with passengers in need and said it had arranged the flight.
In particular, Trump took issue with a comment the Florida governor has used on the campaign trail in recent days, when DeSantis has said he's gunning for "eight years" in office in order to deliver on a myriad of conservative promises -- an implicit contrast with Trump, who can only serve one more term. "You don't need eight years, you need six months," Trump said Thursday morning during a breakfast with the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale.
As debate grows over how gender identity is handled in schools, many employees at educational institutions have said that they feel caught in the middle, and some also say that they've been disciplined because of it. Houghton University is a private Christian college in upstate New York that is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, a Methodist denomination. "While the details of individual personnel matters are confidential, Houghton University has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures," a university spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
A federal judge sentenced two Oath Keeper defendants Thursday for their roles in disrupting the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. Edward Vallejo was sentenced to three years in prison while Roberto Minuta received a term of four years and six months. Prosecutors argued Minuta was a key leader of the "second wave" of Oath Keepers who stormed the Capitol.
Paramilitary organizations making the largest cross-border attack inside Russia since the war began have maintained they're fighting for Ukraine and reportedly claimed to have conducted another operation Thursday. The incidents raise questions about whether they put at risk the main U.S. strategic goal of avoiding escalation with Moscow -- "World War III" as the White House has warned -- and they come just when the conflict appears poised to intensity with Ukraine's long-awaited spring offensive. Any assessment from Washington on whether the groups are operating within the Ukrainian government's chain of command could have significant impact in determining whether any end-use violation or breach of agreement occurred if the fighters were given access to the equipment or pave the way for Kyiv to openly outfit the fighters with donated weaponry, while the persisting lack of clarity raises questions about how effectively these arms are monitored.
France is now the first country in Europe to regulate influencer marketing on social media, cracking down on what people can monetize and promote online with a new law passed on Thursday. "The law was passed in record time and unanimously, which shows how much support it had in both government and parliament," Stéphane Vojetta, one of the French legislators who championed this new bill, told ABC News. Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves people leveraging their reputation to endorse products or services in exchange for money.
Dwayne Johnson is returning to the "Fast & Furious" franchise and says that he and Vin Diesel have put the past behind them. In a video he shared from Hawaii on Thursday, the actor said that fans will see him as his "Fast" character, Luke Hobbs, in a film that will serve as a "new chapter & set up for FASTX: Part II." "The secret of Hobbs being back in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise, that was a secret that was hard as hell to keep," he added.
Despite separating in 2012, Rhea Perlman said she and Danny DeVito are still married and have a "pretty decent understanding and relationship with each other" now. The "Cheers" alum confirmed that she and the "Taxi" actor are still legally husband and wife in an interview with fellow actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the May 30 episode of Lemonada Media's "Wiser Than Me" podcast. "We are still very good friends and we see each other a lot," Perlman said.
Ken Featherstone, the mayor of Indianola, Mississippi, urged his community to "trust the process" amid an investigation into the police shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry after he reportedly called 911 for help during a domestic disturbance at his home. Featherstone spoke out about the incident, which has drawn national attention, in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday after the shooting rocked Indianola – a small town with a population of less than 10,000 located in the northern part of Mississippi in Sunflower County.
The Pentagon informed Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base that a previously approved drag show slated to take place on the base on the first day of Pride Month could not take place because it was not in line with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent comments, according to two defense officials. The drag performance would have been held at the Officer's Club at southern Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base on Thursday, June 1, and had been approved by base commanders, just as it had been over the previous two years.
A 6-year-old Louisiana girl recently went viral after a photo of her looking confident and poised at her kindergarten graduation was shared tens of thousands of times on social media. DeLexus Sims shared her daughter Taylor's photo in a May 24 Facebook post, and in just a week, it had garnered more than 13,000 shares and 22,000 likes.
At one Wednesday morning event in the western town of Salix, Iowa, DeSantis and his wife, Casey, engaged in a living room-style conversation, swapping anecdotes about their three young kids that sought to give voters a rare glimpse into the home life of Florida's leader, who has generally avoided the mainstream press. The governor joked that when he and Casey, a former TV reporter, brought two of their children to Japan in April on a trade mission, "We never got on a schedule time wise, so they'd be up at 2 in the morning."
Federal regulators are warning about safety concerns amid the rising popularity of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that off-brand forms of the medications could be unsafe. The warning comes as many people have reported turning to compounding pharmacies to get cheaper doses of semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy.
Elliot Page is opening up about how his experience since coming out as trans has helped him feel "truly alive for the first time." Page, who came out as trans in December 2020, said in the clip that giving himself permission to live his authentic self has changed everything. Page has described "Pageboy," the cover of which features him in a white tank top and jeans, as being about his journey as a trans person and something to help other trans people on their individual journeys.
The "Moana" live-action film has found its director. Dwayne Johnson, who voiced the animated film's character of Maui and announced in April that he will be co-producing the live-action film, said on Thursday in an Instagram post that Thomas Kail will direct the movie. Kail is known for directing theater productions including Broadway's "Hamilton" and "In The Heights."
A sherpa saved the life of a climber struggling on Mount Everest's "death zone" in a rare high altitude rescue. The Malaysian climber was carried down from below the summit after narrowly surviving the harsh elements, a government official announced on Wednesday. Gelje Sherpa was guiding a client to Everest's summit on May 18 when he saw another climber struggling and shivering as he clung onto a rope, Reuters reported.
For 26-year-old Ha'a Keaulana, surfing is practically part of her DNA. Keaulana represents a growing movement of native Hawaiians celebrating and reclaiming the cultural spirit of surfing that they say has been commercialized and coopted by pop culture over the last century. "[Surfing is] our church, because that's where we spiritually can connect to something that was always there as native Hawaiians.
A child accidentally shot and killed another child in River Grove, Illinois, on Wednesday, according to police. The gun used in the incident belonged to the father of the deceased child, police said. River Grove police said the child was severely injured and later succumbed to their injury.
Billy Joel's historic monthly residency at New York City's Madison Square Garden will come to an end next year. The first of Joel's final 10 shows at Madison Square Garden is set for Oct. 20, 2023. Joel also recalled the first time he played at Madison Square Garden on December 14, 1978, calling it "the pinnacle of my career."
