Here are the ten most important stories you need to know as the new week begins:
10. Diddy Apologizes After Video Released
Diddy is apologizing after the release of a shocking video from 2016.
“Sean “Diddy” Combs admitted that he beat his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016 after CNN released video of the attack, saying in a video apology he was “truly sorry” and his actions were “inexcusable.”
“I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” the music mogul said in a video statement posted Sunday to Instagram and Facebook.
The security video aired Friday shows Combs, wearing only a white towel, punching and kicking Cassie, an R&B singer who was his protege and longtime girlfriend at the time. The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging Cassie, and throwing a vase in her direction.
Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, sued Combs in November over what she said was years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. The suit was settled the next day, but spurred intense scrutiny of Combs, with several more lawsuits filed in the following months, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led authorities to raid Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.”
9. Former NBA Player Running For US Senate In Minnesota As A Republican
It looks like Minnesota Republicans may have found their Senate candidate.
“Minnesota Republicans Saturday endorsed former National Basketball Association player Royce White to challenge incumbent Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar for her seat, winning the endorsement with 67% of the vote on the party’s first ballot.
White, who has never held political office, said that he felt “providence” after being introduced to the party’s convention in St. Paul’s RiverCentre through a video address by Steve Bannon, who has served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump, The Star Tribune reported.
During his victory speech, White, who ran unsuccessfully in the 2022 Republican primary seeking the nomination to challenge incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said that “the No. 1 problem in this country is money in politics” and that “the government is too big, and it’s mostly corrupt.”
8. High School Senior Killed By Drunk Going Over 120
A Senior on the verge of graduating is dead after being hit by a drunk driver.
According to The New York Post:
“A high school senior was killed just weeks before graduation when a suspected drunk driver, speeding at over 120 mph, split his car into two during a crash in a Chicago suburb.
Marko Niketic, 17, was driving with his 16-year-old girlfriend in Glenview, IL when a sports car struck their vehicle at an intersection just after 11 p.m. on May 12.
The driver, Taeyoung Kim, 21, had been driving his 2021 Ford Mustang with a passenger from his home in Northbrook to downtown Chicago and back earlier in the day, according to court records obtained by NBC Chicago.
“The investigation revealed at 2308 hours (11:08 p.m.) on May 12, Kim drove his vehicle westbound on East Lake Ave, at a high rate of speed in a reckless manner,” the Glenview Police Department said.
Kim’s car crashed into Niketic as the teen was making a left turn through the intersection of East Lake Ave and Meadow Lane, approximately 20 miles northwest of Chicago.”
7. President Trump Speaks At The NRA Convention In Dallas
The NRA has endorsed President Trump’s 2024 campaign.
“The National Rifle Association is formally supporting former President Donald Trump, an expected endorsement that came Saturday at the group’s annual convention in Dallas.
The endorsement of his presidential campaign came shortly before Trump took the stage to keynote the NRA’s annual meeting, a speech he used to paint a picture of President Joe Biden as trying to erode gun rights without citing specifics.
“We have to have a Second Amendment that is meaningful. We will have … death and destruction like we have never see before,” Trump told a packed ballroom at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center of the possibility of a Biden re-election win.
Trump used the event to try and boost enthusiasm among a largely friendly audience to turn out to vote for him. “Gun owners must vote,” Trump said to the room, filled with politically active gun owners. “We want a landslide.”
6. “Trans” Middle School Athlete Accused Of Sexual Harassment
A West Virginia Middle School athlete in the spotlight for joining the girl’s track team is being accused of sexual harassment.
“”Last month, a United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a West Virginia law that bars biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams cannot be enforced with regard to a 13-year-old who competes on the girls’ track and field team at the athlete’s middle school.
The athlete, known in court documents as B.P.J., returned to competition following the ruling. In the first track & field meet after the court ruling, five girls from an opposing school refused to compete against B.P.J., staging a protest during the meet.
On April 30, six states filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, alleging that the recent rewrite of Title IX by President Joe Biden and his administration – which makes gender identity the determining factor in applying Title IX and not biological sex – is discriminatory toward women and girls.
On May 3, the plaintiffs brought forth evidence, known as “Exhibit A.” Exhibit A is sworn testimony from a teammate of B.P.J., Adaleia Cross (recognized in court documents as A.C.), that alleges sexual harassment against the transgender athlete.
***Warning: some of the language included in the testimony is graphic.***
Cross, a former middle school athlete and teammate of transgender athlete B.P.J., alleges that B.P.J. made multiple sexually-explicit remarks to her and to other female teammates.
“During the end of that year, about two to three times per week, B.P.J. would look at me and say “suck my d***,” Cross said, according to the court filing. “I heard B.P.J. say the same thing to my other teammates, too.
“B.P.J. made other more explicit sexual statements that felt threatening to me. At times, B.P.J. told me quietly ‘I’m gonna stick my d*** into your pu***.’ And B.P.J. sometimes added ‘and in your a**’ as well.’”
Cross told her parents about the alleged harassment and then alerted her coach and the school’s administration. “Initially, the administrators told me that they were investigating, but we never heard back, and nothing changed,” Cross said.”
5. Assange Faces Extradition To The United States
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can continue to fight extradition to the United States.
“The U.K.’s High Court on Monday said Julian Assange can continue appealing his extradition to the United States, putting up the latest roadblock in America’s yearslong effort to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder on charges of espionage.
Assange is accused by the United States of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, who, as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, leaked to Assange hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including about 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables. WikiLeaks began publishing those documents in 2010.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed in 2019 an 18-count indictment accusing Assange of violating the Espionage Act by allegedly obtaining, receiving and disclosing classified information. A superseding indictment issued in 2020 added allegations that Assange had conspired with the Anonymous hacking group.”
4. Chiefs Kicker’s Speech Causes Controversy
A commencement speech by Harrison Butker, Kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, has caused controversy in recent days after triggering leftists.
“The commencement speaker at Kansas’ Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school, congratulated the women receiving degrees — and said most of them were probably more excited about getting married and having children.
Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, is getting attention for those and other comments last weekend in which he said some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.”
Butker, who’s made his conservative Catholic beliefs well known, also assailed Pride month, and President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.
“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker said.”
3. Speaker Johnson Visits President Trump’s Trial
Speaker Mike Johnson recently paid a visit to President Trump’s trial in New York.
“House Speaker Mike Johnson joined Donald Trump at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to express support for the former president amid his criminal trial, which the speaker called a “sham” and part of a broader “partisan witch hunt” against Trump.
“President Trump is innocent of these charges,” Johnson said, speaking outside the courthouse as proceedings got underway inside.
The Louisiana Republican was the latest in a number of GOP members of Congress who have shown their support for the former president at his New York trial in recent days. He said he came on his own accord to support Trump, whom he called a friend. Several other lawmakers also attended.”
2. Iranian President’s Helicopter Involved In Incident
Iran’s President is dead after a helicopter crash.
“Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed when his helicopter crashed in poor weather in mountains near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said on Monday.
The charred wreckage of the helicopter which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other passengers and crew was found early on Monday after an overnight search in blizzard conditions.
Supreme Leader Khamenei, who holds ultimate power with a final say on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, said First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, would take over as interim president, the official IRNA news agency reported.”
1. Trump And Biden Agree To Debates
Trump Vs. Biden Part 2 is now official.
“Joe Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to hold two presidential TV debates in June and September, setting the stage for primetime political duels that could shake up the White House race.
CNN will host the first forum on 27 June in the key swing state of Georgia. ABC will host the second one on 10 September.
The announcement came after President Biden, a Democrat, laid out his terms for debating his Republican predecessor ahead of November’s election.
CNN said there would be no audience at June’s debate in Atlanta, which will be moderated by hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. It is scheduled unusually early for an election year.
ABC said its presenters, David Muir and Linsey Davis, would moderate the second debate, but the network has not specified a location.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is running as an independent, accused the two major candidates of colluding to exclude him. But later on Wednesday he said on X, formerly Twitter, that he would meet the requirements to qualify for the CNN debate.”
