Iran’s President Kills in Helicopter Crash and Michael Cohen Returns to the Stand: Morning Rundown

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash, state media said. Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand in Trump’s hush money trial. And Diddy is apologizing after a video was released that appeared to show him attacking his ex-girlfriend Cassie.

This is what you should know today.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has died in a helicopter crash, state media reported this morning. The cause of the crash was unclear. Iranian officials said fog and bad weather in the region had slowed the response of rescue workers.

Raisi returned with a government delegation that had attended the inauguration of a dam on the border with Azerbaijan. There were no survivors among the nine people on board, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Iran’s cabinet held an “emergency meeting” on Monday following the announcement of Raisi’s death, state news agency IRNA reported.

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First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber will serve as interim president of Iran. His appointment was approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and head of state. A presidential election must now be called within 50 days.

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States was “one of the main culprits” in the crash that killed Raisi, pointing to U.S. sanctions on aviation in comments on state television. Iran, which operates a number of helicopters, has long been subject to sanctions that make it difficult to maintain them or buy spare parts. Most of the helicopters in use predate the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.

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Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand as Trump’s testimony in the hush money trial looms

Michael Cohen returns to the witness stand for the third day of cross-examination by Donald Trump’s lawyers. It could be the final day of testimony in the first criminal trial of a former president. Cohen is a key witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump and the only one to directly link Trump to the alleged plot to falsify business records.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche questioned Cohen last week about inconsistencies in some of his claims about Trump. “That’s a lie!” That’s what Blanche once said to Cohen after he challenged him about his account of speaking to Trump on the phone at one time about the hush-money agreement he made with adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the allegations against him.

Prosecutors had made it clear to jurors in his direct examination that Cohen had a track record of lying publicly, and they sought testimony about his guilty pleas in 2018 to various criminal charges, including some related to the Daniels payment and another for lying to Congress. Cohen said he lied to protect his then-boss Trump. Here’s what could happen today.

Sean “Diddy” Combs apologizes after a video appears to show him hitting his ex-girlfriend

Sean “Diddy” Combs apologized after a video was released showing him hitting his ex-girlfriend Cassie in 2016, which matched the description of an incident she detailed in a now-settled lawsuit. Combs, who is facing a federal investigation and numerous civil lawsuits, said in a video statement on his Instagram page that his “behavior in this video is inexcusable.”

“It’s so hard to think about the darkest times in life, but sometimes you have to,” Combs said. “My behavior in this video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in this video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

Cassie, whose name is Casandra Ventura, alleged in a federal lawsuit in November that Combs raped and physically abused her over the course of their relationship, including hitting, punching, kicking and kicking her. Her lawsuit included details of an assault by Combs at a hotel, which appeared to be supported by the video released by CNN. Combs had denied his former partner’s allegations and described them as disgusting. He also said the settlement, announced a day after the lawsuit was filed, was “in no way” an admission of wrongdoing.

Biden promised to “end this uncivil war.” Almost four years later, it’s still raging.

As President Joe Biden faces re-election, the nation finds itself in the same inexorable stalemate that has worsened in America for generations. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural against urban, conservative against liberal,” Biden said.

For years, Democratic officials have predicted that the far-right movement that dominates Republican politics will burn out – that the “fever” will subside as a series of election losses force a reckoning within the Republican Party. But it never happened. Trump was voted out of office in 2020, but the man and his MAGA movement are on the verge of taking back power. In national polls, Trump is roughly on par with Biden.

Biden is not giving up, allies said, and if he wins a second term, he could seek to appoint Republicans to Cabinet positions and redouble his efforts to make U.S. political discourse less toxic. But it is not that simple.

‘Portal’ installation linking Dublin and New York reopens after ‘inappropriate behaviour’

A portal linking New York and Dublin has reopened after it was reopened last week amid reports of people displaying body parts, taking drugs on camera and trolling viewers on the other side.

Each page of the portal broadcasts a live stream from its counterpart in the other city, allowing visitors on both sides to interact with each other in real time – as if the two cities were participating in one giant video call.

Dublin City Council announced it would close the portal after videos circulated online of a woman baring her breasts in front of the portal, a man looking at the camera and someone from the Dublin portal posting a photo from 9/11. September held up. Others appeared to be on drugs, or at least pretending to be. Organizers of the installation in both cities said they had implemented a “proximity-based solution.” by taking measures to prevent people from entering the portals and holding phones up to the cameras.

Eight weeks after the Francis Scott Key Bridge crash, the container ship is scheduled to be removed

The huge container ship that collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March and caused it to collapse is scheduled to be removed from the construction site and brought ashore today in a complex process.

The M/V Dali collided with the bridge in the early hours of March 26, causing a catastrophic failure of the structure that led to the deaths of six construction workers and disruption to shipping across the East Coast for the past eight weeks.

The 22 crew members of the Dali were uninjured in the crash had to stay on board since the crash – including during a controlled explosion last week to free the ship.

Politics in brief

 Swing state blitz: The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBTQ rights group in the United States launch a $15 million campaign to support President Joe Biden’s re-election efforts.

Choose: Rudy Giuliani was Charge papers served in connection with an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results at his own birthday party after mocking Arizona’s attorney general.

NRA: The National Rifle Association officially supported former President Donald Trump.

Morehouse’s opening statement: President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College over the weekend. his most direct contact with college students since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. The Morehouse College valedictorian called for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”

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Personnel selection: Meet the “full-blooded mafia” trying to save lives

A group of former military trauma surgeons, medics and nurses who call themselves “the Whole Blood Mafia” say they have seen on the battlefield how whole blood transfusions can transform a dying patient into a survivor. Because it can take less than 15 minutes for the patient to bleed to death, it is important to get blood quickly. Yet only 1% of emergency vehicles transport blood. We set out to understand it why so few ambulances transport whole blood and talk to the doctors who say if it were widely available, tens of thousands of lives would be saved every year

– Cynthia McFaddensenior investigative correspondent

In case you missed it

• Xander Schauffele won the PGA Championship, his first major golf tournament victory.
• 706 people named Kyle gathered in Texas to try to break the world record for largest gathering with a name.
• Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching-te was sworn in and appealed to China End “intimidation.”
• An Arizona man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2017 death of his wife. who was buried alive.
• Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company was working to address customer complaints and security issues, but that wasn’t the case There are limitations to what it can do.

Choose: Online shopping, simplified

If you want to take advantage of good deals this Memorial Day, consider expensive items like furniture and appliances. Here’s what else you can buy (and skip).plus a few Memorial Day sales already live.

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