Latest Forecast From Storm Team 4
What to Know
- Trump ordered officials to grant top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to a NYT report
- Attorneys for Kevin Spacey are seeking surveillance footage, text messages and other records they say they need to defend the actor
- Actor Luke Perry has been hospitalized after officials said they responded to his home for an 'unspecified medical request'
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Trump Demanded Top-Secret Clearance for Jared Kushner, Report Says
President Trump last year ordered officials to grant top-secret security clearance to his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to a report published by The New York Times. Kushner was granted the high-level clearance last May after a lengthy background check. The Times, citing anonymous sources, said Trump demanded Kushner's clearance despite the concerns of intelligence officials, then-Chief of Staff John Kelly and then-White House counsel Don McGahn. The newspaper said Kelly wrote in an internal memo that he had been "ordered" to give top-secret clearance to Kushner. McGahn wrote a memo in which he advised against such clearance. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner lawyer Abbe Lowell, responded to the Times story with a statement, saying: "In 2018, White House and security clearance officials affirmed that Mr. Kushner's security clearance was handled in the regular process with no pressure from anyone. That was conveyed to the media at the time, and new stories, if accurate, do not change what was affirmed at the time." White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment on the Times story.
US, North Korea Offer Dueling Accounts of Talks Breakdown
The U.S. and North Korea offered contradictory accounts of why the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un broke down, though both pointed to punishing American sanctions as a sticking point in the high-stakes nuclear negotiation. President Trump, who has returned to the White House, said before leaving Hanoi the talks collapsed because North Korea's leader insisted all the sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Pyongyang be lifted without the North firmly committing to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. But North Korea challenged that account, insisting it had asked only for partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down its main nuclear complex. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented on the talks during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference after Trump was in the air. Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country's nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and Washington had wasted an opportunity that "may not come again." He said the North's position won't change even if the United States offers to resume another round of dialogue.
Kevin Spacey Lawyers Seek Accuser's Cellphone, Other Records
Local
Attorneys for Kevin Spacey are seeking surveillance footage, text messages and other records they say they need to defend the disgraced actor against accusations he groped a young Massachusetts man at a Nantucket bar in 2016. Spacey's lawyers asked the judge in court documents filed this week to order the accuser to turn over his cellphone so they can retrieve messages, photos and other data. They also want documents from the accuser's civil attorney, including fee agreements with the accuser's family. The lawyers say they believe the accuser intends to file a civil lawsuit against Spacey, which they say would bolster the defense's argument that the accuser has a "substantial financial motivation to falsify his claims." Spacey pleaded not guilty last month.
'Beverly Hills: 90210' Star Luke Perry Hospitalized
Actor Luke Perry has been hospitalized after officials said they responded to his home for an “unspecified medical request.” The “Beverly Hills: 90210” star, who played Dylan McKay in the 1990s teen drama, was treated by paramedics and is “currently under observation at the hospital," his spokesperson confirmed. It was not immediately clear what the medical emergency was and his spokesperson did not provide any additional information on Perry's condition. Perry, who currently stars on The CW drama series "Riverdale," is not slated to join the rest of his former "Beverly Hills, 90210" co-stars in the Fox revival of the soap opera. The network announced plans Wednesday to reunite Tori Spelling, Jason Priestly, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris and Brian Austin Green for a six-episode event series. Actress Shannon Doherty, who famously played Dylan's love interest Brenda Walsh in the show, has also not yet signed on to join the lineup.
Andre Previn, Oscar-Winning Composer, Dies at 89
Andre Previn, the pianist, composer and conductor whose broad reach took in the worlds of Hollywood, jazz and classical music, always rejecting suggestions that his bop 'n' blues moonlighting lessened his stature, has died. He was 89. His manager Linda Petrikova said Previn passed away in his Manhattan home. His ex-wife Mia Farrow tweeted, "See you in the Morning beloved Friend. May you rest in glorious symphonies." Previn was a child prodigy whose family fled Nazi Germany. As a teenager, he found work as a composer and arranger in the musical sweatshops of Hollywood, mostly at MGM, winning four Oscars for his orchestrations of such stylish musicals as 1964's "My Fair Lady."
