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An early winter forecast, sandy rescue, mushroom murderer: Catch up on the day’s stories

By CNN

👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! Prince Harry and Meghan’s surprise return to Britain has sparked global speculation about why now and what comes next.

Here’s what else you might have missed during your busy day.

5 things

1️⃣ Winter forecast

A burgeoning Super El Niño will upend winter weather across the US. CNN’s Mary Gilbert breaks down who will feel its effects the most.

⛅ Download the CNN Weather app

2️⃣ Legal battle

A California couple sought to terminate a pregnancy after their unborn baby was diagnosed with a rare heart condition. Weeks later, their surrogate gave birth in Texas, igniting a fight over parental rights.

3️⃣ Fatal meal

Beef Wellington, toxic mushrooms and three unsuspecting lunch guests — one of Australia’s most high-profile murder cases is back in court for a possible retrial.

4️⃣ Hit the brakes

If your knees ache on the way down a flight of stairs but not on the way up, your body’s braking system is likely undertrained. Taking time to slow down your movements can reduce stress on your joints.

5️⃣ Bronze Age masterpiece

Hidden in Kyrgyzstan’s mountains for centuries, this sprawling collection of ancient rock art offers a glimpse into a vanished world.

Watch this

🏖️ Summer scare: First responders and beachgoers in Massachusetts sprang into action after an 18-year-old became trapped under several feet of sand while building a sandcastle. He is expected to make a full recovery.

Top headlines

Check this out

💅 Timeless style: From a golden chain mail gown to leopard-print fringe, Grammy winner Olivia Dean has dazzled her fans with a number of looks that call back to the golden days of diva dressing.

For CNN subscribers

Quiz time

📱 Which AI company is launching a new chatbot experience designed specifically for teenagers?

A. Anthropic

B. Meta

C. OpenAI

D. xAI

⬇️ Scroll down for the answer.

Thanks for reading

✅ Most popular in yesterday’s newsletter: Meet the corgis leading hiking groups

🧠 Quiz answer: C. OpenAI is rolling out a new “ChatGPT for Teens” experience that it says will provide additional safety protections for younger users.

👋 We’ll see you tomorrow.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Donald Trump once called Michael Cohen a ‘rat.’ Now they’re having a public conversation

By CNN
(CNN) — First, Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and self-described “pit bull.”Then he became a bitter foe, exposing what he called “dirty deeds” and earning him the level “rat” by a president scorned.Now, after burying the hatchet, Cohen is set to become something else: a radio interviewer seeking public détente.Trump’s taped phone interview for Cohen’s WABC program — which Cohen told CNN lasted 40 minutes — will be their first open conversation since the collapse of their professional and personal relationship more than eight years ago when it airs Thursday evening.“How is it possible after all of what took place, all of the name-calling, the years of the public war, the verbal missiles that we threw at one another? How is it possible that the two of us can ever sit down again?” Cohen asked CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” on Thursday ahead of his interview airing.“The answer is that we forgave,” he said. “But remember this: Forgiveness does not require amnesia. It requires the courage to stop allowing yesterday to dictate tomorrow.”Asked how his relationship with the president is now, Cohen said it’s “being resuscitated,” later revealing that while he hasn’t personally asked Trump for a pardon, he has submitted an application, on which he intends to follow up on Friday.It was on August 21, 2018, that Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight criminal counts — and implicated Trump — in a payment scheme designed to silence women who claimed affairs with the then-candidate in the 2016 election.Thus began the two men’s downfall. Cohen, after serving time in prison, would go on to act as the star witness in Trump’s criminal trial in New York. In 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film performer, to keep her quiet about an alleged past tryst with Trump. (Trump, who has denied the affair, was sentenced to no jail time and has appealed the conviction.)Trump was wounded by the betrayal and for years called Cohen — who once claimed he would take a bullet for Trump — a rat and a liar.Cohen, meanwhile, made little secret he felt Trump and his associates had left him out to dry. He was the only person to serve prison time for the hush money scheme. He wrote two books in the years after his release: “Disloyal” and “Revenge.”Asked on CNN if Trump apologized to him, Cohen elected to keep that private, though he said he was “comfortable” with the words that were exchanged. Pressed on the idea of forgiveness, Cohen said he doesn’t want the chapter when he went to prison to “be the defining moment” of his life.Once Trump returned to office, things in their relationship began to shift. Cohen has claimed New York prosecutors, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, had pressured and coerced him into testifying against Trump.And a quiet reconciliation with Trump got underway.It started with an unexpected text from someone Cohen has described as a “White House friend and an insider,” who relayed a message from the president, Cohen said on a radio show this year.Cohen declined to name the insider, but said the person “expressed to me the president’s genuine empathy for the hell that I was being dragged through, yet again, and I deeply appreciated that text.”“I thanked him, expressed my sincere hope that this long, exhausting feud between the two of us could finally end, and what was, I found, even more interesting is that he replied almost immediately, agreeing that it was actually time for us to meet,” Cohen said, adding he was “very surprised” by the text.The two men have met in private over the past year at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a person familiar with the matter.The airing of their conversation Thursday evening will cap the remarkable rapprochement. And the next day, Cohen said he will call about his pardon application, which he said he updated from the one he submitted under the Biden administration.“I have not received an acknowledgement that they have the application, which is on my to-do list, which I intend to call tomorrow to find out what happened,” Cohen said. “I did send it by FedEx, so I do have a receipt.”This story has been updated with additional developments. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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