Editor’s Note: Now you can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
A shooting on campus. A signal from the sea. A security guard from Somalia. It’s Thursday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. UCLA shooting
Yet another campus shooting. This time, an apparent murder-suicide at UCLA. But the motive is still unclear and we don’t yet know anything about the shooter. The victim was professor William S. Klug, killed in his office in an engineering building. The shooting yesterday triggered a lockdown on the campus of more than 40,000 students. Some terrified students, unable to lock doors, blocked them with printers, belts and cords.
2. Campaign 2016
What a week! California was supposed to be a cakewalk for Hillary Clinton. Now, she’s racing back there because new polls show her neck-and-neck with Bernie Sanders. Then there’s her beef with Donald Trump. The two went at it yesterday – she unloading on him over Trump U; he unleashing a barrage of attacks in response. There’s more: The ex-State Dept. staffer who set up her private email server plans to take the Fifth at a deposition, even after he’s gotten an immunity deal with the FBI. Not good optics.
3. EgyptAir crash
A French ship has picked up signals from one of Flight 804’s black boxes. It’s coming from deep in the Mediterranean seabed. As you know, the black boxes are a plane’s data and voice recorders. And if officials can now locate the box that’s emitting the signal, and if the recorder has valuable information on the plane’s last minutes, then perhaps we’ll be a step closer in figuring out what caused the plane to crash last month with 66 people on board.
4. Somalia
Yusuf Abdi Ali lives a quiet suburban life. Shares an apartment with his wife and works as an airport security guard. But, as a CNN investigation found, there’s allegedly another side to him: He was a military commander during Somalia’s bloody civil war and he’s accused of the most horrific acts. Burning villages. Mass executions. Torture. And he’s not the only one: there’s more than 1,000 accused war criminals living and working in the U.S.
5. Canadian wildfire
Remember that massive wildfire in northern Alberta? It’s STILL burning. Yesterday, though, a devastated Fort McMurray began a phased return for its residents. Some found their houses damaged but intact. They were the lucky ones. Others found them, if not destroyed, unsafe for habitation. But home is always home. And someone changed a sign on the side of a road from “Welcome to Fort McMurray” to “Welcome HOME Fort McMurray.”
BREAKFAST BROWSE
People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.
Out of this world
Turns out a dagger found with King Tut was made from a meteorite. But hey, the ancient Egyptians always worked with only the best stuff.
Nooooooo!
“Look but don’t touch” meant nothing to a young boy in China, who destroyed a $15,000 Lego statue just an hour after it was put on display.
Course correction
The PGA’s moving a tournament from a Donald Trump-owned course in Miami to … Mexico. The Donald, as you might expect, is taking it really well.
Undercover brother
NBA legend Shaq went “undercover” as a Lyft driver, but when you’re 7 feet tall, you’re really not fooling anybody.
Mission to Mars
Pack your bags: SpaceX’s going to fly us all to Mars within a decade, says CEO Elon Musk.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH
Here’s what’s coming up later
Commander in chief speaks
President Obama’s giving the commencement address this morning at the Air Force Academy.
Number of the day
$17,000
The price tag for the new Solarin smartphone. Yeah, it’s pricey, but military-grade encryption and 10 times faster WiFi speeds don’t come cheap.