Presidential Power Rulings, Venezuela Aftershocks, Major Media Move and more

Hey there from CNN. I'm David Rind with the five things you need to know for Monday, June 29th. The Supreme Court released multiple big opinions today as they continue to wrap up their term. The first two concern who President Donald Trump is and isn't allowed to fire. In a six to three decision, the court said Trump is allowed to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, one of these independent agencies that Congress intended to be insulated from presidential politics. Now this all may sound a little wonky, but CNN senior leader, legal analyst Ellie Honig says this ruling completely changes the way we should think about executive power going forward.

The president can now remove those people for any reason he wants. That is a fundamental change in decades-long law. Used to be, for a long time, the president could only remove the heads of the FTC, the NLRB, all these multi-letter boards, only for cause. Donald Trump comes in with this aggressive theory of presidential power, says, no, I'm the head of the executive branch. I can remove them for any reason I want. and the Supreme Court now says, you are correct.

However, in a loss for Trump, the court ruled five to four that Trump cannot immediately fire federal reserve governor Lisa Cook, who he had accused a mortgage fraud, allegation she denies. But Ellie just said the court ruled that presidents can fire whoever they like. So what gives? What the Supreme Court has said here is, you cannot remove this governor, Lisa Cook, until she gets some sort of process.

The entirety of the process Lisa Cook was given was a true social post by Donald Trump, basically. And now the Supreme Court is saying she's entitled to some process to determine whether there's cause, whether she's done anything wrong to require her removal. So to boil it down,

the president has free reign to remove people in all of the federal agencies other than the Fed. For the Fed, the bar is a bit higher. There was another big decision today about voting. In a five to four decision, the court said states may count mail ballots that arrive after election day.

This was another loss for Trump who has repeatedly and falsely tied long vote counts with cheating, more than a dozen states allow ballots to come in after election day. Finally, the court said today it would not take up an appeal from President Trump over a $5 million verdict that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, meaning that he will have to fork over the money. All right, coming up, what rescue crews called the golden window of opportunity is over in Venezuela. We'll take you there next.

Dramatic rescues like this one of a 21-year-old man identified by El Salvador's president as Aaron Levy Cantillo Vargas are playing out across Venezuela. But experts say time is running out to pull out more survivors after last week's twin earthquakes that have killed more than 1,400 people. CNN Stefano Pozabon has been on the ground the past few days witnessing some of this. Stefano, what are you seeing out there? Hey David, so I'm talking to you from the centre of Caracas where we just felt yet another aftershock. It was quite a big tremor. It was 5.1 magnitude according to the Colombian geological service. And I think this gives you an idea of how the search and rescue operation after last week, twin earthquakes is still proceeding. I mean, it's huge obstacles and difficulties.

The aftershocks are constant. There is no power. And most rescue workers have been working straight for four or five days. They haven't slept. And I also think it's important to recognize the psychological trauma of the earthquake with this entire country that has gone through so much in the last 10 years, suddenly dealing with the largest natural disaster in generations. Five people have been killed in a shooting at a youth welfare facility in the northern German town of Stada. That's according to Stada police who say several others have been injured. authorities have arrested two suspects including the alleged shooter. Police say the investigation in the circumstances is ongoing.

While they've declared there's no danger to the public, they've asked people to avoid the area. And just to put some context around this, Stata is only about 50,000 residents. Germany's gun laws are much more restrictive than those in the U.S., so mass shootings are relatively rare. Back in the U.S., if you live in the eastern part of the country, get ready for an extremely hot July 4th holiday. Starting tomorrow, daily high temperature records could fall in multiple cities, including Charlotte, North Carolina, Cleveland, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. Things are expected to peak Friday, but experts say part of the danger during these extended heat waves comes at night when temps don't get low enough for the body to recover. Over 250 record warm overnight lows could be challenged this week alone. It's always worth remembering that extreme heat is the number one weather killer in the U.S., and these extreme heatways are becoming more frequent.

thanks to human cause climate change. One more break. When we come back, another media breakup is in the works. Stick around. I'm Adi Cornish. I'm Ari Josh Shapiro, and it's engagement party. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend.

We're going to be talking about two of the most famous women in the world, Taylor Swift and Serena Williams. Also, if in your feed you have seen people tapping their face and their chest, we'll explain what that's all about. If you haven't, we will still explain what that's all about. And of course, we're starting with Serena Williams because she's back. She is back. As we are recording this, she is playing in Wimbledon, where she is a wildcard.

This is a huge deal because she's been retired for a couple of years. It was a big splash when she retired. But it's also coming on the heels of her announcement that she was on a GLP1. And just so we're clear, peptides, all this stuff, none of it is banned from sports. Follow engagement party. Wherever you get your podcasts.

The Telecom Giant Comcast bought NBC Universal 15 years ago. At the time, experts thought it was kind of an odd fit. Well, now Comcast is spinning off NBC Universal into a separate publicly traded company. If this goes through, the new company would house the Universal Movie Studios theme parks, the Peacock streaming service, and brands like NBC, Bravo, and Telemundo. And Comcast would revert to being a pure broadband. and wireless company. The deal still needs regulatory approval,

but Comcast expects it to close in about a year. It comes as Paramount Skydance is set to buy CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, a massive consolidation deal, which is expected to close before the end of this year. All right, that's all we got for now.

Thank you so much for listening. Next update comes your way later tonight. I'll talk to you later.

This is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, I'm thrilled to introduce the new CNN weather app. Be prepared for anything with comprehensive coverage from real experts like me. Download the CNN weather app on iOS today.