Top Eight

Top eight CNS stories for today including the government reported the first decrease in the unemployment rate of the pandemic era; A deluge of new cases flooded an already busy court system in New York; The British prime minister’s top aide is at the center of a political storm caused by his apparent violation of lockdown rules, and more.

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National

1.) Millions are filing initial claims for unemployment insurance each week, but the insured U.S. unemployment rate has fallen 2.6%, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. It’s the first decrease of the pandemic era.

As San Diego began the process of reopening restaurants during California's lockdown to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, a hostess seats customers in the outdoor patio at Cesarina, which was limiting capacity on Saturday, May 23. (Courthouse News photo/Barbara Leonard)

2.) Two days of massive gains ended with a thud as Wall Street finished Thursday barely above its morning starting point.

In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, trader Aman Patel wears a protective face mask as he works on the partially reopened trading floor, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Stocks surged on Wall Street in afternoon trading Tuesday, driving the S&P 500 to its highest level in nearly three months, as hopes for economic recovery overshadow worries about the coronavirus pandemic. (New York Stock Exchange by Colin Zimmer via AP)

Regional

3.) For two months, lawyers in New York City have been unable to file new complaints. When the floodgates opened on Memorial Day, a deluge of new cases flooded an already busy court system.

4.) If the number of candidates competing in a primary contest is a sign of trouble for an incumbent politician, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and Congressman Steve King should be looking nervously over their shoulders.

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2019, file photo, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, speaks during a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa. King is on the outs with a significant bloc of his long-reliable conservative base, but not for almost two decades of incendiary utterances about abortion, immigrants and Islam. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

5.) Pennsylvania Democratic legislators are calling for an investigation after a Republican lawmaker tested positive for the Covid-19 but waited a week to inform them.

File-This feb. 5, 2019, file photo shows the dome of the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. A bill that would have prohibited abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome was vetoed Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, by Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor. One day after it passed the Republican-controlled Legislature, Gov. Tom Wolf made good on a promise and rejected the legislation. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

International

6.) The prime minister’s top aide is accused of violating coronavirus lockdown rules, leading many Britons to believe there are two sets of rules: one for the rich and well-connected and one for everyone else.

Dominic Cummings, top aide to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leaves his home in London, Thursday May 28, 2020. The British government faced accusations of hypocrisy after the revelation that Cummings traveled more than 250 miles (400 kms) to his parents' house during a nationwide lockdown while he was showing coronavirus symptoms. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

7.) Members of Chinese parliament in Beijing approved a sweeping national-security law Thursday that critics say jeopardizes Hong Kong’s autonomy from the mainland country’s communist government.

Military delegates arrive for the closing session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, May 28, 2020. China's ceremonial legislature has endorsed a national security law for Hong Kong that has strained relations with the United States and Britain. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

8.) The Eurogroup, an informal group of finance ministers in the eurozone, isn’t an official institution of the European Union and therefore can’t be held liable for financial losses, an adviser to the EU’s top court found Thursday.

A woman walks by the entrance to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 5, 2015. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

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