Hollywood has its swankiest night of the year, a president escapes imprisonment and a terror group says it wants to attack U.S. malls.
It’s Monday, and here are the Five Things to Know for Your New Day.
AL-SHABAAB
U.S. malls threatened: Remember the horrific 2013 attack at an upscale Kenyan mall that left more than 60 people dead? Well the Somali-based terror group Al-Shabaab says it wants an encore — at American, Canadian and British malls. As one might guess, the patriotic sounding Mall of America is on the list. But so far there’s been “no credible or specific evidence” that an attack is in the works, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
OSCARS
Glitz, glam and dishwashing gloves: From Eddie Redmayne’s uber-giddy acceptance speech to Lady Gaga performing “The Sound of Music” to Patricia Arquette’s rallying cry for women’s equality, this year’s Academy Awards was full of memorable moments. And for those who mainly care about what everyone wore, here you go:
YEMEN
Take that, rebels: It’s not often that a country’s president goes into house arrest — and then escapes. Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi was forced to house arrest a month ago by Houthi militant rebels. But he escaped and released a statement saying he is still president, calling all political decisions made since September illegal and invalid. But one day after his act of defiance, Hadi’s nephew was kidnapped by the rebels.
UKRAINE
What ceasefire? It’s been one year since former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted. And how does the country look? Pretty terrible. On top of daily violations of a truce that went into effect last week, a peaceful protest in the eastern city of Kharkiv was rocked by an explosion, killing two people.
ISIS
Time for more fighters? With ISIS continuously one-upping its own brutality, it’s time for a unified Arab force to join the fight against it, Egyptian President Fattah el-Sisi said. But the terror group shows no sign of stopping its antics. In a new propaganda video, they paraded more than a dozen captured Peshmerga fighters and paraded them down the street in cages.
