By Rachel Tashjian, CNN

(CNN) — The annual Met Gala, which takes place this year on Monday, May 4, is always a lightning rod for controversy. Was Karl Lagerfeld too problematic to serve as a 2023 theme? Was TikTok, which had just been deemed a national security threat by the US government, an appropriate sponsor for 2024’s gala? And just how small can designers make Kim Kardashian’s waist? (This one comes up almost yearly.)

But the 2026 gala, celebrating the accompanying exhibition, “Costume Art,” that gathers examples of clothed bodies from across the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s curatorial departments, has proven especially contentious.

Elected amid growing public anxiety over income inequality, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced he will skip the A-list gathering. “My focus is also on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable, and that’s what I’m looking to spend a lot of my time focused on,” he told news site Hell Gate last month.

Then there is the matter of the evening’s sponsors. While fashion brands or tech behemoths like Instagram typically underwrite the affair, this year Amazon co-founder and executive chair, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, are the event’s main benefactors. They are also honorary chairs. (Co-chairs Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Vogue’s Anna Wintour remain the official hosts, while Saint Laurent is sponsoring the exhibition catalog.)

After the Met announced the Bezoses’ participation, many social media users — who are the Met Gala’s most enthusiastic promoters, tuning into Vogue’s livestream and analyzing looks for days afterwards — called for a boycott. This has materialized as actual protests from groups including Everyone Hates Elon (as in Musk), which over the past few weeks has papered New York City with posters also urging a boycott. “The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by worker exploitation,” reads one, in reference to the allegations of labor violations that have long swirled around Amazon’s e-commerce business.

The recurring criticism has not stopped the gala from raising enormous funds: last year, it brought in a record $31 million. (By contrast, the New York Philharmonic’s Opening Gala raised $3.3 million in 2025.)

Max Hollein, the museum’s director and chief executive officer, said he saw the Met Gala as part of “the history of American philanthropy,” where people across the political spectrum support culture and other causes. “Right now, maybe there’s an added layer of scrutiny, an added layer of attention to that,” he said. “But we will always be grateful for that support from various different sources.”

The Met Gala is the primary fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, which houses over 33,000 objects spanning seven centuries. (It is oft-repeated that the Costume Institute is the only museum department that raises its own funds, although that is not accurate; every department receives money from the museum’s overall operational budget, and supplements that with fundraising.)

The gala’s funds support acquisitions of garments and accessories, but also the institute’s reference library, which holds over 800 periodicals and 1,500 designer files pertaining to the history of fashion and clothing, dating back to the sixteenth century. The funds also support a conservation lab and storage space, as well as the Costume Institute’s gallery spaces, including the 4,300-square-foot Anna Wintour Costume Center and the brand-new nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries. Salaries for its 29-person staff also come from gala funds. The new galleries, located just off the mus

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By Chris Isidore, Donald Judd, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Friday that the administration will likely make an announcement on its decision whether or not to bail out Spirit Airlines “today or tomorrow.”

The long-troubled budget airline carrier is preparing to stop operations, according to reports on Friday, a move that could leave millions of Spirit passengers trapped across the country and 17,000 employees out of work.

“Well, we’re looking at it– but if we can’t make a good deal, no institution’s been able to do it,” Trump said on Friday. “I’d like to save the jobs, but we’ll have an announcement sometime today. We gave them, we gave them a final proposal.”

Earlier Friday, a Spirit Airlines spokesperson told CNN it had no direct comment on possible shutdown reports.

“Spirit is operating as usual,” said the spokesperson. As of the time of publication, Spirit Airlines appeared to be operating normally.

Soaring jet fuel prices derailed Spirit’s plans to emerge from its second bankruptcy, and negotiations with the federal government on a possible $500 million bailout or government purchase haven’t yielded a result acceptable to the government and all of Spirit’s creditors.

CNN reported earlier this week Spirit Airlines was having trouble reaching a deal with a group of its creditors on the proposed federal government bailout, according a source familiar with negotiations. An attorney for Spirit told a bankruptcy court last week that the airline was in “very advanced discussions” with the administration on a rescue package.

Other airlines have said they will step in and help any stranded Spirit passengers or employees.

But removing the airline’s flights is likely to raise fares across the entire US airline industry, as flyers compete for fewer available seats.

All air carriers have been struggling with higher jet fuel costs, which have nearly doubled since the start of the war in Iran. Jet fuel is the second greatest cost for airlines, behind only labor.

To help compensate, airlines have been raising fares and increasing fees, such as for checked bags. But fierce competition for travelers has kept them from passing along all of the costs to customers. And discount carriers like Spirit have a harder time raising fares due to its dependence on bargain hunting customers.

Spirit has about 9,000 flights scheduled from May 2 through the end of the month, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. That works out to an average of 300 flights and 60,000 potential passengers a day affected in just the next month should the airline shut down.

What happens to passengers?

If the airline ceases operations, passengers with tickets for upcoming Spirit flights should file claims with the issuer of the credit or debit card used to purc

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN

(CNN) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday announced the Republican-controlled state legislature will hold a special session next week to pave the way for redistricting – becoming the second state to take action following the Supreme Court’s decision further weakening the Voting Rights Act.

Lawmakers will meet starting Monday to establish a special primary election for both US House and state Senate districts “whose boundary lines are altered by court action,” Ivey, a Republican, said in her proclamation.

The state’s primary election is slated for May 19.

In the immediate aftermath of the high court’s Wednesday ruling striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, Ivey indicated that her state would not attempt to redraw its lines. Alabama currently is under a court order prohibiting the state from redistricting until after the 2030 census.

But Ivey and other officials have faced intense pressure to act. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Thursday filed motions asking the high court to move quickly to lift the injunctions so Alabama can proceed with redistricting.

State efforts to redraw their lines ahead of November’s midterm elections carry high stakes for both political parties. Republicans currently hold a paper-thin majority in the House, and both parties have waged a coast-to-coast mid-decade redistricting war for months, seeking to eke out a partisan advantage.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade, after the census.

This week’s ruling from the Supreme Court – which makes it significantly harder to challenge redistricting plans as discriminatory – has set off a fresh redistricting scramble.

In a statement, Ivey said she is calling the special session in the hopes that the state will prevail in court. Alabama is currently represented in the US House by five Republicans and two Democrats, after courts ordered the creation of a second congressional district with a sizable Black population.

Ivey’s action comes a day after Republican officials in Louisiana announced that they were delaying the state’s primary elections for US House, although overseas ballots have already been mailed. Louisiana officials say they will not count votes cast in the May 16 election for US House seats, as the legislature looks to draw a new map.

Voters, civil rights organizations and other groups have filed legal challenges, seeking to block the Louisiana plan.

CNN’s John Fritze contributed to this report.

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Por Katelyn Polantz, CNN

Una jueza federal reprendió en privado a los fiscales por intentar hacer alarde el jueves en una audiencia de detención del atacante de la Cena de Corresponsales de la Casa Blanca, según una transcripción obtenida por CNN.

“No sé qué está pasando aquí. Sé que quieren presentar su caso, supongo, ante algún público distinto al de este tribunal”, dijo la jueza magistrada Moxila Upadhyaya a tres fiscales en la sala del tribunal el jueves, fuera del alcance del oído del público y la prensa. “No quiero que esto se convierta en un circo”.

Los comentarios de Upadhyaya destacan una dinámica que ha surgido en los seis días desde que Cole Tomas Allen fue puesto bajo custodia —después de que un agente federal le disparara — un período en el que funcionarios del Gobierno de Trump describieron de forma agresiva su teoría del presunto intento de asesinato del presidente en entrevistas de medios y documentos judiciales no solicitados.

En varias ocasiones, la fiscal federal del Distrito de Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, y otros funcionarios han ido mucho más allá en sus entrevistas televisivas, ofreciendo descripciones del tiroteo mucho más categóricas y detalladas que las presentadas ante el tribunal por el FBI y los fiscales de línea del Departamento de Justicia.

Abogados del presunto atacante en la cena con la prensa aceptan mantenerlo en la cárcel antes del juicio

El director del Servicio Secreto, Sean M. Curran, declaró el jueves que Allen disparó a un agente a quemarropa. Por su parte, Pirro afirmó ese mismo jueves en Fox News que el sospechoso disparó contra el agente del Servicio Secreto.
Los documentos judiciales que describen los hechos han sido menos concluyentes.

En la audiencia del jueves, los fiscales estaban preparados para mostrar en el tribunal nuevos videos y fotos que tenían del tiroteo, de las armas de Allen y de la escena del crimen en el hotel. Upadhyaya les impidió hacerlo en el tribunal, porque no era necesario después de que los abogados de Allen dijeron que él aceptó permanecer detenido mientras esperaba el juicio, dictaminó ella.

Visiblemente molesta, la jueza convocó a los fiscales y al equipo de la defensa a acercarse al estrado para hablar con ellos en privado; allí, la jueza continuó cuestionando el enfoque adoptado por el Departamento de Justicia.

El intercambio también destaca lo temprana e incompleta que sigue siendo la investigación.

“Estamos a cinco días de esta investigación”, respondió la fiscal Jocelyn Ballantine a la jueza, según la transcripción. “Tan pronto como hayamos finalizado los informes y el descubrimiento” —es decir, la evidencia que el equipo de la defensa puede revisar— “y que estemos en condiciones de poder proporcionar con precisión al abogado, lo haremos. Nos tomamos en serio nuestras obligaciones en materia de descubrimiento de pruebas”.

A continuación, Ballantine señaló que la Fiscalía Federal no estaba preparada para debatir en audiencia pública los documentos que, hasta el momento, tienen como resultado de la investigación.

Tras la audiencia, la Oficina del Fiscal de Estados Unidos incorporó al expediente judicial y publicó en redes sociales los videos y fotos que habían preparado.

En una carta dirigida al juez, la Fiscalía declaró que el Departamento de Justicia “da por formalmente completado el expediente”.

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