The May 12 News Quiz: Who won Trump’s assault trial?

The coronation occurred on Saturday, May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey. King Charles III solemnly swore to be a faithful Protestant and serve the people, not to be served by them. He did not vow about his personal life, environmental causes, or political reforms.

Fun fact: Prince Harry flew in from California for the coronation and stayed 28 hours. He missed the balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace and raced to the airport in his Dior coronation suit and medals.

E. Jean Carroll alleged in her 2019 memoir that Donald Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman store in New York City in 1996. Trump denied the allegation and called her a “nut job.” Carroll sued for defamation and battery under a New York law that allowed her to file a civil lawsuit despite the expired statute of limitations. The trial began on April 24, 2023, and lasted three weeks. On May 9, 2023, the jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation but not rape. They awarded Carroll $5 million in damages: $2 million for sexual abuse, $1 million for defamation, and $2 million in punitive damages.

According to records uncovered by The New York Times, Santos was the subject of a criminal investigation in Brazil in 2008. This was over allegations he used stolen checks to buy items at a clothing shop in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian authorities have reopened the case. On May 9, 2023, Santos was charged with 13 federal criminal offenses by the Justice Department in the Eastern District of New York. The other options are all lies Santos told about himself: He is not Jewish, he never worked at Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, and he did not loan his campaign $750,000 from his own company.

Piers Morgan was the editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004 when he was fired for publishing fake photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse. He faces allegations of phone hacking at the Mirror in a high court trial that began on May 10, 2023. The trial was brought by Prince Harry and other celebrities who claimed the newspaper violated their privacy. Morgan has denied any knowledge of phone hacking or illegal activity at the newspaper. He said he had never hacked a phone or told anyone to do so. On Dec. 15, a London High Court judge ruled that Morgan knew about phone hacking at the Mirror. Following the ruling, Morgan still denied personal involvement in phone hacking. He stated that he had not been called as a witness nor asked to provide a statement in the case.

Tucker Carlson said he would bring a revised version of his show to Twitter after being fired by Fox News in April 2023. He announced it on May 9, 2023, in a Twitter video praising the social platform for free speech. He also received a cool welcome from Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, who clarified he hadn’t signed any deal with Carlson.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American physicist who led the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. He oversaw the design and testing of atomic bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and is often credited as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Oppenheimer’s legacy is now explored in a biographical film by Christopher Nolan. The film is based on the 2005 Pulitzer-winning book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer alongside Matt Damon. “Oppenheimer” opens in theaters on July 21, 2023.

Egyptian officials have complained that Netflix’s docudrama series “African Queens: Queen Cleopatra,” which depicts Cleopatra as a Black woman played by British actress Adele James, erases Egyptian identity and falsifies history. They argue that Cleopatra was of Greek origin and had light skin and Hellenistic features, as confirmed by statues and coins. A lawyer named Mahmoud El-Semiry has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and demanded its ban in Egypt. State-owned broadcaster Al Wathaeqya has announced plans to produce its own documentary about Cleopatra’s true story.

Fun fact: Gal Gadot’s Cleopatra is still in pre-production limbo. The film’s announcement has faced backlash from Egyptians who accused it of whitewashing, as Gadot is of Israeli and European descent. Gadot defended her casting by saying Cleopatra was Macedonian. The film is not to be confused with another Cleopatra project by Sony Pictures with director Denis Villeneuve, which has been in development for over a decade.

Sauron is the main antagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings fantasy series, seeking to conquer Middle-earth with his army of orcs and all-seeing eye. A team of scientists named an entire group of butterflies after him in a paper published in May 2023 because of the black rings on their orange hindwings, resembling Sauron’s eye. Saurona butterflies belong to a group called Euptychiina in the southwest Amazon rainforest.

Fun Fact: Sauron is not the only Lord of the Rings character to inspire species names; others include Gandalf, Gollum, and Bilbo. Sauron is also the name of a dung beetle, a frog, a dinosaur, and a galaxy.

Academy Award-winning actor and aspiring best-selling author Tom Hanks published his first novel, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” on May 9, 2023. The novel details the creation of a Marvel-style superhero movie. The book also pays tribute to the workers behind Hollywood’s scenes and captures the changes in America and American culture since 1947.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, famous for their gay anthems and “Frankie Says Relax” T-shirts, reunited for the first time since 1987. The band members are now in their 60s, and some fans were puzzled by their brief performance. They played only one song, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, to a crowd of 25,000 Eurovision fans in their home city of Liverpool on May 7, 2023.

Fun Fact: The Eurovision 2023 opening concert’s lineup also featured artists like 90s sensation Atomic Kitten, Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst, Jamala, and the Lightning Seeds.

Michael Keaton played the titular role of Beetlejuice, a mischievous and foul-mouthed spirit who helps a couple of nerdy ghosts (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) scare away the new owners of their house. The film was directed by Tim Burton and featured Winona Ryder as the goth daughter of the new family. Keaton, Burton, and Ryder return for the sequel, which started production in London on May 10, 2023. The sequel will also star Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) as Ryder’s daughter and Justin Theroux. Beetlejuice 2 is set to hit theaters on Sept. 6, 2024, 36 years after the original.

In an interview with ET Canada on May 9, 2023, Robert De Niro revealed that he had just welcomed his seventh child at 79. The baby’s mother is reportedly martial arts instructor Tiffany Chen, 35 years younger than De Niro. De Niro has six other children from previous relationships: Drena, 51, and Raphael, 46, with first wife Diahnne Abbott; Aaron and Julian, 27, with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith; and Elliot, 25, and Helen, 11, with ex-wife Grace Hightower. De Niro is promoting his 20th movie in ten years, “About My Father,” which opens on May 26.