Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The New York Times [4/21/2026 5:17 PM, Madeleine Ngo and Michael Gold, 148038K] reports Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said on Tuesday that his department would run out of money to pay employees the first week of May if Congress failed to reach a deal to reopen the department. Missed paychecks could renew chaos at airports as lawmakers remain divided over a deal to end the two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. The threat of them also ramps up political pressure on Congress to unlock funding, which had eased after President Trump signed memos calling on his administration to use existing money to pay all department employees, including Transportation Security Administration officers. Mr. Mullin said the money to fund paychecks was drawn from a portion of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which gave the department more than $170 billion over four years to carry out the president’s immigration crackdown. But he said that payroll costs were amounting to more than $1.6 billion every two weeks, and that available funding for salaries would dry up after this month. The dysfunction has frustrated many department employees who have been dealing with financial uncertainty since the shutdown began. More than 90 percent of the department’s roughly 260,000 workers are considered essential, meaning that most employees continue to work without pay. Reuters [4/21/2026 1:07 PM, David Shepardson, 16072K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday that the money would run out by early May. "That money is dried up if I continue down this path the first week of ​May, because my payroll at DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks," Mullin ⁠said. He ⁠said after the next ⁠paycheck, "There is ​no more emergency fund, so the president can’t do another executive order for us to ​use money, because there’s no ⁠more money there." TSA workers also went unpaid for six weeks last autumn during an earlier partial government shutdown. Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu told Reuters on Tuesday Congress has to move fast to get DHS funded. "You cannot ask these (TSA officers) to go through this a third time," ⁠said Sununu, who heads the group representing American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines ⁠and others. Senate Republicans will move forward this week on a budget blueprint that would boost funding for DHS agencies for the next three years, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said as Congress aims to end a partial shutdown of DHS. The Hill [4/21/2026 3:00 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K] reports Senate Republicans released a new budget plan on Tuesday that would fund DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the rest of Trump’s second term. GOP lawmakers expect to vote forward this resolution this week in order to pave the way for restoring funding at the agencies later this spring. This move comes as House Republicans continue to push back on a bipartisan Senate bill that would fund most of DHS. GOP leaders in the lower chamber have launched a pressure campaign to pass additional funding for immigration enforcement operations before approving this legislation.

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Federal News Network [4/21/2026 5:21 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1297K]
Washington Examiner [4/21/2026 4:57 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K]
Daily Wire [4/21/2026 8:02 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K]

FOX News [4/21/2026 10:17 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warns of critical security risks amidst the ongoing DHS funding battle, criticizing Democrats’ efforts to defund ICE and CBP. He highlights the dangers of violent illegal migrants, citing the case of Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, a 19-year-old Venezuelan released by the Biden administration. Mullin reveals 150 dangerous criminal illegal migrants, including child predators and violent offenders, were arrested in Houston during the first week of April. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Times [4/21/2026 1:40 PM, Michael Gold, 148038K] reports that Senate Republicans released a budget blueprint on Tuesday that would clear the way for legislation they plan to push through Congress to provide an additional $70 billion to pay for immigration enforcement through the end of President Trump’s second term. The plan, written by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, is a crucial piece of the G.O.P.’s strategy for ending the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which has lasted more than nine weeks. Republicans hope to push it through the Senate in a matter of days. It would allow Republicans to steer around the opposition of Democrats, who have demanded restrictions on Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown before they agree to funding the department. The plan crafts a bill that the minority party could not block to provide money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. After a weekslong impasse with Democrats over immigration enforcement, Republican leaders agreed weeks ago on a two-track strategy to quickly reopen the department. They would first pass a spending bill to cover everything but ICE and Border Patrol, allowing the department to resume operations. Then, they would write a separate piece of legislation to fund those agencies for the rest of Mr. Trump’s term, using a complex process known as reconciliation that shields budget-related bills from a filibuster, thus depriving Democrats of any chance to stop it. But while Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed the two-track strategy, House Republicans balked. They have refused to take the first step to reopen the department until Congress makes meaningful progress toward the second step to guarantee a funding stream for immigration enforcement for years to come. FOX News [4/21/2026 5:01 PM, Alex Miller, 37576K] reports that the party-line vote sets up a forthcoming marathon vote on amendments in the upper chamber before the budget blueprint is shipped to the House. It’s a maneuver meant to cut Democrats out of the process, as they refused to fund immigration operations absent stringent reforms during weeks of negotiations to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. Republicans earlier unveiled their budget resolution, which will serve as the guiding framework as the GOP moves forward to fund immigration enforcement. It sets instructions for the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to spend up to $70 billion each. While the combined sum of $140 billion is eye-popping, Republicans are eyeing between $70 billion and $80 billion as the final total for immigration enforcement and want to give both committees maximum flexibility as they craft the legislative meat of the package. Still, Republicans have a long way to go before they advance the budget resolution to the House — and even further before the final product lands on Trump’s desk. He’s demanded that the GOP produce the package no later than June 1. Not every Republican in the upper chamber is thrilled with the narrow scope of the plan, with some wanting to front-load several issues into one package out of concern they may not get another shot. For now, however, they’re moving full speed ahead.

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AP [4/21/2026 5:27 PM, Mary Clare Jalonick, 35287K] reports the Senate voted on Tuesday to launch a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and end the longest partial government shutdown in history. The 52-46 vote was the first step in a budget process that Republicans hope will unlock the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Senate Democrats have blocked money for those agencies since mid-February, demanding policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two agencies through a complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes. The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well. The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and an open-ended series of amendment votes that could potentially alter the bill. “It’s not my preference, but it is reality,” Thune said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the budget workaround a “partisan sideshow” and said the resolution will pour money into immigration enforcement “without putting any restraints on these rogue agencies’ rampant violence in our streets.” The Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday released the estimated $70 billion resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused and pass it by the end of the month. But that could prove difficult as many in the party see it as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.

Roll Call [4/21/2026 8:04 PM, Aidan Quigley, Aris Folley and Paul M. Krawzak, 673K] reports the Senate voted Tuesday to take up a budget resolution that is designed to provide enough funding for immigration enforcement agencies through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. On a strictly party-line vote of 52-46, the Senate agreed to proceed to a GOP-written budget resolution that marks the first step in a cumbersome reconciliation process that Republicans hope to use to bypass Democratic opposition to funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Border Patrol without new guardrails on federal immigration agents. The draft fiscal 2026 budget resolution calls on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee to write reconciliation legislation by May 15 that would provide up to $70 billion, which is expected to sustain the immigration agencies for 3.5 years. It also calls on the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Judiciary Committee to do the same. "Republicans are doing something that must be done quickly, and that our Democrat colleagues are trying to prevent us from doing," said Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, in a statement. "With this budget resolution, we are moving forward — not backward — on rational immigration policies that secure our border.” The resolution would technically allow each of the Senate’s two authorizing committees to increase the deficit by up to $70 billion, theoretically allowing for up to $140 billion in total new spending. But Graham spokeswoman Taylor Reidy said on X that the matching instructions for the two committees are designed to "provide for maximum flexibility" because of overlapping committee jurisdictions on immigration policy. The GOP’s total spending target would remain at about $70 billion, she said. Progress on a reconciliation bill could clear a path for fully funding the Department of Homeland Security and ending a record-breaking partial shutdown. Senate GOP leaders want to keep the bill confined to immigration funding to improve the chances for speedy passage. But the budget resolution will be subject to unlimited amendment votes, known as a "vote-a-rama," on the Senate floor, a process that could end up expanding the scope of a reconciliation package. The vote-a-rama could begin as early as Wednesday night, depending on whether senators want to use up all 50 hours of allowed debate time, but Graham said he was expecting it to begin Thursday. After huddling Tuesday morning in Graham’s office, Senate Budget Republicans voiced support for prioritizing a narrow package focused on immigration enforcement funding, while some were hopeful of passing an additional reconciliation package later in the year that could include a wide range of items, from boosts in defense spending to potential health care spending cuts. "I do agree with the general strategy of moving ahead quickly on funding ICE and Border Patrol, and that’s what I’m going to support," said Finance Chairman Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho. Democrats said they’re preparing amendments that could include restrictions on ICE but mainly focus on affordability issues. "We’re going to focus almost exclusively on the cost of living," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. "And we’re going to make the point that they have this extraordinary tool, and they’re using it to pre-fund ICE with no reforms, rather than to reduce the cost of gasoline and electricity and groceries and health insurance.”

New York Post [4/21/2026 1:34 PM, Ryan King, 40934K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security won’t fully reopen anytime soon. House GOP leadership doubled down Tuesday on insisting that it won’t move any piecemeal funding bill for DHS to end the record-breaking 66-day partial shutdown until it is sure that there’s a clear legislative path for all of its agencies to get money. "The sequencing is important. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t isolate and, as I say, make an orphan out of key agencies of the department," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday. "And there’s some concern on our side that if you do [fund] the bulk of the department first before that, then they could be left out. We can’t allow for that. So we’re working through that." Late last month, the Senate passed a deal to fund the entire department except for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, Johnson rejected the measure, calling it "unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at 3 o’clock in the morning and try to foist this upon the American people and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday — and pretend and think that we’re going to go along with that." But DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned Tuesday that those temporary measures will have been exhausted by May. "My payroll through DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks, so the money is going extremely fast and once that happens, there is no emergency funds after that," Mullin told "Fox & Friends." "I’ve got one payroll left and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order because there’s no more money there."

CNN [4/22/2026 2:37 AM, Karina Tsui, 612K] reports a man accused of killing three people, including a Department of Homeland Security employee, in a shooting spree across several Atlanta suburbs last week died in custody, authorities said Tuesday. Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was found unresponsive in his jail cell at around 6:48 p.m. Tuesday. Detention staff tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead about half an hour later, Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. "There is no indication of criminal activity or foul play," the statement read, adding that the official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner’s office. An internal review has been initiated to examine the circumstances of his death, in accordance with agency policy. Adon Abel, a native of the United Kingdom granted US citizenship in 2022, was suspected of shooting 31-year-old Prianna Weathers, 48-year-old Tony Matthews, and 40-year-old Lauren Bullis, within hours on April 13, becoming one of the latest immigration cases thrust into the national spotlight by the Trump administration. Weathers, a mother to a preteen, and Bullis, the DHS employee, died from their injuries shortly after being shot. Matthews, a father with a growing family, was hospitalized for six days until he died on April 19. Police said Weathers, the first victim, was fatally injured with multiple gunshot wounds near a restaurant in the Decatur area around 1 a.m. on April 13. About an hour later in Brookhaven, another Atlanta suburb north of Decatur, Matthews was shot multiple times outside of a grocery store. Police previously said Matthews was unhoused, but his family said he wasn’t, clarifying he didn’t have his ID when he was found. Hours later, before 7 a.m., Bullis was shot and stabbed while walking her dog in Panthersville - an unincorporated community south of Decatur. A dedicated DHS employee and "consummate professional," Bullis was "committed to public service," read her obituary. Authorities said they suspected Adon Abel based on surveillance footage and license plate readers. He was taken into custody on April 13, the same day as the shootings, during a traffic stop in Troup County, which borders Alabama and was charged with two counts of malice murder aggravated assault and a firearms count. After Matthews’ death, police said they would seek another charge of malice murder. Adon Abel was also facing federal firearms charges in connection to the purchase of a 9 mm handgun allegedly found at the scene where Bullis was killed, according to the Justice Department. Adon Abel had a criminal record that included a sexual battery conviction, according to Homeland Secretary Markwayne Mullin, though he didn’t say which year he was convicted. Online court records show that someone listed as Adon Olaolukitan, who has the same birth date as Adon Abel, pleaded guilty last June in Chatham County, Georgia, to four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. Mullin said since President Donald Trump took office, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which DHS oversees, has worked to ensure that people with criminal histories don’t attain citizenship. But the US has long barred people convicted of most violent felonies from becoming citizens, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Adon Abel — or Adon Olaolukitan, if it’s the same person — had a criminal record that predated him becoming a citizen in 2022.

FOX News [4/21/2026 9:40 PM, Alexandra Koch, 37576K] reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday recognized National Crime Victims Week by shining a light on those impacted by crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants and resources available to angel families. After being shut down by the Biden administration, the Trump administration re-opened the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office to prioritize American victims and their families. Over the past year, the office has fielded nearly 900 calls seeking assistance, according to DHS. The office restores critical support services, such as helping victims track immigration enforcement cases, providing automated ICE custody updates, and connecting families with local social services. Of the incidents reported, DHS said 32% involved violent assault, 15% involved rape or sexual assault and 9% involved homicide or manslaughter. "For too long in this country, victims of illegal alien crime have been ignored by the media and sanctuary politicians," DHS acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. "This National Crime Victims Week, Secretary Markwayne Mullin is honoring the victims of illegal alien crime.” "DHS will never stop fighting for victims of illegal aliens and will ALWAYS put America first," she added. "Every crime committed by an illegal alien is completely preventable.” Some of the victims of crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, who DHS is remembering this week, include: In April 2025, Megan Bos’ body was found partially decomposed in a garbage can in Waukegan, Illinois. Jose Luis Mendoza-Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is charged with abuse of a corpse, two counts of concealing the death of a person and obstructing justice in connection with her death. Despite the charges, DHS said he was released under sanctuary Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. On July 19, 2025, he was arrested by ICE officers in Chicago. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [4/21/2026 3:42 PM, ​Daniela Desantis, 38315K] reports Paraguay is set to ​receive on Thursday ‌a first group of 25 migrants ​from third countries ​deported from the United ⁠States under ​a migration cooperation agreement ​signed between the two countries, its foreign ​ministry said. Paraguay is ​the latest in a ‌series ⁠of countries around the region to receive migrants from ​other ​countries ⁠sent from the U.S. under ​a mass ​deportation ⁠push by the administration of President ⁠Donald ​Trump.

USA Today [4/21/2026 11:18 AM, Bart Jansen, 70643K] reports civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit aiming to block the Justice Department from collecting and reviewing state voter lists to weed out ineligible voters, arguing that the federal government has no role under the Constitution to manage state elections. The advocacy group Common Cause, along with a handful of voters, also wants to prevent the federal government from creating a database with the personal information of hundreds of millions of voters’ addresses, driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. The lawsuit is the latest legal battlefield over voter registration amid President Donald Trump’s campaign to prevent undocumented immigrants and other ineligible voters from casting ballots. Justice lawyers have argued in other cases that they have the power to collect and review rolls to prevent fraud. Omar Noureldin, Common Cause’s senior vice president of policy and litigation, said the author George Orwell warned about such government surveillance in his book "1984." "Essentially it’s a Big Brother type issue," Noureldin, a senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Biden administration, told USA TODAY. "We should be suspicious of the federal government engaging in creating large databases." The civil rights groups are asking the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, to order the Justice Department to delete the confidential voter data it has already collected from more than a dozen states. The lawsuit also asks the court to prevent the department from sharing the voter data with other agencies or third-party contractors because of privacy concerns it could be hacked. The lawsuit was filed as the Justice Department is fighting in federal court in 30 states and the District of Columbia for voter lists with the confidential information. At the same time, Trump has urged Congress to approve legislation requiring identification to vote and proof of citizenship to register.

CNN [4/21/2026 4:26 PM, Tierney Sneed, 19874K] reports the Trump administration has been working for nearly a year on an effort to weed out noncitizens from voter rolls using a faulty data system while keeping those plans hidden from courts and Democratic election officials, internal Justice Department communications obtained by CNN show. The White House was kept in the loop on the Justice Department’s progress, as it struggled to get cooperation from states in its sprawling requests for unredacted voter registration information, ultimately bringing lawsuits against 31 election chiefs. Only last month did the DOJ’s top voting lawyer acknowledge in the litigation that the department wanted to run the data through a citizenship verification system operated by the Department of Homeland Security. Internal emails cited in a new lawsuit filed Tuesday by a voter advocacy group challenging President Donald Trump’s sprawling voter data-collection and review project shed new light on the effort.

Federalist [4/21/2026 7:30 AM, Maisey Jefferson, 540K] reports a majority of voters support the SAVE America Act and want Congress to pass it before the midterms in November, a March Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found. The majority of respondents also support other election integrity requirements, like counting ballots within 24 hours after Election Day, removing noncitizens from the voter rolls, and even allowing states to share voting records with the Department of Homeland Security. The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll is conducted monthly. Last month’s survey, conducted March 25-26, included 2,009 respondents identified as "registered voters." Much of leftist media outlets’ coverage surrounding the SAVE America Act — which would require documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and voter ID in federal elections — fearmongers that the legislation would essentially disenfranchise voters en masse by enacting these common-sense safeguards. The recent Harvard/Harris poll suggests that Americans aren’t as worried about that as the corporate press would have you think. The poll found that an overwhelming majority of respondents — 68 percent — still support all the main provisions of the SAVE America Act, including 45 percent of Democrats and 90 percent of Republicans. Interestingly, 54 percent of respondents — including more than a third of Democrats — agree that it is more important to "do everything possible to stop voter fraud and illegal immigrants from voting" than it is to ensure that "eligible citizens aren’t denied the ability to vote.”

Federalist [4/21/2026 7:28 AM, M. D. Kittle, 540K] reports Senate Majority Leader John Thune has no intention of abandoning the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, a source familiar with the bill process told The Federalist. On Monday afternoon, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., posted on her X account that Thune is washing his hands of the critical election integrity reform bill supported by the vast majority of Americans. "Just so America knows, after two weeks in recess, John Thune is no longer considering the SAVE America Act," Luna wrote. The congressional source with knowledge of the situation told The Federalist on Monday evening that Luna’s comment "is not true." He said the bill, which requires documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo identification at the polls, is "still the pending business in the Senate." "We will be considering ICE and Border Patrol funding followed by FISA, all priorities of the president," the congressional insider wrote in an email to The Federalist. "The senate can always return to SAVE after considering those items. We started debating it five weeks ago." Luna’s assertion seemed to have some supporting evidence.

ABC News [4/21/2026 3:00 PM, Luke Barr, 34146K] reports the sprawling UFC Freedom 250 event being held on the South Lawn of the White House and the Ellipse event in June are receiving the highest level of security possible, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News. The event is not a National Special Security Event, which is designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security and includes events like the Presidential Inauguration and the 250 Military Parade. The threat landscape has also never been more dynamic, according to law enforcement sources. A March alert sent to law enforcement partners around the country from DHS talked about the threat of lone actors.

AP [4/21/2026 6:34 PM, Mike Schneider, 35287K] reports an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will remain open, an appeals court decided Tuesday, upholding its earlier decision to block a judge’s order for the facility to wind down operations because it didn’t comply with federal environmental law. A majority on the three-judge panel from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said the Florida-run facility wasn’t under federal control and didn’t need to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact review. “Florida, not federal, officials constructed the facility,” a majority of the judges wrote. “They control the land and ‘entirely’ built the facility at state expense.” At the time of U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ preliminary injunction, Florida had received no federal reimbursement, the appellate majority wrote. Williams concluded that a reimbursement decision already had been made. The appeals court paused Williams’ order just days after she issued it last August, pending a hearing. The hearing was held earlier this month in Miami. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, two of the environmental groups that had brought the lawsuit, said they would continue fighting as the case returns to the district court for further litigation. “This fight is far from over,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country without the most basic environmental review, at immense human and ecological cost.” State officials opened the Everglades detention center last summer to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Earlier this month, a lawyer for two people detained there said in court papers that guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed detainees.

Wall Street Journal [4/21/2026 6:38 AM, José de Córdoba and Vera Bergengruen, 646K] reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is demanding an investigation into reports that two U.S. officials had helped to dismantle giant methamphetamine labs in northern Mexico before dying in a fiery car crash in the nearby rugged mountains. A vehicle carrying the Americans, along with two Mexican security officials, plunged off a mountain road Sunday as they were returning from a raid by local security forces that destroyed six meth labs over the weekend, Mexican state officials said. Both Mexican officials died, including the head of the Chihuahua state investigative agency. The Washington Post reported that the two U.S. officials worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA declined to comment or identify the men, as did the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. A spokesman for the Mexican government said it hadn’t been informed of the identity of the American officials. “We are investigating what those people were doing and from what agency they were from,” Sheinbaum said Tuesday. She added that the U.S. officials appeared to be working jointly with local law enforcement from Chihuahua, a large Mexican state on the border with New Mexico and Texas that has long been a transit point for drug smuggling. She said the attorney general was investigating to see if Mexican law had been violated, which may lead to a Mexican admonishment of the U.S. “We would need to ask for an explanation from the U.S. Embassy,” she said.

New York Post [4/21/2026 2:50 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 40934K] reports that a local mayor in Southern California blasted a controversial proposal that would reportedly see county officials partner with Mexico to expand legal support for immigrants facing deportation. Bill Wells, the Republican mayor of El Cajon, blasted the San Diego County Board of Supervisors ahead of a key vote Tuesday on whether to formalize a partnership with the Mexican Consulate. "Our County government, the one you pay for, wants to team up with a foreign consulate to help people stay here who broke federal law to get here. Not legal immigrants. Not citizens who are struggling. People who entered illegally," he wrote on X Monday. At issue is a proposal to expand immigrant legal defense services and "Know Your Rights" resources through agreements with the consulate — an effort county officials say is aimed at ensuring due process as federal immigration enforcement ramps up. Wells, however, is framing the move as a misuse of taxpayer dollars, calling the proposal "crazy." "This isn’t compassion. It’s a county government picking a fight with the feds, on your dime, alongside another country," he added. The proposal comes as immigration enforcement activity has increased across the region, pulling more families into detention and removal proceedings — often without legal representation. Individuals in immigration court do not have a constitutional right to an attorney, a gap that can significantly affect outcomes, according to the agenda. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the measure Tuesday.

Univision [4/21/2026 3:39 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports in a move that escalates ideological and immigration tensions in the United States, Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas has introduced a bill in Congress seeking the systematic deportation of naturalized citizens and foreign residents based on their political and religious affiliations. Dubbed the Measures Against Dangerous Marxist and Noxious Islamist Adherents Act (MAMDANI Act), the proposal seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow for the deportation, denaturalization, and visa denial of anyone linked to communism, socialism, or Islamic fundamentalism. Under this legislation, the mayor of the nation’s largest metropolis could face the loss of his citizenship and deportation. The measure would also target members of Congress such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, both affiliated with socialist organizations. A critical point of the bill is its definitive and unappealable nature.

Washington Post [4/21/2026 9:24 AM, Joe Heim, 24826K] reports the partial federal government shutdown, now in its third month, has receded in large part from public view with war, gas prices and fears of a fragile economy dominating headlines. For the families of 204 fallen firefighters from 43 states, however, the shutdown has loomed large. Many of them had hoped to spend the first weekend of May witnessing their loved ones’ names being added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and participating in ceremonies to honor them. But with Department of Homeland Security funding halted because of the shutdown, that event was in jeopardy. The memorial is on the campus of the United States Fire Administration, a DHS entity. Because of the shutdown, the campus has been closed to the public and events there were canceled. The families and friends of the fallen firefighters lobbied lawmakers for a deal or at least some kind of exception so that the weekend could go ahead as planned. That effort paid off. Organizers of the annual event said Monday that despite the funding lapse, DHS is making special arrangements to open the USFA campus for the memorial weekend and for the program to proceed as scheduled. “We are grateful that we will be able to gather at the National Memorial to honor these heroes and stand with their families,” Victor Stagnaro, chief executive of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, said in a statement. “We are thankful to everyone who helped make it possible for the fire service community and Fire Hero Families to come together in this sacred place during the partial government shutdown.”

Bloomberg [4/21/2026 6:00 AM, Staff, 18082K] reports among the many open-ended risks created by the war in Iran is the renewed potential for terrorist attacks on American soil. It’s not clear that Congress, the president or the new secretary of Homeland Security quite recognize the gravity of the threat. After the US and Israel struck Iran, there was a spate of violence by religious extremists in the US, including at a synagogue, a university, and on the streets of New York City and Austin. For the foreseeable future, even if the tenuous ceasefire holds and peace is secured, the risk of additional — and potentially far deadlier — attacks will remain heightened. Both the administration and Congress, however, seem preoccupied with other concerns.

Washington Post [4/21/2026 6:30 AM, Jim Geraghty, 24826K] reports one year ago, the Trump administration gutted the Education Department’s Office of English Language Acquisition, which is supposed to help about 5 million students in public schools “attain English proficiency and achieve academic success.” By “gutted,” I mean cut 14 of the 15 staff positions in that office. Now the department has given Congress official notice that it plans to dissolve the office entirely. As of 2021, students identified as English learners made up 10.6 percent of the total K-12 population, and they are considered “the fastest growing population of students in K-12 schools.” As you might expect, a lot of these kids are children of immigrants, both legal and illegal, and speak a language other than English at home. Regardless of your opinion on illegal immigration, it’s a good idea to help these kids become as proficient in English as possible. Particularly if you support President Donald Trump’s executive order designating English “the official language of the United States.” The Trump administration offers several justifications for its effort to eliminate the Office of English Language Acquisition. First, in this year’s proposal from the Office of Management and Budget, the administration argues that the OELA is wasteful: “The Biden Administration used the program to fund educating illegal aliens and promote divisive ideological indoctrination in the classroom; a ‘newcomer toolkit’ that describes illegal immigration as a ‘healthy contribution to democracy’ was shared with school districts for illegal students entering schools.”

NewsMax [4/21/2026 6:32 AM, Daniel McCarthy, 3760K] reports "Dignity" is just another word for "amnesty" in an ill-conceived law now being pushed by a Miami-area Republican congresswoman. Heading into the midterms, the last thing the GOP should be doing is alienating its core voters on immigration, but Rep. Maria Salazar’s legislation does just that. In the Orwellian way proposed laws are labeled these days, this one is called the "Dignity for Immigrants while Guarding our Nation to Ignite and Deliver the American Dream Act," or "DIGNIDAD Act" for short — Spanish for "dignity.” President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year designating English the nation’s official language. Shouldn’t it also be the official language for the short title of a Republican congresswoman’s immigration bill? The fact Salazar chooses dignidad over "dignity" suggests whose interests are prioritized here. The bill would grant legal status to as many as 10.5 million illegal immigrants, while expanding eligibility for yet more newcomers to receive temporary or permanent visas. The Dignidad Act makes a joke out of Trump’s efforts to anyone who’s in this country illegally.

Axios [4/21/2026 6:19 AM, Anna Spiegel, 17364K] reports when rumors spread last year that nannies were being detained by ICE at D.C. parks, it set families on edge. While ICE arrests have fallen this year, some of that fear hasn’t faded. It’s driving a new kind of advocacy work — like a local group that’s training household employers on how to respond if immigration enforcement reaches their doorstep. D.C. organizers for Hand in Hand, a national network of domestic employers, are hosting "Sanctuary Homes" trainings to teach practical ways to support immigrant domestic workers, from flexible schedules to emergency planning. The virtual and in-person sessions include "know your rights" basics, such as the difference between administrative and judicial warrants, which affects when ICE can legally enter a home. And they tackle thorny questions around pay, documentation and immigration status. "It’s about establishing safety and dignity for a worker, starting in the home," D.C. organizer Paola Henríquez tells Axios.

Breitbart [4/21/2026 4:20 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien, convicted on nine counts of groping teenage girls at Fairfax County High School in Virginia, will serve just 140 days in prison after having been sentenced on Tuesday. Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal alien from El Salvador who is nearly 19 years old but who attends Fairfax County High School, was given a sentence of 360 days in prison with two years of probation. The judge in the case offered Ortiz credit for time served, ensuring he will serve only about 140 days in prison. In March, about a dozen girls at the high school came forward to accuse Ortiz of groping them in the hallways of the school. School officials knew of the groping incidents for more than two weeks before they alerted parents of students at the high school to the issue. After having been initially charged, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Steve Descano, agreed to let Ortiz walk out of jail, but a judge denied him permission to do so. Ortiz, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed, first crossed the United States-Mexico border in 2024 and was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration. ICE agents have lodged a detainer against Ortiz, requesting custody of him when he is released from prison. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has refused to intervene in the case to make sure Ortiz is not released back into the community in Fairfax County.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/21/2026 5:04 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 40934K]
FOX News [4/21/2026 1:22 PM, Eric Mack, Peter Pinedo, and Jake Gibson, 37576K]
Daily Wire [4/21/2026 3:19 PM, Jennie Taer, 2314K]

FOX News [4/21/2026 12:00 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports federal immigration officials issued a detainer for a Mexican national accused of sexually assaulting a minor in South Carolina after the victim was found giving birth in a hospital parking lot. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for Luis Armando Argueta Montejo, who is accused of having sexual intercourse with a female minor believed to be between the ages of 11 and 14. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Montejo was arrested days after the minor was found giving birth in the parking lot of Oconee Memorial Hospital in South Carolina. Evidence collected by the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office indicated that Montejo had sexual intercourse with the victim, according to DHS. The 43-year-old was charged with incest and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a child, DHS said. "This sicko should NEVER have been in our country to prey on children in the first place," Acting Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "He now faces charges for incest and multiple child sex crimes.” Montejo told ICE he first entered the U.S. in 2006 and does not have a prior criminal record, according to officials. ICE lodged a detainer on April 17 to ensure he is transferred to federal custody after local proceedings conclude. "Prior to these horrific crimes, this illegal alien lacked a criminal record in the U.S.," Bis said. "Under Secretary Mullin, ICE lodged an arrest detainer with South Carolina to ensure this monster is never loose in our communities again.” Bis said the case underscores the need for coordination between federal and local authorities. "Thankfully, South Carolina cooperates with ICE law enforcement," Bis added. "This is why we need cooperation from state and local partners, so together we can keep criminals off our streets and make America safe again.”

Reported similarly:
Daily Wire [4/21/2026 4:05 PM, Jennie Taer, 2314K]

CBS News [4/21/2026 10:01 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports the Atlanta City Council on Monday approved two resolutions aimed at responding to federal immigration enforcement activity and proposed detention facilities within the city. One measure formally opposes the construction or operation of large-scale immigration detention centers in Atlanta, including the conversion of warehouses into facilities run by ICE. Council members said they are concerned about a broader federal effort to expand detention capacity nationwide, including large facilities that could house thousands of people. The resolution also references a recently purchased warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, that could hold up to 10,000 detainees, raising concerns among local officials about strain on infrastructure like water and sewer systems. Under the resolution, Atlanta leaders say the city should use its zoning and permitting authority to closely review any proposed detention facility and avoid providing public land, funding or incentives for such projects. The measure makes clear it does not interfere with federal law but signals the city’s opposition to these facilities within its limits. A second resolution focuses on transparency and accountability when federal immigration enforcement actions happen in Atlanta.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2026 2:12 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports that elected officials in Atlanta have taken steps to block the Trump administration from opening a new immigrant detention center within city limits, as well as to require local police to track the activity of federal immigration authorities. As the Trump administration continues its mass deportation operation nationwide, the Atlanta City Council has passed two resolutions to signify that it does not welcome employees or activities of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency. The move follows similar efforts in blue cities that ICE heavily targeted in operations since last summer, and as Georgia ranks fifth among states for the most ICE arrests under President Donald Trump. On Monday, city councilors voted to declare that the city opposes ICE’s efforts to buy a massive warehouse and convert it into a jail for illegal immigrants in federal custody. The resolution’s title states the council’s "opposition to the acquisition, renovation, expansion, and operation of warehouses or other facilities within the city of Atlanta for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities; and for other purposes." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin paused all ICE warehouse purchases and conversions last month, including one purchased in Social Circle, Georgia. Atlanta leaders said the city ought to use its zoning and permitting authorities to examine any ICE project before approving it, according to CBS News.

FOX News [4/21/2026 1:46 PM, Julia Bonavita, 37576K] reports that an illegal immigrant from Cuba with multiple prior convictions is in federal custody after spending decades evading deportation due to relaxed sanctuary city policies, federal authorities announced Tuesday. Eledoro Valenzuela Rodriguez was taken into custody from the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida last month, according to officials. At the time, Rodriguez was awaiting trial on charges of cocaine possession with intent to sell, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and trespassing, officials said. He previously had a final removal order lodged against him in 1980, but remained in the United States after "lenient sentences from sanctuary states New York and Maryland allowed this serial offender to keep preying on innocent people," ICE said in a statement. "Sanctuary policies protect criminals like Valenzuela Rodriguez and enable them to prey on generations of innocent Americans," ICE Director Todd Lyons said. ICE did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Authorities said Rodriguez "amassed numerous convictions and charges," including arrests for possession of controlled substances, marijuana possession, dealing cocaine, weapon possession and firearm possession by a convicted felon. Despite the litany of charges and past convictions, Rodriguez was released from jail multiple times while living in sanctuary cities, federal authorities said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [4/21/2026 5:11 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Finnerty,” Border Czar Tom Homan said that deportation numbers will come back up and said that the administration didn’t surrender in Minnesota because “We took over 4,000 people off the streets of that state, most of them criminals. Number two, we walked away with cooperation from just about every county jail and the state prison system,” which frees up officers. Host Rob Finnerty asked, “Just a quick one, I’ve only got about 30 seconds, Tom, deportation numbers are down. Pre-Alex Pretti, Renee Good, we were at about 8,000 a week. Now, we are just above 5,000 a week. Kristi Noem’s gone. Greg Bovino is gone. Did the media and the Democrats win in the state of Minnesota? Are those numbers going to come back up?” Homan answered, “Of course, the numbers are going to come back. We just hired 10,000 more agents. … Minnesota, I see people say we surrendered. No, we didn’t. We took over 4,000 people off the streets of that state, most of them criminals. Number two, we walked away with cooperation from just about every county jail and the state prison system, which means this: It’s safer for the officers. It’s safer for the community when we can arrest the public safety threat in the safety and security of the jail. So, rather than sending a dozen people to go look for somebody, a public safety threat in the [state] of Minnesota, now we’ve got one agent arresting one illegal alien in the county jail. What does that mean? That releases 11 other people to look for more people.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [4/21/2026 11:17 PM, Morgan Lee, 3833K] reports the wife of a U.S. Army sergeant was being held Tuesday at an immigration detention facility in El Paso, Texas, amid signs that the Trump administration is dialing back leniency toward immigrant family members of military personnel and veterans. Jose Serrano, an active duty soldier who served three tours in Afghanistan, said immigration agents arrested his wife April 14 as they attended an appointment with immigration services to take steps toward her permanent residency. “A person opened the door, escorted us through the hallway, and at the end of the hallway, my wife got arrested,” Serrano said. “Arrested without any order, any warrant ... They took away my wife. They don’t tell me anything.” Since then, El Salvador native Deisy Rivera Ortega has challenged her detention in U.S. District Court and requested an order to block her deportation to Mexico — where she does not have ties and visits by active duty U.S. troops are restricted. Attorney Matthew James Kozik said Rivera Ortega held a valid work permit and was previously granted a withholding of removal to El Salvador. The Department of Homeland Security said in an email that Rivera Ortega entered the U.S. illegally in 2016 and that a judge issued a final order of removal in December 2019. “Work authorization does not confer any legal status to be in the country. Rivera-Ortega remains in ICE custody pending removal,” the agency said. The agency did not address whether Rivera Ortega might be deported to Mexico. Rivera Ortega was being held at El Paso Service Processing Center, where Serrano says he was able to visit Sunday and talk to his wife through a plastic pane. She applied for consideration with her husband under the “parole in place” policy that previously provided a possibly expedited pathway to permanent residency for spouses of service members. But last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

CNN [4/22/2026 12:35 AM, Noah Weiss, 19874K] Video: HERE reports Army Sergeant Jose Serrano has served in the military for 27 years. And now his wife is facing deportation. Deisy Fidelina Rivera-Ortega was detained by ICE at a routine immigration appointment. Serrano’s lawyer warns, if this could happen to them — other military families could be at risk too.

Breitbart [4/21/2026 3:52 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien, released into the United States as an Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) by the Biden administration, is now accused of bludgeoning a coworker to death with a sledgehammer in a suburb of Houston, Texas. Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, a 19-year-old illegal alien from Venezuela, was arrested while driving through Pasadena, Texas, on April 12 and charged with murder. According to police, Chirino-Leonice used a sledgehammer to beat his coworker, Juan Antonio Salinas Leija, to death. Leija had been working as a carpenter on a home under construction in the Northgate Crossing community, a Houston suburb, when his sister found his lifeless body. Chirino-Leonice was driving Leija’s car when he was arrested and charged. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Chirino-Leonice first crossed the United States-Mexico border in November 2023 as a UAC — one of millions that crossed the border that year. The Biden administration, under the direction of then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, released Chirino-Leonice into the U.S. interior and placed him with an adult sponsor.

ABC News [4/21/2026 1:45 PM, Laura Romero, 34146K] reports that the wife and five children of the man suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators last June were ordered released from federal custody by a judge on Monday. The family of the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, has been detained in immigration custody for more than 10 months at the family detention facility in Dilley, Texas. Eric Lee, an attorney representing Hayam El Gamal and her children, told ABC News the family has not been released despite the federal judge’s order. There is a hearing in their case on Thursday. "Although the court has ruled that the El Gamal family is detained in violation of the Constitution, the government continues to keep them locked up," Lee told ABC News. "We demand their immediate release." A federal judge blocked the family’s deportation in June after the Department of Homeland Security announced they were being processed for removal shortly after the attack. Soliman, 45, is facing more than 100 charges including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, and assault. He has pleaded not guilty. "The facts of this case have not changed: Mohammed Soliman is a terrorist responsible for an anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder," DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement Tuesday. "The judge wants to release this terrorist’s family onto American streets," she added. "Under President Trump, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of those who have no right to be in our country, especially national security threats."

Univision [4/21/2026 10:38 AM, Staff, 4937K] reports that the case of 19-year-old Venezuelan national Josué Abraham Chirino-Leonice has taken a new turn following the intervention of immigration authorities. The young man was arrested on April 12 in the Cypress, Texas area, charged with first-degree murder after confessing that he grabbed a steel sledgehammer—a heavy construction tool—and repeatedly struck Juan Antonio Salinas in the head until he killed him. According to case reports, the fatal attack allegedly took place inside a two-story home in the Goldensong Court neighborhood, where both men were performing renovation work. On April 13, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed an immigration detainer at the Harris County Jail, seeking to take custody of the accused once his criminal proceedings have concluded. According to official information, Chirino-Leonice had been intercepted by the Border Patrol in November 2023 and subsequently released within the United States. Federal authorities have cited this prior history to highlight failures in immigration oversight. Gabriel Martínez, ICE’s Acting Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Houston, stated that this case underscores the need to prevent individuals with criminal records or high-risk behaviors from remaining on the streets without supervision. "Our officers are working tirelessly to restore the integrity of our immigration system," Martínez noted.

Univision [4/21/2026 7:03 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports a national mobilization in the United States is consolidating in rejection of the federal plan to transform industrial warehouses into massive immigration detention centers. Activists called for a day of protests on April 25, under the slogan "Communities Not Cages", amid rising criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its expansion strategy. More than 160 demonstrations are expected in different cities such as Hagerstown, Atlanta, Alexandria and Salt Lake City, in addition to local protests such as the one scheduled in Signal Hill, California. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) promotes this multi-billion dollar initiative that includes the purchase and adaptation of at least 23 warehouses nationwide, with capacity to house between 1,500 and 10,000 people each. If specified, the total capacity for detention could reach 92,600 people. The project would cost more than US$38 billion and responds, according to federal authorities, to the increase in arrests and stricter immigration policies. However, organizations and lawmakers warn that the move could lead to more abuse, deaths in custody, due process violations and family separations. In addition, communities and activists also warn that these centers could affect basic resources such as water and electricity, and impact local economies. The controversy has begun to have effects: some projects have been paused or cancelled in the face of political pressure, legal challenges and community opposition, while DHS reviews part of its plans. The conversion of warehouses into detention centers has generated resistance on multiple levels. State and local governments, both Democrats and Republicans, have tried to block or limit these projects through zoning, legislation and public pressure changes, although their margin of action is reduced as they are federal operations.

Axios [4/21/2026 9:25 AM, Melissa Santos, 17364K] reports Seattle and King County are taking steps to limit the reach of federal immigration agents, including by blocking them from operating on city- and county-owned property. The new laws reflect local officials’ frustration with the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy — and their efforts to push back where they can. Here are a few of the city’s and county’s new guardrails, which local officials say are aimed largely at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Blocking ICE staging In March, the Seattle City Council passed a measure banning "civil immigration enforcement staging" on city properties. The prohibition applies to city parks, plazas, offices and public housing, among other areas. The ordinance says ICE agents can’t convene, set up equipment, or conduct surveillance in those places unless they have a signed order or warrant from a judge. The city is setting up signs in more than 600 areas noting the restrictions. King County passed a similar ban in late March and is setting up signs on its properties. Both Seattle and King County passed temporary bans on new detention centers within their boundaries, aiming to block new facilities that could be used by ICE. The bans last for one year, which supporters say will give local officials time to develop permanent standards for such facilities.

NPR [4/21/2026 5:00 AM, Jude Joffe-Block, 28764K] reports during Billie Little’s roughly two decades working at Thomson Reuters, she felt pride in the company, which is known for its legal database Westlaw, its media company Reuters, and its role as a major data broker. But as masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed Minneapolis early this year and the country reeled from federal agents fatally shooting Renée Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, Little and other colleagues grew alarmed that ICE agents could be abusing Thomson Reuters investigative tools that provide vast quantities of personal data on people including license plate information. Little, who worked in legal publishing, was part of a committee of employees that sent a letter to company management in February flagging that ICE could be using Thomson Reuters products unlawfully and asking for greater transparency about the company’s oversight of its contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Soon after their effort was made public in the media, however, Little was fired from her role. "Instead of addressing our concerns, our legitimate concerns – instead, they turn toward investigating me," Little told NPR. "And I was instrumental in leading the group. So I think that clearly they were trying to chill [the] activity of workers and that should scare every worker across the country." Little is now suing the company, arguing that her dismissal violated a law in her home state of Oregon that bars employers from firing whistleblowers.

New York Post [4/21/2026 12:59 PM, Chris Nesi, 40934K] reports that Homeland Security Investigations has arrested a maniac in San Francisco who was so outraged about ICE enforcing immigration law that he sent a violent death threat to Acting Director Todd Lyons calling for agents to be summarily executed in the street. "YOUR GESTAPO NAZI MAGGOT ICE AGENTS SHOULD BE TERRIFIED," Daniel Barber’s unhinged June 6 email to Lyons read in part. "EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM DESERVES TO BE ARRESTED BY ARMED AMERICAN CITIZENS, FROGMARCHED INTO THE STREETS, SUMMARILY TRIED AND CONVICTED OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY THERE IN PUBLIC, AND SUBSEQUENTLY EXECUTED RIGHT THERE AS WELL WITH TWO F–KING BULLETS TO THE BACK OF THEIR MAGGOT NAZI HEADS!" ICE launched an investigation into the email, identifying the author as Barber, who has a lengthy criminal history including a 1990 conviction for murder and robbery with the intent to cause bodily harm, and several arrests for burglary, battery and vehicle theft. HSI arrested him on April 10. "Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "The men and women of ICE are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop."

Breitbart [4/21/2026 1:34 PM, Staff, 2238K] reports that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday warned he would hit back with reciprocal measures after Washington expelled a Brazilian police attache in the latest spat between the two countries. The leftist leader’s comments came after the United States ordered Commissioner Marcelo Ivo, a liaison officer in Miami for Brazil’s federal police, to leave the country. According to Brazilian media, Ivo was involved in the arrest in the United States of Brazil’s fugitive ex-spy chief Alexandre Ramagem, a close ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. Ramagem, who fled Brazil after being sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of helping Bolsonaro attempt a coup to overthrow Lula, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 13. He was released two days later. The episode has stirred longstanding tension between US President Donald Trump’s administration and Lula’s left-wing government. Lula lashed out Washington’s expulsion of Ivo. "If there has been an abuse of power by the United States against our police officer, we will retaliate against their police officers in Brazil," Lula, currently on a European tour, told a press conference in Hanover, Germany. "We cannot accept this interference, this abuse of power, which certain US officials wish to exert over Brazil," he added. The US State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said on Monday it had asked a Brazilian official to leave the country for attempting to manipulate the American immigration system to prolong what it termed a "witch hunt"

Breitbart [4/21/2026 5:11 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports on Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Finnerty,” Border Czar Tom Homan said there is a problem with people from China exploiting the Visa Waiver Program in the Northern Mariana Islands, which is “a huge national security threat,” and “I actually talked to Markwayne Mullin about this. Markwayne Mullin is all over it. He’s reviewing it, and we’re hoping” for changes soon. Homan said, “I know HSI, Homeland Security Investigation[s], a division of ICE, is increasing the investigations of birth tourism, because it is illegal. In the Northern Mariana Islands, not only is there a birth tourism problem, with Chinese with the Visa Waiver Program coming in the [Northern Mariana Islands], it’s a huge national security threat, because the military installations we’re expanding there, they’ve got a bird’s eye view of all that.” He continued, “So, yeah, I actually talked to Markwayne Mullin about this. Markwayne Mullin is all over it. He’s reviewing it, and we’re hoping there [are] going to be changes real soon.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/21/2026 1:47 PM, Elaine Mallon, 37576K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa bans on 75 family members and associates tied to the Sinaloa cartel, expanding the Trump administration’s crackdown beyond drug traffickers to those that profit from ill-gotten gains. The Sinaloa cartel was one of eight drug cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2025. The classification allows the United States to pursue tougher criminal penalties and greater military intervention against drug cartels and their members. "The Sinaloa Cartel smuggles illicit fentanyl, which the President designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and other deadly drugs that harm American communities," Rubio said in a statement. "Imposing visa restrictions on drug traffickers, their family members, and close personal and business associates will not only prevent their entry into our nation, but also serve as a deterrent to continued illicit activities." Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., celebrated Rubio’s decision to place visa restrictions on those linked to one of Mexico’s top drug cartels on X. "For too long, narco-terrorists have built fortunes off the pain and deaths of innocent Americans while their families lived in luxury off blood money," Salazar wrote. "The era of impunity is OVER. No more hiding behind money, power, or family ties. If you profit from cartel terror, the consequences are coming. America’s safety comes first."

Newsweek [4/21/2026 4:57 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports the Trump administration has said it is reviewing previously approved green cards and other immigration benefits issued under President Joe Biden, according to a top government official. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow told One America News that the agency was revisiting past approvals, particularly where fraud could be involved. "In terms of the people that are perpetrating fraud: Stop, because we are going to find you," Edlow told the outlet. "And even if you’ve already [committed fraud], and you think you’ve gotten away with it, we’re going back," he continued. "As you noted earlier, we are looking at old cases. We are going back and re-vetting cases for people who were granted green cards and granted other benefits during the Biden administration, when there was no vetting. There’s vetting now, and we’re looking at these old cases, so be prepared to face the consequences."

FOX News [4/21/2026 9:30 AM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K] reports Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds introduced legislation that would require biometric tracking of every entry and exit from the United States, as part of a Republican push to crack down on visa overstays and fraudulent immigration documents. With illegal crossings down sharply under President Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans are shifting toward the next phase of immigration enforcement — tracking visa overstays and closing documentation loopholes. Donalds’ bill aims to force full nationwide use and federal oversight of the biometric entry-exit system. Donalds told Fox News Digital exclusively he introduced the legislation on Monday. "Thanks to President Trump’s decisive actions, our borders are more secure than they have been in decades. We are now moving to finish the job by introducing the Reform Immigration Through Biometrics Act, which provides the oversight needed to ensure every entry and exit is fully verified," Donalds told Fox News Digital. The bill would close gaps to ensure full coverage at every port, provide system flow updates and identify what is "slowing" it down by requiring DHS to report to Congress. The biometric data system collects fingerprints, facial images and iris scans.

CBS News [4/21/2026 4:08 PM, Megan Cerullo, 51110K] reports major shippers, including UPS, FedEx and DHL, have filed claims for tariff refunds with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which on Monday launched a portal through which businesses can request money back for some of the import duties they had paid under the Trump administration. The companies also pledged to return money to customers who shouldered added tariff costs tied to President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, tariffs. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the IEEPA tariffs had been illegally imposed. A UPS spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed that it is filing claims for refunds on qualifying tariffs through CBP’s so-called CAPE portal. The shipper also told CBS News that once the federal government approves the claims and issues refunds, it will reimburse customers who paid the levies. Only the importer of record, or IOR, can request refunds through the CAPE portal, meaning that individual consumers cannot file claims. CBP said it will deliver refunds to successful applicants within 60 to 90 days of claim approval. FedEx also said it plans to repay customers who bore the cost of the levies. The shippers did not disclose the total amounts of the refunds they are seeking. Mr. Trump on Tuesday suggested he could favor firms that decline to seek refunds, after the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down the tariffs. He told CNBC that he will "remember" U.S. companies that don’t submit CAPE declarations.

Reuters [4/21/2026 12:18 PM, David Lawder, Timothy Aeppel, and Arriana McLymore, 38315K] reports that resident Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will "remember" companies that do not seek refunds for payments they made on his tariffs that were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, implying they would somehow benefit ‌by abstaining from the U.S. government’s new refund portal. A day after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency began accepting electronic refund applications from importers, Trump told CNBC he was pleased to hear about media reports that Apple (AAPL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and some other large companies have not yet sought refunds. "It’s brilliant if they don’t do that," Trump said in a phone conversation with CNBC anchors that was aired live.

"If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them. I will tell you that, because I’m looking to make this country strong," the Republican president said. At issue is about $166 billion collected by the government from U.S. importers in tariffs that Trump had imposed last year under a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act intended for use during times of national emergency. The Supreme Court struck down ⁠those tariffs in February, finding Trump had exceeded his authority. Trump, who has characterized the payment of tariffs by U.S. importers as patriotic, on Tuesday appeared to characterize American companies that are pursuing refunds as the "enemy." "In many cases, the enemy - the enemy - is getting this money," Trump said, apparently referring to those companies.

"The people that have hated the United States, we’re giving them checks for billions of dollars. It’s so sad to see," Trump added, without naming specific companies or countries of origin for the imported products. Trump said the Supreme Court "could have helped us" by upholding his sweeping global tariffs.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [4/21/2026 11:18 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 3760K] r

Univision [4/21/2026 3:48 PM, Staff, 4937K] reports agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported the recent seizure of counterfeit designer perfumes, which would have been worth more than $1 million if they had been authentic. According to CBP, officers initially inspected the shipment on February 10 and discovered 8,500 perfumes from designer brands, including Gucci, Burberry, Armani, and Lancome. The shipment originated in Singapore and was destined for an address in Miami. Officials suspected the perfumes were counterfeit and detained the shipment. The CBP Intellectual Property Enforcement Branch collaborated with CBP officers to determine, on April 2, that the goods were counterfeit and seized the perfumes. The perfumes were valued at $1,010,940, according to the manufacturer’s suggested retail prices, had they been authentic. According to CBP, during fiscal year 2025, they seized more than 78,000,000 counterfeit products, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price estimated at more than $7.3 billion, had they been authentic.

Breitbart [4/21/2026 5:35 PM, Ildefonso Ortiz, Brandon Darby, 2238K] reports a former city official from the border city of Matamoros remains in federal custody after U.S. law enforcement agents arrested him in connection with the attempted smuggling of cocaine in Texas. Since information about the arrest went public, the City of Matamoros has tried to distance itself from the case, claiming that he had stopped working there months before his arrest. The incident first began during the Easter holiday, when Luis Miguel Garduno was driving a late-model GMC Acadia from Brownsville north to Corpus Christi, Texas. A criminal complaint filed in the case revealed that when Garduno pulled up to the Javier Vega U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Kinney County, about 80 miles north of the border. During the stop at the checkpoint, agents sent Garduno to a secondary inspection area where a police drug dog alerted agents to possible drugs inside the vehicle. Following the dog alert, authorities searched the vehicle and found a trap door in the floor. Inside that trap door, authorities found ten bundles of cocaine. The total weight of the drugs was 10.92 kilograms of cocaine, or roughly 22 pounds. During a subsequent interview with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Garduno told authorities that he had been instructed to drive the loaded vehicle to pay off a debt that he owed.

HS Today [4/21/2026 12:05 PM, Staff, 38K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced the expansion of Mobile Passport Control to pedestrian environments at four land ports of entry in Washington state. “This expansion to Blaine Peace Arch, Blaine Pacific Highway, Lynden-Aldergrove, and Sumas ports of entry marks a significant step forward in our commitment to enhancing the traveler experience,” said Executive Director Matthew S. Davies, Admissibility and Passenger Programs, Office of Field Operations. “Going live on April 20, 2026, this initiative will streamline entry into the United States for eligible travelers, improving efficiency and reducing congestion at these vital land ports of entry. We are dedicated to leveraging innovative technology like MPC to provide a more secure, straightforward, and best-in-class experience for all who enter our nation.”

AP [4/21/2026 6:41 PM, Edgar H. Clemente, 35287K] reports hundreds of migrants, most of them from Haiti, left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on foot Tuesday seeking better living conditions elsewhere in Mexico. Migrant caravans like the one that left Tapachula used to aim for the U.S. border. But many of the migrants leaving Tapachula on Tuesday said they had lost hope of making it to the U.S. due to the restrictions that the Trump administration has placed on asylum seekers. Instead, the migrants said they wanted to settle down in large Mexican cities, where they may be able to find work and file asylum claims. Some of the migrants said that they had been unable to get responses for asylum claims in Tapachula, despite spending months in the small city near Mexico’s border with Guatemala. “The United States is no longer an option for us” said Jerry Gabriel, a 29-year-old Haitian migrant. “We only want to make it to Mexico City, Monterrey, Tijuana or another place where we might be able to live.” In March another group of several hundred migrants left from Tapachula on foot. But the caravan was dissolved after 12 days on the march, after the migrants made a deal with Mexican immigration officers.

FOX News [4/21/2026 9:24 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford discusses a $12.5 billion plan to replace more than 600 outdated radar systems and modernize air traffic control. The FAA is also recruiting thousands of new controllers, including those with gaming skills, to address staffing gaps and enhance safety. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [4/21/2026 4:35 PM, Anna Liss-Roy, Mariana Alfaro, Marianna Sotomayor, and Kadia Goba, 24826K] reports that Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Florida) resigned from Congress on Tuesday to avoid a possible expulsion vote from the House on allegations that she used Federal Emergency Management Agency money mistakenly sent to her family’s health care company during the pandemic to boost her 2022 campaign for Congress. Cherfilus-McCormick announced her resignation minutes before she was set to appear at an Ethics Committee hearing called to determine her punishment. “Rather than play these political games, I chose to step away so that I can devote my time fighting for my neighbors in Florida’s 20th District,” she said in a statement in which she characterized the ethics process as a “witch hunt.” The panel’s recommendation to the House could have set up a full House vote as early as this week to expel Cherfilus-McCormick, which would have required a two-thirds majority to pass. Only six House members have been removed by their colleagues in U.S. history. Last month, members of the bipartisan House Ethics Committee found Cherfilus-McCormick violated more than two dozen ethics rules, based on a years-long investigation. Cherfilus-McCormick separately faces criminal charges that could lead to decades in prison tied to the errant FEMA dollars. The Justice Department brought the charges against Cherfilus-McCormick and several others, including her brother and tax preparer, in November. A trial is set for early next year.

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Politico [4/21/2026 6:35 PM, Hassan Ali Kanu and Eric Bazail-Eimil, 21784K] reports documents submitted as evidence in a suit against the Trump administration appear to back up allegations that officials delegated leadership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to an outside contractor who is currently a subject of multiple ethics investigations. Plaintiffs challenging the White House’s various moves to downsize the federal government obtained undated messages between Kara Voorhies, a Department of Homeland Security contractor, and Karen Evans, FEMA’s chief of staff. Voorhies has previously been accused of acting as an unofficial superior to Evans, a cybersecurity expert who has also served as the acting head of FEMA since December. Federal regulations generally prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions, such as making policy decisions, awarding contracts or directing federal personnel. In one exchange, Voorhies instructs Evans to “do a data call to find out how many contractors work at FEMA” in the name of restructuring the agency, and directs the agency’s leader on how she should go about obtaining the data. “How do you want the data? On site? Off site? Please provide specifics,” Evans responds, according to the documents. In another exchange, Voorhies reacted sharply after receiving a link to a Jan. 23 CNN article reporting that FEMA had paused terminations amid a major winter storm, asking Evans and others in a group chat “why the hell” that information was made public. In a deposition submitted in the case, Evans also said that after FEMA leadership made decisions, she and other FEMA leaders went to Voorhies for final approval. The messages and depositions provide concrete examples of the amount of weight Voorhies, whose contract has ended, carried at the agency under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It’s also a sign that Secretary Markwayne Mullin may need to rectify breaches in FEMA’s operations that occurred under his predecessor. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case — which include the country’s largest unions, the governments of San Francisco, Baltimore and Chicago, along with several nonprofit groups — also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Senior FEMA officials and lawmakers have alleged that Voorhies secretly served as the per se head of the agency despite lacking relevant experience and bypassing the usual vetting, nominations and confirmation process for high-level officials. A “current senior official” at DHS described Voorhies as a “shadow administrator” to CNN in March, a moniker lawmakers have also used. Republican lawmakers are currently investigating how DHS handled contracting matters in recent months, and probing Voorhies’ role in those decisions.

Telemundo 51 [4/21/2026 2:47 PM, Staff, 162K] reports that Broward Fire Rescue units are working this afternoon to contain the flames of a wildfire in an area of the Everglades; according to footage captured at the scene, the fire was encroaching upon US-27 near Pembroke Pines. A fire rescue helicopter was spotted performing maneuvers to scoop water from nearby canals and dump it onto the flames, which were spreading westward. According to information from the Florida Forest Service, 100 acres have been affected by the blaze as crews work to bring it under control. For the time being—despite the presence of firefighters along the roadway—no road closures or other incidents related to this fire have been reported.

New York Times [4/21/2026 6:35 PM, Amy Graff, 148038K] reports a tornado reportedly touched down in California’s Central Valley on Tuesday afternoon, and the National Weather Service said forecasters were on the way to the scene to assess damage. Nick Daer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Hanford, said a resident reported to local emergency officials at 2:12 p.m. a funnel cloud touched down near the town of Biola, nine miles west of Fresno. It was moving northeast at 15 miles per hour, he said. The Weather Service issued a tornado warning soon after, telling people nearby to watch for flying debris. The Weather Service initially said the tornado was on the ground up to 10 minutes after the report, but later said forecasters were still investigating.

New York Post [4/21/2026 7:08 PM, Emily Goodin, 40934K] reports President Trump’s executive order to fast-track the rebuilding of Los Angeles after the wildfires has resulted in almost 2,000 permits approved since it was signed in January, The Post can exclusively reveal. Trump’s order let state and local rules be preempted when it came to obtaining permits and allowed builders to "self-certify" that they have complied with "substantive health, safety and building standards.” The result of the administration’s take over was the approval of thousands of permits for people to begin the rebuilding process of homes and businesses ravaged by the January 2025 Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires, two of the most destructive blazes in LA history. "President Trump’s January Executive Order was a bold move to break through the non-federal logjams that had held up lives, homes, and entire neighborhoods from being rebuilt. Since that EO, we’ve helped drive nearly 2,000 permit approvals," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told The Post. Los Angeles County has issued 971 permits since executive order was signed – which is a 72% increase – and Los Angeles City has issued 961 permits since then – a 58% increase, the EPA revealed to The Post. Trump tasked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin with carrying out the order as it was the Environmental Protection Agency that cleaned up all the hazardous materials left in the wake of the deadly blaze. "Lee is so competent," Trump told The Post at the time. However, Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office doesn’t see the progress as a win for Trump — patting themselves on the back for the recent developments despite months of stalling.

Politico [4/21/2026 2:04 PM, Jordain Carney, 21784K] reports Florida Sen. Rick Scott is blocking quick confirmation of hundreds of Coast Guard promotions as he tries to resolve a dispute involving a shipbuilder in his home state. The Republican said in an interview Tuesday that he has placed a hold on the Coast Guard promotions, which prevents the Senate from easily clearing them unanimously and would force Majority Leader John Thune to set up time-consuming roll call votes on promotions that are usually agreed to with little fanfare. “I’ve been talking … since Trump came into office about trying to resolve an issue they have with a boat builder in Florida. And they … won’t put the time in to get a result,” Scott said. “I’ve met with everybody that I can meet with, and I want them to focus,” Scott said of the Coast Guard, adding that he wasn’t trying to dictate the outcome to the administration but emphasizing “you have to get this resolved.” Scott didn’t specify which shipbuilder he was referring to. But Scott has been a longtime booster of a Coast Guard contract with Panama City-based Eastern Shipbuilding Group to deliver four new advanced cutters. A person granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter said the hold is related to the company. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem scrapped plans for two of the boats last year, and ESG announced in November it would stop work on the two remaining boats “due to significant financial strain caused by the program’s structure and conditions.” The tussle over the nominations comes as Thune is trying to quickly assemble and approve a new personnel package, telling reporters Monday night that confirming another tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees is a priority alongside resolving the DHS shutdown and renewing soon-to-lapse surveillance powers.

FOX Weather [4/21/2026 12:49 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports a group of four people who were trapped in their boat stuck in ice for more than a day, were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday. According to the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District, watchstanders received a report from Alaska State Troopers on Saturday afternoon about four people who were on a seal hunting expedition and needed assistance after their boat was trapped in ice for more than 24 hours. The group was able to free their boat from the ice overnight, but was unable to reach the shore party waiting for them with snow machines due to moving ice. A Coast Guard helicopter and airplane crew were dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, and they reached the boat at about 5 a.m. Sunday after needing to stop for fuel twice. Three adults and one child were successfully rescued from the ice-trapped boat and hoisted aboard the helicopter to safety. The Coast Guard said the hunting party had three forms of communication on board, including satellite-based communications, which made it easier for the Coast Guard to locate and rescue them. The Coast Guard said it was 28° with 29 mph winds and nine miles of visibility at the time of the rescue.

Axios [4/21/2026 11:00 AM, Staff, 17364K] reports that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency doesn’t have access to Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos Preview model, even though some other government agencies are using it, two sources tell Axios. Why it matters: The country’s top cyber defense agency, tasked with helping to secure everything from banks to power plants, is on the outside looking in at a time when the industries it works with are deeply concerned about AI-powered cyberattacks overwhelming their defenses. Anthropic decided against a public release of Mythos due to its unprecedented ability to quickly discover and exploit security vulnerabilities. Instead, Anthropic provided it to more than 40 companies and organizations who are now testing it and working to shore up their systems. CISA is not on that list, the sources say. State of play: Earlier this month, an Anthropic official told Axios the company briefed CISA and the Commerce Department on Mythos’ capabilities. The Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation has reportedly been testing Mythos. The NSA is also among the organizations using Mythos, despite the Department of Defense, which oversees the agency, having declared Anthropic is a "supply chain risk." It’s unclear if the ongoing turmoil within the agency during the second Trump administration played any role in the agency not moving more swiftly to secure access. Spokespeople for CISA and Anthropic declined to comment.

CyberScoop [4/21/2026 3:10 PM, Tim Starks, 122K] reports lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday explored ways to beef up punishments for ransomware attacks against hospitals, possibly by labeling them as more severe crimes. One proposal floated at the House Homeland Security Committee hearing, to treat ransomware attacks as terrorism, is an idea Congress has flirted with before. Another would be to press prosecutors to pursue homicide charges in attacks on hospitals where death resulted — something German authorities also once pondered. A former top FBI cyber official, Cynthia Kaiser, put forward both ideas at the hearing, a joint meeting of the subcommittees on Border Security and Enforcement and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection on cybercrime, drawing questions and interest from members. “I believe there are no penalties too severe for individuals that would target our health care system,” said Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest, chair of the border subcommittee, whose home state of Mississippi’s health care clinics closed following a February ransomware attack.

CNN [4/22/2026 5:01 AM, Sean Lyngaas, 19874K] reports US companies in the retail, hospitality and medical sectors trusted Angelo Martino to negotiate with hackers who were trying to extort them. Instead, he made the extortion worse, federal prosecutors allege. Martino allegedly accumulated at least $10 million in assets, including a luxury fishing boat and two properties, as he worked as a ransomware negotiator — one of the most sensitive jobs in cybersecurity. He also gave a major cybercriminal gang information about his clients’ negotiating positions in order to “maximize” the ransom payments and then take his own cut of them, according to federal prosecutors. The case is “groundbreaking” because it raises tough questions for the cybersecurity industry about who is being paid to protect ransomware victims, a senior Justice Department official who oversaw the case told CNN. It is also causing a reckoning among security firms that have to deal with the seedy underworld of ransom negotiations.

CyberScoop [4/21/2026 5:30 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports a South Florida man pleaded guilty to conspiring with multiple ransomware affiliates to commit attacks against and extort payments from the same U.S. companies he represented as a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint in 2023, the Justice Department said Monday. Angelo John Martino III shared confidential information about victim organizations’ internal negotiating positions and insurance policy limits he gained from his work as a ransomware negotiator to extract the maximum ransom payment for himself and other BlackCat affiliates, according to his plea agreement. Five of Martino’s victims hired DigitalMint, which assigned the 41-year-old to conduct ransomware negotiations on their clients’ behalf — a rare position he exploited to play both sides. DigitalMint, which is not accused of any knowledge or involvement in the crimes, fired Martino the day after the Justice Department informed the company they were investigating him in April 2025. The five U.S.-based victims that hired DigitalMint and unwittingly tapped Martino to allegedly conduct ransomware negotiations with himself and his co-conspirators include a nonprofit and companies in the hospitality, financial services, retail and medical industries. All five of those victims paid a ransom. Prosecutors previously said Martino helped accomplices extort a combined $75.3 million in ransom payments, including a nearly $26.8 million payment from the unnamed nonprofit, and a nearly $25.7 million payment from the unnamed financial services company. Martino also admitted to conspiring with Kevin Tyler Martin, another former ransomware negotiator at DigitalMint, and Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former manager of incident response at Sygnia, to deploy BlackCat ransomware, also known as ALPHV, against five additional U.S. companies between April and November 2023. Goldberg and Martin pleaded guilty in December to participating in a series of ransomware attacks and are scheduled for sentencing April 30.

CyberScoop [4/21/2026 3:10 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports a core leader of the hacker subset of The Com responsible for a series of high-profile phishing attacks and cryptocurrency thefts from September 2021 to April 2023 pleaded guilty to federal charges, the Justice Department said Friday. Tyler Robert Buchanan of Dundee, Scotland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The 24-year-old was arrested by Spanish police in Palma in 2024 as he attempted to board a charter flight to Naples, Italy. Buchanan has been in federal custody since April 2025 and faces up to 22 years in federal prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for August 21. The British national and his co-conspirators, including Noah Michael Urban, who was sentenced to a 10-year federal prison sentence last year, harvested thousands of credentials via phishing and stole more than $8 million in cryptocurrency from U.S. residents via SIM-swapping attacks. Victims included high net worth individuals and businesses in the entertainment, telecom, technology, business process outsourcing, IT, cloud and virtual currency sectors, officials said. Buchanan and his co-conspirators were part of an aggressive subset of The Com coined Scattered Spider.

CBS News [4/21/2026 12:59 PM, Sarah N. Lynch and Jacob Rosen, 51110K] reports the Justice Department is investigating the Southern Poverty Law Center in connection with a now-defunct program that used paid confidential informants to infiltrate white supremacist and other groups, according to a video posted by the nonprofit and sources with knowledge of the matter. The case is being spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama, the sources said. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit that tracks white supremacist and other hate groups across the U.S., and has been a frequent target of President Trump’s allies. It is best known for its work investigating the Ku Klux Klan. In the video posted Tuesday morning, CEO Bryan Fair said the probe focuses on bringing potential charges against both the organization and individuals connected to the group. "The focus appears to be on the SPLC’s prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups," he said. "This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence. In 1983, our offices were firebombed, and in the years since, there have been countless credible threats against our staff," he said. "For decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other hate groups. In light of that work, we sought to protect the safety of our staff and the public. We frequently shared what we learned from informants with local and federal law enforcement, including the FBI. ". The probe comes as the Justice Department has stepped up its scrutiny of nonprofits that it accuses of being involved with or funding "domestic terrorism." It was not clear if the criminal investigation is related to that initiative, and a spokesperson for the SPLC did not know the Justice Department’s legal theory behind the probe. CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

NewsMax [4/21/2026 1:59 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports that a Bangladeshi immigrant will continue to serve a life sentence for a fizzled 2017 subway bombing attack beneath New York City’s Times Square, a federal appeals panel said Tuesday while reversing his conviction for providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Akayed Ullah was appropriately sentenced to life in 2021 for the planned suicide attack that largely failed when an explosive attached to Ullah’s chest partially detonated. The Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit found that the separate charge of providing material support to the Islamic State group required that Ullah work under the terror group’s control even though he was acting alone. A three-judge panel left intact other charges that support his life term. The appeals court said Ullah cannot be directed by the group "if he is acting alone, and if ISIS does not know he exists, has no expectation he will hear ISIS’s messages or act on them, and will not know, or care, or have any recourse if he ignores the message completely." That Ullah "conceived of himself as a soldier of ISIS does not establish that ISIS did, in fact, control or direct his actions," it added. In a dissent, Judge Steven J. Menashi said it was unsurprising that Ullah was convicted by a jury of providing material support to the terror group when the evidence they saw included Ullah’s statement to investigators that he "did it on behalf of the Islamic State." Still, though, two of the 2nd Circuit panel’s three judges concluded he acted "entirely independently" of the Islamic State group, Menashi noted.

New York Post [4/21/2026 6:56 PM, Brandon Cruz and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 40934K] reports reputed members of the notorious Bloods, Crips and MS-13 gangs were nabbed by Long Island cops during a series of dramatic raids in the past week. Nassau County cops locked up 35 suspects in all — including 15 suspected members of the dangerous street gangs — during three raids, police said. The other 25 suspects were wanted on outstanding warrants. The sweeping operation also took drugs and 10 illegal guns off the streets, they said. "Gang members, drug dealers, and violent criminals have no place in Nassau County," County Executive Bruce Blakeman told reporters after two raids in Hempstead on Tuesday morning. "Since taking office, I’ve hired more than 600 law enforcement officers and given them the resources they need to strengthen public safety, and take dangerous criminals off our streets," he said. "That commitment is why Nassau County remains the safest county in America, and we intend to keep it that way.” The Post was on hand for the final raids where three reputed Bloods members were taken into custody and hauled away — leaving neighbors gawking at the show of police force. Cops busted into homes armed with warrants and tactical gear — and wearing face masks, a move approved under a 2025 change in the law that allows law-enforcement officers to don them while taking part in federal immigration and county undercover operations. The arrests was part of an operation targeting gang violence and drug trafficking on the Island and included an earlier raid April 15, according to police.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2026 7:37 PM, Molly Parks, 1147K] reports former U.S. Capitol Police officer Shauni Kerkhoff filed a lawsuit against Blaze Media for a report it ran suggesting she planted the pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. The outlet ran a story titled "Former Capitol Police officer a forensic match for Jan. 6 pipe bomber, sources say," falsely claiming that Kerkhoff’s gait closely matched surveillance video of the pipe bombing suspect. The story, now retracted, led to an FBI investigation of the former officer, who defended the grounds on Jan. 6, and prompted her current employer, the CIA, to place her on administrative leave, Kerkhoff said. Kerkhoff filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, with her lawyers saying Blaze’s "false and defamatory accusations have irreparably changed her life." The 127-page filing lists Blaze Media, reporters Stephen Baker and Joseph Hanneman, and a new media company, Veritas Regnat LLC, as defendants. "Defendants’ reporting was false," the lawsuit reads. "Ms. Kerkhoff was not the January 6 pipe bomber. She was a normal, private person—with a family, career, and hobbies—who was at home with her boyfriend and their dog at the exact time a hooded suspect was captured on CCTV placing pipe bombs in Washington, D.C.” Kerkhoff, who has returned to her role as campus security at the CIA, is seeking monetary damages "in amounts to be proven at trial" against the defendants. The Washington Examiner reached out to Blaze Media for comment. In December 2025, the Department of Justice and the FBI announced federal authorities arrested Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia, in connection with the Jan. 6 pipe bombs. Cole faces four federal counts in his indictment, including interstate transportation of explosives, malicious attempt to use explosives, and attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction. "The FBI and DOJ ruled Ms. Kerkhoff out as a suspect," Kerkhoff’s lawyers wrote in the lawsuit regarding how Cole’s charges ruled out Kerkhoff. "Even then-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino—who had previously called the pipe bombing an ‘inside job’—called Defendants’ reporting ‘grossly inaccurate,’ adding that it ‘serves only to mislead the public.’". In the filing, Kerkhoff’s lawyers noted that Baker himself stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, though he was pardoned by President Donald Trump. While serving as a Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, Kerkhoff fired nonlethal projectiles at rioters, then later testified against two rioters who were on trial, her lawyers said. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and assigned to Trump-appointed Judge Rossie David Alston Jr.

AP [4/21/2026 8:42 PM, Collin Binkley, Alanna Durkin Richer and Rebecca Boone, 35287K] reports the Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to secretly pay leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups for inside information, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. The Justice Department alleges the civil rights group defrauded donors by using their money to fund the very extremism it claimed to be fighting, with more than $3 million paid to informants through a now-defunct program to infiltrate white supremacist and other extremist groups. Prosecutors allege some of the money was used by extremists to carry out other crimes, but court papers did not include specific examples. “The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said. The civil rights group faces charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought in the federal court in Alabama, where the organization is based. The indictment came shortly after the SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its disbanded informant program to gather intelligence on extremist group activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement. The SPLC said it “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work” against what it described as false allegations. The group said its informant program saved lives. “Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” interim CEO and president Bryan Fair said in a statement. “The actions by the DOJ will not shake our resolve to fight for justice and ensure the promise of the Civil Rights Movement becomes a reality for all.”

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The New York Times [4/22/2026 3:16 AM, Patricia Mazzei, 330K] reports Florida’s attorney general said on Tuesday that the state had opened a criminal investigation into ChatGPT and its parent company, OpenAI, based on a review of messages between the chatbot and the man accused of killing two people at Florida State University last year. The attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, said the messages suggested that ChatGPT “offered significant advice to the shooter before he committed such heinous crimes.” He pointed to several exchanges, including ones in which the suspect asked about a gun’s power at short range and which ammunition might be used for it. “My prosecutors have looked at this, and they’ve told me if it was a person on the other end of the screen, we would be charging them with murder,” Mr. Uthmeier said at a news conference in Tampa. Two adults died and six other people, including at least one student, were injured last April at the shooting near the student union at Florida State, a public university with an enrollment of more than 43,000 in Tallahassee. The suspect, Phoenix Ikner, who was then a 20-year-old student at the university, faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder and is in jail awaiting trial. Prosecutors have gathered as evidence messages that the suspect exchanged with ChatGPT. On the day of the shooting, he asked the chatbot how the country would react to a shooting at Florida State and when the busiest time was at the student union, according to messages obtained by New York Times through a public records request. Mr. Uthmeier first announced on April 9 that his office would be opening an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT. On Tuesday, he said a civil investigation that his office initiated early this month into the company’s potential liability would continue, along with the criminal investigation. OpenAI said in a statement that it was cooperating with the authorities but was accepting no blame for the incident. “Last year’s mass shooting at Florida State University was a tragedy, but ChatGPT is not responsible for this terrible crime,” the statement said. “In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity.” NPR [4/21/2026 4:02 PM, Tristan Wood, Shannon Bond, 28764K] reports that the Republican attorney general, James Uthmeier, said at a press conference in Tampa on Tuesday that accused gunman Phoenix Ikner consulted ChatGPT for advice before the shooting, including what type of gun to use, what ammunition went with it, and what time to go to campus to encounter more people, according to an initial review of Ikner’s chat logs. OpenAI spokesperson Kate Waters said the company reached out to share information about the alleged shooter’s account with law enforcement after the shooting and continues to cooperate with authorities. Uthmeier’s office is issuing subpoenas to OpenAI seeking information about its policies and internal training materials related to user threats of harm and how it cooperates with and reports crimes to law enforcement, dating back to March 2024. At the press conference, Uthmeier acknowledged the investigation is entering into uncharted territory and is uncertain about whether OpenAI has criminal liability. Ikner, 21, is facing multiple charges of murder and attempted murder for the April 2025 shooting near the student union on FSU’s Tallahassee campus, where he was a student at the time. His trial is set to begin on Oct. 19. According to court filings, more than 200 AI messages have been entered into evidence in the case. The Florida investigation comes amid growing concerns over the role of AI chatbots in mass violence. Uthmeier had already announced a civil investigation into ChatGPT’s role in the FSU shooting, which is ongoing, and attorneys for the family of one of the victims say they plan to sue OpenAI.

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Univision [4/21/2026 8:39 PM, Staff, 4937K]
Washington Examiner [4/21/2026 4:46 PM, Emily Hallas, 1147K]

FOX News [4/21/2026 9:34 PM, Bonny Chu, 37576K] reports the Department of Justice announced Tuesday the arrest of a 56-year-old Shreveport resident in connection with the horrific mass shooting that unfolded in Louisiana over the weekend. Charles Ford, a convicted felon prohibited from owning firearms, is accused of possessing the rifle that was ultimately used by a father to kill eight children, according to authorities who traced the weapon. The domestic violence attack unfolded Sunday when a 31-year-old man, identified as Shamar Elkins, allegedly obtained the weapon and opened fire in a multi-scene domestic rampage before being fatally shot by police in Shreveport. Seven of the eight victims, ranging in age from 1 to 14, were identified as his own children. In addition to illegal firearm possession, Ford is also accused of lying to law enforcement about the weapon, prosecutors said. "Holding people accountable does not stop with the person who pulled the trigger but also includes those who give access to and proliferate firearms that are later used in violent crime," ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson said. The DOJ released a photo of the rifle used in the mass shooting, adding that the ATF and the Shreveport Police Department both conducted a firearms trace on it. Ford was later identified as the original purchaser of the firearm and is accused of giving it to Elkins, authorities said. When confronted by law enforcement, Ford initially lied to ATF agents about possessing the firearm, claiming he never had it. He later admitted to the possession, stating that he kept it under a seat and believed Elkins took it, according to authorities. Ford faces up to 15 years in federal prison on the felon-in-possession charge and up to five years on a false statement charge. United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller said the department hopes to hold accountable the person who gave Elkins access to the firearm. "Elkins’ death means that our community will never see him face justice. Our hope, as we continue to investigate and prosecute this case alongside our law enforcement partners, is that holding the person whose gun Elkins used to perpetrate the crime accountable will give some small bit of solace to our Shreveport community," Keller said. "Our law enforcement partners are investigating every angle of how this tragedy came to occur, and this case arises from that investigation—in particular, how Elkins secured a firearm that he used to execute his own children," he added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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NBC News [4/21/2026 6:30 PM, Tim Stelloh, 42967K]
USA Today [4/21/2026 8:19 PM, Makenzie Boucher, 70643K]

New York Post [4/21/2026 9:12 AM, Anthony Blair, 40934K] reports a deranged veteran who murdered seven of his children and one of their cousins killed himself in the driveway of his ex-Army mentor’s home after leading police on a chase in a stolen vehicle. Shamar Elkins, 31, who served for seven years in the Louisiana National Guard, carjacked a vehicle after massacring his family at their home in Shreveport, La., before driving to the Bossier City house of his former commander, Michael Mayence in the early hours of Sunday morning. In a Facebook post, Mayence said he had been "totally unaware" of Elkins’s actions until he showed up on his doorstep, the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate reported. "I was totally unaware of all of the events taking place this morning when my cameras suddenly activated that there was activity in my doorway," he added. He speculated that Elkins had driven to his home after the shooting for "that safety that he had in me as his adopted uncle and trusted officer," the outlet reported. As police arrived and opened fire, Elkins shot himself with the short AR-15-style carbine he was carrying, Mayence wrote. In the post — which was shared widely by current and former Guard members — Mayence added that he had "helped raise" Elkins and had spoken to him about a "possible divorce" a day before the mass shooting. He wrote that he would never have believed Elkins was prone to violence. Elkins had two prior convictions in the past decade, including one for firing on a fellow driver near a high school in 2019, and one for driving under the influence in 2016. Police are still examining the possible motives for the shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [4/21/2026 7:36 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51110K] reports after a gunman killed eight children, seven of them his own kids, in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday, advocates are urging policymakers to close "dangerous gaps" in legislation aimed at preventing fatal domestic violence crimes. The tragedy has also brought a renewed focus to the ways in which domestic violence and firearm deaths are connected. "The nexus between gun violence and domestic violence is one of the most well-established and horrific realities of America’s gun violence crisis," said Sam Levy, director of policy advocacy at the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety. Decades of research and data show a woman is five times more likely to be killed in a domestic violence situation if a gun is involved, with similar risks extending to kids. Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States, according to statistics that are widely cited by organizations like the Children’s Hospital Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, in addition to Everytown. Police said the Shreveport attacker also seriously wounded two women, one of whom was his wife. A neighbor told The Associated Press that the women were the children’s mothers, and that the gunman and his wife had recently been arguing about their planned separation. It was the nation’s deadliest shooting in more than two years, and local officials characterized it as one of the worst days Shreveport had ever experienced. They also acknowledged that the shooting exemplified the most devastating outcome of a known issue in the community. Shreveport councilmember Grayson Boucher on Monday referred to "a true epidemic of domestic violence" in the city as "something that should be a top priority of the city’s administration, the city council and law enforcement." Shreveport Mayor urged people to lean on community resources like a domestic violence shelter recently established by the sheriff’s office, while councilmember Tabatha Taylor stressed the need to take domestic violence seriously. "These are the residual effects of what happens if we’re not paying attention," Taylor said. Almost 5.4 million Americans reported being victims of domestic violence over the last five years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the vast majority were women, CBS News previously reported. In the United States, data also show that access to guns can make such incidents more likely to turn deadly.

USA Today [4/21/2026 4:34 PM, Mateo Rosiles, 70643K] reports that after discovering simulations of the 2022 Robb Elementary and other school shootings being available on Roblox, a Texas leader is calling for the state lawmakers to strengthen child protection laws on online gaming platforms. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows on Monday evening, April 20, directed a Texas House Committee to investigate how online games expose minors to violent, sexual, and predatory content and how the state can address it. "After Rep. Don McLaughlin of Uvalde brought to my attention a Roblox first-person shooter game simulating the tragedy at Robb Elementary in graphic detail, it became clear this content — and the failure to stop it — demands immediate action," Burrows said in a statement. "Turning an unspeakable act of violence, whose scars remain across the Uvalde community, into entertainment is a profound moral failure." Burrows demanded that platforms like Roblox — noting that it sees nearly 40% of Roblox’s 144 million daily users are under the age of 13 — be held accountable and directed the committee to look at the following: See whether a platform’s safety features for kids — like parent controls and chat filters — work and whether it prioritizes user experience over safety. Examine Texas laws on age verification and parental consent, and consider their applicability to gaming platforms. Assess the potential civil and criminal liability of third-party content developers for harm to minors. Make recommendations for legislative and regulatory action to protect minors from exploitation on the platforms.

CBS San Francisco [4/21/2026 6:53 PM, Carlos E. Castañeda, 51110K] reports opening statements began in the trial of two people charged in the 2022 K Street shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in Sacramento’s history. The early-morning shooting on April 21, 2022 near the city’s downtown entertainment district left six people dead and 12 others injured as people were emptying bars and nightclubs in the area. Defendants Dandre Martin and Mtula Payton face multiple counts of murder and weapons violations. A third suspect, Martin’s brother Smiley Martin, died in custody from methadone toxicity in 2024. Prosecutors allege the defendants were involved in a planned gun battle with a rival gang at the corner of K and 10th streets. Three bystanders who were caught in the crossfire, Johntaya Alexander, Melinda Davis, and Yamile Martinez were killed. The other three people killed were Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, Sergio Harris, and De’Vazia Turner, who authorities said were involved in the shootout.

CBS San Francisco [4/21/2026 5:59 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports Police in Sacramento late Monday morning confirmed the arrest of one at least two suspects being sought in the K Street mass shooting that left six people dead and 12 wounded. Investigators identified 26-year-old Dandrae Martin as a related suspect in the shooting. He was arrested and booked for assault and illegal firearm possession charges. SWAT teams and detectives served search warrants Monday at three area residences, recovering at least one handgun, police said. Police thanked the Sacramento community "for the overwhelming assistance" provided in the investigation, saying that over 100 video and/or photo files were submitted to authorities through the community evidence portal. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office will be reviewing related evidence in the investigation to determine appropriate charges for the shooting suspects. Earlier Monday, the Sacramento County Coroner’s office identified the six victims who were killed in the shooting: De’vazia Turner, 29; Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21. Sacramento police on Sunday said they were searching for at least two people who opened fire around 2 a.m. at the edge of the city’s downtown entertainment district.

ABC News [4/21/2026 1:05 PM, Anne Laurent and Meredith Deliso, 34146K] reports that the man who opened fire at one of Mexico’s busiest tourist sites was allegedly influenced by violent acts in the United States, Mexican officials said Tuesday. The deadly mass shooting occurred during the late morning Monday at the Teotihuacan pyramids, an archaeological site outside of Mexico City. The shooter fired upon tourists from atop one of the pyramids while armed with a revolver that he reloaded at least twice before dying by suicide, according to José Luis Cervantes Martínez, the attorney general of the state of Mexico. One person was killed and seven others wounded by gunfire, officials said. Several people also suffered injuries in the ensuing panic. "We all know that we had not seen anything like this in Mexico before," Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday. "Based on information from the authorities, the individual showed signs of psychological issues and was influenced by incidents that occurred abroad.” The gunman held a plastic bag containing 52 rounds of ammunition during the attack, according to Cervantes Martínez. The shooter also had a bladed weapon on him and handwritten materials reportedly related to violent incidents believed to have occurred in the U.S. in April 1999, the attorney general said. The shooting occurred on the same day as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The gunman, identified as Julio César Jaso Ramírez, is not linked to organized crime and appears to have acted alone in a premeditated act, officials said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [4/21/2026 7:48 PM, Sofia Miselem, 3760K] reports Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, the 27-year-old gunman behind Monday’s shooting at Mexico’s famed Teotihuacan pyramids, drew inspiration from pre-Hispanic sacrifices and the notorious 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in the United States, according to investigators. The attack, which ended with the assailant taking his own life, injured 13 people at the tourist attraction, and left a Canadian woman dead. Mexico State Prosecutor Jose Luis Cervantes Martinez said Jasso Ramirez lived in Mexico City, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the site, and "made preliminary visits on multiple occasions to the archaeological site, stayed in hotels near the site ahead of time, and from there planned his violent acts.” A preliminary investigation into the attack found several ties to the mass shooting which took place exactly 27 years earlier at Columbine High School outside Littleton, Colorado. "The collected evidence ... reveals a psychopathic profile of the attacker, characterized by a tendency to copy situations that happened in other places at other times by other people," Cervantes said at a press conference Tuesday. The 1999 attack by students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher, with 20 others injured from the gunfire. Reports by Mexican media said authorities found among the gunman’s belongings an AI-generated image that showed Jasso Ramirez alongside Harris and Klebold. And the shirt Jasso Ramirez wore Monday when he arrived at the pre-Hispanic heritage site to carry out the attack was similar to one worn by the Columbine assailants, according to authorities. Witness accounts of the attack point to another possible influence regarding the location chosen by the shooter: the human sacrifices by pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. Jacqueline Gutierrez, an American tourist visiting Teotihuacan the day of the shooting, told the Mexican broadcaster Milenio: "One of the things he was saying to us was that this is a place for sacrifices, not for your little photos ... and that it’s the anniversary of the Columbine massacre.” Gutierrez was at the site with her parents and boyfriend when "14 minutes of terror" broke out, with nowhere to escape. "We couldn’t move or we’d fall down the pyramid. ... If he had wanted to kill us all, he would have," she continued, adding that he said he had been planning the attack for three years. Investigators maintain the attack was the result of a lone gunman with no collaborators, with a search of his possessions yielding "literature alluding to attacks and to figures connected to this type of violence," Cervantes said.

AP [4/22/2026 12:01 AM, Megan Janetsky, 16072K] reports Mexico’s government said it was beefing up security at tourist sites after a man opened fire on tourists at pyramids outside of Mexico City less than two months before the FIFA World Cup. The Monday shooting, carried out by a lone gunman on top of one of the Teotihuacan pyramids — a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of Mexico’s most frequented tourist attractions — killed one Canadian tourist and injured a dozen more. It also set off a flurry of questions the next morning by reporters to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum about what security protocols her government was taking ahead of the sports competition, which Mexico will jointly host with the United States and Canada over the summer. About an hour from Mexico City, Teotihuacan was slated to be a key site for visitors during the festivities. Just days before the shooting, local lawmakers even pushed forward an initiative to revive a nighttime interactive light show projected on the pyramids for World Cup visitors, which was previous suspended at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unexpected act of violence comes as Sheinbaum’s government has gone to great lengths to project an image of safety ahead of the soccer competition, following a surge of cartel violence February in the World Cup host city of Guadalajara. "Events like this only further magnify the negative images that Mexico has on security issues, undermining the narrative that President Sheinbaum is trying to build that Mexico is a safe country," said Mexican security analyst David Saucedo. On Tuesday, Sheinbaum acknowledged that the archaeological site lacked security filters to prevent the attack in part, she said, because the shooting "was an isolated incident" that hasn’t occurred before in such a public space. While Mexico suffers from cartel violence, especially in strategic and rural areas, mass shootings in public spaces are rare in Mexico compared to the U.S., where it is much easier to legally obtain a gun. She noted that the shooter appeared to be motivated by "outside influences," particularly the 1999 Columbine massacre in Colorado. "Our obligation as a government is to take the appropriate measures to ensure that a situation like this does not happen again. But clearly, we all know — Mexicans know — that this is something that had not previously taken place," Sheinbaum said Tuesday morning. Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch, the face of the government’s crackdown on cartels, said on Tuesday that security forces had been ordered to "immediately strengthen security" at archaeological sites and major tourist destinations across the country. He said the government will increase the presence of Mexican National Guard, boost security checks at key sites and fortify surveillance systems to "identify and prevent any threats" against citizens and visitors.

CBS News [4/21/2026 7:30 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports nearly 490 alleged members of the powerful Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), including several alleged leaders, went on trial collectively in El Salvador on Monday, accused of thousands of murders. El Salvador is conducting mass trials of thousands of suspected gang members, many of whom have spent years in prison without charge or visiting rights, as part of the anti-gang crackdown of iron-fisted President Nayib Bukele. The Attorney General’s Office said 486 suspected MS-13 members were on trial for 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, including 29,000 homicides. The country’s court system said the trial included "members of the national leadership, street-level leaders, program coordinators from across the country, and founders of" MS-13.

Breitbart [4/21/2026 12:11 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2238K] reports that Venezuela extradited Ali Zaki Hage Jalil, a man long accused of being involved in Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing of Panama’s Alas Chiricanas Flight 901, the U.S. embassy in Panama announced on Monday. For over 30 years Hage Jalil, a dual Venezuelan-Colombian national, has been suspected of being a member of Iran’s proxy terror group Hezbollah involved in the July 19, 1994, bombing of Flight 901 in Panama. On that day, Flight 901 departed from the city of Colón and exploded shortly after takeoff, killing 21 people on board, including three Americans. Most of the victims were part of the Jewish community in Panama. The FBI explained at the time that all killed passengers and crew were identified except for one body, Ali Hawa Jamal, the individual who is believed to have carried the bomb aboard the aircraft. The Flight 901 bombing occurred a day after the July 18, 1994, bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks. In 2024, Argentine courts found Iran and Hezbollah responsible for both the AMIA bombing and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires. The U.S. embassy in Panama announced on Monday that Hage Jalil was extradited to Panama, making the most significant development in the case in over 30 years.

FOX News [4/21/2026 11:56 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports the U.S. military is launching a new autonomous warfare command to deploy cutting-edge unmanned systems across Latin America, marking a first-of-its-kind move by a combatant command. U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) commander Gen. Francis Donovan said Tuesday he ordered the creation of the SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command to support national security priorities and regional efforts. "From the seafloor to space and across the cyber domain, we fully intend to leverage the clear superiority of the American defense ecosystem by deploying cutting-edge innovation and working ever closer with our enduring partners in the region to outmatch those who threaten our collective peace and security," Donovan said in a statement. According to SOUTHCOM, the new command will employ "autonomous, semi-autonomous, and unmanned platforms and systems to counter threats and challenges across domains, linking tactical missions to long-term strategic effects.” SAWC will also work with U.S. allies in the region and advance missions including targeting narcoterrorist and cartel networks and responding to large-scale natural disasters. Donovan said the region is well-suited for innovation and collaboration with partners. "Our geographic area of responsibility has a wide range of conditions, varied terrain, and diverse operational environments that make it an ideal setting in which to innovate. It is also a region with very capable and committed security partners who lean forward, embrace technologies and are very eager to work collaboratively with us to support regional stability in new and effective ways," he said. SOUTHCOM is responsible for military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, including counter-narcotics missions aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks that threaten U.S. interests. The U.S. military has carried out dozens of strikes in recent months on suspected drug-smuggling vessels as part of a broader campaign to dismantle cartel-linked trafficking operations. In a written posture statement to Congress earlier this year, Donovan said he aimed to leverage emerging technologies, telling lawmakers he intended "to capitalize on next generation capabilities like unmanned platforms, AI integration, and commercial tools to better enable us and our partners to counter … threats together.” In March, Donovan told an Armed Services Committee member he aimed to build cost-effective, modernized forces for SOUTHCOM’s mission, including autonomous systems and human-machine teaming, "to greatly increase lethality, all-domain awareness, and data sharing for U.S. and partner forces.” SOUTHCOM said it will work with the military services and the War Department’s Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG) to identify capabilities needed for the new command to begin operations and integrate into its mission. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/21/2026 1:26 PM, Adam Pack, 37576K] reports that a congressional probe launched this week into the string of missing scientists was sparked by the disappearance of a former high-ranking official who oversaw some of the military’s most classified research programs, one House Republican revealed. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital in an interview that he was particularly taken aback by the disappearance of retired Air Force Gen. William Neil McCasland, who vanished in February from his Albuquerque, New Mexico home. His phone and prescription glasses were left behind. The Missouri Republican said his staff was already working to contact McCasland, who he described as the "UFO general" due to his deep expertise, about a separate congressional investigation prior to his disappearance. "He was on our list to talk to, and he disappeared, so that kind of piqued our interest," Burlison detailed. McCasland is one of the 11 individuals working in nuclear or rocket technology who have died or vanished under mysterious circumstances since 2022. Some, including McCasland, have ties to UFO research. The astronautical engineer’s hiking boots, wallet and a .38‑caliber revolver were reported as missing, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico. Though federal officials have not identified a connection between the missing scientists, their shared field and potential access to sensitive research have sparked growing concern. Asked by Fox News Digital about whether he suspects foul play is involved in McCasland’s disappearance, Burlison said, "I’m not going to jump to that conclusion, but it’s certainly suspicious."

Daily Signal [4/21/2026 4:20 PM, Staff, 474K] reports while Americans are told to think of Iran as a distant threat, the arrest of Iranian national Shamim Mafi at Los Angeles International Airport shattered that fiction on April 18. According to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, Mafi, a lawful permanent resident living in Woodland Hills, allegedly brokered more than $70.6 million in Iranian-made drones, bombs, bomb fuses, assault weapons, and millions of rounds of ammunition for Sudan. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in federal prison. This is not just a sanctions case. It is a homeland security warning Americans cannot afford to ignore. The credentialed class loves to debate Iran as a theoretical policy challenge, but this case turns the abstract into reality with a California address. According to federal authorities, Mafi, who was born in Iran and became a lawful permanent resident in 2016, allegedly operated from inside the United States while maintaining approximately 62 bidirectional contacts with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. This is no longer just about what Iran is doing in the Middle East. It is about whether more regime-linked operatives are already inside America. Politically, and more importantly for homeland security, this story matters because Americans already see Iran as a real threat. A McLaughlin poll found that 52% of voters approve of military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and that support rises to 59% when voters are reminded of Iran’s record of killing Americans, taking hostages, and attacking U.S. forces. America is also facing growing concern that Iranian sleeper cells or covert assets could exploit the vetting and enforcement vulnerabilities exposed during the Biden-era border crisis, which left dangerous gaps in interior security. President Donald Trump has said the administration is watching possible Iranian sleeper-cell threats, and a 2025 White House national security memorandum warned that Iran directed proxy groups, including Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, to embed sleeper cells in the homeland. The FBI has also warned that Iran continues to plot attacks against U.S. citizens.

FOX News [4/21/2026 2:26 PM, Morgan Phillips and David Spunt, 37576K] reports that Mexico’s president is demanding answers after a crash killed two U.S. officials tied to a cartel-related operation — an incident exposing conflicting accounts over American involvement inside the country. Fox News can independently confirm via a U.S. official that the two deceased individuals worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA declined to comment. The crash in the northern state of Chihuahua killed two U.S. Embassy personnel and two Mexican officials as they were returning from an operation targeting a clandestine drug lab, according to authorities. President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration was not informed of any U.S. presence and has ordered an investigation into whether Mexican sovereignty or national security laws were violated. "We were not aware of any direct work or coordination between the state of Chihuahua and personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico," Sheinbaum said in a Tuesday press conference, adding that her government is seeking information from both local authorities and the United States. She stressed that Mexico does not permit joint operations with foreign governments, saying cooperation is limited to intelligence-sharing "within a clearly defined framework… in keeping with our sovereignty." But officials in Chihuahua, Mexico, offered a different account, describing the U.S. personnel as part of routine cooperation with local authorities. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [4/22/2026 3:16 AM, Maria Abi-Habib, Dustin Volz, Adam Goldman and Paulina Villegas, 330K] reports two American officials killed in a car crash early Sunday in northern Mexico while returning from a countercartel operation were officers of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to people familiar with the episode, raising questions about the agency’s role in Mexico’s war against drug cartels. The two C.I.A. officers, along with two Mexican officials, were killed when their vehicle crashed while returning from an operation led by Mexico’s armed forces to dismantle clandestine methamphetamine labs in the mountains, said the authorities in the state of Chihuahua, where the accident occurred. The people confirming the Americans’ identity spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details of the episode. The C.I.A. declined to comment. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said on Monday that her cabinet had no prior knowledge of the activities involving the Americans in Chihuahua, which shares a border with the United States, and that there would be an investigation into whether their involvement in the operation violated Mexico’s national security laws. “What has been agreed upon with the U.S. government — and has been very clear — is that information is shared and there is extensive joint intelligence work that allows federal forces to operate within our country’s territory and U.S. forces within theirs,” Ms. Sheinbaum said on Tuesday morning at her daily news conference. Ms. Sheinbaum added Tuesday that the Americans were indeed “working alongside” Mexican authorities, and that if the ongoing investigation confirms that the C.I.A. officers were engaged in a joint operation, her government would send a formal reprimand to the U.S. government. Mexico’s national security law forbids foreign agents, including U.S. military and law enforcement officials, from operating in the country without authorization from the government. American officials working directly with state-level authorities without federal approval would be a breach of the Constitution. The Mexican government has consistently rejected pressure from the White House to deploy U.S. forces to Mexico to fight drug groups in an active role, saying that American boots on the ground would violate the country’s sovereignty. Instead, Ms. Sheinbaum has insisted that Mexican troops lead the fight on the ground, with U.S. forces limited to support, sharing intelligence in joint operations centers or in a training capacity. Still, the C.I.A., along with the Pentagon, have taken on an expanded role in the war against drugs and trafficking groups since President Trump took office early last year. The campaign against the cartels has historically been led by the Justice Department and its law enforcement arm, the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [4/21/2026 8:40 AM, Warren P. Strobel and Ellen Nakashima, 24826K]

New York Times [4/21/2026 4:06 PM, Raja Abdulrahim, Falih Hassan, Edward Wong and Erika Solomon, 148038K] reports that Iraq maintains close ties to both Iran and the United States and has often found itself caught between them. Now, with its two partners at war, the government in Baghdad is coming under increasing U.S. pressure to choose a side. Washington is demanding that Iraq distance itself from Iran and rein in the Iran-linked Iraqi militias that have been behind recent attacks targeting U.S. interests there. In the latest step to force Iraq’s hand, it has suspended U.S. cooperation with and funding for Iraq’s security services, two Iraqi officials said on Monday. The State Department declined to comment specifically on the move, but said Washington has demanded the Iraqi government crack down on militias supported by Iran, including some with ties to officials in the Baghdad government. “The United States will not tolerate attacks on U.S. interests and expects the Iraqi government to immediately take all measures to dismantle the Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq,” Tommy Pigott, the State Department deputy spokesman, said in a statement. The halt to security cooperation includes the suspension of joint counterterrorism actions against groups like the Islamic State, as well as training and other support for Iraq’s military forces. The Pentagon did not reply to an earlier request for comment. After this story was posted online, the agency sent a statement saying, “We continuously evaluate security assistance provided to our allies and partners to ensure it is aligned with U.S. priorities.”

Reuters [4/21/2026 9:29 PM, Steve Holland, Parisa Hafezi and Jonathan Allen, 38315K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said he would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran to allow for further peace talks, although it was not clear on Wednesday if Iran or Israel, the U.S. ally in the two-month war, would agree. Trump said in a statement on social media the U.S. had agreed to a ‌request by Pakistani mediators "to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal ... and discussions are concluded, one way or the other." Pakistan’s leaders have hosted peace talks in Islamabad to end a war that has killed thousands of people and shaken the global economy. But even as he announced what appeared to be a unilateral ceasefire extension, Trump also said he would continue the U.S. Navy’s blockade ​of Iran’s trade by sea, considered an act of war by Iran. There was no response early on Wednesday to Trump’s announcement from senior Iranian officials, although some initial reactions from ​Tehran suggested Trump’s comments were being treated skeptically. Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Iran had not asked for a ceasefire ⁠extension and repeated threats to break the U.S. blockade by force. An adviser to Iran’s lead negotiator, the speaker of parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said Trump’s announcement may be a ploy. Trump’s wartime rhetoric has ​veered between extremes. In an expletive-filled threat against Iran only two weeks ago he promised that a "whole civilization will die tonight", while at other times he has appeared keen to end the violence and market uncertainty. With his announcement, Trump again pulled back at the last moment from his threats to bomb Iran’s power plants and bridges. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and others have condemned those threats, noting international humanitarian law forbids attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. The U.S. and Israel began the war on February 28 with aerial bombardments of Iran. The conflict quickly spread to Gulf states that host U.S. military bases and to Lebanon once the Iran-allied militant group Hezbollah joined the fighting. More than 5,000 civilians have been killed across the region and hundreds of thousands displaced so far, mostly in Iran and Lebanon. Overnight, an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded two others in Lebanon’s western Bekaa Valley, Lebanese state news agency said. In addition to the human toll, the war has led to the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint in global ‌energy markets ⁠between Iran and Oman, sending oil prices soaring and fears that the global economy could enter a recession. Iran has repeatedly exploited its ability to control the passage of oil tankers and other ships in the strait in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks. Trump’s extension to the ceasefire came as tentatively scheduled peace talks in Islamabad seemed on the verge of falling apart. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, whose presence has been requested by the Iranians, had planned to return to Pakistan on Tuesday but a White House official said he had not yet departed Washington and was taking part in additional policy meetings. Before Trump’s latest announcement, ⁠a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran’s negotiators had been willing to attend another round of talks if the U.S. abandoned a policy of pressure and threats, and rejected negotiations aimed at surrender. Iran has condemned the U.S. Navy intercepting and seizing two commercial Iranian ships at sea as part of its blockade, the second earlier on Tuesday, with its foreign ministry accusing the U.S. of "piracy at sea and state terrorism." The U.S., joined by multiple other countries, has condemned Iran ⁠for impeding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

ABC News [4/22/2026 3:35 AM, Staff, 34146K] Video: HERE reports that, as the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is extended, the latest on what both sides are saying about the possibility of lasting peace.

FOX News [4/21/2026 4:41 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports President Donald Trump said that the decision to extend the ceasefire with Iran was reached based ‘on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured’ in a social media post.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2026 10:19 AM, Brady Knox, 1147K] reports that President Donald Trump asked the Iranian government to release eight women slated for execution, ahead of the next round of negotiations. In a post on Truth Social, Trump took a notably softer tone than in his usual pronouncements regarding Iran, framing the request as a goodwill favor ahead of negotiations. "To the Iranian leaders, who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women," the president wrote. "I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!" He attached a screenshot of a post with pictures of eight women who are reportedly slated for hanging. Notably, the rapid deterioration in U.S.-Iran relations that led to the current war began when Trump warned Tehran against harming protesters. The massive U.S. military buildup began soon after the Jan. 8 and 9 crackdown that saw the mass killing of protesters despite Trump’s warning. Weeks later, Trump claimed credit for the alleged calling off of a mass hanging. "I said, ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit,’" he told reporters on Air Force One in January. "And an hour before this horrible event, they canceled it," he said. "That was a good sign." "I stopped 837 hangings on Thursday, would have been dead, every one of them, mostly young men," Trump said at the time. Tehran denied Trump’s claim, with Iranian Prosecutor General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad saying the "judiciary is an independent institution and does not take orders from foreigners."

Politico [4/21/2026 2:41 PM, Eli Stokols, Felicia Schwartz and Scott Waldman, 21784K] reports Iran is refusing to send its negotiating team to Islamabad to continue talks this week until President Donald Trump lifts the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to two Middle East officials briefed on the situation, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Trump, who hinted on Tuesday that high-level negotiations with Iran would resume “soon,” has given mixed signals about when, or whether, Vice President JD Vance would leave the White House for Pakistan. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, are also meant to take part in the talks but do not appear to have left the United States. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump on Monday said he has no plans to lift the blockade until the two sides reach an agreement. That’s led to the current impasse — with both Tehran and Washington, as of Tuesday, refusing to blink. But Trump did give some ground on Tuesday afternoon. After saying he was disinclined to extend the ceasefire for a second time, the president did just that. Trump said it was a favor to the Pakistanis, implying it was not a U.S. concession but it also underscored how fluid the efforts to reach a broader agreement remain. The two sides have for days traded barbs on social media, seemed to negotiate through the press and lobbed threats at one another. It remains unclear whether some of the most recent demands from the Iranians or Americans are meant to be bluffs or are, in fact, red lines. The requirements and refusals could change at any time.. And the blockade is only one of several sticking points facing the president’s negotiating team, which arrived at the White House Tuesday afternoon for talks about whether a second face-to-face meeting would even take place. Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Amir Saied Iravani, told reporters that Iran “has received some signs” that the U.S. is ready to lift the blockade, which he confirmed is a top demand for Tehran. As soon as the U.S. lifts it, he continued, “I think that the next round of the negotiations will take place in Islamabad.” Vance was ready to head to Islamabad for a second round of negotiations when plans were put on hold. The White House has not responded to inquiries about whether the vice president would be leaving, or if he would be making the trip at all. The chaotic, potentially climactic moment six weeks into the war with Iran has been building in recent days, with Trump delivering a dizzying array of often conflicting messages on television, social media and in brief calls with reporters — calming markets to a degree while inflaming Iran and adding to a general sense of confusion about the president’s endgame.

Reuters [4/22/2026 4:33 AM, Jana Choukeir, Jonathan Saul and Yannis Souliotis, 38315K] reports at least three container ships were hit by gunfire in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, maritime security sources ‌and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said. Iran has imposed restrictions on ships using the strait, first in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli bombardment of the country, and then in response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. A Liberia-flagged container ship sustained damage to its bridge after ⁠being hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades northeast of Oman. The UKMTO said the master of the vessel reported being approached by an IRGC gunboat. The vessel, it said, was subsequently fired upon. All crew members were safe and there was no fire or environmental impact due to the incident. Maritime security sources said that three people were onboard that gunboat. The UKMTO later said that a second container vessel had been fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran. The Panama-flagged vessel was not damaged and its ⁠crew members are safe. Maritime security sources said that a third container ship was fired upon about eight nautical miles west of Iran while transiting outbound of the Strait ⁠of Hormuz. The Liberia-flagged vessel, which was not damaged had stopped in the water. Its crew are safe, the sources said.

Bloomberg [4/21/2026 5:55 PM, Golnar Motevalli, 18082K] reports after more than five weeks of fighting, the 14 days of fragile ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran have given residents of Tehran the chance to take stock of the damage. The city of 9 million people is scarred by debris, rubble and bombed-out high-rises. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was extending a ceasefire with Iran indefinitely a day before it was set to expire, even as plans for a fresh round of talks fell apart. The two sides remain far apart on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, its grip on the Strait of Hormuz and support for militant groups in the Middle East. Even if the peace holds and a lasting solution is found, at least 3,300 Iranians, including civilians and members of the military, have been killed across the country, and the damage that’s already been done is substantial. Iranian curbs on photography and internet access as well as US restrictions on high resolution satellite imagery have hampered visual damage assessment. But a study by Conflict Ecology researchers at Oregon State University, which draws on radar imagery, estimates conservatively that at least 7,645 buildings were damaged or destroyed across the country — including 60 education and 12 health facilities — between the beginning of hostilities on Feb. 28 and the start of the truce on April 8. Bloomberg News analyzed land use within damage clusters in Tehran, and found that 2,816 buildings were hit, around 32% of which were linked to the military, 25% to industry, 21% to civilians, while 19% were commercial and 2% governmental. “In a city of this size, destruction does not always produce a single, concentrated visual field of devastation,” said Nazanin Shahrokni, associate professor at the School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada. “The line between military targets and civilian life cannot be cleanly drawn in practice. Once strikes begin, their impact spreads across this interdependent fabric.”

FOX News [4/21/2026 3:20 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports more than 50 House lawmakers, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, are raising alarms over what they call discriminatory South Korean policies that harm American tech companies and tilt economic advantages toward China-linked competitors. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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